What To Consider When Writing For SEO

Featured image:

For the uninitiated, search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of organically increasing a web page’s position in search engine results (or ‘SERPs’). There are many myths suggesting that you need to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds to be on top of Google. In reality, a significant proportion of a website’s digital marketing efforts can be attributed to content and writing for SEO. So how can you be sure you’re adopting best practices, while shooting up the search results? Find out in this ultimate guide to writing for SEO.

What does it mean to ‘write for SEO’?

For the very most part, you will want the content that you write to rank highly in the SERPs. Writing for SEO ensures that what you produce is easily readable by both users and search engines. Google reads and understands content in a very similar way to how humans do – so it’s important that it’s clear and concise. There are a lot of things to consider when writing a decent blog post or other page copy, for example, so let’s get started.

Tips for effective SEO copywriting

Research is key

This is the starting point. When gearing up to write a blog post, you need to ensure that you’re writing about something that people are actively searching for. You could produce a truly awesome piece of content, but what’s the use of it if nobody’s interested? Before writing, you need to carry out some keyword research. This is where you discover what terms people are searching for (in relation to your subject matter), how many people are searching for it, and how difficult it’ll be to rank for any given term. The latter two can be broken down into:

• Average monthly search (AMS): the number of searches for the keyword on average in any given month.
• The competition: how much competition there is surrounding the keyword.

In an ideal world, you’ll want to find a term that has a high AMS, but low competition. Platforms such as Semrush and Google Keyword Planner are great at discovering the best keywords that you should be targeting. These are the keywords that you should be using throughout your main copy.

Write for the human first

While the dream is for your blog post to rank on page one of Google, you need to ensure that you are answering your audience’s questions. Even if you are ranking number one in the SERPs, it’s no good if you aren’t writing something that informs and helps readers solve their problems. Google itself states that it aims to rank useful pages, as they try to provide the best information possible.

Structure your post

It cn be the most basic form of content you’ll create, but it’s a good idea to know about some basic blog post structure. A typical post will abide by the following structure; introduction, the main copy and a conclusion – with call to actions (CTAs) used sporadically throughout.

Keep it simple when it comes to structuring your content, and make it easy for the reader to digest. A simple way of doing this is by using heading tags (like H2s and H3s). These break up the copy into different sections, making it flow more easily and be more coherent. Also utilise heading tags for opportunities to insert target terms

Convert your site’s visitors

In fairness, this is easier said than done. Good content is a key driver of conversions, so if you’re getting a decent amount of traffic to your website but minimal leads, then it’s time to review what you’ve written. Demonstrate your brand’s expertise through confident writing, ensure you have CTAs and internal links that drive traffic to your high-priority sales pages. A truly great blog post will aim to educate its readers and encourage them to take action.

Cite credible sources

You want what you write about to be as factually sound as possible. Linking your content to highly authoritative, highly trusted websites is another positive signal for search engines. It provides users and Google with the knowledge that this piece of content you’re writing is accurate. It allows search engines to establish more easily what the content is about and how it may relate to other topics online.

Other on-page elements

After all that came before, there are also other on-page aspects you need to optimise. These include:

• Meta title: A short title of the blog. It can be similar to the headline you’ve used but it should not be exactly the same. Should be no longer than 55 characters, but be sure to use as much of the character limit as possible.
• Meta description: Provide searchers with a short summary of the blog post in the search results – think of it as ‘ad copy’ almost, to promote your article. Ideally between 150 and 160 characters.
• Mobile optimisation: You want to ensure that your blog area has a responsive design to ensure the best experience for your readers, whatever device they’re reading on

Writing for SEO

Writing for SEO is a surefire to improve your website’s visibility, and boost organic traffic levels. Of course, you want to have the traffic that comes to your blog articles passed through to your priority pages. Building internal links through to these areas will also build the overall authority and importance of these pages. Have fun with blog writing, there is no rigid one-dimensional approach for you to take, so think outside the box too and make it better than the rest. SEO and content writing goes hand-in-hand in ensuring higher traffic to your site, but also go together in improving engagement.