SEO content writing is one of the most important aspects of a brand’s digital marketing strategy. By creating high-quality, keyword-rich content, you can improve your website’s visibility, increase organic traffic, and better engage with your audience. In this blog post, we will explain what SEO content writing is, why it’s important, and offer tips on refreshing existing content. We’ll also go through the process of creating SEO-friendly content to help you achieve your 2023 digital marketing goals!

What is SEO Content?

Writing SEO-optimized content involves creating and publishing content with the purpose of ranking on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs), like Google. While there isn’t one correct way to write content that will guarantee first-page rankings, writing with SEO best practices in mind gives Google better insight into the subject and quality of your pages to determine whether they’re relevant to users. The more relevant and useful your content is, the higher the chance to rank.

Content is also subjective, with some users finding it more helpful or relevant than others. However, there are a few strategies and best practices that can help you develop an effective content marketing strategy for your brand that consistently brings in organic traffic and ranks well.

Content Tips for SEO Writing

Before we dive in, it’s important to remember that getting traffic from search engines shouldn’t be your only goal when producing content. To meet search engine requirements that will reward you with higher rankings over time and appeal to potential customers and returning users, you must deliver value above search engine optimization. Producing content without relevancy, intent, and usefulness doesn’t offer value to the people reading it, and it’ll likely result in low rankings and higher bounce rates.

To increase your chances of ranking higher on search engines, your content should:

Match user search intent

Search intent is the user’s purpose when they search for something

Someone who types in “best keyboards for gaming” wants to learn more about the different types of keyboards on the market and their qualities. Google understands this and shows the user blogs or articles about gaming keyboards. The four main types of search intent include

• Informational: search for information on a particular topic (what’s the best keyboard?)
• Navigational: search for a specific website (Apple website)
• Transactional: search for specific products or brands (buy Apple keyboard)
• Commercial: research various product or service options (best keyboards 2023)

Based on your user’s search intent, you can create content using keywords that match or provide the information they’re looking for.

Search engines crawl webpages to identify the page’s purpose, then choose the most relevant pages to display on the user’s SERP, so understanding and nailing the intent is crucial.

Keyword research & SEO optimization

Search engines use keywords to understand your content, so optimizing your pages for search engines means incorporating relevant keywords. While keywords are one of the most important aspects of SEO content, keyword stuffing often results in spammy content that hurts your chances of ranking.

A best practice is to choose a primary keyword that best describes the topic you’re covering. Then, choose secondary keywords that relate to subtopics within the main page and support your primary keyword. It’s also a good idea to target long-tail keywords which are more specific and have a lower search volume but a higher conversion rate.

Knowing how and where to implement keywords in your content is imperative to achieve max searchability and make content readable for humans rather than search crawlers.

Format your content for readability

Headers are an excellent way to grab attention and can help improve your content’s readability. Google uses headers to understand what your pages cover to surface it for the correct keywords. Neatly formatted webpages also allow readers to quickly and easily find the information they need without reading the entire page, improving user experience.

Use a visual hierarchy that captures what each section and subsection will be about, with H1 as the main topic, H2’s for each supporting topic, and H3’s to support subtopics.

Content Writing Ideas

Many tools can help you develop useful, relevant topic ideas catered to your audience, like SEMrush, FATJOE, and AnswerThePublic. Depending on your brand, your target market, and your purpose or call to action (CTA), you can cover the subjects that matter to your audience and anticipate their problems to create content that provides solutions.

How to Update Old Content for SEO

Another content strategy that will help improve rankings and traffic without constantly producing more new content is updating your existing pages for SEO.

Google rewards fresh content, and recently published content generally ranks higher, especially for topics that frequently change.

A few tips for revamping old content include:

Answer frequently asked questions

Update an old blog post by adding sections that answer common user questions. If these questions are relevant to your topic, consider incorporating them in new sections to better match queries with your updated content. You can use Google’s “People Often Ask” feature or type your keyword in Quora and other search consoles to find queries with high-average positions.

Revise keywords

Conduct a keyword audit and add new relevant keywords that may be weak or missing from the original content. It’s also a great idea to target keywords with low search volumes because they’ll give you a better chance to rank than high-volume keywords.

Remove broken links

Check to see if the external links on your content are still functioning. Broken links and images reduce user experience and lower site quality for search engines.

Add videos or visual elements

Adding videos and images relevant to your topic can be a great way to increase the amount of time users spend on your page. Short-form videos are also a great way to explain information in a short, easy-to-absorb format for users who prefer to avoid reading.

Add internal links to recently posted or relevant content

After refreshing your content, it’s crucial to promote your updated blog through social media, email campaigns, and industry sources. Adding internal links to product pages or other related pieces can invite users to explore more of your website, increasing your chances of conversion.

Understand when and why content should be updated

While refreshing outdated content is an effective and relatively quick process, you should consider when it’s appropriate to revise content and for what purpose. Taking a look at your content each quarter is a good practice, but it depends on the topics you’ve covered and whether there would be enough substantial value in updating.

How to Develop an Effective Content Marketing Strategy 2023

Creating quality content with SEO best practices in mind can help you achieve steady traffic from search engines, provide helpful information to your users, and attract new audiences who find answers to their questions in your content.

The key to an effective content marketing strategy is to stay consistent. Adopting a systematic approach to creating and publishing content with SEO tactics and relevance will help you achieve reliable and consistent results.

• Define your goals – this will help you determine what type of content you should focus on
• Understand your audience – analytics tools and surveys can help you narrow down your user demographic, but it’s essential to understand the behavior and concerns of your target audience.
• Create and stick to a content publishing calendar – your goals and audience will help you determine a schedule for when and how often you should publish content. Consistency is exceptionally significant for blogs!
• Track performance and analysis – regularly assessing your website and conducting content and SEO audits can help you determine what’s working and what isn’t so you can measure your successes and repeat them.

Why Agency Partner Interactive?

Whether you’re just starting to explore the world of SEO content or have been publishing steadily for years, it’s important to stay up to date on Google’s algorithm changes, keyword trends, and new strategies.

As a full-service digital marketing agency, our content marketing and SEO experts work together to create and publish high-quality, SEO optimized content for our clients spanning multiple industries. We blend our creative and data-driven expertise to help get you on page one of Google’s SERPs and boost traffic while growing your brand awareness goes through the roof. Ready to get started? Get in touch with us today for a free personalized proposal!