SEO Writing for Beginners (How to Nail Your Content Like a Pro)
Because more than half of all website traffic comes from organic search, optimizing your website for SEO is essential. If you’re ready to understand and nail SEO content writing like a pro, you're in the right place. This guide for SEO writing for beginners will tell you everything you need to know.
Most of us know just how important search engine optimization is. After all, SEO is one of the best and cheapest digital marketing tools to help you get traffic to your website to grow your business.
In this article, I'm going to share how you can optimize blog articles and other website content for SEO. I'll also discuss other tips to help you reach your target market via search engines so you can earn more money.
What is SEO writing?
SEO writing is using techniques that help you improve the position of your web page or piece of writing in search engine results like Google. For example, if you have a blog article well optimized for SEO, it might show up at the top of Google when someone searches for a related keyword.
You can optimize for on-page and off-page SEO. When you're writing SEO content, you focus on on-page techniques, like keywords, linking, headers, readability, and value.
To learn more about how you can use SEO content marketing to grow your business, you might be interested in checking out this article.
Why is SEO writing important?
An SEO content strategy is necessary to rank higher on Google and stand apart from your competition, which gets you more website traffic. The more eyes on your site, the higher chance of conversions – which usually means more money.
In fact, about 50% of marketers report SEO is their most profitable marketing channel.
Note: If you’re a blogger that earns money via ad revenue and affiliate marketing, SEO writing can help you increase your blog traffic to boost your income this way.
These analytics show my client’s organic website traffic (174k website clicks) via SEO content.
SEO writing for beginners – top tips
First and foremost, it's important to understand you have to write for your audience. When your content helps your audience, you're naturally optimizing for SEO.
That said, several content writing tips can help ensure your content ranks high on Google and reaches your target audience.
After writing 1,000+ blog articles, many of which rank on Page 1 of Google for high-traffic keywords, I've narrowed down the basics of SEO writing and which strategies work best.
Identify your target audience.
Find the right keywords and use them appropriately.
Write a click-worthy headline.
Write easy-to-read content.
Edit & proofread – look how easy this can be!
Add alt text to images.
Optimize your meta description.
Incorporate linking.
Bonus 1: Connect your site to Google Search Console.
Bonus 2: Track your SEO success.
When writing, always keep your target audience in mind.
Identify your target audience.
When you know exactly who you're writing for, you can create content that attracts your target audience. Consider what your audience wants a solution for and how you can help them.
As you're writing content, keep the reader in mind. Be relatable, speak directly to the reader, and only share valuable content.
Tip: All content on your website should either be helpful or a way to connect with your audience.
Find the right keywords and use them appropriately.
One of the most important tips for SEO writing for beginners is finding the right keywords and using them appropriately. You want to target keywords your ideal client or customer would search Google for.
Each page on your website should target one primary SEO keyword. It’s best to use keywords that have high search traffic with low competition. This means a lot of people search for it, but there isn’t a lot of competition.
You can also sprinkle in related keywords to reach more people and increase search volume.
When it's time to write, make sure you use keywords appropriately – naturally in your title, some of your headers, and your content. Don't overstuff!
Related read: How Many Keywords Should I Use for SEO?
My all-time favorite keyword research tool is Keysearch. (Use code KSDISC for 20% off.)
Ever since using Keysearch, I’ve seen a huge difference in my blog articles’ rankings. It’s easy to use and affordable.
Appropriate keyword usage is essential for ranking on Google.
Write a click-worthy headline.
Did you know you have less than 7 seconds to make a first impression? Use your headline to grab and keep your audience's attention.
Tips for creating a click-worthy headline:
Keep it between 50-60 characters so it shows up nicely in search results while offering as much information as possible.
Include your target keyword (at the beginning of the title, if possible).
Add a number if it makes sense (odd #s usually get more clicks).
Use a power word that might trigger emotion (i.e., immediately, simple, free, practical).
Include parenthesis to offer clarification.
Use Sharethrough Headline Analyzer to score how engaging your title/headline is.
