Do you want to write SEO-optimized content?
Well, SEO is an art form that can take your blog or your writing career to the next level.
Anyone can write an article but it takes a different process to write SEO-optimized content.
In this article, I will share some tips on writing SEO-optimized content that will rank well in search engines.
I run multiple blogs, and we have several writers who work around the clock to keep these sites updated with fresh, high-quality content. However, sometimes the quality drops (this usually happens due to a lack of knowledge).
Each blog post is like a web page in terms of search engine rankings, and you can optimize each blog post with specific keywords for search engines.
There are a few things you should keep in mind when writing this SEO-optimized content.
Whenever I hire a new writer to work on one of our blogs, I have to give them manual input and checklists to help them write better articles. In addition to choosing a theme, there is a complete SEO checklist that must be followed.
(Note: I used to email this information to all the authors in my blog network. So I thought it would be a good idea to compile all this information into one article. That way ShoutMeLoud readers would also benefit from the information and learn how to write SEO articles.)
Also note that in this post, I won’t be covering keyword research as it needs its own detailed article.
How to Start Writing SEO-optimized content?
Step 1- Start with research
If you’re serious about making a difference for yourself or your clients without doing research, you’re only scratching the surface.
At this stage you need to determine a few things:
- Keyword to target as I did in this article I focused on [SEO-optimized content]
- Length of the article.
- Type of the article.
- Analyze existing articles for the outline.
- People also ask questions.
Do yourself a favor and get a tool like SEMrush first.
SEMrush offers a free trial, which will help you research your topic better and help optimize keywords properly. This will help you understand what the right keywords you should be targeting are.
Step 2 – Content-Type: Keyword Search Intent
You can also put your target keywords in Google search and see what kind of articles are currently ranking. This is part of the research that will help you understand which articles Google thinks are better suited for this type of query.
You may notice some patterns in the search results. For example, some queries will only display lists, as shown in the image below:
Step 3- Find the free length of the article
Use the SEMrush authoring assistant to determine what zero-word limit you need to have to increase your chances of moving up on the first page.
To use this,
- Log in to the SEMrush dashboard (Get a free 14-day trial here)
- Under On-page & Tech SEO > SEO content templates
- Enter your target keyword
- Select the Country and device you want to target
Click “Create SEO template”.
and it will show you the results as shown in the screenshot below:
As shown in the screenshot above, the keyword on the first page for my primary target is 2182.
I naturally make sure that my SEO-optimized content should be at least 2000+ words. I’ve actually discussed this in-depth in my previous guide on “Long-Form Content for SEO”.
Alright, once we have this data ready, it’s time to create the outline.
Analyze the top 10 results for the target keyword. I know it’s a lot of work, but if your goal is to rank first in search, you need to take these extra steps to stand out.
Here’s a video tutorial where I show an example of another content optimization tool called Frase for finding idle lengths for articles:
Based on your understanding, create a content outline. Now is a great time to learn about brainstorming and outlining with this free guide.
Step 4- Scout People also ask
Search for your targeted keyword in the Google search engine and it will show you a section called “people also ask”.
Choose questions that make sense to the intent of your essay and answer those questions in your essay. But don’t stop here because when you click on one of the questions, Google will add more questions after that.
This is a smart way to ensure your SEO-optimized content answers the queries people are looking for.
Well, now is the time to start writing and optimizing your articles for SEO.
Now that I use WordPress as my content management system, this next tip about SEO copywriting still applies to you even if you’re using something else.
1. Post Title and Meta Title
First, what’s the difference between a post title and a meta title?
- Post titles: How your readers perceive the titles of posts on your site.
- Post Meta Title: How search engines display your post in search results.
If you don’t specify a meta title in your SEO settings, your post title will be considered a meta title.
- It is important to include keywords in the meta title.
Pro Tip: Keep your post titles under 65 characters.
2. Post Meta Description
Every WordPress SEO plugin allows you to add meta descriptions to your posts. These descriptions play an important role in search engine rankings.
Think of meta descriptions as sales copy for your blog posts:
- In 156 characters, you’ll need to add keywords and create a description that’s compelling enough for users to click.
If you haven’t added meta descriptions in the past, you should start doing so now. Make sure to add your main keyword in the meta description and make it intent-driven.
Meta descriptions are very important.
You should go back to any previous posts that didn’t have a meta description and add one.
By optimizing your post meta descriptions, you can ensure that every post you write has the potential to drive the most traffic to your website.
Google treats each blog post as a different webpage, so you can rank each blog post for specific keywords.
The meta description is a great place to put your keywords.
Google can’t read images.
- Text is how Google recognizes an image.
To ensure that search engines understand what your images are about, you must make sure you use the correct image names.
Many people mistakenly uploaded images with names like image01.jpg.
- This is a huge mistake!
When naming images, keep the names relative to the image itself.
For example, if you take a screenshot of the AdSense dashboard and name the image “AdSense”, it will not be targeted. Instead, you’ll want to use something like “AdSense-dashboard.” This way, when people search for images in Google Image Search, they land on one of the images in Our blog posts.
You can always add alt attributes manually when uploading images.
I’ve seen positive results when using keywords in image anchor text (as well as naming images), so you should at least use keywords in the image alt text.
4. Interlink and Anchor Text
When writing a new article, it’s a good idea to link back to old blog posts so readers stay on your site longer and search engines can recrawl those old posts.
This helps improve the navigability of your site, which reduces bounce rates—another important SEO factor.
When you link, you should use anchor text techniques.
Simply put, when you link to a blog post, you’ll see an option to add a link and a title.
Make sure to fill in the post title with the main keyword of the post you want to link to.
At Demy tech we also use a plugin called Yoast for internal linking.
5. Remove STOP words from Permalink
Search engines ignore words like “a”, “an”, and “the” listed here.
Our post titles often contain a lot of stop words.
For example, when we write an article titled:
- 3 Ways to Make a Blog Business Plan
By default our post permalinks are:
- domain.com/3-ways-to-make-a-blog-business-plan.html
“To” and “a” are stop words in the above example.
You can remove the stop words by clicking Edit Permalink and changing the permalink to “Blogging Business Plan”.
6. H1, H2, H3 Headings
Using the correct title tags is another important aspect of SEO copywriting.
You cannot ignore one of the most important aspects of SEO:
- Use proper H1 H2 and H3 heading tags.
By default, in any SEO-optimized theme, post titles use H1 title tags. So for the next subheading, you can use an H2 heading, then an H3 heading, and so on.
It’s always a good idea to use the correct title tags for effective SEO writing, especially if you’re writing a long post.
See Title Tags for SEO to better understand how to use title tags in blog posts.
According to the SEO community, it is a good idea to use keywords in H1 H2, and H3 tags. When creating your outline (during the research phase), you should decide what your heading tags should be.
Final Checklist:
- Research for keyword
- Identify the right word limit
- Scouting Google to find the right format for your article
- Create an outline by analyzing the top 10 results
- Make a list of questions from the “people also ask” section of the survey
- Post titles for readers & meta titles for search engines (keywords in titles).
- Post a meta description (optimize it for better CTR and use your target keyword once).
- Image Alt text (use keyword).
- Interlink in a post using good anchor text.
- Post permalink (remove stop words from permalink).
- Use appropriate subject lines (keywords in H1 H2 H3 lines).
Let us know if you have any questions or any other SEO writing tips. Share your thoughts in the comments section!
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