What On Earth Is SEO Writing And How Is It Different From Any Regular Type Of Writing?

Believe it or not, search engine optimisation, SEO for short, is another booming billion-dollar industry. And if you’re already investing your resources in it, are you getting your money’s worth?

SEO writing calls for analytics proficiency and top-notch copy skills—the perfect combination of data science and art, if you will.?

So how do you nail it? But before this, what exactly is SEO writing? And how does it differ from any type of writing in existence??

What is SEO Writing?

SEO writing is a synergy of keywords and key phrases within a web content. SEO content writers or marketers utilise SEO to improve their site’s organic traffic and increase SERP (search engine results page) rankings. The most effective way to write for SEO is to incorporate targeted search terms to a high-quality copy.

Traditional copywriting, on the contrary, emphasises goals and not necessarily to promote the organic visibility of a product or service. The former may reach the consumer via a TV commercial or product label whereas the latter reaches its audience primarily on a web page. With a well-researched and -written content, the result may be broad enough to satisfy both SEO and traditional marketing goals.

Common Key SEO Terms, Explained

• Long-tail keywords: A string of keywords or phrases, usually consisting of 3-6 words. Long-tail keywords are more precise and are searched less frequently in comparison with high-level, generic terms. Think “non-stick pan” vs. “pfoa and ptfe free non-stick pans.”
• SERPs: Stands for Search Engine Results Page. Put it simply, the Google page that contains all the results users can click on after a query.?
• SERP position: The exact ranking in Google analytics. For example, position 12 would indicate the second page of Google as only 10 listings would typically appear on the first page.?
• Anchor text: The words or phrases that are hyperlinked, directing traffic to other relevant web pages.
• Meta description: A brief summary of a webpage that appears in SERPs—often 160 characters—that serve as an attention grabber to searchers to click a result.
• Title tag: The title of a webpage that appears in Google SERPs and as the text on browser tabs.
• Search queries: Words or sentences inserted to search engines.
• Search volume: The number of times a term is queried per month.
• Click-through rate: Percentage of clicks for an SERP result concerning how many times searchers saw that search result.?
• Conversion rate: Percentage of people who complete a desired action (a click, a purchase, etc) divided by the total number of people who visited that page.
• Organic traffic: The number of users who came across your site via a search engine in their own free will and not through paid ads or other sites.
• Structured date (schema): How SEO bits and bobs like the metadata, keywords, and HTML are formatted on the page. Data that is well structured makes it simpler for search engines to crawl through and index pages.
• Ranking factors: The overall components that search engine algorithms take into account when deciding which pages to rank higher and which lower.
• Backlink: A hyperlink that directs traffic to another page, either internally or externally.
• Page and Domain Authority: A score that measures how “authoritative” a page or site is on a particular subject matter, on a scale of 1-100.
• Pageviews: The number of pages viewed..?
• Pageviews per Session: The number of pages viewed in 1 session by each individual user, before leaving the site entirely.?
• Organic keyword difficulty: A metric of how easy or difficult it will be to rank for a particular keyword in an organic search, on a scale of 1-100.

An SEO writer should be provided with the data they need to succeed—satisfy both readers and search-engines—so that each new page created is linked back to the core business goal.?

Know How Your SERP Presentation Looks Like

There are a number of ways search engines present your web pages to internet users, this is referred to as featured snippets. This also means that not every piece of content is presented to searchers in the same way.?

To illustrate, even if two companies are writing about the same topic, if one of those pages ranked highly in SERPs, it could earn a featured snippet. Therefore, while company A is presented as a commonplace, generic blue link, company B can be presented with additional images, bolded text, and so forth.

To distinguish yourself from competitors, understand how your content is being presented in Google SERPs, then optimise based on that specific format. Some of the featured snippets you’re very likely to come across as an SEO writer includes but are not limited to:?

• Paragraph
• List
• Table
• Image Carousel
• Sitelinks
• People Also Ask
• Knowledge Graph
• Local 3-Pack
• Top Stories

Brainstorm with Ranking Factors

In conjunction with your company’s very own business objectives, remember to also keep Google’s preferences in mind. RankBrain is Google’s primary algorithm which helps process web pages and pinpoint where they should rank in SERPs.

So here you can already tell that SEO content writing isn’t all about pleasing your readers; it’s also pleasing Google too. Today, there are over 200 SERP ranking factors serving as the benchmarks for Google but here are 10 of the most prominent:?

1. Content quality - Is your article accurate, relevant and reader-friendly?
2. Backlinks: Do other sites link to your content?
3. HTTPS: Is your site secure?
4. User experience: Is your content valuable in terms of visuals and information, and is it easy to engage with?
5. Mobile-friendly - Is your site optimised for mobile screens?
6. Page speed - Does your page load in 2 seconds or faster?
7. Direct traffic - Do users come directly to your site, or do they have to Google you up first?
8. Content depth - Is your content more extensive than similar, competing pages on the web?
9. Behavioural signals - Do people share, comment, and mention your content?
10. Schema - Is your content easily comprehended by search engines?

How to Use Keywords Strategically and Not Spam?

