SEO Writing: 2020 Guide to Create Content That Google Rewards

Google loves content that humans love.

Humans will love content only when they find it on Google in the first place.

SEO writing is a skill that helps your content rank higher on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

So, if you’re wondering how to create content that Google adores and rewards, this post will teach you exactly that.

You will learn how to be good at SEO-friendly writing.

By the end of the post, you will know how to be a superstar SEO content writer who understands the dynamic of search ranking.

Let’s dive in…

…don’t let such suggestions and conflicting opinions confuse you…

“Is SEO writing dead?”

I assure you, it is not.

If anything, with more competition across industries and more people shelling generic articles, the importance of writing SEO-friendly content is more than ever.

So, neither is SEO dead…

…nor is SEO writing! 😉

What is SEO Writing?

It is basically creating content that Google believes is fitting for what a user is looking for.

It is creating content that are optimized around the search ranking factors that Google will find relevant and then rank higher.

Elisa Gabbert puts it very well on Wordstream…

“SEO content is any content created with the goal of attracting search engine traffic.”

SEO content (articles, blog posts, webpages, sales pages) incorporate proper keywords, formatting, images and other components to be effectively optimized.

The primary intent is to generate organic search traffic.

But, of course, the content can also be used for branding and sales purposes.

Now, before we jump to the “how” part – how to create SEO-friendly content – let’s address this minor misconception…

Objectively, content writing is to educate and entertain the audience.

Copywriting is to promote a product or brand.

In the marketing sphere, content writing fits at the Top of the Funnel (ToFu), wherein copywriting sits at the Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu).

The objectives of content writers and copywriters vary.

For example, the former would create information-based content like “21 Reasons Why Yoga is So Important”, while the latter would create something brand-centric like “Here’s why XYZ Yoga Centre is Best For You”.

Makes sense?

It’s okay if it doesn’t!

Point is: content writing and copywriting are different – albeit with a small margin.

BUT they are referred interchangeably.

Now when you would talk about SEO content writing and SEO copywriting – by the fundamental definition they would be slightly different too.

However, almost everyone uses them interchangeably.

So, if you ever see “SEO copywriting tips”, don’t get confused… It usually means “SEO content writing”.

Recommended Read: Blogger and Writer Difference – Which One Are You?

1. Very high quality

The fact that they are among the top on SERP, they obviously have to be of very good quality.

Google has become much efficient in recognizing quality after all.

Now, “quality” itself is quite subjective. What might be a quality blog post for me, might be trash for you.

So, it’s not very easy to tell what good quality content is and what isn’t.

Generally put, “quality content” can be a piece of content that addresses users’ every query and delivers them an ideal solution – directly and in the right amount of time… Content that eliminates the need for them to go to any other website for the same query and problem.

And that’s what the top-ranking content does.

Once you have thoroughly consumed them, you wouldn’t need to go to any other website. You will have all your answers with you.

3. Keywords in the right places

Just including keywords in your content isn’t sufficient.

Where you place your keywords matters too – albeit very minutely.

The headline must have the primary keyword in it. Preferably, if the headline can start with the keyword, even better.

For example: Choose “Content Marketing Strategy: 5 Tips for Startups to Dominate the Market” over “5 Tips For Startups to Create Content Marketing Strategy”.

Obviously, you must include your keywords in the Meta tag. Try your secondary and LSI keywords here to avoid making the description look spammy and keyword-stuffed.

You should use the primary keywords at least once within the first 100 words of the content.

Within the content, all the sub-headings should contain some variations of the keyword.

While some many say such detailed efforts around keyword placement are outdated, such measures are still prevalent among the high-ranking content.

5. Easy to read and understand

No fancy words. No ‘hey look, I am such a good writer’. No leaving users to figure out themselves.

The top-ranking content are not only easy to read, but they are also easy to understand and extract learning value from.

They are clear in context, making even difficult theories simpler to grasp.

This is why people spend more time on the page to consume the content thoroughly; else they would have left if they didn’t understand.

This is why the session duration of the page is usually high.

And this is why they rank higher.

The biggest intent of the content is to resolve users’ queries and provide them the right solution.