Write easy-to-read content.
Google likes to rank content that's easy to read because that’s what readers prefer too. So it's essential to prioritize this in your writing.
Create easy-to-read content by:
using headers to break up your content
incorporating lists and charts
keeping sentences and paragraphs short
breaking up text with pictures, videos, and infographics
You’ll often hear subheaders referred to as H2 and H3. When you use subheaders, your audience has an easier time skimming your content.
Subheaders may look like this:
H2: The Perfect Self-Care Day
H3: Sleep in late.
H3. Make a delicious breakfast.
H3: Go for a walk.
H3: Enjoy a spa day.
H3: Eat takeout and watch a movie.
Edit & proofread.
While on-page SEO techniques are essential, you want to ensure people actually want to keep reading your content when they land on your site. One of the best ways to do this is by editing and proofreading your content.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually trust a brand with content that’s full of errors.
Editing and proofreading don’t have to be incredibly time-consuming.
After you write your content, run it through Grammarly to find and fix errors.
Then, read it aloud to ensure it sounds right and matches your brand voice.
Add alt text to images.
Alt text is one of the most overlooked SEO writing tips.
Humans are visual and have a very short attention span, so images are essential on websites. So not only should you have images to break up your text, but you should also add alt text to them.
Alt text tells the reader what’s happening in the picture, which is helpful for Google and the visually impaired. Make sure you use your primary keyword in at least some of the images’ alt texts.
Optimize your meta description.
Along with the page or blog title, meta descriptions are what users see on Google when they search for a keyword. Your meta description should always include your keyword and tell the reader what the webpage or blog post is about.
A meta description of about 160 characters is ideal. It’s long enough to give useful information while still fitting on the Google search screen.
Sometimes Google auto-generates their own meta description like you see in my article below.
This shows the meta title (Blog vs Instagram for Marketing…) and the meta description below.
Incorporate linking.
Throughout your blog article and other website content, you’ll want to link to other pages on your site. This keeps your audience on your website longer, which shows Google people want to consume your content.
You can also link to outside resources on your blog posts. This allows you to offer your audience more value. But do this sparingly as you want to keep people on your site as long as possible.
When linking, make sure you don’t overdo it, as this can distract your readers.
Note: Consider link building to boost your SEO too. This is when another website links to yours. Two easy ways to do this are to pitch publishers via HARO or offer to guest blog.
BONUS 1: Connect your site to Google Search Console.
Google Search Console allows you to keep up with your website’s traffic, measure your performance, and fix any issues so Google can love your site! Best of all, Google Search Console is free.
If your site isn’t already connected to Google Search Console, this is definitely something to go ahead and do. And it only takes a few minutes.
Knowing how to use Google Search Console can help you enhance your website.
Tip: Each time a new webpage goes live, especially blog posts, you should request indexing via your Google Search Console. This tells Google you have a new page up and can get it crawled faster to show up in search engines.
BONUS 2: Track your SEO success.
Use Google Search Console and your website builder analytic tracking feature to keep up with your SEO success.
You can learn helpful information like keyword phrases people are searching for when they land on your page, how many views different pages are getting, bounce rates, and more.
As you track your success, you can better understand your audience and what they want to see. This allows you to keep what’s working and change what isn’t.
Is SEO content writing important if I use social media marketing?
SEO content writing is important even though social media marketing is booming because most people on social media aren’t ready to buy. However, people who land on your website are usually in a buyer’s mindset.
It could be helpful to use both website and social media marketing. However, if you want to choose one, I recommend using your website for marketing.
Fun fact: Social media posts usually don’t have a long shelf-life, but blogs can get traffic for years to come.
Read more: Blog vs Instagram for Marketing (Which One is Better?)
SEO writing For beginners: next steps
SEO is an essential piece of your content marketing strategy, so I hope this article helped you better understand SEO for beginners.
Although mastering SEO can seem very overwhelming, learning the tips shared above and practicing makes it easy over time. Before you know it, SEO will feel natural.
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