The Top Five Search Engine Optimization Tips for Editors

Writers may have it rough when it comes to search engine optimization, but editors are ultimately responsible for making sure that the entire site is optimized. Writers can only see the small picture, while editors have to make sure that everything is optimized according to the needs of the site. However, keeping a few important points and tips in mind can make the editor’s job a lot easier.

Make Sure That Your Writers Are Working with the Best Keyword Phrase

One of the most difficult parts of SEO is finding the right keyword phrase. Your writers can only work with what you give them. They could be the best writers in the world, but if they’re working around the wrong keyword phrase, they won’t do much for your rankings from a mechanical standpoint.

Edit the Article Until It is Fully Optimized

Your writers might know the basics of search engine optimization, but their primary purpose is to make sure that it is readable and enjoyable to the target audience. Your job is to make sure that they succeeded in doing that, and to optimize the article while keeping it readable. Any changes you make must still keep in mind that the article is going to be read and is not just serving as a way to get a better ranking.

Make sure that the target keyword phrase is distributed throughout the article in such a way that it doesn’t look constructed, not so much that it overpowers the text, but enough to give it weight when a search engine takes a look at it.

Teach Your Writers What You Know

Editing is a difficult and time-consuming task, doubly so if the writer doesn’t really know what they are doing. Make it easier on yourself in the long run by showing your writers what you’re doing to their articles why explaining the necessity of each change.

Fix Their Headlines

Writers have been trained to make sure that every headline is as eye-catching as possible. It serves as an introduction to the piece and will determine whether or not a reader deems something interesting enough to click. The problem is that those creative headlines are rarely good in terms of optimization. You need to break down the headline and to make it serve search engines. You can still keep it creative, but you’ll have to prioritize optimization over being clever.

Optimize Their Pictures

Most good articles have pictures that help illustrate the point the writer is trying to make, or improve the readability of the article by breaking up blocks of text. Ideally, it does both. However, you must also make sure that it has alt-tags and captions that have the relevant keywords on them. If that looks too obvious, use synonyms. What is important is that both the alt-tags and captions are directly related to the targeted keyword.

The buck stops with you. Your writers can only do so much. It is your job to take what they write and to make them search engine optimized while preserving the readability of the content. Do so and the site you’re working on will find its online status vastly improved.