SEO 101
Search engine optimization (SEO) writing is all about creating high-quality, optimized content that ranks well in search engines and drives traffic to websites. This comprehensive guide covers everything a freelance writer needs to know about crafting compelling SEO content that converts readers into customers.
With the right approach to SEO writing, your content can land on the first page of Google and send highly targeted organic traffic to the sites you write for. Read on to learn the secrets that will take your SEO copywriting skills to the next level.
What is SEO Writing and Why Does it Matter?
SEO writing is the process of writing content on the web page using specific words and phrases aimed at improving rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is to create content that aligns with what users are searching for so that search engines show your pages when people look for related topics.
Optimizing content for SEO is crucial because without SEO, even the best content can get buried under millions of competing web pages. Good SEO helps get a website found through unpaid, organic search rankings, driving sustainable traffic over time.
It’s still important to focus on writing high-quality, engaging content, but with SEO in mind from the start. SEO best practices should complement and support – not replace – good content writing.
What Does an SEO Content Writer Do?
An SEO content writer is a specialized web content writer who knows how to write and structure content optimized for search engines like Google.
The main job responsibilities of an SEO content writer include:
- Conducting keyword research to identify high-potential topics and terms to target
- Optimizing titles, headers, meta descriptions and overall content for those keywords
- Crafting compelling, high-quality content that provides value to human readers
- Interlinking related content to pass authority and relevance signals
- Following search engine guidelines and best practices for optimization
- Collaborating with marketing teams on content strategies aligned with SEO goals
The best SEO writers blend copywriting skills with technical SEO knowledge to create content that both search engines and readers love.
What Skills Does a Good SEO Writer Need?
To write effective SEO content, these are the most important skills and competencies needed:
In-Depth Keyword Research Abilities
Conducting detailed keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner is crucial before creating any piece of SEO content. Writers need the skills to identify topics and terms that have strong search volume and competition viability to target.
Search Engine Optimization Know-How
Writers should understand SEO basics like how to optimize title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, image alt text, internal links and more. Integrating keywords properly while following SEO best practices is key.
Engaging, Reader-Focused Copywriting Skills
At its core, SEO content needs to be high-quality and valuable to human readers, not just stuffed with keywords. The writer must craft compelling content that informs, educates, entertains and engages visitors.
Research and Fact-Checking Abilities
Good SEO writers have sharp research skills to reinforce their writing with credible sources and accurate data. Citing reliable sources lends authority that search engines reward.
When you find a writer who knows how to optimize content while keeping it genuinely engaging and useful, you’ve found SEO gold.
What Does an SEO Content Writer Job Description Include?
A typical SEO content writer job description should include qualifications like:
- 1+ years experience writing SEO-focused web content
- Samples of previously optimized content they’ve created
- Strong skills in conducting keyword research and on-page optimization
- Excellent active writing and editing abilities
- Knowledge of SEO best practices and search engine algorithms
- Proficiency using SEO tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, etc.
- Background creating blog posts, articles, product descriptions, web pages, and more
- Successful track record optimizing content for voice search queries
- Google rank-tracking to showcase content performance
Ideally, the SEO writer will also have familiarity optimizing for technical elements like site architecture, URL structure, page speed, structured data markup and internal linking.
Why Hire a Freelance SEO Content Writer?
There are many benefits to hiring a freelance SEO writer rather than a marketing agency or in-house writer:
Cost Savings: Freelancers charge much lower rates than agencies, allowing you to create more high-quality SEO content within your budget.
Flexibility: Freelance writers work on demand, so you can scale content production up and down as needed. No long-term contracts.
Top Talent Access: The best freelance SEO writers work with multiple clients, developing extremely specialized expertise from writing content across many niches.
Custom Content: Freelancers create customized content aligned with your brand voice and optimized for your target customer interests.
Ownership: When working with a freelancer, you own the copyright to all content produced for your brand. You have full control to repurpose it anytime.
The key is finding an experienced freelance SEO writer who offers end-to-end content creation, from research through optimization.
10 Must-Have Skills for SEO Content Writers
Beyond core writing abilities, these specialized skills set great SEO content writers apart:
1. Keyword Research
They know how to generate the best keyword ideas using tools like Google Keyword Planner and group them by topics and intent filters to create optimized content around.
2. Competitive Analysis
They research what top-ranking competitors are targeting to find untapped long-tail keywords with less competition to target.
3. Optimizing Headers
They craft H1 and H2 tags using power words that signal relevance to both search engine bots and human readers.
4. Meta Description Writing
They write compelling meta descriptions optimized with keywords to improve click-through-rates.
5. Image Optimization
They choose images that visually support the content and incorporate keywords in filenames and ALT text.
6. Internal Linking
They interlink related content across your site using anchor text keywords to pass authority and topical relevance.
7. Readability Best Practices
They optimize sentence length, paragraph size and formatting to enhance engagement and comprehension.
8. Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
They incorporate optimized CTAs to convert readers into leads and customers.
9. Multimedia Optimization
They enrich content with properly tagged and transcribed podcasts, videos and infographics.
10. Voice Search Queries
They optimize content to rank for increasingly popular voice search queries.
Finding a writer who skillfully applies all these optimization techniques – while still creating truly remarkable content – is the key to SEO success.
Why Focusing on Quality Content Must Come First
With so many technical SEO factors to juggle, it’s easy lose sight of what matters most: creating quality content.
But user experience still trumps optimization when it comes to sustainable search engine success. After all, what good is ranking #1 if your content is so mediocre that no one engages with it?
