Writing for search engine optimization (SEO) can be a daunting task, there is a lot of technicalities & it can be hard to decide where to begin. With the right tips & tricks however, you can get a good chunk of the SEO out of the way without having to dive so far into it. In this article, we’ll discuss five powerful tips for SEO content writing that can help you effectively optimize your content and boost your ranking quickly. Finally, if you already have content on your website but it’s not quite ranking as high as you had hoped, you can implement these things you might have missed.
Keyword Research & Strategy
When writing for SEO, it’s essential to choose the right keywords. First, you should use keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or even Ubersuggest to understand what phrases your target customers are searching and how competitive each keyword is. If your site is rather new or you don’t have a couple dozen pieces of content posted on your site, we recommend you start with some lower competition keywords (under 20). This way you can pick up momentum & acquire some SEO wins under your belt.
Once you’ve identified some relevant keywords that you can realistically rank for, use them strategically throughout your piece of content. Here’s 5 places that are crucial for inserting your keyword:
- URL Slug (www.yoursite.com/yourkeywordhere)
- In the H1 Site Title
- In the first paragraph of your article
- In your Meta Title
- In your Meta Description
Also note that you don’t have to insert the keyword more than once or twice for a 1500 word article. The context around the subject you’re writing about will be enough. By doing this, you will increase the chances of your content being picked up by search engine crawlers. for the right terms & context.
Identify Search Intent
Identifying the searcher’s intentions before you even begin writing is integral for SEO content success. Doing so will help to make sure that your answers to those intended questions are more informative and valuable to the reader. Researching keywords and understanding their context, as well as why they were searches in the first place, is critical in ensuring you provide what the audience needs. To do this, simply paste your keyword into Google & observe the listings on the first page. Here’s what to look for:
- Are the top results “how-to” articles or similar (informative intent)?
- Are they product comparisons (commercial intent)?
- Are they branded keywords looking for something in specific (navigational intent)?
- or Are they e-commerce product pages (transactional intent)
Now if the first few listings are list articles, then you can be certain that Google is ranking informative articles, particularly those that are in a list format. If all you see is e-commerce products to “buy now”, then the intent is transactional & so you shouldn’t expect to rank an informative article here.
Fill In Meta Tags & Alt Text
A crucial part of SEO content writing is properly filling in meta tags, meta descriptions, and alt text. This is especially important as it’s essential to optimize the visibility of your content within SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Your meta description should include the keyword relating to your page and be written in an engaging, concise way since this will be the first thing customers see when finding your page in search results. Now the meta title & meta description won’t necessarily increase your SEO rankings but they will increase your click-through-rate & that will help boost your traffic indirectly.
For your alt-text, we have a whole article on it here (Image Alt Text) but you also want to save one of your article images with the keyword in the name. Once you upload it to your site, also add the keyword into the alt text. This will boost your SEO slightly & it will help the image rank in Google Images.
Include Internal & External Links
Internal and external links play an imperative role in SEO content writing. By adding internal links to your page, you can guide readers through different sections of your website to better understand specific topics. Additionally, by including external links to reliable sources, readers will be able to further engage with the content on your site and get a more in-depth look at the topic at hand. Make sure each link is properly optimized as well; this way search engines can more easily crawl each page.
Finally, external links will help to increase your domain authority & help you rank above websites with lower authority. However, these external links can be difficult to come by if you aren’t actively reaching out to webmasters in your niche. Fret not, did you know that internal links also pack some power in terms of SEO? While they might not be 1 for 1 when compared to external links from high authority sites, they matter. So be sure to get all of your content pieces linking to each other wherever relevant as a vote of confidence in the eyes of Google.
Outline & Structure Content For Readability
Clearly outlining and structuring your content can have an impact on your rankings. Making sure that each page is broken down into sections and subsections will provide the reader with a better understanding of the material while at the same time ensuring that search engine spiders can properly read your website’s content. Additionally, organizing your posts with headlines and subheadings will provide readers with a more easily understandable experience.
Be sure to only have a single “H1” tag as your title & then every subheading after that, an “H2” tag. You can see what this looks like on this very page. And if you really need to go further into detail on a certain heading, then you can implement an “H3” tag. Overall it’s for readability (user experience) & to help the search crawlers determine what your page is about & what’s most important.
We hope this helps you out. Double check your page stats as mentioned above. SEO is a complicated topic that’s ever changing but if you follow these principles, you’re bound to get a solid return without studying the subject for months on end. If you need help with your website or would like someone to create SEO-optimized articles like this one for your website, please reach out to us.
