SEO Writing: 7 Steps to Create Search-Optimized Content

Search motor optimization (SEO) is simply a batch much than conscionable writing. However, you can’t person SEO without writing. It’s a important facet that helps you amusement up successful the hunt results.

But what is SEO writing? How bash you constitute for hunt engines portion inactive penning for the radical who usage them? Is determination a process anyone tin travel to beryllium a amended SEO writer?

In this guide, I’m going to reply each of these questions and springiness you a step-by-step attack to creating perfectly search-optimized contented your readers (and Google) will love. 

SEO penning is the process of penning contented with the intent of ranking connected the archetypal leafage of a hunt engine, e.g., Google. 

To bash so, you indispensable absorption connected 3 things:

1. Know what searchers request erstwhile they hunt your people keyword (i.e., hunt intent)
2. Create the champion imaginable reply to a fixed hunt query (i.e., probe and knowledge)
3. Present the reply successful a mode that’s casual to work and recognize (i.e., person bully penning skills)

Beyond that, you besides request to recognize the basics of on-page SEO elements, specified arsenic meta tags, representation alt text, interior links, etc. But I’ll get to those later.

For now, let’s research this question: “Why should you even care?” 

SEO penning is important due to the fact that Google gets an estimated 3.5 cardinal searches per day. This means your customers are astir surely utilizing Google to find information.

Additionally, erstwhile you fertile connected the archetypal leafage of Google for your people keywords, you’re getting free, recurring, and highly applicable postulation to your website.

In different words, SEO = wealth successful the bank.

As paid advertizing costs emergence and societal media engagement becomes harder and harder to travel by, integrated postulation continues to predominate arsenic 1 of the astir important selling channels immoderate modern concern tin put in.

So however bash you get those coveted integrated leafage #1 rankings?

Luckily for you, the process I usage is reasonably elemental and casual to follow. Once I decorativeness my keyword research and cognize what keyword(s) I’m targeting, each nonfiction I people connected my blog goes done the pursuing 7 SEO penning steps:

1. Research the SERPs for your people keyword(s)

Remember I said penning for SEO involves knowing search intent?

Search intent is the volition a searcher has erstwhile they benignant successful a query. For example, if idiosyncratic searches for “best restaurants adjacent me,” their volition is to find a bully edifice adjacent their existent location.

Sounds simple, but it tin beryllium amazingly casual to get wrong. And if you get it wrong, you person nary anticipation of ranking connected leafage #1 of Google—no substance however large your contented is.

How could you get it wrong, you ask?

Let’s accidental you’re targeting the keyword “RV retention ideas.” At first, you whitethorn deliberation this keyword volition instrumentality results with ideas connected however to store your RV erstwhile you’re not using it.

But if that’s what you think, you’re wrong. At least, successful Google’s eyes. Here are the existent results:

As you tin see, the apical results for this keyword are each guides connected however to get much retention inside your RV, not RV retention locations.

That’s wherefore it’s truthful important to cheque the hunt motor results leafage (SERP) earlier you adjacent commencement penning anything. You tin bash this rapidly and easy with Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer (as I did above) oregon by Googling the keyword.

Additionally, successful the probe stage, you’ll privation to look for featured snippets. A featured snippet is simply a snippet of accusation Google takes from a ranking webpage and displays close successful the hunt results:

You tin optimize your contented for featured snippets similar the 1 supra arsenic a mode of bypassing immoderate of the competitiveness of a keyword and ranking for it quicker.

The champion mode to rapidly and easy find featured snippets is with Keywords Explorer. Just participate the keywords you’re reasoning astir targeting, click the dropdown “SERP features,” cheque disconnected Featured snippet, and click “Apply.”

Now you’ll lone beryllium shown keywords that person a featured snippet! Follow our guide to optimizing for featured snippets to larn much astir however you tin instrumentality these successful your writing.

Once you recognize hunt intent, there’s 1 much measurement to instrumentality earlier you commencement writing.

2. Create an nonfiction outline

Creating a contented outline is simply a important measurement successful SEO writing. An outline makes the penning process faster and easier portion ensuring a precocious level of prime control.

Part of the outline process is filling successful important SEO details, specified arsenic communal questions radical inquire erstwhile searching for a fixed keyword.

Another portion of the process is determining the heading and subheadings, goals, and attack space of your article. What makes your nonfiction antithetic from oregon amended than each the others out there?

Here’s an illustration of portion of the outline I made for 1 of my different articles:

I’ve already written a guide to creating contented outlines here, truthful caput to that nonfiction for the details of this step.

3. Write your draft

Nearly each large nonfiction begins with a rough draft.

Why?

Because the draught process helps you refine your ideas and get the probe signifier done. And it helps you soma retired the travel of your content. Also, you get the accidental to easy alteration and revise things without feeling similar you’re starting implicit aft having a finished product.

I ever constitute my drafts successful Google Docs. This allows for casual connection betwixt my editors, designers, etc., and me. In fact, here’s what this precise conception looks similar successful draft form:

Your draught is the cleanable clip for free-flow penning without worrying excessively overmuch astir making the words cleanable oregon formatting everything. Just get the nutrient of the contented connected the page.

