I’ve written hundreds of blogs as a content marketer, but I’m still prone to the amateur mistake of thinking about it Writing for SEO only after a blog has already been written.
However, I’ve found that it’s much easier to think of SEO as the bookends of your blog. It can inform What You should write it and optimize it when you’re done.
In fact, whenever I consulted SEO marketing software Before I write a blog, I get an insight into what questions my audience is asking, how I can simplify things, and what outline I should follow.
Writing SEO content also doesn’t have to be boring or feel like it was written by a robot.
Read on for tips on how to incorporate SEO into your blog writing while creating interesting, useful content.
Table of contents
Why is SEO content writing important?
Without SEO, your content is less likely to rank high in search engines. A lower ranking can affect your ability to attract and engage with your target audience. It can also make your content – and your brand – appear less credible and authoritative.
A 2024 First Page Sage study found that the click-through rate for websites ranked number one on the SERP is 39.8%. This number drops dramatically to 18.7% for sites ranked second and then to 1.6% for sites ranked 10. When you get to page two of Google, this number drops even further.
This means that if your website doesn’t appear on the first page, the chances of consumers finding your website organically are slim. Fewer visits to your website means fewer opportunities to generate leads and ultimately less sales.
Your next best option is to invest in advertising to attract these users to your website. But that costs money, and if your budget is tight, why not invest time in SEO copywriting? It’s free and will likely bring you traffic for much longer than a campaign.
SEO also addresses the five biggest problems marketers are currently facing (see below). By doing enough SEO research, you can generate new blog ideas, increase engagement, attract traffic, reach your audience, and generate leads.
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The basics of SEO content writing
When you start writing SEO content, it’s important to understand the basics. Here are some basic principles to follow when incorporating SEO into your writing.
Keyword optimization
This SEO aspect is extremely important as it helps search engines better understand your content, thereby increasing the chances of it appearing in relevant searches and attracting organic traffic.
To choose the best keywords, you need to research and find out exactly what your target audience is looking for and match them to the topic of your content. The key is finding the right balance between including keywords in a way that makes sense to readers while still satisfying search engine algorithms.
In the Tips section, I’ll go into more detail about how to find keywords and distribute them throughout your content.
User Intent
User intent is the motivation or purpose behind a user’s search query. It’s about finding out what they really want to discover when they type something into a search engine.
In general, there are four types of user intent:
- Informational intent describes people who are looking for information or answers to questions. These users are looking for definitions, explanations, instructions or research materials.
- Navigation Intent is when a user searches for a specific website or brand. They already know what they want to find and use a search engine to navigate to a specific website.
- Transaction Intent describes a user who is ready to take action, such as making a purchase, subscribing to a service, or booking an appointment.
- Commercial intent describes someone who is researching products or services with the intention of purchasing something later. They compare products, read reviews and look for the best deals before making a decision.
By understanding user intent, you can create content that matches users’ search queries and increase your chances of appearing in search results. Every industry and niche also changes your user intent.
For example, SEO for lawyers will be very different from SEO for marketers. It’s about giving people what they need and providing a good search experience.
Readability
When it comes to writing for SEO, it’s not just about what you write. It also depends on how you write. It’s not enough to simply add a few keywords to your blog posts and call it a day. You also need to consider your readers’ experiences.
This is where readability comes into play.
Readability is all about finding the right balance between optimizing for search engines and ensuring your content is entertaining and valuable to human readers.
In addition to optimizing your content with keywords and internal links, you should also focus on user experience. Write in a reader-friendly manner, use clear and concise language, and avoid technical jargon. You also want to use headings and make your content more manageable (more on this below).
As you write and edit your content, ask yourself: Is this easy to understand? Does this have a logical sequence? Is that exciting? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” you may need to make some changes.
Historical optimization
Every SEO writer knows that an evergreen blog post will never be completely finished, even after publication. Thanks to algorithm updates and competitors targeting the same keywords, search results are constantly changing.
This is why it’s important to have a content refresh strategy in place that ensures your older web content is current and relevant in search engine rankings. This approach is called historical optimization.
To figure out which blog posts you need to update, evaluate your older content by running a content audit to find underperforming or outdated pieces. Then determine how you can improve the piece.
This typically involves updating the content by adding new information, removing outdated information, optimizing keywords, and improving formatting and readability.
Tips for incorporating SEO into your writing
- Start with keyword research.
- Use headings to your advantage.
- Optimize your content for featured snippets.
- Write for people, not search engines.
- Optimize your title.
- Include keywords in your meta description.
- Add alt text to images.
- Resist the urge to fuss with keywords.
- Link to high ranking websites.
- Aim for scannable, longer-form posts.
- Link to other posts on your website.
- Compress images for fast page loading speed.
- Design a link building strategy.
1. Start with keyword research.
Google processes an estimate 95,000 searches per second. Amazing, right?
If you want to cut through the SERP clutter and outperform your competitors, you need to target the specific keywords and phrases your potential customers are searching for. How else would they find your content and website?
Start with a keyword research tool. Sites like SE ranking, AhrefsAnd Google Keyword Planner Provide details about what users are searching for and how popular those searches are.
For insight into how Ahrefs can help you with your SEO keyword research and beyond, check out our case study and exclusive interview here.
Google Trends can also give you a sense of which keywords are popular at any given time. If you notice that searches for a particular keyword are steadily declining over time, you know that it’s probably not the right keyword for your marketing. The opposite is true for rising trends.
If you ever run out of keyword ideas, look to your competition for inspiration. Use competitive analysis tools to see what keywords their domains are currently ranking for. If these keywords are relevant to your business, you should use them too.
