Want advice on how to create content that increases your likelihood of rising in the SERPS?
Then you’re in luck today!
What is SEO writing, for example, and other issues like them are addressed in this article. “, as well as “How Do I Make Content SEO Friendly?”.
But that’s not all, I’ll also show you exactly how to create an SEO content plan and implement it so that you can start referring to yourselves as SEO writers!
So let’s get started.
WHY WRITE FOR SEO?
The art of rationally crafting content that offers context and benefit to both website visitors and search engines is known as SEO writing.
Indeed, it is a skill. It doesn’t imply that authors should merely produce a crowded, keyword-stuffed essay or blog post.
It refers to producing high-quality material that is so valuable and helpful that Google is forced to include it since it improves the search results.
How should your content strategy be developed?
You must first conduct the required research in order to be able to generate content that is more successful on Google.
You cannot simply produce several sorts of content and expect it to rank. Planning ahead is necessary to make sure that the content you write genuinely justifies Google giving you a ranking.
Start drafting an outline by responding to the following inquiries in order to be able to pre-plan:
1. Who Are You Addressing?
Consider this: How can you write on a subject if you’re unsure of your audience?
Pull both the demographic and interest data by going to Google Analytics’ Audience section.
.
Once you have this knowledge, you can identify your target market and make sure your content is written with them in mind.
2. What Subject Do You Write About?
Now that you are aware of your audience, you must decide what to write about.
Researching keywords is the cornerstone of every SEO material that succeeds.
This article’s objective is not to instruct you on how to do keyword research; you can find that information on Ahrefs’ helpful guide (Why reinvent the wheel).
You may learn how subjects are searched for, what their requirements and goals are, and how to better understand your audience by conducting keyword research.
3. What Questions Need to Have an Answer?
You thus want to cover a major keyword. Your pre-planning research should now concentrate on comprehending user intent.
You must determine whether your issue is informational or transactional in order to comprehend user intent.
Informational implies that the term is more general and that the person who types it into Google is looking for further details to aid them (hence the name).
A good illustration of this is “How to Ride a Bicycle.”
You’ll see that the majority of the results for this query are videos and articles that describe how to ride a bicycle. Because Google recognizes that users are attempting to get answers, there are no listings of websites that attempt to sell anything.
Transactional refers to a topic that suggests there is an intention to make a purchase or finish a transaction.
This is illustrated by “Mongoose Bicycle,” for instance.
Note how organic results from websites that offer Mongoose bicycles are presented behind sponsored shopping advertising. Based on past use, Google is aware that people who enter this query are frequently trying to make a purchase.
Why is this crucial for SEO now that we understand what Informational & Transactional mean?
Knowing user intent is crucial for producing content that performs well in the SERPS. This is effectively Google advising you what kind of material to write in order to succeed.
Using the aforementioned instance for “mongoose bicycle.” I can tell this is a transactional niche just by looking at the organic listings, therefore I want to make sure the material I write is written with a buyer in mind rather than just writing about the origins of the mongoose bicycle.
There are more hints that you may get from the organic listings to assist in responding to consumers’ queries:
Take note of the bike kinds, pricing, reviews, and parts that Google shows. I want to make sure that I discuss such adjectives in my work since I am aware that Google is correlating those terms with the main theme.
4. How thorough is my topic?
As was already said, your goal while writing content is to make it so beneficial that Google has no choice but to give you a ranking because you have provided the best coverage of this subject.
You need to realize how extensive a given topic is in light of this. Finding the text length of the organic listings on Page 1 is one of the greatest approaches to conduct this study. The length of the copy is then averaged.
How do I locate this?
Although there are a number of programs that can achieve this, SEMRush’s SEO Content Template is my favorite.
The majority of the work is done for you by SEMRush when you enter a core subject or keyword. They get the average text length by scanning the top 10 ranked websites.
This should be used as a directional meter even if it is not a rigid measure.
This is beneficial since there is a significant probability Google won’t consider my coverage of the issue to be thorough enough if the Top 10 ranking sites average text length is 3000 words and I publish a piece of content that is 400 words.
However, it’s possible to interpret this in the other direction as well. Furthermore, it doesn’t imply that if you write 10,000 words, people would think you’re the best.
5. What Makes You Special?
Finding your unique value is the last stage in creating your content strategy for individual page SEO.
What topics did the leading websites ignore?
Where have they touched on but not sufficiently?
Could the copy benefit from pictures to help the reader grasp it better?
