Content Without SEO Is Lost
Writing content is meaningless. That is—if you can’t get anyone to read it. You’ll rank better organically on your page if you follow these 8 content writing tips for SEO.
Did you know that 91% of all the content on the internet gets no traffic from Google?
It’s no surprise that content writing is a powerful weapon business owners can use to battle their way to the top. Yet, most blog posts and articles get left behind —even if the content is helpful.
So, how do you ensure you become part of the 9% that gets traffic from Google?
Whether a business owner or freelance writer, the path to Google’s first page is to create SEO-friendly content.
To do this, you must play by the rules, or your hard work will not rank organically. Especially now with the latest Google algorithm update. The update has created much buzz in the SEO world regarding content. Google will now reward original, informative content and penalize lackluster SEO content. Google can contextualize a writer’s intent to determine if the content answers a user’s Google search.
In this article, you’ll learn 8 content writing tips for SEO that you can apply to attract more visitors to your site.
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What Is SEO Content Writing?
So, what exactly is content writing for SEO?
Simply put, SEO writing is the process of writing content to rank organically high on search engines like Google. This is done by stuffing keywords, right?
Wrong!
Maybe 15 years ago, search engine optimization was all about cramming as many target keywords into your post as possible. But, as time has passed, Google has gotten smarter at sniffing out the B.S. and ranking genuinely relevant content. Google is also improving its algorithm to detect AI-generated content.
So, how do you make sure your content ranks high? You achieve this by researching topics and keywords users search for in Google and creating content that best answers the search query regarding relevancy and value.
Why Is SEO Content Writing So Important?
Have you ever poured your heart and soul into an article or blog post that you know was good, only to have no one read it? Well, if that’s you, then you’ve experienced the consequences of publishing content that isn’t optimized for SEO.
Of the nearly 50 billion web pages on the internet… 45.5 billion have never been clicked on in a Google search. So, how do you ensure your content makes its way onto the screens of internet searchers around the globe?
By writing SEO content.
SEO writing helps your content rank better on search engines like Google and Bing.
Think about your business. How do you grow? More sales, right? Well, how do you get sales? More leads. And… How do you get leads? You can get them through word of mouth or paid advertising, or you can get them organically. A strategically written blog post can significantly contribute to any Search Engine Marketing campaign. It’s best to write often to show you are a thought leader in a particular field.
Writing SEO content is how you can tap into that organic traffic stream to bring in valuable business leads. Just think, when you submit a search query, you are generally served an article written by a business. So now you have landed on their business website, which might generate a conversion.
And the best part is—taking advantage of these SEO content writing tips could allow you to have a steady stream of leads for years to come because Google will continue ranking your article if it’s not fluff. You can update that content anytime down the road without losing any SEO juice. Just make sure not to change the URL or slug to that article.
Even a single article that’s relevant, valuable, and SEO-friendly, could mean thousands in additional revenue for your business every year. Now, let’s look at some of the best SEO tips you can implement today…
1. Write for Humans First
You probably came here to learn how to hack the SEO code, right? You’re expecting to discover some keyword secrets to ranking #1? Well… the truth is, Google is smart and will get smarter.
That means that while keywords are important, they’re not everything.
First and foremost, you must ensure your content is written for humans, not Google’s bots. Google’s search engine is becoming more geared towards user experience as time goes on. People will continue to use their search platform if they provide you with the best article to answer your search inquiry.
Over time Google is getting better at recognizing high-quality, relevant content. While Google’s algorithm is mysterious, there are a few factors they consider when recognizing content people like. They have over 200 known ranking factors!
For instance, did your visitor suddenly decide to bounce back to the search engines results page (SERP) after clicking on your blog post? This is a negative ranking factor. It shows your blog wasn’t a good match for the person’s search query.
Another factor is how long someone spends on your blog post. Are they there for 5 seconds? Or 5 minutes? Generally speaking, the longer someone stays on your page, the more likely that your article answered their search query well. Time on the page is documented and part of the ranking process.
Another essential factor is backlinks. Not just the number of backlinks your site has but the number of quality backlinks you have.
Are there some significant sites linking back to your blog post? Forbes? New York Times? A Fortune 500 Company? These are all trust signals to Google showing that people find your blog post valuable. This will help your blog post climb the rankings.
Writing for people will always be the most important SEO content writing tip, no matter what happens with search engines or algorithm updates. This is where you’re likely strongest, so don’t forget it. You should never sacrifice quality writing for the latest “SEO trick.”
But, there is a way to marry the two. You can have high-quality content that’s also optimized for search engines. The key is to bridge the gap in a way that serves Google and your audience. Overall, in the long run, the better you serve your audience, the better Google will serve you.
