Writing a good article is not enough for search visibility and good user engagement. What really matters is how well you structure it in order to optimize it well and give clear answers to users’ questions.
Here are four factors to consider when creating effectively structured content, and tools to use for each.
1. How to use your HTML headings
HTML headings are nothing new. In fact I was blogging on them over a decade ago[1] (back then we referred to them as “semantic structure” which gives a good idea what they are for).
HTML headings got back into the spotlight recently thanks to Google’s featured snippet algorithm[2].
We have found that Google looks for an H2/H3 subheads to locate the best answer to the query (and consequently feature the page).
Since featured snippets are also powering voice search results for the most part, we’ve seen a flood of newer articles on structuring your content with HTML headings over the past few months.
Here are a few takeaways on how to use HTML headings correctly:
- Keep the content structure in mind. You don’t start your page with an H3 heading. Instead, it should H1 heading followed by an H2 heading followed by a few H3 headings. There can be several H2 and H3 headings within one article reflecting the hierarchy of content.
- HTML headings are your perfect sections to put your primary and secondary keywords in. It’s not just for SEO (although it is important): Your readers will skim through your content and seeing those keywords (that brought them there) in prominent places will keep them reading.
- When taken out