Creating content that ranks high on search engines is crucial for driving organic traffic and establishing authority.
SEO writing involves more than just sprinkling keywords into your text; it requires a strategic approach to ensure your content meets both search engine algorithms and user intent.
The SEO content writing tips below will help content writers create relevant, meaningful content to improve search visibility on the SERP and form a trustworthy relationship with searchers in the process.
Table of Contents:
What Is SEO Content Writing?
SEO content writing is the practice of creating content that is both valuable to readers and optimized for search engines.
It involves strategically incorporating keywords and phrases that potential customers are searching for into relevant, engaging, and informative content. As such, SEO writers must consider who is searching for this information and why, and leverage that in the writing process.
This practice not only improves a website's visibility in search engines but also enhances the user experience by ensuring the content is clear, useful, and aligned with user intent.
Challenges When Creating SEO Content
With the ever-increasing amount of online content, competition to capture the user’s click has skyrocketed.
Recommended Reading: 8 Tricks to Creating Engaging Content
In addition, search queries have become increasingly complex. Meeting those queries with well-optimized, thought-out content is the only way to attract users to your site.
But human search behavior isn’t the only thing that has evolved — search engines are smart. Look at Google’s RankBrain and BERT updates which allow the search engine to have a semantic understanding of search queries instead of simply the explicit phrase match.
And with the rise of generative AI, search engines are becoming even more intelligent and personalized as they roll out chat-style search such as Google's AI Overviews or Bing's integration with OpenAI.
Recommended Reading: 4 Ways ChatGPT Impacts Enterprise SEO
19 Tips on How to Write Effective SEO Content
The tips listed below have been categorized into four categories: research, authority, optimization, and analysis.
Think of this list as the “must-dos” to provide value to your users and demonstrate your authority. In other words, it's your guide to outranking and standing out amongst other content on the SERP.
Here's an overview:
Conduct Thorough Research
Begin your content creation journey with in-depth research to identify the keywords and topics that will resonate most with your target audience and align with their search intent.
#1. Identify a Target Keyword / Topic
The first tip to create SEO content is to conduct proper keyword research. This involves identifying the keywords and topics that are most relevant to your audience and have the potential to drive organic traffic to your site.
Here are some quick tips on how to do this:
- Use keyword research tools or an SEO platform to discover relevant keywords with high search volume and manageable competition.
- Often, it's beneficial to focus on long-tail keywords, which are more specific and less competitive, potentially leading to higher conversion rates by attracting users with clear intent.
- Analyze competitors' keywords to find gaps and opportunities where you can provide unique value.
- Prioritize keywords that align with your business goals, ensuring they are relevant to your products or services.
#2. Research Your Target Audience
Before creating content, it is essential for writers to have a deep understanding of their audience.
Your content should always connect with your target audience by addressing their concerns, passions, and interests.
Demonstrating that you understand what your audience wants is crucial to capturing their attention and ensuring they engage with your content. If your content fails to resonate with them, they are unlikely to invest time in reading it.
#3. Review Top Ranked Content on the SERP
Use the skyscraper technique to analyze top-ranked content for your target topic, identifying gaps and opportunities to enhance your own work.
This method is not about copying, but about ensuring your content covers the topic comprehensively and from unique angles. Aim to improve upon existing content by offering fresh insights or more up-to-date statistics.
By creating content that exceeds what's already ranking, you'll establish authority and increase your chances of earning valuable backlinks.
Recommended Reading: SEO Content Writing Guide to Creating Authoritative Content
#4. Build Credibility
Enhance your content by incorporating statistics, research, and credible quotes to support your ideas and demonstrate that you have thoroughly researched the topic.
These elements establish that your content is fact-based and authoritative, providing readers with a compelling reason to engage with it. By proving its value, you encourage readers to trust your work and invest their time in it.
#5. Review Your Existing Content
Familiarize yourself with your existing content to avoid unnecessarily creating new blog posts on topics you've already covered, which can lead to keyword cannibalization.
Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pieces of content are optimized for the same keyword, confusing both Google and users while hurting your rankings by making you compete against yourself on the SERP.
Since Google typically includes only two listings from the same site for any query, it's more effective to build upon and update existing content. This approach strengthens your content, saves time, and prevents keyword cannibalization.