That’s why the best practice is to focus first on crafting remarkable content, then optimize it for SEO in support of the content (not the other way around).
How to Write SEO-Friendly Content That Ranks
Optimize your content for search engines without sacrificing quality by following these best practices:
Start with Thorough Keyword Research
Identify keywords and topics with strong search volume that align with your brand. Group them by theme to create content around.
Craft a Descriptive, Keyword-Rich Title
Include your focus keyword early in a compelling title that makes readers click.
Structure Content in Scannable Sections
Use well-formatted headers, bullets, images and videos to facilitate skimming.
Show, Don’t Just Tell
Enrich content with specific examples, data, expert input, images, charts, videos and first-hand experiences.
Optimize Images Properly
Select images that visually support the content and include keywords in filenames, ALT text and caption copy.
Include Target Keywords Naturally
Focus on crafted comprehensive content vs. awkwardly over-optimizing or keyword stuffing.
Link Internally to Related Content
Strengthen topical relevance signals by linking to other authority pages on your site.
Format Readability
Break content into short paragraphs and sentences under 20 words formatted with ample white space.
Feature Useful Multimedia Content
Incorporate properly tagged podcasts, videos and infographics to increase engagement.
Conclude with a Clear CTA
End each piece of content with a specific call-to-action aligned to move visitors further down the conversion funnel.
This combination of strong copywriting, thoughtful multimedia enrichment and technical optimization is the recipe for high-performing SEO content that satisfies both search engine bots and human readers.
Step-By-Step Guide to Optimizing a New Blog Post for SEO
Follow this proven process to publish SEO-optimized blog content ready to rank:
Step 1: Conduct keyword research to identify topics and terms that have strong search volume related to your brand.
Step 2: Choose a primary keyword to theme your blog headline and content around.
Step 3: Include your target keyword prominently near the start of an engaging headline that makes readers click.
Step 4: Craft an SEO-optimized meta description that compels searchers to click on your listing.
Step 5: Structure your post using keyword-rich H2 subheaders to break up scannable sections of content.
Step 6: Enrich content with specifics – data, multimedia, examples, expert input, etc. Don’t just state facts generally.
Step 7: Link internally to related authority content across your website to strengthen relevance signals.
Step 8: Insert well-named images with captions optimized using target keyword phrases as ALT text.
Step 9: Format post for maximum readability:
– Short sentences < 20 words
– Brief paragraphs ~ 125 words
– Ample white space
– Scannable bullets/numbering when possible
Step 10: End the post with a relevant, keyword-optimized call-to-action to guide readers to convert.
Step 11: Insert properly structured and tagged podcast, video or infographic embeds if relevant.
Step 12: Publish the live post then use Google Search Console to monitor its search engine performance.
Repeat this process consistently, and you’ll notice your blog posts start to perform better and better in organic search over time.
Why You Should Always Track SEO Content Performance
Simply publishing SEO-optimized content is not enough. To iterate and improve, you need to actively track the real-world search engine performance of the content you produce using tools like:
Google Analytics
Review position-based metrics like average rank, impressions and click-through-rates for important keywords over time.
Google Search Console
Check indexed status, discover ability issues impacting rankings and view click-through-rates.
Rank Tracking Software
Automatically record exact rankings across search engines for keywords you want to monitor.
SERP Analysis Tools
Check rankings manually and analyze how your meta data and displayed snippets perform in results.
Consistently gathering this performance intel will reveal what SEO optimization strategies are working well vs. areas to improve your approach for better conversions.
You can then refine your content process to double down on what succeeds and try new strategies where needed. This feedback loop leads to major SEO wins over time.
Common SEO Writing Mistakes to Avoid
While crafting optimized content, beware these common SEO copywriting mistakes:
Over-Optimizing: Don’t cram content so tightly with keywords that readability suffers. Sound natural.
Thin Content: Write comprehensive, meaty content vs. short, superficial content that leaves search engines and readers wanting more.
Keyword Stuffing: Repeating the same keyword over and over looks spammy to search engines. Use natural variety and synonyms.
Weak Headings: Craft compelling headers using powerful keywords that engage readers to click and scan content.
No Multimedia: Include properly optimized images, videos, charts or other multimedia in long articles when possible to increase engagement.
Lack of Promotional Balance: Don’t make content 100% promotional or it will read like an advertisement. Blend helpful information with branded messaging.
Not Mobile Optimized: With over 60% of searches now mobile, ensure content is responsive, loads fast and is easy to read on small screens.
No Internal Linking: Cross-reference related content on your site using keyword anchor text to transfer authority and relevance signals.
Ignoring Voice Search: Optimize content for spoken long-tail keywords since voice queries now account for 20%+ of all searches.
Pay attention to these easily avoidable issues to take your SEO writing to the next level.
Key Takeaways and Action Items
Deploy these best practices to start improving your SEO writing fast:
- Learn keyword research to drive content ideas and optimization
- Tap into engaging copywriting skills – don’t just cram in keywords
- Use scannable formatting: images, headers, lists bullets and white space
- Link internally to related authority content to pass relevance
- Track published content in Google tools to identify performance wins/gaps
- Fix technical issues like site speed, broken links and metadata errors
- Stay up-to-date on latest SEO best practices and Google algorithm changes
The more SEO-optimized content you publish, the more chances search engines have to reward your efforts. Use this guide to continually refine and expand your content informed by real performance data.
Over time, you’ll land more keywords on page one…generate more organic traffic…and ultimately sell more to customers coming from SEO.
Now you have all the tools do deliver exceptional SEO content writing. So open up your keyword research tools, dust off your writing skills and start optimizing some remarkable new content!