SEO writers can take on various types of projects that have to do with increasing organic traffic or boosting links that connect to a website. Projects can range from writing SEO-friendly blog articles, landing pages, SEO-friendly service pages, local content, and content for link-building, to optimizing meta-description or title tags of a web page.
As an SEO writer, your goal is to drive traffic to important pages of a website by optimizing those pages for search engines. However, there’s more to that.
Here are other goals and objectives that fall under the responsibility of an SEO writer.
- Increase keyword rankings of a page
- Improve page experience and website navigation
- Repurpose old articles
- Increase backlink through the production of valuable content
- Internal linking
- Prevent content cannibalization
- Convert new visitors into sign-ups, subscribers, or customers
SEO writing makes it quicker and easier for people to find your content in comparison to copywriting.
SEO Writing Tips for Beginners
Tip #1 Plan Your Content
SEO takes strategic and analytical skills, as well as experience to write effective content. The core of optimization work is all about attracting high-quality visitors who have the best potential for conversion.
It all begins with a plan.
Choose a topic and set goals that can be measured.
Use a range of tools to do keyword research. Some of these are Ahrefs, Google’s Keyword Planner, and Spyfu, to name a few.
Once you lock in on a keyword decide about what part of the buyer’s journey you’re going to target. Different parts of the buyer’s journey require different content and topics.
Decide whether you’re going to write a page that targets any of these three stages:
- Awareness. This stage is where users usually do their initial research. They may not know about what they need but they do know what problems they’re experiencing.
- Consideration. This is the stage where users know about the solution(s) to their problem but are still undecided about which is the best one for them.
- Purchase Decision. This is the stage where users know what they want and would like to know more information about the product or service.
Tip #2 Define Your Target Audience and Write for Them
Write content that your target audience would want to read. Write articles that excite your audience.
Also, make your articles readable and cut back or eliminate technical terms or jargon. Even if you’re writing about a complex topic, make it so that the average reader will understand the points you’re making.
Tip #3 Choose the Right Keywords and Use them Strategically
Keywords are like the magic ingredient that turns “good content” into “effective content.”
Once you lock in the right keywords, plan where to put them and make sure not to overdo them. Keywords are the precious elements that will make your content stand out, but overdoing it can result in your website getting penalized by Google.
Google has a set of guidelines or rules webmasters and SEO professionals should follow. Following these guidelines will ensure that your content adheres to the standards that Google set, otherwise, you could commit illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed from Google results.
Your content must contain the following sets of keywords:
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Root Keyword
The root keyword, as the name suggests, is the main keyword that you want the page to rank for.
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Secondary Keywords.
The secondary keyword can contain one or more keywords that support your main keyword. These are words that can help Google understand what your page is about.
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Long-Tail Keywords.
Long-tail phrases are popular phrases that are commonly used by your target audience.
Use them as naturally as possible, and never stuff a blog post or article with keywords because it leads to a Google penalty.
Tip #4 Use Headings in Structuring Your Article
A structured article is an easy, enjoyable read; if users enjoy your content, they’re more likely to share it.
Organize your ideas through headings to break up your content; use relevant keywords in header tags to optimize your article.
Tip #5 Insert Relevant Links
Inner linking is an important yet overlooked part of SEO writing. When you inner link, you’re including links of existing pages or articles in your website into your new content. You get two major benefits from this type of linking strategy.
First is that you get to show your audience more of your content as you lead them to more pages on your own website. Not only do they spend more time learning about your products and services but Google also takes it as a sign that your website is relevant enough to recommend to more people.
Second, inner linking helps Google bots crawl your website better. Once a Google crawler spots a link in a page, it follows that link and then crawls the page that it’s connected to. The more valuable pages are linked to an article, the more authority and weight it will gain in Google’s eyes.
Tip #6 Write Content People can Share
SEO writers also need to write content that can attract shares and backlinks. Backlinks are very important in SEO.
Backlinks or links coming from other trustworthy websites are considered one of the major ranking signals Google looks at as contributes to the authority and trustworthiness of a site.
For example, you’re competing with 100 other articles for the same keyword and the same topic. Let’s say that all 100 articles were well-written and well-researched. Google will then look at the page authority and backlinks to see which pages hold the most authority, and rank it from there.
Accumulate more backlinks by writing articles that matter to both your audiences and other industries.
When to Outsource SEO Writing?
Content creation can be too much work for some businesses; a lot is involved in ensuring it ranks on search and engages readers who convert to customers.
If you don’t have the time, energy, or resources to write content that could effectively attract leads, engage users, and convert traffic into sales, outsource SEO writing to a trusted SEO provider.
