29 Jun The Essential SEO-Focused Content Writing Guide

These days, it’s not enough that you’re able to churn out content in order to attract and hold the attention of your target audience. You have to do so while also being able to adhere to good SEO practices. Whenever content is published online, chances are that particular article is also being scrutinized by SEO standards, better referred to as “indexing”.

So, if you want to be able to create content that’s not only effective in terms of readership but also by SEO standards, you might want to take note of these key concepts:

Keyword Research

As you might have already guessed, before you even start writing content you need to be able to determine the keywords that you’re going to use. After all, if you’re going to invest time, effort, and brain power into writing content, you might as well make sure that Google takes notice of your effort.

While you can do this manually by making use of a keyword spreadsheet, you can also make use of the plethora of keyword tracking tools like SEMrush to rank the keywords you use in your content. And if you really want to ensure that the job gets done properly, then your best option would be to get an SEO package to boost your traffic.

Natural Integration Into Your Content

While it’s important to ensure that you’re able to integrate the right keywords and to do so with the right density, this should never supplant the importance of making sure that your articles sound natural. The flow of your words needs to sound cohesive and intelligent, otherwise your reader may not even continue reading past the first few sentences.

Topic Relevance

When you’re writing content, it must have information that is actionable and valuable to the reader. This value of information is what separates fluff articles from articles that are able to attract traffic.

It’s easy to get lost in the desire to appease Google’s algorithm, and writers need to remember that they are creating content for humans to read, not for Google.

Content Length And Depth

Search engines tend to favor long-form articles under the assumption that these contain more information than something like a tweet.

Ideally, content writers should aim to write at least 500 words for their articles. Remember that the more relevant content that you give to your readers, the lower your bounce rate will be.

Editing Both For Grammar and For Aesthetics

This should normally go without saying, but grammatical errors have no place in SEO writing or in any form of content creation. If you’re unable to express the ideas that you want to share with your audience in an intelligent manner, your audience won’t take you seriously. Worse, they might even simply disregard your website completely because your credibility has been tarnished.

Monitor Analytics and Edit Accordingly

Another thing that separates SEO writing from basic content writing is the involvement of metrics. Google Analytics is a staple in monitoring how your content performs and how your visitors interact with your content. 

If a particular article isn’t getting as many readers as it used to, there may be a need to update the article in order to maintain its relevance.

SEO writing isn’t for everyone. If you don’t have a background in writing, then you’re likely to struggle in the industry. But be that as it may, give your very best just the same. SEO writing is a skill, and like most skills, it can be honed through practice and training. And if still doesn’t work out for you, you could always have someone else do it for you.