Search engine optimization—otherwise known as SEO—is an aspect of content marketing when content is created in the hopes of achieving the highest ranking possible on search engines. The SEO content writer uses focus keyword phrases to generate great content. The copywriting team creates an SEO strategy to hopefully get their content at the top of the search engine results page.
Why should you even bother with search engine optimization? SEO copywriting will increase viewer traffic, which will in turn generate more business for your company or garner more attention for your organization. And who doesn’t want great content?
So what’s the magic formula? How does the SEO writer get your content to that featured spot? A successful SEO writer utilizes keywords to ensure that their content reaches the ultimate goal. Great SEO copywriting needs to be discoverable on social media on a logical platform for your industry, to include easily searchable focus keywords and credible backlinks, and to have well-performing analytics. Furthermore, the content must be featured on credible sites. SEO content will help boost traffic to your site and get your project started.
Where to begin creating SEO content
SEO content helps search engines find your business or project page. You are competing to be listed on the first page generated by the search engine. It’s a big deal! SEO strategies boost sales!
Professional SEO content
You and your content marketing team may want to consider reaching out to an SEO agency that can create quality content for you. The professionals ensure that your SEO content can be read by a human. The SEO agency creates a document that your audience would want to read.
If investing in professional SEO content isn’t available for you and your content marketing team at this moment, don’t worry. There are hundreds of free online resources online to help create quality content.
Creating an SEO strategy
How do content marketing teams begin to develop an SEO strategy? First things first: What are you writing about? Utilize search engines to conduct research on your piece’s specific topic and related topics.
Why are target keywords important in SEO writing?
Next, you’ll need to determine target keywords—words that will help the search engine identify similar SEO content. After you determine your target keywords, establish long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords, also known as keyword phrases, help your SEO copy shine because they help to identify specialized search intent.
Secondly, let keywords inform search intent. In SEO strategies, search intent is what people look to find when they pose a question in a search engine. Researching search intent illustrates what your potential viewers want.
Next, use headings to help search engines decipher what information resides in each section. Sprinkle a few keywords within the headings to optimize searchability. When using a fragment for a heading such as “Where to begin creating SEO content,” capitalize the first word and any proper nouns. It’s not necessary to capitalize every single letter. If your heading is a complete sentence, include proper punctuation.
Sprinkle the SEO-friendly content with some creativity. Some search engines will flag content if it feels computer generated. Quality content allows your target audience to see your heart and individuality.
Additionally, research link building. Link building is the process of choosing which links to include in your SEO page. A backlink is created when your SEO content includes a link to another page on your website or someone else’s website. Think of it as a built-in citation.
Where to post your SEO content
Where will your SEO content live? Will your content be posted to social media? Perhaps it will be posted to a blog that backlinks to your website. Is your target audience more active on Facebook or Instagram? When developing your SEO strategy, determine where your SEO page will easily be found by your specific audience. SEO content designed for a scientific article will live in separately from content created for Instagram influencers. Take the time to find out which platform will work best for you and your content marketing team to increase your project traffic on social media.
Lastly, take advantage of a meta description. Meta descriptions are concise, one-to-three-sentence descriptions that are seen under website titles on the search engine page. Use one or two target keywords in your meta description to offer the audience a solution to their search intent.
Primary elements of SEO writing
To get a return on your investment, you want quality content. Quality content comes from thoroughly researched, technical SEO, a meta description, keywords based on search intent, and links to noncompeting, good SEO content.
First, you will need to identify your keywords. What is the intent behind searches that will include your content? Make sure to use your keywords throughout the page’s SEO and in the title tags.
Then, determine which links to use throughout your page’s SEO. Your first hyperlink should always link back to another page on your website. This is called an internal link. This directs traffic back to your website and results in viewers spending more time on your content. External links are outside sources. External links establish trustworthiness with your target audience. Sometimes, sites return the favor: they backlink to your website and help to score you a few brand-new customers through their target audience.
Double-check your links!
Any traffic from your SEO content is beneficial. However, be careful that you do not backlink to unreliable websites. Good SEO content imbeds external links that are trustworthy; don’t lose favor with your audience by unknowingly or ignorantly backlinking to a site with false information or a poor reputation.
Determining whether your SEO writing is reaching your intended audience
How many potential customers are you reaching? The way you go about this depends on your industry standards. Some industries may need updated analytics reports every day while others will need a report every six months. It may be beneficial to conduct good SEO content research a few times a year in order to stay competitive within your market.
