Does that very last paragraph even matter? Do you need to think about SEO at all if you’re writing a conclusion? Well… yes you do! That last paragraph is a very important one for your readers. And whatever is important for your readers, is important for Google as well! But why is a concluding paragraph important for SEO? And how do you make sure to write an SEO-friendly conclusion? In this blog post, I’ll talk about the importance of that concluding paragraph and I’ll give tips on how to make it awesome and SEO-friendly!
Why are conclusions important for SEO?
Most people don’t read your entire blog post. They scan. And that makes your concluding paragraph the last one they read. Your last possibility of convincing your readers to stay and read the entire post. That makes it an important paragraph. Google tries to scan and read texts as humans do. So the concluding paragraph an important one.
More importantly, as it is the last paragraph, it should guide your readers to what is next. Preferably on your page. You don’t want them to click away, right? In your concluding paragraph, you should guide your audience towards the next steps. It’s a great place for a call-to-action!
What should a good concluding paragraph do?
A good, SEO-friendly concluding paragraph wraps up your article. It should give your audience a sense of closure. Let’s look at three elements that a good conclusion should contain:
1. Summarizes the main message of your blogpost
What was it that you wanted to tell your audience in this blog post? What was the main message, the reason you wrote this post? In a conclusion, you come back to that main message. If you were trying to convince your audience of something, you should summarize both your point of view and your arguments.
I usually try to connect my conclusion back to the introduction of my blog post. In the introduction, you introduced the main message of your article. Perhaps you also used an example or asked your users a (rhetorical) question. A good way of wrapping up is to go back to that same example or that same question.
2. Answers the question ‘so what?’
A good conclusion should answer the question ‘so what?’. Why should your reader care about this article? Answering the ‘so what’ question will put your blog post in a more general perspective. Why is this even important? It will set the main message, the main idea of your blog post in a broader context. That will improve the chance that people will actually care about what you’ve written.
3. Answers the question ‘what next?’
A good, SEO-friendly conclusion also answers the question ‘what’s next?’. What is it that people should do next? Should they get to work? Or should they leave a comment on your website? Should they buy your product? Subscribe to your newsletter? Make sure to guide your readers to the next step.
Tips on how to write an SEO-friendly conclusion
Think before you write
Your conclusion is a hard paragraph to write. Think about what you want to say in that last paragraph. In many cases, the conclusion will be the last paragraph you write. But don’t rush that last bit. It’s also the last paragraph your readers will read. So make sure it’s worth it!
Don’t come up with new things
You should not bring new tips, new arguments, or new facts to the table in your conclusion. If you did not yet tell your audience everything you wanted to tell them, you’ll need an extra ‘normal’ paragraph. In your conclusion, there’s no place for new topics.
Add a call-to-action
Your conclusion is a great way to push your audience towards another great article on your site. As your conclusion is the place to generalize and summarize, it makes it ideal to put an internal link towards one of your cornerstone articles. That helps with the rankings of those awesome cornerstones. But you could also place a call-to-action towards one of your amazing products and convince your audience to buy these. Or let people subscribe to your newsletter. Make your conclusion more SEO-friendly by offering your audience a way to stay on your site.
Make it personal
Blog posts are usually pretty informal. Your concluding paragraph is a great place for a general reflection or a personal note. It’s a place in which you can easily address the users directly. You could use words like ‘you’ and ‘your’ in order to make your audience feel like it is about them personally. Asking questions or inviting feedback is also a way to directly reach out to your audience. The concluding paragraph is the best place to ask your audience about their opinion and to leave their remarks in the comments section on your blog.
Use that focus keyphrase
If you want to write an SEO-friendly conclusion, you should make sure to use that focus keyphrase. The title of your conclusion is also a great and natural place for your focus keyphrase. You want to get back to the main issue, and of course that main issue should be heavily connected to your focus keyphrase.
Keep it readable
Writing a text that is nice and easy to read is really important for your SEO. The concluding paragraph is one of the most important ones in your entire blog post. Make sure that your last paragraph is well written! That’ll really help to get that main message across. Don’t use long sentences or passive voice.
Short recipe for an SEO-friendly conclusion
So! Let’s make this practical. Let me give you a short recipe to write an SEO-friendly conclusion.
- Summarize the main message of your blog post. You’ll probably need one, two or three sentences for that. What is it that you want people to remember? You’ll definitely use your focus keyphrase in this first sentences. Can you make a connection with an example or a question in your introduction? That is great too.
- Add a few sentences in which you place your blog post in a more general view. Answer the question ‘so what?’. Make clear why this blog post is important to your audience.
- Add a call-to-action. Tell your audience what to do next. Make sure to guide them to another page on your website. But you could also activate them to do something. If you’re writing a post about how to take care of guinea pigs, you could activate them to play with their guinea pig.
Love your site and write an SEO-friendly conclusion
Your conclusion is one of the most important paragraphs of your article. It is the place in which you can summarize the content of your blog post and really get your message across. And also the paragraph in which you guide people to other pages of your site. So treat that final concluding paragraph to a little extra SEO love. That could really make all the difference. And it’s not hard work. It’s just a little love. And let’s spread that SEO love!
Marieke van de Rakt
Marieke van de Rakt is CMO at Yoast. She loves writing about content SEO, speaking at WordCamps and improving Yoast SEO and the Yoast SEO Academy: the online courses platform.
SEO love series
Keep reading the article at SEO blog • Yoast. The article was originally written by Marieke van de Rakt on 2022-02-02 09:04:55.
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