For this, there’s no other way – you must simplify whatever you’re saying so that it’s easier to understand. This is important to put your content in the right SEO and UXO position.

7. Very well-structured

Running out of time and patient, many people won’t consume your content in entirety. They would just skim through it, picking the highlights and the “important parts”.

They can’t do this if your content isn’t structured well in unique headings, sub-headings, and sub-sub-headings.

The blog posts that rank higher, they are skimmable. They are highly organized into different headers.

You can just go through the heads and sub-heads without confusion and get a fair idea of what the content is about.

This, then, helps many people decide whether they want to consume this content, bookmark it, spend more time on the page, or just leave.

And if the content is really of good quality and value, the users would decide to stay and consume more.

9. Enough backlinks (internal and outbound)

The idea that if you link to other sites will leak your SEO/link juice is outdated.

Outbound link – where you link to other relevant websites – now help search engines better understand the context of your content.

And then, of course, when you link to other pieces of content on your own domain, it helps search spiders crawl your website better.

High-ranking content includes plenty of internal and outbound/external links through relevant anchor text.

The core intent of such links is usually to pack the content with more resources and provide users high value… something that search engines want you to do.

Here, give these two posts a read to know more about this particular topic:

• Do Outbound Links Help SEO?
• DoFollow and NoFollow Links: Everything You Want to Know

11. Provides immense value

This goes without saying.

If they weren’t providing enough value, they wouldn’t be ranking high on the search result page, would they?

At times, you can find poor quality content at the top though. But they do not stay there for long. Once Google has enough data to understand their quality (through CTR, engagement patterns and more), they eventually get demoted.

These are 11 on-page attributes of high-ranking content.

This is far from a comprehensive list, but they are the common traits that are very apparent and fundamental of superstar content that search engines love.

Now, on to the next part…

1. Include keywords in the first 100 words

This is one of the things I learned from Brian Dean of Backlinko. Go through his content and you will find his posts usually include the primary keywords in the first few lines.

The idea is simple – you want to give search spiders a fair idea about what the content is about as quickly as possible.

While there’s no empirical data that suggests this actually works, given Brian Dean is one of the biggest names in the SEO world, we can take his words (and actions) at face value.

So, include your primary keywords in the first 100 words of your content.

However, note to avoid awkward and forced queries like “lose weight quickly how to”.

It’s grammatically incorrect and doesn’t sound good.

It might help you win brownie points in front of the search spiders, it’s definitely something your human readers won’t like. And there’s some chance that they might leave immediately.

3. Include an FAQ section whenever possible

There are many benefits of adding a FAQ section within your blog posts.

• The questions directly and concisely address the needs and problems of the users. It enhances their experience.
• The questions provide the opportunity to include long-tail, question-based keywords in your content.
• It helps optimize your content for voice search.
• It increases the chances of getting your content featured in rich snippets and ‘People also ask’ section on SERP.

So, whenever possible, include a separate ‘frequently asked question’ section within your content; preferably at the very bottom.

5. Avoid vague headings

The headers within your content (H2, H3 and more)….

They not only provide a basic framework for your entire content, but they also play a key role in hooking the readers while they are skimming.

To that, if you’re writing a long content with too many sub-topics, you can address them only so much in your main headline. The rest should be promised in the sub-headings.

The point here is to write attractive sub-headings and sub-sub-headings that instantly grab the attention of the readers.

Avoid being vague, complicated and too fancy.

Something like “It is not good for your health (or is it?)” sounds good only in theories. In reality, go for something like “It is not good for your health – here are 3 reasons why”.

Keep it clean, straightforward, informative and interesting.

7. Have a ‘Table of Content’ section

If you have created an in-depth, highly-comprehensive content, it would likely be very long.

So, there’s a good chance that a visitor would not consume this piece end-to-end.

They would first skim through it to understand the structure of the content and the sub-topics it has covered. And then they would consume the parts that they find relevant.

You can make this much simpler for your readers, which would then enhance their experience.

Just add a ‘Table of Content’ section at the top of the content.

