What you write in the content of your website is always a factor that determines the rank that
the search engines will give you. After all, Google has said that two of the most important
ranking factors for them are content and RankBrain.
RankBrain itself is a system that will give signals to Google about how people enjoy your
content. Even the other most important ranking factor, backlinks, can be gained much easier if
you have quality content on your website. After all, nobody (at least the ethical website
owners) will want to link to your content if its quality isn’t good.
To create quality content itself, you need to write something that is in line with the right SEO
principles. How can we do this kind of writing? Here are eight SEO writing tips that you might
want to try so you can help to boost the organic traffic of your website.
- Write Your Content According to the Search Intent of Your Targeted Keyword
Search engines’ most important purpose is always to satisfy what their users search for in the
best possible way. Different types of keywords may require search engines to show different
types of content.
For example, a search query about recent news may need search engines to come up with the
most updated content. Meanwhile, a search query about relationship tips might require them
to come up with the most comprehensive content instead.
These different needs for search results according to the search query/keyword make it
important for the content writer to adapt their content. After determining the ideal keyword to
target, we should determine what is the search intent behind it. After all, logically, based on the
search engine purpose, we won’t rank high in the search engines if we don’t do that.
But what can we do to understand the search intent behind a keyword?
Well, we can use the exact way users get the search results of their queries in search engines.
We can search for our keywords and look at what types of results the search engines rank
high.
For example, if most top results for our keyword are listicles, we should create a listicle type of
content. That is because search engines indicate that a listicle is the best way to satisfy the
search query. We should write our listicle in the best possible way too so it can have better
quality than the current top results.
- Focus on One Keyword and then Diversify on Related Keyword Variations
It is difficult to focus on more than one thing at the same time. The same thing is true when we
try to write content based on multiple keywords.
It is hard enough to make quality content that focuses on one keyword, let alone more than
one. Therefore, we should try to stick to one keyword we target and make the best content we
can around it.
However, that doesn’t mean we cannot target the variations of our targeted keyword. As those
variations are usually long-tail versions of the keyword, they shouldn’t distract our content
focus. We can even make our content more comprehensive by adding discussions of those
keyword variations too.
By targeting them as well, we can target more positions in search engines and thus, possibly,
gain more organic traffic. To know the related variations of our targeted keywords, we can use
a keyword tool that we usually use for our keyword research (e.g. Ahrefs, Moz, Semrush, etc).
Try to type the targeted keyword into the tool and see the list of keyword ideas that come out.
If it makes sense for the content we create, we can include discussions of some of the keyword
variations. By doing this, we can make our content much more comprehensive than before as
Well.
- Write as Many Useful Things as Possible that You Know About the Article Topic
Doing this tip should also add depth to our content. As Google usually prefers long-form
content, this can help our content to perform better in terms of SEO. Long-form content seems
to attract more backlinks as well so it can potentially strengthen the authority of our domain
too.
Consider the keyword you target and think of the things you can write that can be useful for
your content readers. For example, if you want to write about cleaning laptops, specific tips to
clean different types of laptops may be useful.
By adding more useful discussion in your content, you should help your readers more. That, in
the turn should give a better user experience that can make search engines prefer your content
More.
- Benchmark the Content on the Search Engine Top Results
Besides getting your keyword long-tail variations and adding useful things about the keyword,
your competitors can also add something to your content. That is if you peek at the things they
discuss for the keyword you target.
You shouldn’t copy their content, of course. However, you should see the variations of
subtopics in their content so you can get more inspiration to write yours.
After you benchmark your competitors on the subtopics, try to discuss them with your
knowledge and style. That should help you create more robust content to compete for the top
spots in the search results.
- Use Subheadings for Different Focuses in the Content
After you gather the scope and subtopics of your content, you should try to organize them. You
can do that by applying subheadings to manage different discussion parts of your content.
Besides organizing your content better, subheadings can also make your content easier to read.
This will give your readers a more enjoyable experience when they read your content.
As we already mentioned, better users experience correlates to better search engine rankings.
Thus, you can potentially get a boost on your content ranking in search engines too by
practicing this tip.
- Create an Outline Before You Start Writing
An outline helps you to plan your content so you can write with more focus. If you create
content to help your website SEO, you should do an outline beforehand. The outline should
also ensure you don’t miss the keyword variations you need to create long-form content.
You can also add some notes or gather relevant data sources for your content when you create
your outline. That will make your content much richer in its discussion when you write it. In the
end, the ones who benefit from that will be your readers as they will get more complete
knowledge from your content.
- Utilize Tools to Eliminate Grammatical and Spelling Mistakes
Grammatical and spelling mistakes are a big no when it comes to creating content for SEO.
After all, who enjoys reading content that has many of them?
The readers can get annoyed and they may move on to other content they find in their search
engine instead. That can make your content less preferable for the top ranks in search engines.
There are many tools you can use for free to detect grammatical and spelling mistakes in your
content (Grammarly, PopWritingAid, Sapling, etc). You should utilize them to identify and
correct your mistakes.
Besides using those tools, you can also read again the content you have written if you have
finished it. That way, you can also improve parts that are still hard to read so your content
quality can be higher.
- Add Internal Links Wherever They Can Help Your Readers
Optimized placement of internal links can give benefits to your website SEO. Besides helping to
improve authority, it can also increase users’ engagement as they are more inclined to explore
your website pages. A more positive experience for users can only benefit your rankings in
search engines.
However, optimized placement of internal links doesn’t mean you should add as many internal
links as possible. Instead, you should put them where you feel they can help your readers in
understanding your content more. You can also put links to related content so they can read
more of the content on your website if they are interested.
To optimize internal links in your content, you can spend some time after you write your
content to add them. See the placement where they can be useful and consider what content
in your website you should link to. By doing that, you should get the configuration of the
internal links in your content correctly.
Conclusion
What you write in your content determines the results you get from search engines too. The
more quality and SEO that fits your content, the more organic traffic you should get for your
website. Therefore, it is crucial to publish content you have optimized in terms of its SEO,
usefulness, and readability.
Hopefully, the tips in this article can help you develop even better content for your website.
That should make the job of growing your website becomes easier for you.
