SEO Writing: 8 Steps to Create Search-Optimized Content

Creating SEO content involves the art of crafting text that appeals to both your audience and search engines like Google. This comprehensive guide will unveil the secrets to producing search-optimized content that resonates with readers and meets Google's criteria.

1. Find a winning keyword

  • Navigate to Keywords Explorer
  • Input a broad term from your niche
  • Access Matching terms
Scan the report for keywords relevant to your website. Imagine owning an online tea shop – targeting a keyword like this, where users seek tea recommendations, provides a lucrative avenue to showcase your products seamlessly within the content.

Match search intent

Google's primary objective is to furnish the most pertinent search results by understanding user intent. This holds two key implications for effective SEO writing:

2. Figure out what searchers want

Decipher the 'why' behind a search query. To secure a high rank on Google, harmonize your content with search intent. Conduct a quick Google search of your target keyword; for instance, a search for "how to make money" reveals that top-ranking pages predominantly feature lists of money-saving tips.
For example, if we were targeting the keyword “inbound marketing,” these would make good subheadings:
  • What is inbound marketing 
  • Inbound marketing examples 
  • Inbound marketing strategies 
  • Inbound marketing tools 
This approach ensures your content addresses every subtopic users anticipate, fostering a more engaging and informative user experience. To identify crucial subtopics, explore the common keywords among top-ranking pages using Keywords Explorer and the Content gap report. This strategic analysis allows you to pinpoint relevant subtopics that enrich your content.

Crafting SEO content is an intricate process that demands a delicate balance between user expectations and search engine algorithms. By incorporating these insights into your writing strategy, you'll master the art of creating content that not only ranks high but also captivates and fulfills the diverse needs of your audience.
Despite the term "how to," users seek lists, not guides. Tailor your content accordingly.

Cover everything searchers want to know

Broad alignment with search intent isn't sufficient. Users may anticipate subtopics or features within your content. Pages ranking for "affiliate marketing" invariably include a definition. 
This will open the Content gap report, which shows you the common keywords these three pages are ranking for. Eyeball the report to find relevant subtopics you could cover.
Adhering to Google's Content guidelines, your content should furnish a thorough and exhaustive description of the topic.Google’s Helpful Content guidelines specify that Google is looking for a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of a topic.

This means you need to include every subtopic searchers expect and want to see.

The easiest way to discover important subtopics is to look at the common keywords the top-ranking pages rank for. Here’s how to find these common keywords:
This is why Google recommends that your content provides a comprehensive description of the topic.
  • Go to Keywords Explorer
  • Enter your target keyword 
  • Scroll down to SERP Overview
  • Check three relevant top-ranking pages 
  • Click Open in and choose Content gap
Google's preference is to recognize and reward pages that bring fresh insights and information to the digital table.Google wants to reward pages that bring new information to the table.
According to Google’s Helpful Content guidelines, the emphasis is on original, insightful, or captivating content. At Chiang Mai SEO 2023, SEO expert Cyrus Shepard shared a quartet of techniques to infuse uniqueness into your content:
  • Make effort
  • Be original
  • Demonstrate your talent or skill 
  • Improve accuracy
Here are some ways to show these:
  • Interview experts: If you lack expertise, leverage interviews with industry authorities. Better yet, compile insights from multiple experts and distill their wisdom into a compelling article.
  • Write from experience: For instance, if your topic revolves around Soylent, embark on a 30-day exclusive Soylent diet and document the outcomes.
  • Running experiments, studies, and polls: Unique data sets you apart. Undertake experiments or gather original data through studies and polls.
  • Do deep research: Move beyond the commonplace by delving into extensive research. This involves exploring books, primary sources, podcasts, research papers, and more.
  • Be opinionated: Challenge conventional wisdom, articulate your viewpoint, and substantiate it with evidence from your expertise or experiences.
Feeling the pressure? You should be. Crafting top-tier content demands effort. As our Director of Content Marketing, Ryan Law, asserts: 
Great writing should feel hard. If you can crank out an article by opening a few browser tabs, so can everyone else. But interview someone, read a book, find an esoteric research paper, or collect some data… and your willingness to do something difficult gives you an edge.

