Tag Archives: SEO content writing tips

10 SEO Content Writing Tips for Your Small Business

What is the difference between SEO content writing and normal content writing?

In terms of creating high-quality content for your website or blog, there isn’t much difference as far as the list of tips goes. Well-written, relevant content is automatically search engine optimized. Search engines like Google love quality content that solves people’s problems. Just the fact that you are publishing lots of content that solves people’s problems, can significantly improve your search engine rankings.

Other than that, the fundamental difference between SEO content writing and normal content writing is, you take search engine guidelines into account when creating search engine optimized content so that it becomes easier for search engine crawlers and ranking algorithms to access your content, process it, and then rank it for related keywords and search terms.

Google’s search engine optimization guidelines
Bing’s search engine optimization guidelines

You can write high quality content without caring about search engine guidelines. Although your content will be good and once people can access your content and your content may even be able to convert visitors into buyers and customers, you won’t be able to get good search engine traffic, especially if there is lots of competition.

So, normal content is good content, and SEO content is content that is good but is also search engine optimized.

Why SEO content can work wonders for your small business?

As a serious small-business you might be spending lots of money on advertising. If you seek traffic from search engines you must be bidding on different keywords using AdWords. This can be very expensive for your small business.

In AdWords, you may have to pay $2-3 per click for your main keywords. And the problem sometimes is, your main keywords may not even get you much business compared to your secondary or longtail keywords. Still, you spend money on non-performing keywords simply because you want to see traffic to your website.

Looking for an SEO content writing for small business?

SEO content writing can increase search engine rankings of your small business website organically. Once your search engine rankings improve organically by diligently following these tips, you start getting traffic from search engines without having to pay for every click. Once you have gotten one of your links featured in the top 10 results on Google, whether you get 10 clicks or 10,000 clicks, it’s all free.

The good thing about organic search results is that people prefer to click organic results rather than advertisements. So even in terms of getting more traffic from search engines, organic listings are much better than paid listings.

But how do you make sure that your small business website or blog gets good search engine rankings through your writing?

Listed below are 10 SEO content writing tips for your small business that will increase your search engine rankings, and also improve your conversion rate.

1. Do keyword research before writing content

What keywords do people use to find your website or your content? What search terms do they use? This is one of the most important tips.

You can make a list of keywords and search terms using common sense and little bit of research. You can also use paid and free tools to do keyword research.

One of the most widely used free keyword research tools is the Google AdWords keyword research tool. Although most of its suggestions are intended to encourage you to bid on as many keywords as possible and hence, the suggestions are not as accurate as they should be, it gives you a good beginning, and lots of ideas.

Even if you don’t want to use any tool, do a broad search and then scroll down to suggested searches on Google. This tells you what search terms people are using that are related to your main search term.

2. Start writing SEO content around the keywords you have finalized

Remember that the most important aspect that Google considers for ranking is the quality of your content. No amount of SEO content writing is going to help you if you don’t have quality content on your website. If it is difficult for you to create compelling content using your keywords, in the beginning, just focus on the quality aspect.

Just make sure that the keywords or search term you are targeting appear, most preferably, in the beginning of your web page or blog title. After that, let your creative juices flow.

Once you are satisfied and you feel you have written whatever you wanted to write, start incorporating your keywords. Ideally, if you’re focusing on the core topic, most probably you will automatically end up using your keywords. If not, you will have to creatively incorporate them. Don’t overdo it. Your total number of words to your keywords ratio should be around 3-4%. Overuse of your keywords can get you penalized.

If you use WordPress for managing your website and blog, there is a good add-on called SEOPressor. It gives your content an “SEO rating” and if you are over optimizing – over using your keywords – it lets you know.

Having said that, it doesn’t actually matter how many times you use your keywords as long as you contextually use them. Just don’t overuse them.

3. Create a compelling title for your web page or blog post

Remember that it’s your web page title or blog post title that initially draws people to your website or blog. In the search engine listings, it is your title that appears as hyperlink. In fact, one of the biggest reasons why you should use your keywords in your title is because when people see the keywords they have just used in the title, they tend to click the link more. Even when you share your link using your social networking profiles, it’s your title that appears as the main hyperlink. People will come to your website after you title grabs their attention. Consequently, coming up with keyword-rich compelling titles is a big part of effective SEO content writing.

4. Also focus on longtail keywords

When writing SEO content, don’t ignore your longtail keywords. In fact, you should create dedicated webpages and blog posts dealing with your prominent longtail keywords. But even on your present piece of content, use a mix of your primary keyword and longtail keywords. This will prevent you from over using your main keywords.

