Structure Your Article for Better SEO Results/Article Structure for SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) constantly evolves. Algorithms can now find relationships between and among not just words, but sequences of words in your text. As a writer, you can help search engines discover the meaning of your text through the semantic relationship of the words you use and how your text is organized.

Web writing has a twofold job: 1) write for your audience and 2) write so search engines can interpret your text to get the right visitors to your content.

Structure is important in both instances. A well-organized page or article allows readers to follow your thought from beginning to end. And, organized content with structural clues aids search engines in determining the meaning of your text.

Your goal is to get search engines to get your customers to the place where you meet their needs and make a sale.

Signals and Signposts

Once you have thought through your content piece, add signals and signposts for search engines to recognize the meaning of your content.

First, headers allow readers to skim the article to get an idea of the entire content. Headers point site visitors to the content most important for their visit. Headers enhance readability on the page by creating white space breaks between content blocks.

Lists whether bulleted or numbered that appear under a header help site visitors further understand the content in an easy-to-read format.

Create The Hierarchy That Makes Sense to Search

Divide your content into short chuncks organized with header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)

Chunks and Sound Bites

Break up your text. That old advertising rule of white space works for SEO too. Short paragraphs are bits of information (data) the search engines parse quickly. And, readers - your site visitors - can read those chunks as well without getting lost in long paragraphs.

Header Tags

Header tags are signals to search engines about the organization of content. They provide signals for both structure and context. Header tags provide a hierarchy of context for your information (data).

They work like the outline structure you learned in school.

Header 1 (H1) is similar to the title and indicates the main subject of the page or article. Organize the rest of the text in subgroups by using sequential numbering. Header 2 (H2) indicates a subset of Header 1. Header 3 (H3) is a subset of Header 2, and so forth. Although header tags can be refined down to Header 8, best practice is to write clear text and not go beyond Header 4 for text. Keep your headers short and succinct. Use a keyword to indicate the topic of this section of content. Use the body of your text to explain. Headers also are quick indications to site visitors who scan content. Organized content will get readers to the exact information they want.

Organize your thoughts with topic clusters under each heading. Your page title is the overall topic while your Header 1 tells readers and search engines the main idea of your page. Each subhead underneath—H2, H3, H4, etc.—clusters and refines ideas under the main topic. Text and lists under each heading directly relate to the heading.

Lists

Search engines like lists. Use bullet points to stress key points in your text. Use numbered bullet points if the sequence follows a sequential order. They work well for instructions like recipes or how-to articles. Show unordered lists with simple bullet points.

Lists make your content more readable for site visitors. Search engines use lists to deliver information in search results. Lists are powerful bits of data for knowledge graph search results. With the growing use of voice search, lists are speakable answers voice devices can deliver quickly.

Tips for using lists:

• Highlight key elements of your content.
• Make each point like a mini-headline.
• Keep items in list thematically related.
• Use similar structure.
• Use a keyword in each point.
• Keep the list short. Over 10 points is too long. 5-7 points in a list works well.
• Keep it simple. Lists highlight separate points. State the point and move on.

Semantic Closeness

Headers and lists also help clarify (disambiguate) content for search engines. Google introduced a patent in 2004, Document ranking based on semantic distance between terms in a document, that considers how elements relate to each other within a web page due to hierarchical order. Google calls this relationship semantic closeness. It’s as important today as it was in 2004.

Long-time SEO practitioner Bill Slawski explained it in a recent Hangout.

If you have a numbered list with a header at the top, every item in the list is equal distance to the header of that list. All the content that’s under a heading is equal in distance to the heading. And all tie to the topic (keyword) to analyze the content. Search picks up both lines—the introductory line under the header and the list item, and those are highlighted in search.

Plus, every word on the page is equal in distance to the page title. And they are semantically related.

That, in some degree, is how headings work. Headings are a way to leverage relevance on a page. And, the hierarchy is critical in terms of relevance.

So, an H3 tag needs to be relevant to the H2 tag it is under. And the H2 needs to apply to the H1 under which it resides.

Your hierarchy is like Russian nesting dolls. The parts fit within each other.

Nest Your Thoughts for Clear Communication

Semantic closeness is a ranking factor, so you’ll improve your web page for search while improving the readability for your site visitors.

One of the first sorts for search engines is correct grammar and spelling. ProWritingAid helps you get your content search ready.

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