If you've ever written a blog post before, you know how much time it can take.
From topic selection and gathering research to writing the post and pressing “Publish,” the process often demands hours. That‘s why, if your post doesn’t earn the traffic you expected, it can be a major letdown.
Fortunately, there's a way to combat low traffic: search engine optimization. As marketers, we‘re always aiming to write content that’ll rank highly on Google, and SEO is the bridge that'll help you get there. That begs the question: How do you incorporate that into your content?
Don‘t worry — we’ve got you covered. In this post, we're going to dive into 12 ways to master SEO writing.
With higher rankings, your website increases its overall visibility. The ultimate goal is to drive organic traffic, increase conversions, and achieve business objectives through effective optimization.
If you don’t optimize your content for search engines, your website may suffer from low visibility and poor rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). As a result, the potential reach and exposure of your content may be significantly reduced.
Without SEO, your content is less likely to rank highly on search engines. Ranking lower may hinder your ability to attract and engage with your target audience. It may also make your content seem less credible and authoritative.
A 2020 Search Engine Journal study found that the clickthrough rate for websites in position one on the SERP is 25%. This number drops drastically to 15% for websites in position two and then down to 2.5% for websites in position 10. When you get to page two of Google, that number gets even lower.
This means that if your website is not on the first page, there’s a small chance consumers will find your website organically. Fewer visits to your site mean fewer opportunities to generate leads, and ultimately, revenue.
Your next best option is investing in advertising to get those users to your site. But that costs money, and if you’re on a tight budget, why not invest time in SEO writing? It’s free and will likely bring you traffic for much longer than a campaign would.
When getting started with SEO content writing, it’s important to understand the basics. Here are some fundamental principles to follow when incorporating SEO into your writing.
Keyword optimization is all about strategically using relevant keywords and phrases in your content to boost its visibility and ranking. This aspect of SEO is super important because it helps search engines better understand your content, thereby increasing the chances of it appearing in relevant search queries and attracting organic traffic.
To select the best keywords, you’ll need to research and identify what exactly your target audience is looking for and align it with your content’s topic. Finding the right balance between incorporating keywords in a way that makes sense to readers and satisfies search engine algorithms is key.
We’ll go more in-depth about how to find keywords and how to disperse them throughout your content in the tips section.
User intent refers to the motivation or purpose behind a user's search query. It’s all about figuring out what they really want to discover when typing something into a search engine.
There are generally four types of user intent:
By understanding user intent, you can create content that aligns with what people are looking for and boost your chances of showing up in search results. Each industry and niche also changes your user intent. For example, SEO for lawyers will be a lot different compared to SEO for marketers. It's all about giving people what they need and providing them with a good search experience.
Writing for SEO isn’t just about what you write, it’s also about how you write. It isn’t enough to just place keywords into your content and call it a day. You need to consider how your audience’s experience will be when they read it.
This is where readability comes in.
Readability is all about striking the right balance between optimizing for search engines and ensuring that your content is enjoyable and valuable to human readers.
In addition to optimizing your content with keywords and internal links, you’ll want to focus on user experience. Write in a reader-friendly manner by using clear and concise language and avoiding jargon. You’ll also want to utilize headings and make your content more scannable (more on that below).
When writing and editing your content ask yourself: Is this easy to understand? Does this have a logical flow? Is this engaging? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” you may need to make some changes.
Every SEO writer knows that an evergreen blog post will never be completely finished, even after it’s been published. Thanks to algorithm updates and competitors targeting the same keywords, search results are always changing.
That’s why it’s important to have a content update strategy in place to ensure your older web content remains fresh and relevant in search engine rankings. This practice is called historical optimization.
To figure out which blog posts you need to update, assess your older content by conducting a content audit to find underperforming or outdated pieces. Then, determine how to improve the piece. This usually involves refreshing the content by adding new information, removing outdated information, optimizing keywords, and improving formatting and readability.
It’s estimated that Google processes over 70,000 search queries a second. Staggering, right?
If you want to cut through SERP clutter and outrank your competitors, you need to target the specific keywords and phrases your potential customers are searching for. Otherwise, how else will they find your content and website?
Start with a keyword research tool. Sites like Ahrefs and Google Keyword Planner give you details on what users are searching for and how popular those queries are.