It is also recommended that you use LSI keywords. LSI stands for “latent semantic indexing”. In terms of SEO content writing, it means using alternatives to your main keywords. You can use synonyms. You can use alternative expressions.

Read How does incorporating keywords increase your search engine traffic.

5. Mostly focus on providing answers to questions

When using search engines, people don’t use specific keywords. They normally type questions (or say, if they use voice search). So, provide answers to these questions. Make a list of all possible questions your prospective customers and clients may ask before doing business with you and then publish all the answers using questions as titles.

6. Use conversational style in your SEO writing

People don’t use novelish language while surfing the web. They use very common, conversational words. A good example: when people are searching for “bananas” they don’t search for “an elongated yellow fruit”.

Even when they are searching, they use very common words pertaining to your business. You should also avoid using jargon because whereas jargon may make you look cool, it may lose you customers.

You can use a tool like Hemingway Editor to grade your writing. It says that content writing with grade 6-8 is better and gets you good search engine rankings. “Grade” here means, writing with grade 6 can be easily read by a 6th grader.

7. Use a well-defined structure

Use a well-defined structure means using headlines and sub-headlines wherever needed. Organize your thoughts in bullet points. Use quotes wherever necessary. Write simpler sentences and smaller paragraphs. Link to inner pages with appropriate anchor text. Use bold type a few times to highlight your main expressions. Stick to a particular length.

8. Use images to graphically convey your feelings

Long streams of text seem to bore people no matter how informative your text is. Insert images at crucial points. They act as a welcome distraction. They also help people refocus. Don’t use totally unrelated images. If you are comfortable using an image editing tool, create a mix of graphics and text.

9. Focus on something unique when writing SEO content

The more generic your content is, the harder is the competition it faces. Narrow down your targeting as much as possible. Search engine optimization for the search term that isn’t being used by many is much easier.

Also, focusing on something unique will help you avoid writing duplicate content which can attract penalty from Google.

Even if it is not possible to offer something totally unique, address a very unique perspective of your product or service and write about that.

10. Keep optimizing your existing content

SEO content writing doesn’t just mean continuously publishing fresh content. You also need to take care of your existing content. Over the years your website or blog must have collected a ton of content. If this content remains unattended, all that effort goes waste.

Make a list of all the URLs that contain marketable content on your website. Check their search engine rankings for the targeted keywords. If over the weeks, months and years their rankings haven’t improved, start rewriting the content from SEO perspective.

Maybe you used some bad practices like needlessly using your keywords and search terms, and you would like to remove them. Maybe over optimized your content in enthusiasm. Maybe you created thin content.

It is a time-consuming activity, but go through every link, check its rankings, and if it doesn’t rank well, rewrite it.

Concluding remarks

I personally know a client who has cut down his advertising budget by 70% ever since he started relying more on SEO content and less on advertisements.

A good thing about SEO content is that sometimes the same web page begins to get ranked higher for multiple keywords or keyword combinations. If you use AdWords, you have to pay for every combination, but not for a link that ranks higher organically.

Yes, more effort is required. Content writing for SEO take some time to show results, especially when you have lots of competition. But the rewards are great. You get more targeted traffic. Your marketing cost comes down significantly. Your conversion rate improves. Your brand value improves because people begin to find quality content on your website.

Want to know how you can improve your search engine rankings as well as conversion rate of your small business website through targeted SEO content writing?

The Truth about SEO Content Writing that Google Does Not Want You to Know

So, what’s the truth about SEO content writing that Google does not want you to know?

Pumping your website’s SEO content writing muscles is not guaranteed to bring you traffic. Not just that, being on Google’s first page by itself does not guarantee quality traffic.

Here’s a brief analogy: when you do a Google search, do you click on all the results on the first page? You probably never even bother about the second page. Someone said, the best place to hide a dead body is in Google’s second page. More than 70% Google search users, and that includes me, simply ignore the paid ads. In a nutshell, being on Google’s first page is not synonymous to more customers, which was the reason you bothered with SEO content writing in the first place.

I can hear you say what?! Where does that leave me? Stay calm and read on.