Do you have a deeper grasp of a subject than most people, such that you can provide more nuanced explanations than a layperson?
There are numerous instances where one might discuss a subject that has already been covered extensively yet still add their own distinctive worth.
Unfortunately, you can’t just use a magic tool to accomplish this for you. To locate those possibilities or gaps, one needs personally study the competing pages and evaluate.
Finding your individual worth, however, is what sets the finest in your field apart from everyone else.
HOW CAN CONTENT BE MADE SEO FRIENDLY?
After conducting your research and creating a pre-planning approach for your content, it’s time to start writing.
To ensure that your content is produced with search engine optimization in mind, you should take the following six steps:
Step 1: Construct a compelling Title (Headline) that includes your main keyword.
Not every title is made equally. A strong headline, aside from the actual content, is often what makes or breaks an engagement campaign.
When conducting a search, a user will initially see this. In actuality, the headline is often viewed by 5 times as many people as the body material.
The best approach is to, if at all feasible, include your main keyword at the beginning of your title.
The length of the title should not exceed 600 pixels. (If you use WordPress and have Yoast installed, it notifies you of this when you create the page;
Step 2: Writing a strong meta description is step two.
A page’s content is summed up with a meta description. The meta description is often shown as a text snippet in the search engine results pages.
Despite not directly affecting search engine rankings, meta descriptions are crucial for maximizing SERP click-through rates.
A smart practice is to make an effort to naturally and unobtrusively include your core keyword(s) throughout the description. Is this how a human would talk? should be your constant question. If so, you might want to think about writing it in a more impromptu manner.
It is advised to attempt to keep your snippet under 300 characters even if Google has the right to truncate it.
Use our helpful SERP Optimization Tool to test or preview a meta description as an example:
You only type in your suggested description and check to see how it appears in the preview and how it matches the characters.
Step 3: Craft the Content based on your previously prepared framework.
This step pretty much speaks for itself. The real writing of the content takes place here, utilizing all of the materials you previously acquired for your research.
I find it beneficial to just start writing, then modify as needed after I feel like I have fully covered the subject.
You don’t want to feel overly constrained because it would limit your creative freedom.
Step 4: Check that your content responds to the queries of your audience.
Make sure your material responds to the frequent queries your audience could have, as briefly covered in the content strategy above.
By include this, you may be confident that your writing is thorough.
How do you locate this then?
There are numerous resources available to assist, but I’ll list the handful that I personally utilize since they suit my preferences:
- Google is where I start by entering my main term (s). The phrase “Searches connected to” will be found in the area at the bottom of the results.
- My second search on Google is to see if the same results page includes a section titled “People also ask.”
- There are a lot of keyword research tools out there, however I lean more toward Ahrefs. When you input a keyword and choose “questions,” a list of search queries including the key phrase you provided is presented to you.
When I have a list of frequently asked questions about my subject, I check to see if my material has the most pertinent solutions.
Step 5: Add semantic keywords to your text to make it more interesting.
Semantic, when used in relation to “search,” basically implies connected. in relation to a word’s context-specific meaning.
From an SEO standpoint, having phrases that are semantically linked to your “main keyword(s)” aids in giving readers a more thorough knowledge of your subject.
So, how do you go about doing this?
The material ought to have been written by now. This is crucial because you want to compare the content you just generated to the copy on the top-ranking websites for your main keyword to obtain the most accurate data back (s).
You can accomplish this with a number of excellent tools, but I usually utilize Ryte’s Content Success tool.
If you select “optimize your content,” Ryte will do an analysis based on a search of the top ranking websites using all the material you have written and the principal keyword you have specified.
It will advise you on which keywords to use more frequently, which to use less frequently, and which to completely exclude from your writing.
You may regularly recheck for accuracy as you change your copy. Even if it’s not a guarantee, doing this makes sure your material is on par with that of your rivals in terms of topic.
Step 6: Check the written material to make sure it is readable.
The last stage is to consider your material from a personal perspective. How simple would it be for you to read this material if you came upon it?
Have you examined:
- Grammar mistakes
- spelling mistakes
- sentence composition
- Etc.
Is your material appropriate for your target audience? is the crucial question you need to ask yourself.
CONCLUSION
Writing SEO content that is successful requires careful study and strategy. Nevertheless, when done well, the outcomes speak for themselves. Take the additional time to do it properly since publishing thin or low-quality material that doesn’t provide value can eventually harm your website.
Have fun writing!