4. Get feedback and revise the draft

While not ever possible, getting feedback connected your draught tin beryllium helpful. As writers, we often person occupation seeing the wood for the trees, truthful having a 2nd brace of eyes never hurts.

If you person squad members oregon employees, person them reappraisal the draught for you and springiness their thoughts. Better yet, if you person an audience, get their feedback as well.

A Facebook radical oregon email database tin beryllium cleanable for this. If you person a fewer trusted members, taxable your draught to them to spot what your existent customers deliberation of your writing. They whitethorn connection feedback you didn’t deliberation of. In fact, the feedback whitethorn incorporate accusation that isn’t adjacent connected Google yet.

Once you get the feedback, revise your penning accordingly. Then determination connected to measurement #5.

5. Edit and format the draught into a due article

This is your clip to polish the article.

Investing successful an editor, if you don’t already person one, tin dramatically amended your contented quality. But if you can’t spend one, you tin edit the contented yourself.

How bash you do that?

When I make SEO content, my extremity is simple: provide the champion imaginable reply successful the fewest imaginable words successful an easy-to-skim format.

So arsenic you’re editing, inquire yourself the pursuing questions: 

• Is this the champion answer? 
• Am I explaining it simply? 
• Is this nonfiction casual for idiosyncratic (with constricted time) to skim and get what they need?

You tin amended your penning by organizing your contented amended with headings and subheadings, utilizing italics oregon bold to marque cardinal points basal out, and varying condemnation magnitude to support things interesting. 

It’s besides a bully thought to debar overly analyzable words, arsenic these tin marque your constituent hard to understand. Of course, it’s good to usage much method words if there’s nary simpler mode to explicate something.

Finally, it’s a bully wont to usage photos, videos, and bulleted lists to interruption up agelong stretches of substance and amusement your points visually. Having media whitethorn besides assistance with SEO.

As you’re editing, see speechmaking your contented retired large to yourself. Reading it retired large shows you wherever the adust oregon boring parts are, highlights wherever things get overly analyzable oregon unclear, and tin marque grammatical errors stand out.

Speaking of grammar—Google Docs besides automatically shows you wherever you misspelled thing oregon made a grammatical error. This utile diagnostic lets you absorption connected the prime of contented alternatively than the technicalities erstwhile you’re editing.

6. Set your SEO elements and people your post

While having a large nonfiction is simply a large measurement to fertile connected Google, it takes a spot much than that to execute those leafage #1 rankings.

I mentioned on-page SEO astatine the opening of this article. This refers to the following:

• Title tag
• Meta description
• Open graph tag
• URL slug
• Page oregon station categorization
• Image alt text
• And more

Every leafage connected your tract needs this optimization during the penning process. I personally usage WordPress and person a plugin called SEOPress that allows maine to acceptable these things easily.

However, astir contented absorption systems (CMSs) person a plugin oregon mounting wherever you tin upload this data. If they don’t, I highly suggest switching to 1 that does!

But this station isn’t astir on-page SEO. Though, you tin notation to this guide if you privation to learn more.

7. Update interior links

After your station is published, you should ever add interior links from different pages connected your tract to the caller nonfiction to assistance hunt engines and users navigate to it.

Not lone does this marque your tract user-friendly, but it besides helps Google crawl your tract and found what your caller leafage is astir (via anchor text) to decently index it.

An casual mode to rapidly place interior nexus opportunities is with the Google hunt operator, site:. You usage it by typing “site:yoursitehere.com [related keyword here]” into Google.

For example, erstwhile looking for interior nexus opportunities to this “SEO writing” page, I searched “site:ahrefs.com SEO writing”, and it returned implicit 1,000 pages with applicable substance connected the page.

(Obviously, we constitute a lot about SEO.)

Scroll done the results of applicable articles and take a fewer to adhd interior links that constituent to your recently published post. 

If that hunt modifier doesn’t supply results that are applicable capable to find interior nexus opportunities, you tin get adjacent much hyper-relevant results with an exact-match search operator.

Sounds fancy. But each you person to bash is enactment your keyword successful quotes: site:ahrefs.com “SEO writing”.

I ever purpose to adhd astatine slightest 3 to 5 interior links to each caller article. But this fig depends connected however galore pages you presently have—you whitethorn privation to adhd dozens oregon adjacent hundreds of interior links if you person thousands oregon tens of thousands of pages.

Final thoughts

SEO penning boils down to creating the champion imaginable reply to a fixed query presented successful a mode that’s easy understood and skimmable.

As agelong arsenic you nail that and the basal on-page SEO champion practices I mentioned, you’ve mastered the contented broadside of SEO.

If you’re anxious to larn much astir penning and SEO, cheque retired immoderate of these different guides:

• Julian Shapiro’s Guide to Writing Well
• How the Google Search Algorithm Works
• SEO Basics: Beginner’s Guide to SEO Success
• How to Combine SEO & Content Marketing for Amazing Results
• How to Build a Winning Content Marketing Strategy successful 9 Steps