How to write SEO friendly content

April 27, 2021 |
By Sotiris Sotiriadis

Wondering how to write SEO content? Want to know what is SEO friendly? Don’t understand what does SEO friendly mean? You’re in the right place!

Writing good content is challenging enough – mastering SEO is worse! However, the present article discusses a full guide to teach you how to develop the previously mentioned skill. When you finish reading, you can start writing like an SEO pro which will help you in your business or as a member of a reputable SEO agency!

Start with Your Keyword Research

One of the most important things when it comes to creating SEO content is targeting the right keywords. If you do that, you can create incredible posts that also have the possibility of ranking high in Google.

To achieve the best keyword research, you should find a tool (there are tons of free and paid ones!) that allows you to have a list of good short and long-tail keywords. After that, you have to decide how many times you need to repeat them in your content so it looks natural, compelling, but also helps with SEO.

Outline Your Posts

Many young entrepreneurs make the mistake of writing without having a clear idea of what they want to say. Avoid that! Start your post by outlining the main ideas you wish to discuss, and the process can be much easier, effective, and help with SEO friendliness.

Create Killer Headlines

Headlines can compel your audience so they click on your post. However, they can also drive them away from your website.

Therefore, you need to have the ability to create incredible and catchy headlines. A good one comprises the following aspects:

–         It tells the reader exactly what they’re going to find

–         It’s clear

–         It’s attractive

–         It solves a specific problem that the reader might be looking for

Some tools can help you create headlines easily. Thus, you can incorporate them to make sure you have SEO friendly content.

Format Your Content for the Google Answer Box

Have you ever searched for “How to…, What Are…, Why Does…, etc.?” said posts are often featured in the Google Answer Box.

If you format your content following that type of outline, you have better chances at ranking higher in Google and appearing on said page. Therefore, each time someone searches for what you’re offering, they can find you.

That doesn’t mean your content can’t work if it doesn’t have the said format. However, it’s a great trick to aid your SEO friendliness.

Write for Your Audience, Not Yourself

If you’re wondering how to write SEO content, the following tip is your best friend from now on. The basis of SEO friendliness is learning that your readers only care about themselves.

Think about it: each time you go online and search for something, you want to find the answer to your problem, right? Everyone in your audience feels the same way.

You might be asking yourself what that has to do with SEO friendliness. It’s very simple: your content needs to solve your readers’ problems. Thus, each time you write, you should think about them.

Imagine your target audience. What kinds of things do they go through? What are their dreams and aspirations? What are their biggest obstacles?

After you think of that, you should also have some answers to it. If you write with that in mind, your posts can have much more SEO friendly content.

Include Relevant Keywords

When you do your keyword research, you might feel overwhelmed by the number of things that pop up. However, don’t despair: you have all the time in the world.

In other words, you shouldn’t just include 500 keywords in a 1000-word article. You should only add the ones that are relevant to your content. Otherwise, your readers can perceive it as unnatural. Eventually, they might even stop reading.

Have a Structure

To learn what does SEO friendly mean, you need to understand that your blog posts have to be structured. You can’t just post a chunk of nonsense content without any substance. If you choose to structure it instead, you can have much more SEO friendliness.

When you outline your post and decide your keywords, you should choose your subheadings accordingly. That means that you need to decide which are the specific points of the subject you want to develop in the article.

After you write some posts following the said tip, you are going to notice that it’s much easier. Since you have a structure, all you need to do is follow it.

Edit Away!

One of the worst things you could do to your SEO content is to publish without editing. Even the best writers can have some mistakes, which is why you should edit away before your content goes out there.

To edit, use handy tools like Grammarly, CopyScape, Yoast SEO, and more. They can help you fix your grammar, find out if there are some copies of your content, and tell you about the state of your SEO within the article you wrote.

After a while, you can develop the skill to edit faster. Thus, you don’t need to spend that much time in it.

Improve Readability

The readability score is what tells you what level your readers need to have to understand your content. That means that it’s a very important aspect if you want to know what is SEO friendly.

If you use tools like Yoast SEO or Grammarly, you can quickly find out about your readability score. To improve it, try to explain everything with an active voice, make concrete statements, use punctuation correctly, and make your content as easy to understand as possible.

Incorporate Visuals

Visuals are a very important part of SEO friendliness. Your reader needs more than text to feel compelled by your writing, and so does Google. As a consequence, you need to find the best sources to add some images, infographics, and videos to your articles.

There are lots of websites where you can download stock images for free, such as PixaBay or UnSplash. Besides, you can create your infographics using tools like Canva.

When you’re writing to achieve SEO content, you might wonder how many images you should add. The quick answer is that there’s no specific number. However, a general rule is that you should include at least one every 250 to 300 words.

Add Your Social Media

Social media wasn’t very important a few years ago, but it has become so popular that it’s now relevant for SEO content. Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook are, by far, the most essential platforms; however, others like Twitter are not so far behind.

Every time you can, add natural links to your social media accounts. You can also include images from them in your blog posts. Likewise, make sure you have handles on your website so your readers can quickly access your pages and start following you if they want to.

Promote Healthy Link Building

A very important aspect of SEO friendliness is inducing healthy link building. If you’re new to content writing and SEO, you might not know what that means. Don’t worry. Read the following simple explanation: it consists of adding links to your articles, which can help your readers stay on your page.

In other words, you can add links from other posts you’ve written before to your new ones. That way, if your readers find something interesting, they can click on it and stay on your website.

The previously mentioned tip works with social media, too! As it was formerly addressed, if you add links to it, your readers can follow you there.

Hook Your Readers

With so many things on the internet, it can be hard to identify what is SEO friendly content. However, a good way to view it is to understand that your posts can rank higher on Google if they are attractive to your audience.

How can you attract your audience, though? Well, with so much content already, it can be hard to stand out. Thus, you should hook your readers with something unique, things that they’ve never seen before. Write about personal experiences that might help them, case studies, or unexpected comparisons! That can help your audience stay tuned for more.

Evaluate Your Progress

Lastly, something lots of writers forget is to constantly evaluate what they’re doing right and wrong. To master the art of how to write SEO content, you need to be aware of the effect your current posts have on Google.

To do the previously mentioned thing, go through old posts from time to time and check how you’ve improved. Likewise, check your article’s stats, analyze them, and try to see what went wrong and what didn’t. That way, you can have a clear idea of the things that are working and the ones that need improvement.

To Wrap Up…

Understanding what is SEO friendly is not an easy job. It’s often the hardest skill to master when you’re starting to write content.

Nonetheless, if you follow the tips you learned, you can improve faster than you think!