SEO writing is the implementation of keywords and keyphrases in web content. Copywriters and marketers use SEO to increase the organic visibility and SERP ranking of your website. The best way to write for SEO is to pair high-quality copy with targeted keywords.
Most important SEO terms defined
Long-tail keywords: a set of keywords or phrases, often 3-6 words long. Long-tail terms are more specific and are queried less frequently compared to high-level generic terms. Think “basketball shoes” vs “2019 basketball shoes for sale”.”
SERPs: search engine results pages. In other words, the Google page that contains all the results users can click on after a query.
SERP position: the exact ranking in Google. For example, position 12 refers to page 2 of Google, since normally only 10 listings are displayed on page 1.
Anchor text: the words or phrases associated with hyperlinks that drive traffic to other web pages.
Meta description: a short summary of a web page displayed in SERPs-often 160 characters-that can entice searchers to click on a result.
Title tag: the title of a web page that appears in Google SERPs and as text on browser tabs.
Search queries: words that users type or say in search engines.
Search volume: how many times a term is queried per month.
Click-through rate: percentage of clicks for a SERP result relative to how often searchers saw that result.
Conversion rate: percentage of people who perform a desired action (click, purchase, etc.) divided by the total number of people who visited that page.
Organic traffic: the number of users who found your website through a search engine of their own free will and not through paid ads or other websites.
Structured data (schema): how SEO elements such as metadata, keywords, and HTML are formatted on the page. Structured data makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index pages.
Ranking factors: the general components that search engine algorithms consider when deciding which pages to rank higher than others.
Backlink: a hyperlink that directs traffic internally or externally to another page.
Page and Domain Authority: a score that measures how “MAJOR” a page or site is on a scale of 1-100.
Pageviews: Number of page views.
Pageviews per session: number of pages viewed by each user in a session before the site is completely abandoned.
Organic keyword difficulty: a metric of how easy or difficult it will be to rank for a particular keyword in organic search on a scale of 1-100.
Start with goals and Ideas:
The foundation of any SEO content strategy is knowing what you hope to accomplish. Set measurable goals before you begin so copywriters, marketing managers and other stakeholders are all working toward the same KPIs.
Here are common metrics to measure: Click-through rate, Conversion rate, Organic traffic, Backlinks, SERP position, Dwell time, Page and domain authority, Organic keyword opportunity/difficulty and Page views per session.
SEO copywriters should get the data you need to succeed so that every new page created is tied to a core business objective.
Know your SERP presentation
There are a growing number of ways search engines present your web pages to the public, called featured snippets. This means that not all content is presented to searchers in the same way.
To stand out from competitors, understand how your content is displayed in Google SERPs – and then optimize for that particular format.
- Paragraph.
- List.
- Table.
- Image carousel.
- Local 3-pack.
- Knowledge Graph.
- Sitelinks.
Think in terms of ranking:
In line with your company’s own commercial goals, Google’s preferences must also be considered. The search engine’s primary algorithm, RankBrain, helps process web pages and determines where you should rank in SERPs.
So writing content doesn’t just please your readers; it’s also about pleasing Google. That’s why it’s important to know the specific ranking factors Google looks at. There are more than 200, but 10 of the most prominent are:
- Content quality: is your writing accurate, relevant and user-friendly?
- Backlinks: do other websites link to your content?
- HTTPS: is your website secure?
- User experience: is your content visually and informatively valuable + easy to use?
- Mobile first: is your site optimized for mobile screens?
- Page speed: does your page load in 2 seconds or less?
- Direct traffic: do users come directly to your site or do they have to Google you first?
- Content depth: is your content more comprehensive than similar pages on the web?
- Behavioral signals: do you share, comment and mention your content?
- Schema: is your content easily understood by search engines?
- Strategic, not stuffy: use of keywords.
SEO has always been an evolving discipline. In the earliest iterations of the internet, content was ranked and served to users based on repeating the same keywords as often as possible. This was called keyword density.
In the last five years, however, Google’s algorithms have gotten smarter, and you know that keyword-stuffing is spam and not useful to readers. So copywriters have had to change their approach: write for the end user, not for a magic number of keywords.
