If you are a new blogger, I’m sure, just like me, you would never think about Transition words seriously as an important SEO factor, right?
Neither I didn’t think of transition words seriously until I noticed the highlight in one of the SEO plugins.
“Only 16.7% of the sentences contain transition words, which is not enough. Use more of them.”
If you are looking for answers to what is all about transition words and how to turn red to green, then read this post completely.
This guide will help to become better at writing and also improve your overall SEO score.
Do you know, this is one of the most important on-page SEO elements.
Especially, it helps you to improve the readability and overall quality of your blog post.
Google considers this metric when they index and rank the sites.
So take these transition words seriously which has a direct impact on the number of visitors to your site.
Let’s get started with an interesting post as part of my Contenenglish series – The only English you need to know for being a content writer.
Table of Contents
What are Transition Words?
During our school days, we would have learned about joining words, right? But, And, Because, Also, So, etc.
Those are called Transition words. They are other called linking words.
Transition words are an important part of content copywriting.
Without a doubt, transition words help you to increase the cohesion and coherence of your article.
Additionally, it helps to show a clear relationship between sentences, paragraphs, subjects, actions, and concepts.
Booting SEO by using transition words by enhancing the readability is one of the success factors you need to consider while writing content.
Think of transition words act like a bridge to connect two sentenses or two ideas.
Why are transition words so important for search engines?
In simple words, you should be aware that there are three parts to your blog post.
Starting from your Introduction to Body Paragraphs and finally, to a conclusion right?
Furthermore, it aids in your writing by avoiding starting consecutive sentences with the same word.
Using a variety of transition words helps in content structure.
In particular, it will help to keep your readers glued to your article and reduce the bounce rate.
To emphasize, transition words are an essential part of the SEO checklist for your digital content.
Transition word helps you to bring out the below five important qualities of your post.
- Writing skill
- Clarity
- Keyword usage
- Thoroughness
- Cohesive & Coherence
Screenshot from AIO SEO, July 2021
Types of Transition Words
There are three types of transition words. Transition words can be singular words like “because” or a phrase like “in other words”.
It is equally important to use all types of transition words in your content.
- Single transition words
- Two-part transition words
- Transition Phrases
Single words
A single type of transition word is most commonly used. For example, however, moreover, because, indeed, etc.
It is the simplest and easiest form of words to use in your content instantly.
There are a plethora of single transition words to use from the list. In case, you need a refresher, here are the most commonly used.
- Accordingly
- Alternatively
- Obviously
- Similarly
- Thereafter
- Besides
- But
- Comparatively
- Concurrently
- Especially
- Eventually
- Finally
- Additionally
- Although
- Firstly
- Furthermore
- Henceforth
- Consequently
- Despite
- Doubtedly
- During
- Generally
- Hence
- Basically
- Because
- Equally
- Meanwhile
- Therefore
- Whenever
Two-Part words
The two-part transition words are the ones that cannot be used separately. They will go hand in hand or else it doesn’t make any sense to the sentence.
The most commonly used two-part transition words are given below:
- Both…. and…
- If… then….
- Not only … but also…
- … neither… nor…
- …either … or …
- …not… but …
- whether …. or …
- no sooner … than ….
Transition Phrases
There are many phrases that are used as part of the transition words. But, caution is required to use these phrases exactly as listed here.
If you use the words in between the words in the phrases, they will no longer count towards the transitional phrase.
Without delay, let’s see a couple of phrases for better understanding.
- To sum up
- In other words
- To summarize
- Under those circumstances
- Above all
- As much as
- By comparison
- For instance
- Of course
- By the same token
- For fear that
- Compared to
- In particular
- Equally important
- As a result
- To begin with
- To clarify
- As I have shown
- Once in a while
- In order to
- As long as
- For example
- To conclude
- To put it another way
- Until now
Kinds of Transition words
Basically, each transition word is used for a specific purpose. Here’s the complete list of Yoast Transition words.