Build Topic Authority
Now that you've done your initial research, it's time to take steps to build topic authority.
Doing so establishes your content as a reliable and trustworthy source of information, which helps build credibility with your audience and search engines.
Authoritative content not only attracts more readers but also increases the likelihood of earning backlinks, improving your site's search engine rankings and visibility.
#6. Target the Right Intent
Google has become adept at interpreting search queries and understanding the user intent behind them, tailoring the SERP to match this intent.
Search intent is generally categorized into four types: informational, transactional, navigational, and local, and the SERP's structure often provides clues about the intent behind a query.
Understanding search intent is crucial for SEO content writing because Google prioritizes delivering results that meet users' needs.
For example, if a query has informational intent but your content is transactional, it will not rank well because it doesn't fulfill the user's informational needs.
#7. Create Strong Topic Clusters
Topic clusters involve creating a series of related articles or pages centered around a core topic and then internally linking them together to enhance search engine visibility and improve user experience.
While a single page can address several aspects of a topic, having diverse content centered around that topic strengthens your overall authority.
Content marketers should aim to explore a topic from various perspectives, as this approach not only enriches the content but also signals to search engines that your site is a valuable resource on the subject.
(Cover a subject from multiple angles to demonstrate your authority on the topic.)
#8. Determine the Appropriate Content Type to Create
Ensure you choose the right type of content to effectively convey your message, taking into account both search intent and the nature of your content.
While a blog post is ideal for sharing information, a product page is better for showcasing items that users can purchase.
Additionally, although written content is often effective, consider also using video content to engage and attract users in a dynamic way.
#9. Focus on Semantically Related Keywords
Keyword stuffing is and outdated practice and doesn't help users gain meaningful insights.
Instead, enhance your content by including semantically related keywords that support your main topic.
For instance, if you're writing about engagement rings, incorporate terms like diamonds, heart-cut, and carats, which naturally relate to your subject.
This approach not only enriches your content but also establishes your authority by introducing new concepts and ideas that might surprise your readers.
#10. Consider What Makes Your Content Link-Worthy
Exceptional content won’t only give your readers a good user experience, it will also cause other websites to link to your site as a reference. Receiving backlinks is a huge indicator of a website’s authority and a ranking factor for the Google SERP.
Consider content ideas that attract links naturally. This may include original research, unique infographics, proprietary or owned concepts or unique approach that your company created to address your target audience's pains or needs.
#11. Write in an Active, Actionable Voice
How you write is just as crucial as what you write.
Using an active voice, rather than a passive one, strengthens your writing and showcases your authority on the topic.
While it might seem like a minor detail, strong, active writing helps convey your expertise and confidence to your audience.
Bonus: AI-Driven Content Insights
Creating well-optimized content for each project can be challenging when time and resources are limited, especially with other priorities on your plate. That's why seoClarity developed Content Fusion for AI-powered content creation and optimization.
Content Fusion enables you to create authoritative content at scale, boosting your copy's authority faster than ever. It uses a deep-learning algorithm to provide a list of essential topics to include in your copy for optimal keyword performance (we operate the world's largest competitive data set so it’s likely that we have keywords that relate to your industry.)
Here is part of the must-use topics for our example of “engagement rings”:
(A portion of the must-use topics for the keyword “engagement rings.”)
Notice how Content Fusion alleviates the need to manually search for the correct user intent. Here, it alerts us that this keyword has a transactional user intent, so a product page would be the correct content type to create in this case.
Another extension of our Research Grid, Topic Explorer allows you to create topic clusters while taking into account the semantic match of a keyword.
This expands potential keyword ideas far beyond the standard phrase match of a keyword. Google and other search engines now have a semantic understanding of information, so you need to show users that you have a holistic understanding as well.
Looking for a way to overcome writer's block? Content Fusion has been recently integrated with Sia, our AI-driven SEO assistant.
By clicking Sia's lightning bolt icon, users can effortlessly generate outlines, draft paragraphs, or rewrite existing content. Sia utilizes its extensive knowledge to personalize each task based on the topic and individual preferences.
Additionally, the new "Content Profiles" feature allows users to specify audience, tone, language, and content type for each piece of content. Sia ensures adherence to these specifications, providing tailored and optimized content.