We recommend: Don’t sound like a robot. Keyword stuffing can make your blog post sound unnatural. A simple tip is to read your blog post out loud after you’re done writing. If it doesn’t sound natural, it won’t read naturally. Write it as you’d speak it.
2. Craft Content That Answers Your Audience’s Questions
Why do people go to Google?
For knowledge. They want to know where something is, how it works, and why something is the way it is. Your primary goal with your SEO content should be to answer the questions your audience is asking the search engines.
The best SEO content writers understand not only how their audience thinks and feels but what problems they have. Oftentimes, we end up venting our biggest problems to Google. Use this to your advantage. Think about your audience. What pain points does your audience have concerning your niche?
We recommend: Try typing your main niche keyword into Google. Let’s say you sell sweater vests because they are all the rage. Type “sweater vest” into Google. Look at the “People also ask” section. Also, the bottom section. You’ll see what questions people have about the topic.
For more ideas, take that exact keyword, and turn it into a question. A simple trick is typing “Who/What/When/Where/Why/How” + “sweater vests.” Don’t hit enter. Let Google suggest questions. This is a gold mine of common questions people ask.
3. Add Keywords Strategically & Subtly into Your Content
Finally, keywords! Just what you came here for, right? Exciting SEO hacks, here we come! But, for real, if you want your content to rank well on Google, you need to ensure you have the appropriate keywords.
Thankfully, if you’ve followed tips #1 and #2, your content will be 90% covered by the appropriate keywords. By understanding the searcher’s intent, understanding their question, and then appropriately answering it, your writing will almost always have the majority of the SEO keywords.
However, there’s usually room to spice up your SEO by ensuring your main keyword is in the right places. Include your keyword at least once in your Title, URL, and Meta Description. You should also use the keyword within your actual content. Include it in your intro, conclusion, and at least one subheading (H2).
We recommend: If you want to ensure you’re not keyword stuffing, you can use a related keyword instead. For instance, if your keyword is “how often should I wear my sweater vest,” you can also use “when should I wear my sweater vest.”
Tip: If you want to take your keyword research to another level, you can use incredible SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Spyfoo.
WordPress Tip: You can easily customize important SEO settings with Rank Math. It’s never been easier to control how you want your website to appear in search with Structured data. It will help you determine how your page will be indexed and will give you an easy to follow interface to optimize your content for SEO.
4. Optimize Your Content To Claim the Featured Snippet
Wondering what a featured snippet is? Almost every search result has it. It’s usually a short answer to the search query that Google pulls from a relevant web page for the topic. It’s also known as “position zero.” This is a relatively new feature Google introduced a few years ago.
The best part is that you don’t need to be the top-ranking result to claim this spot. You just need to crack the top ten. If you make the top ten, you have a chance at the featured snippet. Crafting your content, so you’re more likely to get this spot is a powerful way to grab the best spot in the SERP.
We recommend: When crafting your content, ask yourself if there’s a common question revolving around the topic that you can answer. If so, write a short, one-to-two sentence answer that answers the question.
Featured snippets can also come in the form of lists and step-by-step instructions. Make sure you format your lists and instructionals with H2s to get this spot better.
5. Make Your Post Easy to Read
Remember tip number one? The best SEO content is content that’s written for humans. If ordinary people like you and I have trouble reading your blog post, then Google will not like it either. High-quality content isn’t just what’s inside a blog post. It’s how the post is written.
Be conversational, use your voice, try to write for a broad audience = And keep it light but full of valuable information.
Create an index at the top of your post, so visitors know what to expect. Providing an index will also allow someone to navigate directly to what they are interested in. It will also allow the user to get a quick snapshot of the ideas you are presenting to help contextualize the information.
Here are a few things to avoid if you want to improve readability:
- Big words
- Long-winded sentences
- Huge paragraphs
- No H2s
People get overwhelmed if they see a massive chunk of text staring them in the face. With content, white space is your friend. Include plenty of it.
Here are a few things to follow if you want to improve readability:
- Break up your text
- Write short sentences
- Keep your paragraphs 4 lines or shorter
- Bold important words or sentences
- Include bullet points when you have a list (just like this)
- Good spelling and grammar!
We recommend: Using Grammarly to write all your post and consider the suggestions it provides. It will save you a lot of time because it checks grammar in real-time. No matter how good you are as a writer, no one is infallible. Remember, when you make it easy for your visitors to read your posts, they’ll stay longer, and your SEO will improve. You’re not writing a college dissertation, so keep it light and informative.