In practice, this means that each page should be built around a single keyword.
Writers should cover every angle and aspect of that topic and its related subtopics.
Think Ahead: What follow-up questions might a reader have after reading your piece? Include the answers to these questions in your writing from the beginning.
The intent is to be the best resource for a topic and provide maximum value to readers.
Don’t worry about using keywords every other sentence. If you do your job right, keywords will flow naturally into the article.
Top SEO copy ideas:
- They are not your reader. Don’t write for yourself, write for your target audience.
- Mimic the language and voice of your audience, whether it’s formal or second-person conversation.
- Include keywords that you have the most influence over: Metadata, header tags, page titles, and anchor text.
- Use short paragraphs of only a few sentences.
- Strategically leave white space so readers can scan content at a glance.
- External link only to reputable, authoritative websites with high domain authority scores.
- Internally link only where relevant – not to every single related blog post or possible CTA.
- Include as much data as possible to support your claims.
- Embed relevant images so visuals can complement your narrative.
- Think of search queries as article titles.
- Write as long as it takes to cover the topic comprehensively (aka don’t target an arbitrary word count).
- Write with featured snippets in mind.
- Optimize the fine print: title tags, meta descriptions, and alt-text.
SEO writing is part prose, part process. There are defined steps that writers should undertake to ensure that you think holistically about each piece of content both on and off page.
One of the most important elements of SEO copywriting is nailing metadata.
Metadata is a keyword for search engines: it helps tell the story of what your content is about and how you should be presented in SERPs.
Optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and image alt text may only total 75 words, but those 75 words are significantly more important than the rest of the copy that appears on the page.
Here is a guide:
- Title tag optimization
- Use only 1 header tag per page and try to include a targeted primary keyword.
- Keep it to 70 characters or less.
- Each page should have a unique title tag-no duplicates.
- Optimize meta descriptions.
- Keep it to ~160 characters so it doesn’t get cut off by Google.
- Use clickworthy phrasing and don’t regurgitate copy already on the page.
- Optimize alt-text
- Use descriptive language that closely matches the image.
- Add keywords where appropriate.
- Keep it to 125 characters or less, with tags separated by commas.
- Structure issues: headers, subheaders, and subheadings.
Look at your header (HTML) tags as the skeleton of your content.
Structurally, headers keep your copy organized and give readers a general overview of what your topic entails (without having to read every single word).
However, in the eyes of search engines, headers are also key elements of code that signal what the article is about. With the right header tags, searchcrawlers can quickly parse your page and index it correctly in SERPs.
Headers are simple because you follow a descending order:
H1: The title of your page (just one).
H2: Key points or topics in your article (can be used as many times as needed).
H3: Sub-topics that fit under H2s.
H4+: Anything beyond H4 is rarely used, but most text editors go up to H7.
Including keywords in your headers is also an important SEO tactic, so design your article structure around which keywords and topics are most relevant and useful to the reader.
On-page optimization and re-optimization
SEO dictates that every piece of content has a chance to outrank another at some point in time. While you are writing an article, someone else could be writing the same article – only better.It can quickly become overwhelming.
Often referred to as the skyscraper technique, look for ways to continually optimize your existing pages over time. If an article ranks at position 4, how can you jump to First position?
Re-optimizing content takes less time to earn greater rewards than pages created from scratch. Create a schedule for re-optimization (E.g. every three to six months) and adjust your pages accordingly to maintain and improve SERP approval.
How long does it take?
Based on various industry studies and several of our own experiments, it takes at least 100 days for content to mature. “Mature” in this case refers to how long it takes Google to finally rank your page in SERPs. Before those 100 days, your ranking fluctuates wildly, sometimes appearing on page 1, other days dropping to page 2.
Behind the scenes, Google tests whether your content has staying power – if you are valuable enough to stay on page 1. If your content ranks high after 100 days or so, it will likely stay there (until someone else writes better content and surpasses yours).
Don’t base all your judgments or KPIs on instant SEO performance. Positive metrics emerge over time, so make sure your commitment to SEO and content marketing is a long-term one.