For an inside look into how Ahrefs can aid you in your SEO keyword research and beyond, check out our case study and exclusive interview here.
Google Trends can also give you a feel for what keywords are popular at any given time. If you see searches are steadily declining over time for a specific keyword, you know that’s probably not the right keyword to target for your marketing. The opposite is true for rising trends.
If you’re ever running low on keyword ideas, get inspiration from your competition. Use competitive intelligence tools to see what keywords their domains currently rank for. If these keywords are relevant to your business, consider using them too.
However, keep in mind that the most obvious keywords don’t always align with your strategy. Additionally, your focus keywords will evolve over time as trends shift, terminology changes or your product/service line grows.
Be sure to conduct keyword research periodically to ensure you’re still focusing on the right keywords for your target audience and not missing out on vital ranking opportunities.
Headers help Google’s web crawlers understand your blog post and the sections within it.
Think of the crawlers as readers who are skimming your blog. They want an overview of what your article will cover, that’s your H1. Then your H2s, H3s, H4s break down the subtopics within the piece.
So, your subheaders should reflect the content in the body and include high-intent keywords. When you use the right keywords, meaning the ones your target audience is using, you have a much higher chance of ranking on the SERP.
Featured snippets on Google are the most direct answers to search queries. For instance, if I were to search, “How do you write a blog post?” Google might use a featured snippet to show the best answer.
To earn a featured snippet on Google, you'll need to answer the question thoroughly and succinctly.
For instance, if the search term is “How to screenshot on mac,” you can put “How to Take a Screenshot on a MacBook Computer” as your H1 or H2, followed by the steps in a numbered or bulleted list.
Once you’ve done that, be sure to include part of the question in your answer. Using the example above, you would start the paragraph with the following: “To take a screenshot on your MacBook, here are the steps…”
Additionally, start each sentence with an actionable verb, like “click” and “select.”
If the keyword for which you want to capture the featured snippet requires a definition, write an answer that’s no more than 58 words.
With all these SEO guidelines, it can be easy to forget that when a user searches on Google, they are looking for an answer. The best way for you to improve your chances of ranking is by writing high-quality blog posts.
What does that look like? Thorough answers, scannable sections, organized subheaders, and visual aids.
Keep your buyer personas, their motivations, challenges, and interests in mind. It’s also important to choose topics that will resonate with your potential customers and address their pain points.
While some SEO tools can help on the technical side of your site, you can also opt to use content writing SEO tools to help you to write correct, concise, and human-friendly content that will rank well and engage readers. Different tools also measure content engagement, allowing you to see how long people are spending on a page, whether or not they're visiting multiple pages, or how far people are scrolling down your site.
Pro tip: Writing can be difficult when keeping all of these variables in mind. One way to simplify the process is to organize your main thoughts, and then use them as a prompt for an AI tool, like HubSpot's free AI blog writer.
You can then go through that draft and add the personal touches and optimizations that make it fun for humans to read.
Even with a great, SEO-friendly post body, a bad headline could hurt you in the SERP.
To title your post with SEO in mind, write something compelling that also incorporates your main keyword. Here are a few tips:
Are you adding meta descriptions to your post? If your answer is “no,” then you‘re probably not getting as much traffic as you could. Let’s get into why they're important.
By now, we‘ve talked about a couple of the ways a blog post can communicate with Google: subheaders, keywords, and snippets. However, that’s not an exhaustive list.
Meta descriptions are another area Google crawls to determine search rankings. Meta descriptions are the one- to three-sentence descriptions, you'll find underneath the title of a result.
Use meta descriptions to sum up what your post is about, and remember to:
Most content management systems (CMS) have meta description boxes built-in, so you likely won't have to look far to use the function.
Link building is crucial to your search ranking.
Why? Think of search results like a competition where the winners get the most votes. Each webpage that links back to you is considered a vote for your website, which makes your content more trustworthy in the eyes of Google. In turn, this will make you rise further up in ranking.
So, it's good to write posts that other websites or publications will want to hyperlink within their own posts. To make your website's blog post more linkable, include high-value assets in your posts, such as original data and thought leadership.
Conducting interviews with experts is another effective way of leading traffic back to your website.
You know how to write content audiences will love. Now, it's time to include elements that Google will love too. It can sound tricky at first, with these SEO tips, you’ll be on the first page of Google in no time.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.