Make sure to regularly update your keywords and links to ensure that your on-page SEO remains competitive and continues to live on the first page of the search engine. How embarrassing would it be to backlink a blog post that no longer exists? It also lowers your credibility with your audience. Effective SEO content undergoes updates to stay competitive.
Technical SEO needs to be addressed by you and your content marketing team. How does your website compare to that of your competitors? Search engines send out crawlers to determine legibility and subject matter for your page’s SEO. Think of these crawlers like little spiders that determine your search engine optimization. If your website is hard to read for the search engine’s crawlers, your SEO writing will not show perform as well as it could. Dropped performance means dropped engagement, which—for you—means dropped sales.
The most important element of SEO content
Your SEO writing should conclude with a call to action. What do you want your target audience to do? Would you like the audience to purchase a certain product or quit purchasing a competing product? How will this call to action get your target audience closer to their goal? What problem does your SEO content solve for your target audience’s search intent? Ask your audience to do something!
What if your SEO content isn’t effective?
If this process seems daunting, never fear! It’s common to hire an editor for SEO copywriting. SEO copywriting agencies can help to identify your audience, keywords, competitive posts in the related fields, where to post your content on social media, and how to promote your content. It’s a lot to juggle! It may be worth it to bring in the professional to save yourself a headache.
Tools to determine SEO
Sometimes the best tool to determine your SEO content is the SEO expert. Do what you need to do to create SEO quality content. Make sure that your SEO writer uses an appropriate writing style based your specific industry standards. Your business showing up on the first search engine results page (SERP) is imperative so that your target audience will see and follow through on your call to action. SEO tools can help determine keywords, provide backlink examples, and show how well your content is performing in the SERP.
What free tools are available to help determine SEO content?
There are plenty of free resources out there for you to create good SEO content. Google Keyword Planner is a great keyword research tool to determine long-tail keywords and keyword density. DemandJump helps you to develop an SEO strategy as to which type of content you should be writing and has a free trial available to customers; it also recommends H1 and H2 titles based on your industry.
Furthermore, search engines flag content that is thought to be plagiarized. To avoid even accidental plagiarism, consider using a free plagiarism checker.
What paid tools are available to help with content writing?
Are you ready to invest in your SEO content? Paid SEO tools are another great option. Paid SEO tools will always offer more options than a free resource.
SEMrush helps you view trends and analytics alongside that of your competitors. Nightwatch is another keyword research tool that identifies the zip codes where your potential customers view your SEO content.
Yoast has a free and paid program that offers SEO training courses and readability analysis. Copyscape is an SEO tool that helps writers identify where their exact words show up on other pages.
Importance of link building within SEO content writing
Link building is the step in your SEO strategy where you and your content marketing team find and choose which links to include in SEO content writing and brainstorm how to get other sites to backlink to your content. Remember that search engines use links to crawl your website to include it in certain search results.
How can you get people to backlink to you?
How do you get sites to backlink to your content? You create great content. It makes all the difference. Backlinks tell search engines that your content is reliable and can help create referral traffic. The more reliable backlinks you include, the better your site will perform.
If you are selling a product of a service, it may be helpful to backlink to reviews left on your site or on someone’s social media page. You can also network! Ask your friends to backlink to your content. Perhaps in return, you include an external link their page within your content. You can also include external links that discuss specific topics related to your content.
Alongside the hyperlink, what will your anchor text be? Anchor text is the text on your page that discusses and includes the related link. Make sure to include keywords within your anchor text! Here is an example:
Copy editors use specific editing marks to communicate to the writer what needs to be changed for search engine optimization.
Moreover, rather than utilizing external links, mix it up and choose internal links as well. This will help build your credibility by showing that your brand or project has knowledge of a variety of subjects within the specific industry. It also earns you more screen time for potential customers as backlinking using an internal link encourages them to get to know another page on your website.
An SEO content development cheat sheet
To sum it up, you now know that SEO writing optimizes your content’s rating in SERPs. A variety of free and paid SEO tools are available if hiring a professional isn’t feasible for you and your content marketing team. Backlinking helps you form relationships with related companies and endeavors as well as create reliable, quality content. The key to successful SEO writing is thoroughly researched keywords, technical SEO that is updated regularly, and a specialized SEO strategy to help you accomplish your goals.
If you’re ready to hand your SEO content over to the experts, though, you can hire a professional at Elite Editing to write your SEO copy. We’re here to help you get the results you want!
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