When it comes to any digital marketing strategy, getting organic traffic is essential. Of course, one of the best ways to do so is by getting better rankings on search engines such as Google. In order to do so, having a solid SEO strategy in place should do the trick, but of course, there is slightly more than just applying on-page and off-page SEO rules to your website.

Overall, SEO writing is a must if you want your website to rank well, as this means you are not neglecting the user experience of your website. After all, page experience is one of the most important ranking factors.

While it can be extremely time-consuming to make sure that all your writing and content is SEO-optimised, you have the option of outsourcing these tasks to a business to business marketing agency. You can also do it in-house, providing your marketing team is up to the task and has the tools and equipment needed.

What is SEO writing

So, what even is SEO writing in the first place? SEO writing is the process of writing content with the goal of it ranking on the first few pages of search engines such as Google. This is usually done by researching the relevant keywords and creating optimising content that solves people’s problems and answers the user’s questions.

SEO writing helps to optimise the content written so that search engines can more easily crawl and judge it. When a piece of content is judged more favourably, it is going to rank more highly in the SERP.

If a piece of content is created without it being SEO optimised, then it may not be friendly to search engines, so the crawlers may not even understand what the article is talking about.

Why is it important?

Essentially, SEO writing is done in order to help content rank better in search engines. This is because if a piece of content is not optimised, it will likely only show on later pages in a search. That being said, why is it so important to get on that first page? This is because studies have found that the number of clicks on a website not only depends on getting onto the first page of search results but also depends on getting it as high as possible.

The first result of the first page tends to get clicked on by more than 28% of people who are searching. After that result, the percentages go down with each spot. So, most businesses are aiming to get that sweet top result.

Fortunately, writing for SEO can help businesses to achieve that. On the whole, having good SEO content will keep working for your website no matter what other promotions and marketing you do for it.

Steps to create SEO articles

So, what are the steps to creating SEO-optimised content? Fortunately, if you are doing this in-house, the steps are pretty straightforward and simple to follow. Here are the main steps when it comes to creating SEO writing:

Research SERPs for target keywords

Anything SEO related involves understanding search intent. This means the intention of a searcher when they type in a query into a search engine. For example, if someone searches ‘bookstores near me’, then they most likely want to find a bookstore near their current location.

However sometimes what you think may be good keywords may not necessarily rank what you are looking for – or what your users are looking for. As such, it is always a good idea to check the SERP before you even begin to start writing anything. You can either do this with a keyword researcher tool or through Googling the keyword.

You should also take a look at any featured snippets in the SERP. You can choose to optimise your content as a way of getting past some of the competitiveness of a keyword.

Create article guideline

Next, you should draft an article outline. An outline is there to make the writing process faster and easier, while also allowing for some form of quality control. Part of the outline may include filling in any crucial SEO details, such as common questions users ask when searching for a particular keyword.

Another thing you may want to add is determining what your subheadings, headings, goals, and approach of your article should be. How is your article different or better than all the articles before it?

Write draft

Now, it’s time to put pencil to paper and crank out a first draft. The good thing about a first draft is that it helps you to refine your ideas and get all the research done. It also helps you to get the flow of your content. You can also easily change and revise things without feeling you need to completely start over everything.

Because this is a draft, it is best that you stop worrying about anything and just start free-flow writing. You don’t need to make sure your words or the format is perfect. Just get all the meat of your content onto the page. All the editing and proofreading can be done at a later stage.

Edit and revise

After you’ve written your first draft, now is the time to get revising! It is also recommended that you get some feedback, so you can gain a fresh new pair of eyes on your article. Sometimes, after looking at the same thing for too long, it can be difficult to spot any mistakes or errors. As such, having a second pair of eyes never hurts, plus other people can also give fresh new ideas that you may not have considered in the first place!

For instance, you can get feedback from trusted members of your audience, especially if you have a Facebook group or email list. After you have gotten the feedback, you can edit your article accordingly.

Format into proper article

This is where you polish your article into a true gemstone. This can either be done by investing in a professional editor, or by yourself. Here are a few things you may want to consider when editing and formatting your article:

• Am I explaining it simply?
• Is this the best answer?
• Is this article easy for someone to skim and understand?

When you are editing, consider trying to read the content out loud to yourself. Reading it out loud shows you where the dry parts are, and highlights things that may be overly complicated or unclear. It can also make grammatical errors stand out. You can also consider adding different types of media to break up long stretches of text. It can also help with SEO as well.

Set SEO elements

Now, you have to make sure other aspects of your article are optimised for on-site SEO. This will include the following: Title tag, meta description, URL slug, open-graph tag, image alt text, page or post categorisation and more.