Content creators employ SEO to speak to Google's algorithm. On-page optimisation pivoted on keyword intent is not enough. Articles slide in a sea of search result suitors and by algorithmic devaluation content in SERP lands in pages two, three and falling. Here are five tips to stop your work from disappearing into the abyss beyond. 

1. Write content with an informational value and write it consistently 

Undervalued by SEO strategists who'll purr a string of buzzwords in a side-eye suggestion that they can code in the lotus position on a team break on a top floor somewhere in a communal working space in Brooklyn, written value is not overlooked by intelligently evolving search engines. 

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines can help content creators cater to what Google considers high-authority content. Three key points are, content should be beneficial to users not overtly sales-orientated. On-page-text should be expertly written and researched offering more than superficial SERP regurgitation. Google makes a distinction between Main Content, Supplementary Content, and Ads holding Main Content, the copy produced by online writers, up to the deepest scrutiny for informational wealth.

Google also analyses upload frequency, the more frequently websites are updated the higher a site is ranked in SERP. Writing and uploading consistently means a minimum of four times per week. The days of landing on crude product promotional sites have ebbed because Google's algorithm has bumped its artificial intelligence to satisfy user demand and deliver consistent, human, high-quality content. A one-eighty which allows the focus to be withdrawn from keywords or search phrases back to two old laws of writing: write well and write often.

2. Your article is not an island, use anchor text

Anchor text is the clickable, in-article text which appears highlighted and opens to another web page. This can be either an internal link, a link to another page on the website where the article is posted, or an external link which will take the reader to another web page.

Anchor text is more highly valued by search engines when it both uses SEO keywords and is concurrent in the body of your writing. Sore thumb anchor text such as “read here” or “more information here” isn't read well by search engines which analyse hyperlinks. Because hyperlinks are read by search engines they present an SEO opportunity to add keywords to your tally so they should be included in anchor text. Consider hyperlinking words, phrases or sentences which present naturally in the body of your article where your reader may still have questions for further or more basic information. 

Anchor text and Interlinking improves the average time a reader spends on a site. Linking to “deep content” articles that represent a core message, articles which may better fit the search topic of your reader and/or articles which further your reader down the content rabbit hole all keep your audience in your digital clasp. 

The longer you can hold your audience the lower your Bounce Rate, or percentage of visits during which a visitor lands on your post and then leaves without visiting another page on your site. The lower your bounce rate and the higher the time spent on your site both positively affect ranking. Interlinking also allows search engines to scrawl from the SEO on one article to the SEO on another doubling, tripling, quadrupling, depending on your number of links, how relative and informationally dense your article is ranked by a given search engine.

As a writer, guest-blogging for other sites allows you to link to more highly-ranked pages to funnel traffic footfall to your own site and link back from them to your own page. Outbound linking to other websites even where you have no written work published will have search engines analysing your post as a high-quality resource for your readers and again increase your ranking in SERP. 

Two points with anchor words and linking. Firstly with thanks to the Penguin algorithm update watch how many money-related anchor text links you use. Links such as "Make Money Here" may have Google questioning your authenticity and penalising your site in SERP. Secondly, WordPress and other CMSs give an option to add a title when adding a hyperlink to in-article words or phrases when making anchor text. Anchor titles not only assist readers but are also scanned by search engine bots to better understand their content and so think carefully about SEO when choosing your wording.

3. The written word is also not an island, think video, audio, and image

Reader's engage in a three-sixty online experience, hitting a block of solid text for a search engine spouted user is like hitting a wall, instinct is to turn back and find an easier way forward. Fast content means your audience lands, scans, stays or leaves. Landing on a page 55% spend 15 seconds on average deciding to stay or go. 15 seconds to capture their attention. Once you have their attention around 40% will spend a maximum of two to three minutes on your page. Writing for an online demographic means tailoring and constructing the white space around your written word.

Break up your text with and do not underestimate the value of headlines. Use H1, H2, and H3 HTML heading tags. In SEO copywriting best practice, the post title uses an H1 heading tag, the sub-heading an H2 heading, and so on. This will display the text as a headline on your page and direct your audience's attention here. HTML coding informs search engine bots that this text is a headline and allows them to be scanned for keywords so a search engine can better understand your content. 

Your audience will also scan your article, hitting headlines first and bleeding them for information to evaluate whether this is the SERP suggestion for them. Keep them clear, match their promise in the copy beneath and write them to match user intent. Headlines are the window into the body of your text which signals to your audience 'stay here for what you need.' 

Google prefers visual content and will rank your site depending on how often that back button is clicked to return to the search results page. Relevant videos, charts, infographics, statistics visuals and high-quality images which break up text increase time spent on your page and so the greater value Google places on your article. 

Marketing professionals are around 40% to 60% on whether photo or video is more effective at holding user engagement. Video alone has a 41% higher click-through rate than text with 80% of consumers deciding on purchase not based on copy but by the presence or absence of video. Adding video content to supplement a written piece? Post first to a video hosting platform and embed it into your page. This gives you both an external link which can be optimised and traffic from alternative search engines such as Youtube.

There are two ways to optimize your images in SEO terms. On your content management system when you click on your uploaded image there will be a choice to add Image Alt Attribute, Image title or Alt text. This is where you can place an SEO description of keywords. This allows search engines, which read numbers not images, to analyse your photos for their content. 

Secondly, bots can read what an image has been saved as to gauge what it's content might be. Uploading images with names like image001.jpg means missing an SEO opportunity. Keep keyword intent and specificity in mind when labeling images. Remember audiences search the images tab too and from here they can be directed back to your site. The closer you match keyword intent in the title your image has been saved with, when people use that search phrase for an image at say Google Image Search they will land on an image in one of your posts.

An example of specificity and putting careful consideration behind your keywords could be the difference in SEO power between "Dog1.jpg" which could be improved to "DogMalagaCostaDelSol.jpg." Including ‘Malaga’ or ‘CostaDelSol’ in a picture title allows bots to pluck location. Search engines take location into account so the 50% of your audience which is local will naturally have a higher probability of being presented with your page in SERP. For the other 50% non-local percentage of your audience including the location in image titles can be useful for catching searches which include location as a keyword from an audience elsewhere in the world. 

Whether it be image, audio, video or a combination, as a writer you know the aim, content and target audience of your work and so whether working individually or leaving other modes of content creation to team members you will know what and how to supplement your work best.