2 reasons why SEO content writing (not done properly) does not guarantee (quality) traffic

You’re using too broad keywords. At least 1 million to 10 million people search for “flowers” every month. But why are they searching for flowers? Perhaps they’re looking for information on starting their own flower shop? Perhaps they want to learn how to grow flowers at home? You can never be sure! The point I’m trying to make is, such a broad keyword would likely not increase sales as you do not know the specific reason why those people are searching for flowers.
You’re using too specific keyword. Yes, this is the other extreme end of the spectrum. A particular practice by those focusing on local customers or geographic ranking through their SEO content writing. It’s safer not to follow this strategy all the time. What if someone outside your locality wants an order to be delivered as a gift to someone living in your locality? Remember those times you were searching for something, but did not know exactly what you were looking for? This is also what happens to your prospective clients, so using too specific keywords could exclude lots of potential clients.

Today, it’s not about ‘get the traffic’, it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.’- Adam Audette, Chief Knowledge Officer, RKG.

Positive SEO content writing steps to take

Is there a way out? Yes, where there is a will, there is a way, and this is especially true for SEO content writing.

Spend ample time researching quality keywords. Please, resist the temptation to use your business name as a keyword. Let’s be frank, do you honestly think anyone is searching for your business name? Well, unless you are Samsung or Microsoft, it is highly unlikely. And even for Samsung and Microsoft people search for a particular electronic device or software application, not the company name.
Be patient, good SEO content writing is like sowing. You first sow the seeds, regularly water them, protect plants against pests and diseases, and after lots of hard work and perseverance, you reap the harvest. Ever seen a farmer plant apples one day and harvest the next day?
Model your keywords as a question. Usually, when we need information, what do we do? We “ask” Google. Why not adopt the questions model when researching keywords? Do you run a pet shop? One keyword could be: “What do I feed my cocker spaniel?” So, brainstorming on questions you think your customers might be asking, is what SEO content writing all about.
They ask the questions, give them the answers. This is beyond keyword stuffing, either on your site pages or meta data. It’s simple, give your audience ANSWERS to their QUESTIONS through your SEO content writing. And give these answers CONSISTENTLY. Stop having sleepless nights trying to stay on top of your competitor’s rankings in Google, algorithms and what not. Focus your energy on how to keep your content relevant and easy to read for those who find you.

So, let’s recap. SEO content writing does not guarantee (quality) traffic. The truth about Google and SEO is to provide relevant, easy to read content for your audience…consistently.

Simply focusing on your SEO and keywords won’t help you much. You need relevant, high-quality content that engages your audience. These days, even Google’s algorithm takes into account people’s behavior when they are accessing your content. If the content is not useful, even when you have optimized your website, it begins to lose its rankings. If you hope to achieve meaningful SEO, you need quality content.

This entry was posted in Content Writing, SEO and tagged SEO content writing how to, SEO content writing secrets, SEO content writing tips by Faith Obafemi.

5 content writing tips to improve SEO

What does improving SEO with content writing mean?

Being a content writer and a content marketer I am always aiming at improving my clients’ conversion rate.

Read: More sales with Credible Content Writing Services.

Not being merely an “SEO expert”, for me, improving SEO means getting search engine traffic that converts.

It’s no use ranking high for your keywords and search terms if people coming from search engines don’t buy from you.

So, for me, improving SEO with content writing means:

Writing highly effective and convincing content for your website or blog that makes your visitors do business with you (which means, you have a great conversion rate).
Getting higher rankings for keywords and search terms that bring you business-ready search traffic.

One needs to strike a balance.

If you have great content but if that content doesn’t rank high on search engines, it becomes difficult for people to find it and if people can’t find it, they are not going to come to your website.

Read: What is quality content and how does Google recognize it?

On the other hand, even if you get good search engine rankings for your favourite keywords, unless this traffic converts into business for you, it solves no purpose.

Improving SEO with content writing should strike a perfect balance between improving your search engine rankings as well as improving your conversion rate.

Read: How to strike a balance between SEO and quality content writing.

How do I do that? How will my content writing improve your SEO?

5 content writing tips to improve SEO

Content writing that improves your SEO is quite straightforward because the ranking algorithms, especially those that rank links in Google, are quite straightforward.

Here are 5 content writing tips that will help you improve your SEO in a balanced manner so that you get higher search engine rankings as well as higher conversion rate:

1. Do thorough keyword research before starting content writing

Thorough keyword research solves two purposes:

Helps you incorporate the right keywords into your entire content writing process.
Keeps you focused.

Why does thorough keyword research keep you focused?

Keyword research here means listing as many longtail keywords related to your business as possible.

Remember that when you’re writing content for your business you want to solve people’s problems.

You want to provide answers to their questions through your content writing.

People these days don’t use small phrases. They use longer expressions to find precisely the information they are looking for.