3. Figure out how to make your content unique

4. Create a blog post outline

Prior to penning down your thoughts, crafting an outline is crucial. An outline aids in:
  • Structuring your narrative (including angle, headings, subheadings)
  • Mitigating writer’s block
  • Streamlining the writing process
By aligning with search intent, offering comprehensive insights, and approaching content from a unique perspective, you possess the foundational elements for a solid outline. All that remains is to piece them together cohesively.

For an effortless outline creation, leverage ChatGPT. Provide it with a prompt like:
Write an outline about link building outreach. It should include sections about what link building outreach is, why it is important, how to do it, and additional tips. It should also incorporate my original data where I found that the average conversion rate for link building outreach is 1-5%.
It’ll generate an outline for you:
Pretty good!

5. Write your draft

At this stage, prioritize free writing without fixating on perfection. Google Docs proves invaluable for collaborative efforts with colleagues, editors, and designers. If you’re easily distracted, use some of these tricks:
  • Employ a Pomodoro timer like Marinara for focused bursts.
  • Utilize a website blocker such as BlockSite to curb distractions.
  • Switch your phone to airplane mode for uninterrupted writing sessions.

6. Get feedback, then edit and polish the draft

As writers, we can often find ourselves too close to the material to see potential improvements. This is where a fresh perspective becomes invaluable. 
Enlist a second set of eyes to review your draft, pinpointing inaccuracies, logical inconsistencies, phrasing issues, and grammatical errors. Soliciting feedback from team members, employees, or even your audience can provide diverse insights.

At SAMI, every draft undergoes at least one round of review. An illustrative example showcases how peer feedback significantly enhanced the accuracy of a post, making the content more favorable to Google.
This will make the content better in Google’s eyes.

Upon receiving feedback, proceed to revise your writing and commence the polishing phase. The objective is to deliver the best possible answer in the most streamlined manner. Efficiency entails making the content easily consumable. Here’s what you can do:
  • Add visual elements. You’d want to think about where an image could explore more and illustrate better than words. 
  • Use bullets and lists (like what I’m doing now.) 
  • Avoid big words (where necessary). Author Morgan Housel writes: “Big words mask little thoughts. They’re an attempt to fool the reader into thinking you’re smart when you have nothing smart to say.” 
  • Use Grammarly to fix any grammatical errors 
  • Use Hemingway to simplify your writing 

7. Write a compelling title and meta description

The title tag and meta description serve as the initial impression a searcher has after querying on Google. The allure of these elements can determine whether a searcher clicks through to your page or disregards it. Crafting compelling title tags involves adhering to these tips:
If you find yourself stuck, seek inspiration by asking ChatGPT to brainstorm title tags for you. 
  • Keep it short (<70 characters) to avoid truncation 
  • Tell searchers you have what they want by matching search intent 
  • Be descriptive but don’t clickbait 
  • Include the keyword if possible, otherwise use a close variation 
  • Keeping it under 160 characters to avoid truncation.
  • Elaborating on the title tag by including unique selling points that couldn't fit in the title.
  • Reinforcing alignment with search intent.
  • Addressing the searcher directly in an active voice.
  • Incorporating your keyword if feasible.
Again, ChatGPT can assist in generating ideas for compelling meta descriptions.

8. Add internal links

Following the publication of your post, it's essential to enhance user experience and assist Google in comprehending your new page by adding internal links from other pages on your site. This user-friendly practice aids in SEO. Identify relevant internal link opportunities using Ahrefs Webmaster Tools:
  • Sign up for our free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
  • Execute a crawl using Site Audit.
  • Access the Internal link opportunities report upon completion of the crawl.
Review the report to identify pages for linking and the appropriate keywords for contextual relevance. Proceed to integrate these internal links seamlessly into your content.

Final thoughts

SEO writing boils down to creating the best possible answer to a given query presented in a way that’s easily understood and skimmable.

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