Visibility in search results is one of the most important channels for driving traffic to your website. But in order to rank well, you need to write content that is as friendly to search engines as it is useful to readers.
The nexus of those two mandates is search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting. Whether you’re a seasoned content creator looking to enhance your SEO prowess or a newcomer looking for how to get started, these 10 SEO copywriting tips will help you better understand how to write content that ranks.
1. Do your keyword research
This is the first and most important step in SEO copywriting. After all, to optimize your copy for search, you have to know the keywords that your target audience is searching for. There are a number of keyword research tools available, such as Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush.
When doing keyword research, it’s not always a good idea to go after the highest-volume keywords. Keep an eye out for long-tail keywords, which are simply longer and more specific search terms.
For example, instead of targeting the keyword “yellow car,” consider targeting “yellow car with a spoiler 2023.” That second search term will likely have lower search volume, but it will allow you to more easily align with search intent.
2. Be strategic about where you add keywords
Keywords are essential for SEO, but you have to use them strategically. It’s generally a good idea to have the exact keyword you’re optimizing for in the post title (or something very close). You should also put keywords and variations in section headings, subheadings, and in the copy itself.
Just as importantly, make sure to avoid what is known as keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is the practice of adding as many keywords as possible without consideration for readability. This makes for a bad reading experience, which in turn makes for unhelpful content.
Instead, try to use your target keywords naturally. That will help make sure they don’t disrupt the flow of your post.
3. Write helpful content for humans
It had unofficially been the case for years, but Google has made it official: writing bad content will get you penalized. In the summer of 2022 they rolled out their helpful content update, which penalizes bad content—and websites that host bad content.
In other words, if you try to game the system and write for the search engine, that approach will backfire.
The good news is that all you have to do to avoid getting dinged is to write valuable, informative, and engaging content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience. It’s not always easy, but your hard work will pay off.
4. Match your content to user intent
In SEO, user intent is the reason why someone is searching for a particular keyword. For example, if someone searches for “how to bake a cake,” they are looking for instructions on how to bake a cake. Matching user intent means providing valuable and relevant information that directly addresses what the user is searching for.
But it’s not always easy to glean user intent from the keyword itself. For the search term “dry dock,” it’s not immediately clear whether the user is searching for information about how ships are stored, how to try their lake house dock, or the brewery in Colorado. A quick bit of keyword research will help you understand how search engines interpret user intent for a given keyword.
5. Be thoughtful about your content structure
The way people read blog posts is not the same way they read books or news articles. When someone finds your blog post through a search engine, they’re looking for something. In fact, there’s a good chance that your reader won’t care about 90% of the content in your blog post.
To make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for, make sure you structure your content so it’s skimmable. You want the reader to stop scrolling and say “aha!” when they come to the section they’re looking for.
6. Add relevant internal and external links
Links are one of the primary ways search engines understand and contextualize your content. Internal links are links to other pages on your website. External links are links to other websites. Both types of links can help to improve your SEO!
Linking to relevant pages elsewhere on your website encourages users to explore more content related to their interests. This helps your overall SEO efforts because, when a user clicks on a link to read more, that signals to search engines that your content is helpful.
For external links, be sure to link to trustworthy websites. The quality of the sources you cite in your copy are one of the many signals search engines use to determine the quality of your content.
7. Avoid duplicate content
If you wrote the world’s best blog post conclusion, congratulations! That’s great! But you can never use it again.
It may be tempting to use the same really great copy in another blog post—who’s going to notice, right? Actually, search engines notice.
Originality is key in SEO copywriting, especially in the age of AI. While a duplicated paragraph here and there may not tank your rankings, it most certainly isn’t helping. If you want to make the same point across multiple blog posts, always write it fresh. But even then, it may be worth asking yourself if you need to reiterate the point or if you can simply link to the blog post where the point was made in the first place.
And never, ever plagiarize. Ever.
8. Write for a general audience
It’s a good idea to avoid jargon and technical terms whenever possible. Yes, even when your target audience is highly technical and super knowledgeable about the niche topic you’re writing about. That’s because not everyone who reads your content will be an end user.
But that’s not a bad thing! The goal for writing with SEO considerations in mind is to write content that ranks well, not necessarily content that only the real insiders—and no one else—will understand. In fact, online content is often helpful for the subject matter experts to use in educating other stakeholders.
When you do come across instances where using technical terms, industry acronyms, or other jargon, all you have to do is define your terms. A quick explanation or a link to further reading can help your content be helpful to more casual readers.
9. Write clearly and concisely
When writing with SEO in mind, your writing should be easy to read and easy to understand. That means short, digestible sentences. Likewise for paragraphs.
One good example of this approach to writing is Wikipedia. Their content guidelines say writers should look for opportunities for commonality. That is to say, don’t get fancy – just use the most common way of saying what you’re trying to say. To paraphrase Wikipedia’s guidance, we never “utilize spectacles.” We “use glasses.”
For even more tips for how to write effective content marketing copy, see Josh Nite’s blog post, B2B Content Marketing: 10 Tips to Level Up Your Writing Skills.
10. Don’t publish raw AI content
Generative AI has brought a seismic shift in SEO copywriting. It can help make ideation, drafting, and editing processes faster and more efficient. But AI can’t do it alone.
This technology brings efficiency to copywriting and content creation but the human element is indispensable. It takes talent and hard work to produce truly helpful content that channels your brand’s voice and expertise.
The bottom line is that you know your audience. AI doesn’t. Writing for your audience requires you to take the driver’s seat when drafting, even when AI is your navigator.