For example, if a person wants to promote his accounting business through content writing he won’t simply look for “content writing service”; he will look for “content writing service for my accounting business“.

Therefore, if I want people who are looking for a content writing service for their accounting business to find my website, I will be writing a few webpages or blog posts specifically addressing this issue – “content writing service for accounting business”.

Similarly, I have a page on “content writing service for real estate business” rather than simply, again, “content writing service”.

Another example: content writing service to improve your SEO.

This sort of content writing that uses your longtail keywords definitely improves your SEO and also helps you create content people are actually looking for, rather than random terms very few people might be looking for.

Here is a nice HubSpot blog post that lists 9 best keyword research tools to find the right keywords for SEO.

Here is from none other than Moz: How to do keyword research – The beginners guide to SEO.

2. Decide to focus on the quality of your content

Yes, even at the cost of improving your SEO.

When it comes to content writing to improve your SEO, the quality of your content takes precedence over your SEO effort.

No matter what, decide that you’re going to stick to your quality standards because, if your content doesn’t convert, no amount of SEO can help your business.

When writing content for the first time if you don’t want to bog yourself down with your keywords, don’t bother.

Create well-written webpages and blog posts first.

Remember that you need to solve people’s problems.

They have got a problem and you have got a solution.

If you stick to this philosophy, in more than 90% of the cases you will be automatically taking care of your keywords.

Even if at the time of writing you cannot write around your keywords, once you have written content that is good for your visitors, you will be easily able to incorporate your keywords.

Read: Choosing the right keywords for content marketing.

3. Use the title and the headlines in your content writing to improve your SEO

The title of your webpage or blog post is the sum total of what you’re going to communicate through your webpage or blog post.

For example, you clearly know what this particular blog post is going to deliver to you: 5 content writing tips to improve SEO.

Decide a central keyword or a search term and weave your title around that.

For Google, make sure that your title does not exceed the 60-character limit because this much is what is visible in the search engine results.

It is always good to address the main issue within the title of your webpage or blog post because this is going to appear as a hyperlink.

For example, on Google if you search for “how to write SEO content for your website” this is a sample of some of the results:

If the hyperlink addresses the central issue of the search query people click the hyperlink more.

Organize your text under various headlines to make it easier to skim your webpage content.

As you will easily notice in this blog post, it contains various headlines and then these headlines are followed by text details.

You can use this opportunity to use your keywords because the Google search algorithm takes the keywords within the <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc. tags seriously.

4. While writing content, focus on the structure of your content too

I have slightly touched upon this topic in the above heading: use the headline tags to organize your text.

Aside from using headline tags you can also use bulleted points, bold text and anchor text of your hyperlinks to improve your SEO.

As you keep publishing blog posts and webpages, you will have plenty of content to link to.

For example, if you have already written about a topic and you need to mention the topic in your current blog post.

Instead of writing about the topic all over again, you can simply link to the topic using the appropriate anchor text for the hyperlink.

Something like: In this blog post I’m writing about 5 content writing tips to improve SEO, but if you have no idea what SEO is, you may like to read SEO content explained.

Since I already have a web page that explains what is SEO content, there is no need for me to rewrite the entire explanation.

You can link to your previous content in similar manner.

5. Use content writing to create longer webpages and blog posts to improve SEO

You must have noticed that these days my blog posts are rarely less than 1000 words.

Google prefers longer blog posts and articles because

They can pack lots of information about a single topic.
It takes hard work to write longer webpages and blog posts.

Thin content no longer works.

There was a time when people would write 200-400-word articles and blog posts and they would enjoy good search engine rankings.

This encouraged lots of junk content that had no meaning.

Also, since it is easier to create smaller webpages and blog posts, people who wanted to spam search engine results would indulge in lots of trash content writing.

Because of this, Google has started preferring longer webpages and blog posts because it takes hard work to write them.

You must have a lot to say to be able to write a 1500-word webpage or blog post.

You must be an authority on the topic.

Authority is good.

Google likes authority.

There can be many content writing tips to improve SEO but the tips that I have listed above basically sum up your entire effort to improve your search engine rankings through content writing.

In order to improve your SEO keep your content writing as relevant as possible.

I cannot stress this point enough that it’s the quality that matters.

Writing your content around your keywords is of course necessary, but this isn’t the only factor that impacts your SEO.

Search engines these days also need human validation and human validation can only come through relevant, quality content writing.

This entry was posted in Content Writing, SEO and tagged content writing SEO, content writing to improve SEO, seo content writing, SEO content writing tips by Amrit Hallan.