And if possible, make the points in this table anchors, wherein when someone clicks on it, they are scrolled down to that exact part within that content.

In the end, this would make a big difference in your session duration and bounce rate, helping you with SEO ranking.

9. Boost loading speed

If you notice, I don’t have a comment section here on Spell Out Marketing.

I had Disqus, but I removed it.

One, because I wasn’t getting too many comments.

Two, because it was slowing down the site by micro-seconds.

Yep, that’s how important the speed of the site is.

In fact, just 1 second delay in page load time can lead to 11 percent loss of page views and a 7 percent drop in conversion. (Source)

Sites that load in five seconds – compared to those that load in 19 seconds – see 70 percent longer average sessions. (Source)

And then, per a survey, there are more evident numbers like…

• 47 percent of consumers expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds or less.
• 40 percent of consumers will wait no more than three seconds for a webpage to render before abandoning the site.

(Source)

In short, website speed has emerged to be one of the most important search ranking factors.

So, while generally, you must ensure your whole site is fast, you should make sure the content on the landing pages are lightweight.

For instance, using heavy graphics/images and third-party scripts in your content can make the page load slow.

So, minimizing the size of images before uploading them is crucial.

Instead of directly uploading videos on your page, embedding it from the likes of YouTube is a much better option.

You also want to avoid using scripts from unreliable sources.

I have discussed about website speed and SEO in-depth in another post. If you want, give this a read: Website Speed in SEO – Does Your Site Load in 2 Seconds?

11. Kill the pop-ups on mobile devices

Pop-ups were cute. And they converted well (and still do).

But now they are more like a UX-disrupter… at least on small devices.

So, unless it’s essential, kill your full-page pop-ups.

Obstructing visitors from consuming the content hinders their experience. (And if you’ve got a bad copy/proposition in that pop-up, it makes the situation even worse.)

This increases the chances of them leaving your site quickly, negatively affecting your bounce rate and dwell time.

Recommended Read: How to Increase Website Dwell Time? (Here’s a Practical Guide)

But if you’re going to use a pop-up any way, use ‘Exit Intent’ pop-up. It shows when a person is leaving your site.

Since they are already leaving, it would matter less how intrusive this pop-up is.

According to Ericsson, by 2022, mobile traffic generated from smartphones is estimated to increase by 10 times.

So, you’ve got to be careful about the experience of mobile users.

Popups when a person is consuming your content – on a small device where clicking that ‘Cancel’ button isn’t easy – leaves a bad taste.

13. Pick keyword-rich anchor texts

“Click Here” “Go Here” – not only are these prompts boring but they also give no detail to search spiders about what’s this link is about.

In particular, when linking to your internal pages, you want your anchor texts to be descriptive and keyword-rich.

A simple rule here is to use long-tail keywords of the target page that you want it to rank higher for on SERP.

Some of the points to remember…

• Avoid using the same anchor text on any given page for more than once.
• Make sure the anchor text is relevant to the target page.
• Use the words/phrases that are included in the URL of the target page.
• Avoid generic phrases. Make the anchor text adequately long.
• Do not use awkward, incorrect exact-match keywords. You’re writing this anchor text for humans. Plus, Google and Bing can understand that “SEO Checklist 2019” and “SEO Checklist for 2019” are basically the same.

Take your time in anchor text optimization.

It will help search spiders better understand the context of your pages.

Plus, thoughtful anchor texts can be quite helpful in navigating the users to different pages, which will then positively affect your bounce rate and session duration.

15. Never finish without a Call-To-Action

Undoubtedly, not every content you produce should aim to sell or make you money.

For that matter, almost all of your Top and Middle of the Funnel Content should be without any promotion.

However, every piece of published content must have a purpose. And to meet that purpose, they must end with a definite call-to-action.

You want your readers to leave the site knowing that they learned something – that they got some value in return for the time they spent engaging with your content.

So, it’s essential that they have some “takeaways” before they leave the site.

It’s important that they take action on the site that psychologically makes them believe about the good experience they had on this site.

In the end, tell your readers what you want them to do now. What action they should take now that would help them get closer to the solution of their problems.

