SEO Writing for Beginners

Becoming a good SEO writer is giving nightmares? Worried about how to create content that can drive huge organic traffic? Low or no Google ranking making all your efforts useless?

Fret no more as we are going to explain a step-by-step process that can bring results to all your efforts and drive traffic to your website. In order to do justice to your content and make it stand out in the crowd, you need to know what SEO writing is all about.

SEO writing as per Google is the implementation of keywords and key phrases within web content. This inclusion of keywords increases the chances of the site’s organic visibility and in-turn drives more traffic to the website. Proper research, outline, and inclusion of specific keywords help the content get recognized highly by Google. The higher the recognition, the higher the chances of successful delivery of answers to people’s queries.

Data shows that 91% of the content is not even ranked in Google, and only 9% cuts it through the race.

Content that fails to make a mark, and unable to drive traffic are because they lack SEO. It shows you in poor light.

The most important task is to create content that the readers are searching for. Be relevant to what matters to the searcher and this comes with a thorough research for keywords. So, let’s get on the journey of creating SEO relevant Content Writing and learn the steps to follow:

1. Jot down relevant keywords with potential value
2. Determine Search Intent
3. Finalize subtopics
4. Create an Outline
5. Write the article

The 1^st and the foremost thing is to know what exactly people are looking for, what they expect to find, and what you’ll need to write as a result.

1. Jot down relevant keywords with potential value

To begin with, you need to identify the topic that is related to the business you are about to write. Think of all relevant words that people might type in Google to search for a similar business as you are in. Once you zero on a specific word, that becomes the seed keyword for you.

For example, if you want to write about fitness for your website, the seed keyword would be simply “fitness” or “fitness tips”.

You can decide on the many keywords that can be added to the article to improve the SEO. If your site is relatively new, the best way to start is filtering the keywords with low Keyword Difficulty i.e., <30 and higher traffics volume.

2. Determine search intent

Once you have the keywords in place, you need to determine what exactly people who are searching for such keywords want. This is called the search intent and if it doesn’t match your content, then it most likely will fail to rank in Google.

The keywords in the Question segment are almost always the top blog posts, articles, or videos that give information to searchers. They will also guide you as to which formats are the top articles as per Google rankings. Such formats will help you with the outline of your article and bring you to the next step of finding the best subtopics.

3. Finalize subtopics

Now when you have the list of important keywords and also you know the format you are going to use for your article, start researching how your competitors have written about the same topic.

Here you can analyze their headings and subtopics in various similar articles. Referring to various articles on the same topic helps you in structuring your article in a way that is most likely to be in line with what the searchers might be looking for while searching similar keywords.

Also, looking at the PAA (People Also Ask) segment in Google will give you a fair idea of what may be relevant to keep in the article. All questions need not be answered but they will give a fair idea as to what is the search intent.

The knowledge of high traffic driven keywords presents an opportunity to cover all relevant topics.

4. Create an outline

After you have done your research in the above mentioned way, you will have a complete list of important keywords, format for the article, headlines, and subtopics. Now you can easily frame an outline for your topic. Open a word document and start with the most suitable headline that you feel is most apt for the topic. Using an inverted pyramid method, note all the subtopics from most relevant to least relevant. Once you have the outline created, you are ready to write the 1^st draft.

5. Write the article

Finally, you have arrived at the most crucial stage of turning your hard work into reality. You have all the ingredients for making a delicious recipe now. The last bit of writing the draft requires you to keep the flow natural and create an article keeping your audience in mind.

Use a tone that is easy to understand and avoid unnecessary words that require a dictionary to learn the meaning. Always write in a tone that is understandable to beginners and what knowledge they will have, versus what you want to impart.

Use unique ideas in contrast to what your competitors did, and where your research will come in handy.

The “pyramid approach” will guide you thoroughly, however, while writing the draft, you may feel the urge to change certain elements in the article. If such a situation emerges, go ahead and do so as that might add a spin to your article.

5 Easy and impactful SEO writing tips

SEO writing is not only about writing an impactful article. There are a few more additional points that need to be kept in mind if you want your article to top the chart.

SEO content writing tips

1. Create a compelling title
2. Use short and straightforward URLs
3. Optimize for featured snippets
4. Use internal links for context
5. Strengthen your content with images

Let’s see in a bit of detail as to what these are.

1. Create a compelling title

An attractive title can do wonders for your article. Look for the highest-ranking articles and how they are “Titled”.

• Numbers (e.g. 27 Wedding Gift Ideas, or How To Cut Your Own Hair [4‑Step Guide])
• Adjectives (e.g. easy, top, quick, cheap)
• Freshness (e.g. Best Whimsical Socks for 2021)
• Brand name (e.g. SEO Guide by Ahrefs)
• Value proposition (e.g. How To Make Brownies in Under 10 Minutes)
• Uniqueness (e.g. App Mistakes: 10 Lessons We Learned Launching (and Killing) Our App)

2. Create short and easy URLs

SEO-friendly URL which is short and simple, easy to read. Long URLs may be cut off and may lose context.

3. Optimize for featured snippets

In Google’s organic searches, the summaries that appear at the top are called Featured snippets. These featured snippets help get visibility in the SERP.

4. Use internal links for context

It’s impossible to cover everything in one article and providing internal links is a wonderful idea. And since Google uses internal links to help discover new content, they’re great for SEO too.

5. Strengthen your content with images

An SEO writer works with text only, but it’s always a good idea to add images and explain your point with images. This will break the monotony of just reading and will add fun to the article. This will help the reader enjoy and understand your point easily.

So, now you know what it takes to be a good SEO writer. It is not only about writing a good piece with important keywords and stuffing in loads of how-tos but also creating relevant content that adds value to the knowledge of the reader.