Remember the hype claims that SEO is dead? If yes, then it’s better to forget about them. SEO is more than alive, and it will be so as long as the search engines are alive.
Search engines are not only alive but smart enough to draw uncontested conclusions about the quality of your content.
Do you want these findings to be beneficial to you? ReVerb’s team wants this, too. Therefore, I have created this ultimate SEO writing guide to dig deeper into this topic.
About 15 years ago, the question, ‘What is SEO writing?’ made almost no sense. It was enough to fill the text with approximately suitable keywords, and it worked overall. Today it is a direct route to Google’s blacklist.
Therefore, nowadays, we define SEO writing as follows. SEO writing is the process of creating content that both meets the technical requirements of the search engines and is interesting, relevant, valuable, and useful to readers.
Do you know the difference between a good SEO copywriter and a bad one? A good SEO writer understands the importance of this balance and knows how to satisfy both sides with the art of using the right words in the right place and at the right time.
So, let’s consider in detail two key ingredients of SEO writing, Google ranking factors and content writing requirements.
The Google search engine is equipped with very powerful artificial intelligence and machine learning systems. It is able to analyze huge streams of information and rank sites based on the following parameters:
As you can see, the production of SEO content is just one of the Google ranking factors. However, the content itself is the web page’s heart that directly affects other no less important factors, such as behavior patterns, shares, and organic backlinks.
Here are the essential steps that an SEO writer (or you) need to take to create a top-notch article that will be adored both by readers and search engines:
A correctly chosen topic is already 30% of the success of your article. Therefore, the topic of the publication should be:
How do I find the right topics?
Competitor analysis is always a good SEO writing strategy:
Of course, you don’t need to manually search for keywords, although brainstorming is a good strategy. Fortunately, SEO tools are available to help you shape the semantic core of your article and site.
The most popular tools are SerpStat, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and UberSuggest. You only need to type your primary keyword around the topic, and you will get a huge list of potentially suitable keywords with indicators such as search volume, relevance, keywords difficulty, etc.
Hint! Choosing the right keywords for SEO writing may seem easy but there still can be some difficulties, especially if you are doing it for the first time. That is why you should consider using AI-powered SEO tools that are able to help you with research, blog topic ideas generation, and picking the quick-win keywords.
After you are done, find out how to insert the keywords correctly.
Here are the basic recommendations:
So let’s move on to the most important part of writing for SEO – the creative (and partly technical) process itself.
Here are some exclusive tips prepared by our team on how to create engaging, readable, and informative copies:
Modern users don’t read, they scan. Therefore, it is best to write short paragraphs and also leave white space between them. Lists and checklists are also welcome.
The passive voice is rarely used in colloquial speech. Since you are writing for humans, not robots, you need to use a conversational style of speech.
Type the title of your article in Google search and thoroughly read the competitors’ materials from the first page in the results. Your task is to define their gaps, dig deeper, and compose a better piece: more useful, informational, and research-based, so the readers can find answers to all questions related to this theme.
Expertise, authority, and trustworthiness are important for good rankings on Google. These metrics are also important to your readers. Therefore, use links to primary sources, renowned scientific researchers and organizations, and leading experts in the industry so that users have no doubts about the quality and credibility.
Strictly divide a text into logical paragraphs and come up with relevant headings for each of them: H2, H3 (if necessary), and conclusion.
The ideal article length is 1000-2000 words depending on your goal. What’s more, Google believes that if you need more space to cover a topic and provide even more value, you are free to do it.
As the mobile experience becomes key for users when searching for information and interacting with brands, more than half of the searches are already voice searches. Keep this in mind when considering the structure and headings of your article, as users behave differently when they type and speak.
Let’s compare:
– Text search query example – perfume Gucci Boston buy
– Voice search query example – where to buy Gucci perfume in Boston?
Short but capacious answers to voice queries are a good chance to get into the Google snippet. Therefore, alternate your subheadings to place your bet on both text and voice searches.
Of course, your text should not contain grammatical and lexical errors, typos, and extra spaces. Use special apps like Grammarly Premium to get rid of them, and ask your SEO writer to do the same.
Your article should be unique. Therefore, if you use information that someone has already published, be sure to indicate the source and also check the uniqueness of the text using plagiarism checkers. Make sure that your copy has a uniqueness rate of no less than 80%.
Images make your text easier to read, infographics let you show your most important data, milestones, or statistics visually, and videos improve behavioral factors by keeping users on the page longer.
Your perfect SEO content should meet Google’s technical requirements and be helpful to users. It also needs to be able to convert potential leads into customers. That is why your text should end with a clear, motivating, and unobtrusive call to action, that is, gently prompting the user on what he should do next.
Prove statements with your own opinions and professional advice, examples, and experiences.
If you have completed all of these points, well, you are very close to making Google happy to show your article to your target audience. You still have to check a few more technical points before the final victory.
So, let’s make sure that your overall on-page optimization is done right.
On-page SEO is the process of technical improvement of your page to make it more reliable and relevant in the eyes of Google.
Here are the main on-page SEO practices:
There are three crucial meta tags on a page: title, description, and alt text.
I hope that now you have a clear understanding of what SEO writing is and what the main rules of writing for SEO are. However, practice always has more pitfalls than theory.
That is why a professional SEO writing process always involves a whole team of specialists: an SEO strategist, SEO copywriter, editor, and graphic designer. Such a multi-level approach creates top-notch content that attracts visitors, ranks high by search engines, and converts leads into customers.
We at ReVerb have a well-composed SEO/content marketing team that is always ready to help you leverage your marketing strategy by driving tons of organic traffic to your site!