Don’t just give them information. Also, instruct them on how to properly use that information.

The CTA could be anything – subscribe to your email to receive exclusive emails, to follow you on social media, to email you for personalized help.

No matter what the CTA is, while it will certainly boost your conversion, it will also add to your brand value.

One way or another, you can improve your brand visibility, retention and site’s direct traffic.

All these will add to help you boost your search ranking.

Your competitors are likely doing the same thing.

So, you’ve got to pull various other strings as well.

For example, you’ve got to work to get backlinks to that content from other good sites. You must also link relevant internal pages to this URL.

So, while the above tips and suggestions will help you create content that search engine loves, you must adopt a strategic approach to ensure search engines rank that content quickly.

Think of it in this way: You can either wait and hope that Google will rank your content higher OR you can work some more to give it even more reasons to reward you comparatively quicker.

Makes sense?

At large, the process of getting your content rank higher can be split into five stages:

(i) Knowing your primary keyword

(ii) Running competitive analysis

(iii) Creating the “ideal” SEO content

(iv) “Pre-publish” work

(v) The on-going optimization and improvement

Let’s quickly run down these stages individually.

(ii) Running competitive analysis

This is one of the most overlooked steps here.

When you realize that ranking higher on Google/Bing isn’t a hit-miss task – but rather very strategic that requires thorough planning – competitive analysis would start looking very important.

The idea is quite simple…

The keywords you’re looking to rank high for, you want to know about the websites that are already ranking for those keywords.

And then you want to do some research on those individual high-ranking results.

Like, you would want to know…

• The length of the content
• The number (and sources) of backlinks that page has got
• The number of images it has
• The keyword density
• Other keywords it is optimized for
• The number of social media shares it has got

And so forth.

Once you have such insights of your competitors who you are trying to overtake on SERP, you will have a better idea of how your own content should be.

Like, what should be the length of it, how many images should you aim to use, how many backlinks do you ideally want, what kind of websites should you approach for backlinks, which social media platform would drive you a better return, and more.

Again, toppling those high-ranking results isn’t a hit-miss task.

If you’re calculative in your approach, you can rank higher on SERP – even for highly competitive keywords – relatively quicker.

Knowing about your competitors is a big part of that calculative approach.

SEMrush is one of the top competitive research tools with many features and an insane amount of data.

Use it right away. Click here to try their competitive analysis tool.

I have also written an in-depth SEMrush review, answering whether the tool is worth spending or not. Read: SEMrush Review – Do you *Really* Need This Premium Tool?

(iv) “Post-creation” or “Pre-publish” work

Once you have created a solid piece of content, don’t just rush to publish it. There are a few things that need to be taken care of before that.

Foremost, you need enough images.

More images not only provide you with the opportunity to include more exact-match keywords (in the alt-title), it also improves the chances of the post ranking high on Google Images.

So, include relevant images in your post, at a regular interval, to make whatever you’re saying more impactful.

Avoid picking “any” image from Google to avoid copyright issues. Use Pixabay(dot)com to find stock photos. Use Canva(dot)com to create your own images.

After images, time to include links in the post to make it more valuable.

Include links of the pages on your site (internal link), as well as the pages of others who are reputed (external).

Next, if needed, embed videos and tools on the page.

You also MUST format the content properly. A paragraph shouldn’t be more than three lines; use bold, italics and underline carefully.

Make sure there’s enough whitespace between the lines.

Then write an interesting and keyword-rich snippet for meta description.

Create the page’s URL that’s short and includes your primary keyword.

Recommended Read: 12 Meta Description Mistakes You Are Unknowingly Making

These are the basic things you must do – the right way – after you have completed creating your content, before publishing it.

Your focus should be on “how the readers will like this” and not “how Google will like it”.

Honestly, put it all together, SEO content writing is fairly simple.

If you’re a decent writer or blogger, you wouldn’t have much of a problem here.

I hope this post answered all your questions around SEO writing and provided you with actionable insights on how to create search engine friendly content.

If it did, please share it on social media to help others find it. It would mean a lot to me! 🙂

Recommended Read: Digital Marketing Guide for SMEs During Recession