What’s SEO content writing? I’ll tell you what it isn’t: shit writing crammed full of keywords. Damn, looks like you might have to do some bloody work! Sorry about that.

Here’s what we’re covering:

1. Content for search.

SEO content writing is, first and foremost, content that pulls visitors to your website. When devising content strategies, search traffic (organic traffic) is usually what we have in mind. For example, your blog post, How To Commit The Perfect Crime, gets found by a potential murderer, googling the ins and outs of, well, murder.

And yeah, some murderers are that stupid.

That’s content geared for search. But I like to add that organic traffic isn’t the only kind to consider. For example, pointing to a blog post on your social media will generate direct traffic to your website (and that’s just as tasty).

👉 >>Blogging is dead: the lie that won’t die<<

2. Decent writing. 

As mentioned in the intro, you can’t stuff keywords into terrible writing and expect the traffic to flood in. It worked in the early 00s, but it doesn’t any longer. Why? Because the algorithm is all grown up, it got real sophisticated. Yes, Google has been awash with high-ranking low-quality AI crud, but it won’t wash for long. So here’s hoping this kind of shit ends very soon:

If you went AI crazy, the halcyon days are coming to an end. SEO longevity equals high-quality content. Hmmm… what does ‘high quality’ mean? In short, content that is correct, well-written, and serves your audience.

👉 >>Should content writers launch a Luddite rebellion against ChatGPT?<<

3. For the love of your audience.

I briefly alluded to this in the previous point. Know your audience like your own privates; a business maxim to die by, if ever there was! Imagine trying to buy a gift for someone you don’t know or don’t know well. Creating content for an unfamiliar audience feels the same. We’re told content creation is different post-genAI, but if anything, AI forces us to revisit the long-established SEO principle: content is about your audience FIRST.

But if you wanna stand out from the crowd, and get LLMs to notice you, try the following:

• Tailor content to a specific ideal client
• Create specialism, niche-focused content
• Share insights not publicly available
• Offer an original opinion

4. Keywords.

Keywords are a ranking factor and remain the gateway to search traffic. Until that changes, each web page needs a focus keyword/key phrase. However, keyword stuffing is still a very bad idea.

👉 >>Keywords still matter to SEO (for now)<<

5. On-page SEO.

Sexy, compelling prose is all well and good, but writing alone won’t win the SEO day. On-page formatting helps brilliant writing get found on Google. The idea is to make websites user-friendly. Content should be easy to read and easy to navigate.

You can’t write web content like you might a book. Context is king (well, it is in this article). People expect different formats when reading a novel or visiting a website, so vast gobs of text are a bit much, especially if you’re partially sighted or dyslexic.

Here are some other examples of on-page SEO:

• Keyword placement
• Heading hierarchy
• URL structure
• Optimised meter titles and descriptions
• Internal links

6. Off-page SEO.

When you share your blog post on social media, that’s off-page SEO. It’s the business of promoting your website away from your website. The off-page holy grail is the coveted backlink. So reputable, trustworthy ‘big news’ websites, AKA huge traffic pullers, refer to your little concern. That’s quality web visits you didn’t have to do much work for (unless you view working your arse off for yonks demonstrating how fucking amazing you are as ‘not much work’).

And finally…

The real ‘secret’ to SEO content writing is consistency. And I know that’s rote and boring as hell, but it’s true, you just have to keep doing it. Also, SEO content writing is engaging content. It should always be content for sentient beings, not bots. It’s the happy union between great writing and on-page optimisation.

Article first published, April 2021.

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