Remember that Sia's outputs are only suggestions to serve as a starting point. They should always be reviewed and edited by a member of your content team.
Tired of creating content that doesn’t rank? Request a customized demo to strategize how our platform can bring success to your SEO content writing.
Optimize the Content
After you’ve completed your research and have created your copy, there are a few extra steps you can take to really enhance the performance of your content.
Think of these steps as the icing on the cake. They'll serve as that extra push to outperform current ranked content and give readers a seamless user experience.
Recommended Reading: 14 Quick SEO Tweaks That Help Increase Search Visibility.
#12. Craft Compelling Meta Data
The presentation of your content on the SERP has a large impact on its click-through rate.
As such, it's important to create compelling meta descriptions (think of them as mini ad space) and title tags.
That being said, you should avoid clickbait. Make sure your headlines align with what the content is actually about to avoid deceiving readers and increasing bounce rates.
For more information on both the meta description and the meta title, refer to these blog posts:
- How to Write the Perfect Meta Description for SEO
- How to Improve Search Visibility with a Title Tag Test
#13. Leave the Reader with Something Extra
When you give the searcher the information they were looking for, you’ve done your job! To exceed expectations, leave the reader with something extra.
Here are some options to consider:
- Add multimedia elements or quotes from your executives to demonstrate thought leadership.
- Summarize the page’s contents into a TL;DR section (too long; didn’t read) that the user can easily skim and understand.
- Include downloadable templates or quick-hit checklists
When you provide these additional elements, you entice the reader to come back to your site again in the future or visit another page on your site.
#14. Structure Your Content Appropriately
The layout of your content significantly impacts the user experience. Use H1, H2, and H3 headings to create a clear flow and structure for your content.
Proper structure is also crucial for optimizing your content for the Answer Box/Featured Snippet. If the current Answer Box is a numbered list, format your content similarly with numbered entries to make it easy for Google to extract.
If it's a quick definition, ensure your content includes a precise, succinct definition of the concept so it can be easily featured.
#15. Include the Keyword in the Title, URL, and Content
To make it obvious to the reader that your content can solve their problem, use the keyword or its variation in the title. The same applies for the URL — many users will look at it to discern the topic of the page.
Of course, the keyword also needs to be naturally included in the bulk of the content itself. And don’t forget those semantically related topics!
#16. Describe Images in the IMG Alt Tag
Describing images in the alt tag helps users with visual impairments fully engage with your content, especially when using screen readers.
Ensure each alt tag ends with a period, as this prompts the screen reader to pause briefly, creating a more natural reading experience.
#17. Ask the Reader for a Next Step
What action do you want your readers to take after engaging with your content?
Ideally, you want them to convert, whether by making a purchase, signing up for an email newsletter, or downloading an ebook.
Use action-oriented, persuasive language to prompt readers to convert somewhere on your page. If your content is relevant, optimized, and follows the tips mentioned so far, the likelihood of conversion is high.
Analyze, Track, and Report
Lastly, you'll want to take steps to evaluate your content's performance with detailed analysis, using insights to refine your strategy and continuously improve your SEO efforts.
#18. Identify Your Key Metrics
Every organization has different metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluating content, such as bounce rate, time on page, or overall traffic.
It's essential to track the metrics that are most important and relevant to your goals.
If you're unsure of what your KPIs should be, start by asking yourself, "What is the purpose of this content?" Once you identify your KPIs, you can monitor whether your goals are being met and determine what changes are needed if the results fall short.
#19. Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a great tool for content marketers and SEOs to leverage. Not only is it free, it’s also easy to use to help you understand user demand. It includes average rank, impressions, clicks, and more.
For instance, if you notice a decrease in impressions for a certain page, this may signal that the content is approaching content decay and needs a content refresh.
Conclusion
With so much content and competition online today, it’s not enough to write content and hope it performs well to rank higher. SEO content writing is at the heart of any organic search strategy, and these tips can push your writing forward to offer the end user the most positive experience possible.
Adopt these 19 tips into your content writing process and you’ll be sure to see an improvement in your search performance for higher visibility in the search results.
Read more on the SEO content writing strategy and process to level up your search engine optimization strategy.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in September 2019 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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