- Order and Sequence
- As soon as
- All of a sudden
- At first
- At last
- At this point in time
- Once in a while
- To begin with
- Sooner or later
- Cause and Effect
- Because
- Since
- So
- Consequently
- Therefore
- Thus
- Hence
- As a result
- Addition
- As a matter of fact,
- Also
- At least
- In addition, Additionally
- Further
- Furthermore
- Besides
- Moreover
- Not only … but also
- Then
- Again
- As well as
- For example
- Clarification
- in other words
- that is to say, to clarify.
- For this reason
- Therefore
- As a result
- Accordingly
- Exception
- despite
- however
- nevertheless
- in spite of
- of course
- once in a while
- sometimes
- Comparison
- Similarly
- Likewise
- Compared to
- At the same time
- Equally
- To put it another way
- Compared to
- By comparison
- Comparatively
- On the other hand
- Contrast
- On the contrary
- Unlike
- Conversely
- Albeit
- Nevertheless
- Nonetheless
- Despite
- In contrast
- Conversely
- Even so
- Different from
- Instead
- Otherwise
- However
- While
- Such as
- In this case
- For example/ For instance/ For one thing
- To clarify/ To demonstrate
- Emphasis
- Undoubtedly
- Explicitly
- certainly
- Obviously
- Particularly
- Significantly
- Unquestionably
- Obviously
- Particularly
- In particular
- Especially
- Frequently
- Surprisingly
- Without a doubt
- Indeed
- In fact
- In general
- In detail
- Above all
- Generally
- Illustration
- Accordingly
- Correspondingly
- e.g.
- i.e.
- Time
- Afterward
- Firstly
- Secondly
- Lastly
- Finally
- Meanwhile
- Henceforth
- Conclusion
- In brief
- To conclude
- To summarize
- In fact
- In summary
- In conclusion
- In short
- To sum up
- In essence
- As a result
- Overall
As part of the Contenenglish digital product, stay tuned to download the checklist of enormous words that you can use handy in your content.
How to use these Words effectively?
So, now you understood what is transition words and their types and kinds.
It is equally important not only to understand the meaning of these words but also to use them appropriately.
Follow the below simple words while using the transition words.
Step 1 – Know the word
Step 2 – Understand the relationship between the words and their meaning
Step 3 – Know when to use them
Initially have a checklist of the words. After some trial and error, the use of these words will come naturally.
Lastly, use SEO tools like Yoast, All in All SEO to help you with the words and readability analysis.
These tools give you suggestions and analysis of your content.
Additionally, Yoast has provided a wonderful blog post on Why and how to use Transition words. Do check it out without fail.
The sample screenshot shows the screenshot from the All in All SEO below.
Do’s and Don’t for Transition Words
At first, let’s see the Dos of the transition words.
- First, understand and know why you want to use them. Clarity helps in bringing cohesiveness.
- Second, Use transition words where you are introducing a new idea, emphasizing a context, providing the alternatives, listing the sequence, providing comparison and contract context, etc.
- Third, for each and every category, use the different words
- Lastly, read the content loudly to see if you are able to bring cohesiveness and coherence to your blog post.
Subsequently, below are the don’t while using transition words.
- Do not use too many transition words in your writing because it makes your writing repetitive and boring.
- Depending on the transition words will make the subject too boring.
- Very important to remember.
Don’t keep using transition words in every sentence.
For instance, if your paragraph has five lines, you can use 2 to 3 transition words in the whole paragraph.
Conclusion
To summarize, more people are likely to appreciate reading an article that is readable, interesting, and highly instructive.
When a large number of people read your content, they will share it, resulting in more organic traffic to your website.
When Google and other search engines index and rank websites in their database based on this readability metric.
So, don’t underestimate this powerful SEO KPI.
In a nutshell, transition words improve page readability, which is directly proportional to the number of visits to your site.
Thank you for the time you invested in reading this article.
Do check out my contenenglish series of posts for becoming a better content writer.