Whenever SEO is mentioned, most of us will immediately think of how we can optimise our websites and offsite content so that search engine robots are able to index it easier and see it as being more powerful. However, although it is important to improve the way in which the spiders view your site, it is just as important to optimise it for human beings too.

With Google changing its algorithm in order to give more weight to content that is shared via social media, it is now more important than ever to make sure your writing is shared and viewed as much as possible. The only way to do that is to make it more accessible and enjoyable for people to read.

With our somewhat stylish SEO hats on, it is hard to think of SEO being of benefit for human beings but it is; and the good news is that it is nowhere near as technical as trying to please those pesky spiders.

Here are a few ways you can optimise what you’ve written and improve your chances of gaining social shares. So whether you are writing for an agency that carries out SEO in Bristol or you are a website owner wanting to improve your business’s online presence, these tips should be of help.

Picture Perfect – One great way of making your content more engaging is to include a picture or a video within it. Not only does a picture break up the page, it also makes the reader use a different part of their brain and will give them something different to look at other than just words. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of opening a page and seeing that it’s just filled with words. And what do we do when this happens? Immediately press the back button in all likelihood.

Experiments have proved that a page containing a picture is 4.1 times more likely to be read and this is increased to 7 times when a video is included. Interestingly, you can also control where a reader focuses their attention by using pictures. A picture of someone facing the left hand side of the page has been shown to focus the reader’s attention on any writing written there and the same with the right hand side.

Pictures and videos can also be a great way to include another keyword in your content. By including a keyword in the image’s title or description you can optimise your article further without it being seen as keyword stuffing. I would advise only one use of a keyword per image though.

Think About The Layout – In the same way that pictures can break up the writing, having lots of shorter paragraphs as opposed to a few long ones can also do this.

Research has shown that we tend to read things too fast and understand them less if they are written in large chunks. Therefore, in order for your content to be understood and enjoyed, you should break it up into manageable sections and use subheadings to define these clearer.

These subheadings will help people find exactly what they are looking for within your piece and will mean that they don’t have to trawl through all of it if they don’t want to.

Be Unique – One of the best ways to get your articles seen by the masses is to make then as unique as you can and make sure the writing is really engaging. As a writer, you are taught that everything has already been done, but that doesn’t mean that your take on a piece can’t be unique.

Find something that hasn’t been done to death and put your own slant on it but most of all, make it entertaining. The serotonin that runs through our bodies is what drives us to seek out pleasurable experiences and so most people who are looking for things to read online will want to be entertained or informed.

Many of us will have had the experience of reading something online and following link after link until you find yourself reading a piece on a subject totally removed from where you started. This is the serotonin at work, so aim to make it so your article helps to fuel people stuck in this loop.

Put The Share Buttons In The End Zone – A vast amount of websites now come fully equipped with buttons that link to every social media site under the sun in the hope that you will share the piece with all your friends via these platforms. However, having these buttons at the top of the page is like the waiter asking for payment before you’ve eaten the meal.

It is much better to place these icons at the bottom of the page so that when a reader finishes the article, the links are naturally in the right place to take advantage of someone liking what they have just read.