6. Use Images in Every Single Post
Being a good SEO writer isn’t just about improving your writing. It’s about improving your content. Including relevant, high-quality images are critical to good SEO. Make sure you break up your post with some images. From a readability perspective, images are incredibly valuable. They’re one of the best tools to give the reader’s eyes a break.
Plus, they can provide a lot of value to the reader. Images help keep your site visitors engaged and entertained throughout your posts. And, it makes it easier to digest what you’re saying in your article—especially if you include an infographic or two.
Images are great for SEO since Google will index them once your post is published. This means your images will pop up as a search engine result that people can click on, providing you with another path to organic traffic. Just remember to write an alt-image text for each image you upload.
Plus, there’s one more incredibly impactful SEO benefit to using images in your posts: people like to link to them. Like you, every blogger and website owner on the internet needs images in their blog posts. But, they don’t always have the team or the resources to create their own. When people come across your post and find your infographic helpful to their audience, they can use it in their content.
Why is that good for you? They usually link to your blog post for credit when using your image. Just like that, you got a backlink! As mentioned above, acquiring backlinks is one of the key factors to great SEO.
We recommend: If you or your team has design expertise, try to create some custom graphics in each of your posts. Infographics, in particular, are highly coveted amongst bloggers since they make it easier to digest content. You should also consider a Video SEO Strategy along with your content marketing. Video will boost engagement and keep people on your landing pages longer.
Btw, Google knows if you are using original images, which scores better than someone who doesn’t.
Tip: You can use third-party images from places like Shutterstock, but you should add something to change the image, so it seems original in Google’s eye. It’s crazy to think it knows, but Google does recognize unique content.
7. Link Your Content Together (Internal Links)
Most people who visit your website will never return. This is a tough pill to swallow. Knowing you only have a limited amount of time to engage a single website visitor, what do you do?
You give them the best experience possible in the limited time they have. One way to do this is by linking your content together. Otherwise known as internal links, this is when you include a link in your blog post to another post on your site.
For instance, if you sell dog food and write a blog post on how often you should feed a new puppy, you might mention how you should feed the puppy a particular type of food created specifically for young dogs. You could link to an article on your site about the best food for puppies when mentioning food choices. This is internal linking.
So, why is internal linking important? First, it allows Google’s bots to find your content. If their own bots can’t figure out what content is on your site, they won’t be able to show it to people in their search engine. It helps Google contextualize what content your site is delivering.
The other reason is that it provides value to the reader. When you link to other relevant content, there will almost certainly be a percentage of your visitors that also find value in your other content. Win, win!
The benefit for you is that you just got two page views from a visitor rather than a single page view. This also means someone spent longer on your site than if you didn’t link out to other posts. This means the average time on site for your visitors will increase. Interlinking is essential for two of Google’s ranking factors:
1. When Google sees your visitors are reading multiple pages on your site, it’s a signal that your site is valuable to the reader.
2. When Google sees your visitors are staying longer on your site overall, it’s another signal that you’re providing value to the reader.
These two factors will ultimately lead to better SEO which will help you get better rankings.
We recommend: Don’t force a ton of links into your posts if they aren’t relevant. Only include links that make sense.
8. Improve Your Site Speed
Okay, here’s one last tip for SEO content writing… If you want to improve your content, you have to improve your site speed.
Did you know that 40% of visitors will abandon your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load? People have short attention spans. This is especially true for the swipe-right Millennials whose Amazon packages show up the next day. If your content takes too long to load, your visitors will leave.
Here are a few ways to speed up your site:
- Compress and optimize images and media
- Remove any unnecessary plugins or apps
- Optimize your code
- Test your page speed regularly to keep it running fast
We recommend: If you’re using a WordPress site, you’ll want to check out our 6 Tips to Make Your Website Faster on WordPress.
If you follow the four optimization tips above, but your site still loads slowly, you may want to consider working with a web developer to optimize the back end of your website.
Ready to Generate More Traffic to Your Site?
Well, there you have it—8 content writing tips for SEO! By following these simple tips, you will be well on your way to creating content that will get found by your audience. Generating substantial traffic to your website is no easy task. It takes the right mix of strategy, design, development, copywriting, marketing, and advertising.
If you want to take your business to the next level but are unsure where to start, reach out to us at Mighty Fine today.
Whether you lack the team or the experience to grow your brand, we can help you scale your business with our in-house digital marketing expertise.
If you’re looking for an agency to partner with, or you just have a few marketing questions you’d like to ask, feel free to reach out today. We’re a Tampa and Atlanta-based agency with a wealth of experience in marketing, web design, web development, digital advertising, and more.
