Make HEO Your Top Priority, Not SEO!

Searching for good keywords for your next article?

Forget about that! In fact, you should forget about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for now.

Bots don’t read your content, humans do! Bots do not subscribe, humans do!

Enter HEO.

What Is HEO?

HEO – (For)Human Eye Optimization

And it is not a medical term, it is related to blogging! HEO is basically optimizing content for Human Eyes so that they (humans) are attracted to your content (and that subscribe/buy button!)

HEO can be good or bad. In this post, I will talk about both.

Good HEO

Good HEO is aimed at getting your focus on content.

Even if your main goal is making money, you should still optimize content because we(readers) will never come to your blog/site for clicking ads.

Ever hear someone saying to friends, “Ooh! The ads on that sit are really good, you should visit and click a bit!”

No!

Because here’s what people say, “Yesterday, I found this very useful article on that site, you should read it”

Here’s how to do good HEO:

1. Lists: List posts have always been successful at getting traffic. Mainly because they present content the way we want it, organized(so we may easily scan and decide about subscribing!). Writing lists not only benefits the readers but also you. Further Reading: How list posts can help you.
2. Proper Formatting: Proper emphasis like bold, italics and underline can enhance a post for our eyes. This way, our focus goes straight to the important(and most powerful) points of the article.
3. Headlines: Writing good headlines is an art that needs some practice. Your main focus has to be on writing informative headlines that actually tell me what your article is about! Do not repeat the main keywords twice/thrice in headline just because a SEO guru told you so!
4. Sub-Headings: Using sub-headings at proper places is essential. It will help your article to stand out and not seem “just another chunk of text”.
5. Images: A picture is wortha  thousand words! Isn’t it? Apart from that, images also act as focus point and attract eyes. Using images to convey the right message can make article better. Recommended Reading: A complete guide to Finding And Using Incredible Flickr Images by Skellie, Media Roundup - Finding The Best Images For Your Post by SBA and Where To Find Cool Free Images To Illustrate Your Posts by Arun Basil Lal.

Bad HEO

There’s a dark side to everything. And HEO is not an exception. When done wrong, HEO does the exact reverse of what it is supposed to do. It will distract readers and make them run away from your blog.

Here’s how HEO should NOT be done:

1. Formatting Everything: Formatting every other word so that it gets attention will make content look bad. Different fonts, sizes and color are distracting.
2. Flashy Animations: Images do attract attention. But animations attract too much attention! In fact, they distract eyes and make content difficult to read.
3. Overdoing: Overdoes of anything is bad. Do too much HEO and it will start to hurt!

What About SEO?

As I said in the headline, HEO should be your top priority. After you have optimized article for humans, a bit of SEO can be done.

But almost half the part is covered in HEO.

If you properly optimize content for humans, you already have sub-titles, formatted text and images which are also good for SEO! Just give small finishing touches like adding alt text, add one or two relevant keywords and tags and you are done.

Next time when you write a post, do not forget to keep HEO in mind!

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