Keyword density refers to the number of times a given keyword is being repeated throughout a content. Naturally, you would want to repeat more. However, Google’s algorithms have improvised over the years, and they acknowledge that keyword stuffing is spammy and are bootless to the end user. This requires a shift of approach: write to benefit the end-user, not a substantial number of keywords.

In practice, each page should revolve around a single keyword. Conduct a thorough keyword research to find what search term or query to aim for based on the difficulty score and search volume metrics mentioned earlier. Writers should attempt to cover every single aspect of a given topic as well as its related subtopics. Here’s how you can brainstorm: What further questions might a reader have after reading your article? Include the answers to those questions in your copy right from the beginning.?

The end goal is to be the single best resource for a subject matter, providing maximum value to readers.?

Optimise Your Title Tags, Mets Descriptions and Image Alt Text

Title Tags

• Include a targeted, primary keyword in your SEO title.
• Keep it to 50-60 characters.
• Each page should have a unique title tag - strictly no duplicates!

Meta Descriptions

• Keep it to 160-162 characters at max so that it doesn’t get cut off by Google.
• If possible, use an attention grabbing hook and not a copy that’s already on the page itself.

Image Alt Text

• Use descriptive language that is closely related to the image.
• Include keywords wherever necessary.
• Keep it to 125 characters or less, along with tags separated by commas.

Optimise Your H1, H2, H3, H4…

Think of header (HTML) tags as the skeleton that makes up the entirety of your content.

Structurally speaking, headers help to keep your copy organised and provide readers with a clear outline of what your topic encompasses (without them having to read through every single word).?

To search engines, though, headers are also among the key elements of code that signal what the article is all about. Proper header tags allow search crawlers to easily and quickly analyse your page and accurately index it in SERPs.

Headers are straightforward as they goes in a descending order:

• H1 - The title of your page (only one).
• H2 - Core points or topics within your article (can be used as many times as necessitated).
• H3 - Subtopics that go under H2s.
• H4+ - Anything beyond H4 is rarely used; however, most text editors will go up to H7.

* A tip: including keywords in your headers is a key SEO tactic as well!

On-page Optimisation and Re-optimisation

Technical SEO has an important role to play if you’re looking to outperform a competing content. While you’re writing an article, know that someone else could be writing the same article, and better.

Call it a rat race.

Often termed the “skyscraper technique”, you should be looking for ways to constantly optimise your existing pages. If an article is ranking in position 12, you can leapfrog to position 1. But the question here is, how can you do it??

One of the easiest ways to generate more traffic and enhance search engine rankings is to begin with an old content that is already performing reasonably well. Look for content gaps and make minor amendments, such as adding a few more paragraphs of in-depth copy or restructuring header tags to make it clearer.?

Re-optimising content consumes less time to reap greater benefits than writing from a blank slate. Make it a habit to re-optimise (say, every three to six months).?

Compress Images to Boost Page Load Time

Google takes into consideration your page loading time as it poses a direct linkage to users’ overall experience.?

Say your blog consists of 10 images, each over 100-200kb, the page load will be significantly higher. Make use of free tools on the internet that can easily help reduce your image size without affecting its quality, thus improving page loading times.

Use Internal and External Links Strategically

Internal links are an effective way to optimise your content both for readers and search engines, because they help direct readers to other related content on your site and make things easier for search engines to index your site’s pages.?

Outbound or external links, on the other hand, jump in to help improve your page’s Google rankings. To put into perspective, Google wants to present to people the perfect content that has everything searchers are looking for. And that “everything” includes helpful, relevant resources from other websites. Therefore, by adding external links to sites with higher authority, you’re making your content SEO-friendly.?

Bear in mind that the anchor texts you are using should blend well with the sentence and shouldn’t appear as odd or spammy.?

SEO Writing Hacks

The whole process may come across as daunting at first, but there are some fool-proof steps you can take up to incorporate SEO writing to your content marketing strategy. While it may be effective to entirely freshen up copy, your team can kick start with adding some important keywords to your existing content.?

As you begin striving for more SEO-friendly content, ensure to stay abreast of the latest trends and insights. SEO is a process and re-optimisation is a key component of any strategy. Start by analysing where your current content stands and then disintegrate into an action plan, be it creating fresh copy or adding targeted keywords. Make use of the date you’ve gathered to devise a more robust content marketing strategy, and you are all set to boost your business through SEO writing.?

How Long Does SEO Writing Take to Show Results?

On average, it takes about 100 days at least for Google to definitely rank your page in its SERPs. Before those 100 days, expect to see a lot of fluctuations, sometimes appearing on Page 1, other days dropping to Page 2.?

In the meantime, Google is constantly evaluating if your content has the power to stay—if it’s valuable enough to remain in Page 1, and if after 100 days or so your content begins ranking highly, it will very likely stay there (until a competitor writes a better piece of content and outperforms yours).?

Moving Forward

SEO writing means writing in such a way that is easily comprehended by human readers and search engines. It involves adhering to a search engine’s rules and regulations, techniques—using keywords, meta descriptions, backlinking, etc—and all of what we’ve mentioned above.

Always come up with a systematic approach when preparing your content, research new SEO trends that other marketers have already applied to theirs and you haven’t, but do it better.