Creating quality and engaging content challenges every writer. And the hurdles don’t stop there; getting search engines to rank that quality content so people actually read it provides additional challenges.
This is why you need to put SEO writing to work for you. SEO is not something to be intimidated by, though. It will make your life much easier and make content development a more enjoyable experience because it generates results. Let’s talk about the SEO writing basics and how they can help you as a writer.
What is SEO writing?
Understanding what SEO writing starts with knowing what SEO stands for: Search Engine Optimization.
Writing for SEO is just that; you are tailoring the content to perform well on search engines, namely Google, the world’s largest search engine.
When someone uses Google to search for information regarding a particular topic, you want to be one of the top-ranking results. In other words, one of the first results to appear.
Web users rarely sift through the results unless they are looking for a specific result. Backlinko recently analyzed five million websites and reported that the top three positions in Google get 75.1 percent of all clicks. Attempting to rank in those three positions is the mission of every business.
How Does SEO Writing Help?
What are the reasons why you should be writing for SEO? Generating web traffic has a different impact on every business owner, so the benefits of doing so are countless. But, these are four reasons you need to be doing it right now.
- Captures a specific audience
- Increases traffic to your website
- Positively impacts your work’s reputation
- Can increase sales numbers and overall web-generated income
How do I learn SEO content writing?
Understanding what writing for SEO is one thing; learning how to do it is another. That does not mean it’s all that complicated.
If you’re lucky, you will land a mentor who has the patience to work with you through the learning curve. Alternatively, there are educational courses that will provide you with the necessary skill set.
Of course, you can teach yourself as well. There are volumes of information on the web regarding this topic. The benefit to you is it’s all written for SEO, meaning it’s effortless to find.
What are the basics of SEO for writers?
Don’t worry. We’re not going to send you off into the jungle without at least a little more information. SEO writing is made simple by following some basic principles.
Keyword Research
In the context of SEO, Keyword phrases are what searchers type into search engines. You want to identify the keywords that best represent your brand or message, and incorporate them as naturally as you can into your content. Tools such as SEMrush help you find these keywords.
It’s a good practice to target one or two keywords per page and use “related” keywords throughout the article naturally. Related keywords are exactly as they sound – they are closely related to your target keyword, and helps show search engines the relevance of the page’s content.
Provide a Good Reader Experience
Many things repulse web users, and it’s your job to avoid them. Most people associate SEO friendly content with short, snappy paragraphs. This is true because readers despise big blocks of text in a digital format.
That isn’t the only thing to be aware of, though. You should also be concerned with ads. Yes, ad revenue is essential, but polluting a page with so many that it impacts loading time is detrimental to the user experience.
This also applies to your own ads. One major mistake many content developers make (even those that share the fundamentals of creating SEO friendly content) is allowing huge pop-up ads to take up the entire page. Don’t do this. The user is likely to leave the page the second this happens.
Proper Linking
A significant part of any tactic is to use effective linking. External links to sources and influencers help increase the shareability of your content.
It is also important to include internal links, wherever possible. That way, if your work is shared on another page, traffic can be directed back to your website. Internal links also tell search engines what pages you think are important on your website. For example, this page will link out to one of our main service pages.
Create High-Quality Content
DON’T LET SEO GOALS DEFINE YOUR WORK. It can be a trick to learn how to incorporate SEO tactics into your writing without letting it cloud the real end goal.
The most important rule for SEO writing is not to forget the audience. Focus on them first. Make sure you are providing them with engaging, accurate, and even enjoyable content.
How do you write for SEO 2020?
As we know, audiences change. What they do, their interests, and how they react to specific content strategies will all change.
It’s your job to stay on top of those trends as you write. Of course, the basics will always apply. However, you do need to do your homework as the audience evolves.
Luckily, there are some steps you can take to help you ensure you are producing relevant, useful, and sharable content.
- Google Analytics
This useful and free tool is a great way to get the hard facts. You can use it to monitor page views, time spent on your page and, bounce rate. Keeping track of these statistics through Google Analytics is a great way to determine how useful your content is to the readers.
- Study The Competitors
You have competition, and keeping an eye on what they are doing is sure to help you stay in the game. Naturally, you don’t want to rip them off, just take notes of their tactics and focus. Apply what is useful to you.
In doing so, you shouldn’t just look for the things they are getting right. Many mistakes can be made that are detrimental to user experience and overall content quality. You have the advantage of seeing these mistakes and make sure you do not make them yourself.
- Use Original Images
At one point or another, you are likely to fall on stock images. It’s 2020, though, and you should be doing everything in your power to use original imagery.
Many users will feel that the pictures you use on a web page reflect the content, not in a good way.
- Use Social Media
Social media pages such as Twitter and Facebook are still relevant and still a powerful tool. By sharing your work here, you are increasing exposure.
Not only should you share your work, but make sure others can too. Every time you share a blog post or any other link, you need to make it sharable. Additionally, provide each page with link cards to social media platforms.
Generally speaking, whatever you can do to get your content onto social media platforms, you should.
Concluding Thoughts:
Writing for SEO is essential, but it doesn’t have to dominate your entire writing process. Many will state that the reader comes first, and others argue performance is far more critical. The truth is, it’s a balancing act of both.
You should always be sure you can create quality content, and then implement SEO tactics into your process.