However, keep in mind that the most obvious keywords don’t always fit your strategy. Additionally, your focus keywords will evolve as trends change, terminology changes, or your product/service line grows.
Conduct keyword research regularly to ensure you stay focused on the right keywords for your audience and don’t miss out on important ranking opportunities.
2. Use headings to your advantage.
Headings help Google’s web crawlers understand your blog post and the sections within it.
Think of crawlers as readers skimming your blog. You want an overview of what your article will cover. This is your H1. Your H2s, H3s, and H4s break down the subtopics within the piece.
Therefore, your subheadings should reflect the content in the body and contain high-intent keywords. If you use the right keywords, the ones your target audience uses, you have a much higher chance of ranking in the SERP.
3. Optimize your content for featured snippets.
Featured snippets on Google are the most direct answers to search queries. For example, if I searched “how to write a blog post?” Google might use a featured snippet to show the best answer.
To get a featured snippet on Google, you must answer the question thoroughly and succinctly.
For example, if the search term is “How to take a screenshot on a Mac,” you can enter “How to take a screenshot on a MacBook computer” as H1 or H2, followed by the steps in a numbered or bulleted list.
Once you’ve done that, be sure to include part of the question in your answer. Using the example above, you would start the paragraph with: “To take a screenshot on your MacBook, here are the steps…”
Also, start each sentence with an actionable verb, like “click” and “select.”
If the keyword requires a definition, write an answer that is no more than 58 words to increase your chances of capturing a featured snippet.
4. Write for people, not search engines.
“If an AI can write it, an AI can serve it to users instead of a link,” writes the senior editor of Search Engine Journal Ben Steelea contributor to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing Report.
Your target audience needs a reason to click your Contents. And with all of these SEO guidelines, it’s easy to forget that you’re looking for an answer on Google.
The best way to improve your chances of ranking is to write quality blog posts. Steele predicts an “increased demand from verifiably human content to deeper and more complex content.”
What does that look like? Detailed answers, scannable sections, organized subheadings, and visual aids.
Keep your buyer personas, their motivations, challenges and interests in mind. It’s also important to choose topics that will resonate with your potential customers and address their pain points.
While some SEO tools can be helpful on the technical side of your website, you can also choose to use SEO content writing tools to write accurate, concise, and user-friendly content that will rank well and attract readers address.
These types of tools include standalone SEO and keyword research tools (like Google Search Console and Ahrefs), as well as AI editors and writing assistants (like HubSpot’s Content Hub).
There are also tools that measure content engagement. This allows you to see how long people spend on a page, whether or not they visit multiple pages, or how far people scroll down your site.
Pro tip: Juggling all of these variables can make writing difficult. One way to simplify the process is to organize your main thoughts or big ideas. Then use them as a prompt for an AI tool like HubSpot’s free AI blog writer.
As with any AI content generator, you should go through the draft and add your own experience and expertise to make it fun for people to read.
5. Optimize your title.
Even with great, SEO-friendly post copy, a bad headline could hurt you in the SERP.
To title your post with SEO in mind, write a compelling title that includes your main keyword. Here are a few tips:
- Include numbers. (“5 Ways to Rock a Matte Lipstick.”)
- Include your offer in the title. (“How to Write a Cover Letter (+ Free Template)”)
- Add a teaser. (“We tried the new app (insert app name): this is what happened”)
For more title optimization ideas, check out this in-depth look at blog SEO.
6. Include keywords in your meta description.
Do you add meta descriptions to your post? If your answer is “no,” you’re probably missing out on traffic. Let’s delve deeper into why they are important.
We’ve talked about a few ways a blog post can communicate with Google: subheadings, keywords, and snippets. However, this is not an exhaustive list.
Meta descriptions are another area that Google crawls to determine search rankings. Meta descriptions are one to three sentence descriptions that you can find under the title of a result.
Use meta descriptions to summarize what your post is about and remember:
- Keep it short.
- Use one or two keywords.
- Make it compelling. After all, there will be similar posts, so your description needs to stand out from the rest.
Most content management systems (CMS) have built-in meta description fields, so you probably won’t have to search hard to use the feature. WordPress users may find this in the Yoast plugin, which walks you through the recommended word count.
HubSpot’s metadata description field in the Content Hub is similar:
7. Answer the questions no one else will answer
In his best-selling book, “They Ask, You Answer,” content marketer Marcus Sheridan And ENTER The spokesperson explains that answering avoided questions is “an approach to communication, company culture and the way we sell as a company.”
“It starts with an obsession: ‘What does my customer think?’ And when I say “obsession,” I really mean it. It goes beyond “What do you think?” to “What are they looking for, asking, feeling, and fearing?” Some companies think they understand these questions, but most don’t.”
These questions can be about pricing, the cost of your product, industry tips or secrets – basically anything your industry doesn’t write about. These questions are untapped SEO opportunities that you can take advantage of by answering them with great content.
I saw this in real time on a client’s website that I helped create. The company wouldn’t discuss how much it costs to serve in case rivals might decide to undercut it. I pushed the idea of a price calculator instead – so people could enter their information and their desires to come up with a price range.
Their requests for quotes skyrocketed. No competitor was willing to even provide a price range for services, so my client generated SEO traffic to attract new leads.
Consider writing an entire blog dedicated to a topic that your industry doesn’t want customers to know about to see what kind of traffic you can generate.
8. Resist the urge to fuss with keywords.
The goal is to fully optimize your site and not make it obtrusive. Look for natural passwords to add keywords to, but don’t force them to the point that your content becomes unreadable.
For example, if your keywords are “account-based marketing,” “startups,” and “sales,” avoid a meta description like this: “Sales for account-based marketing startups.”
Instead, focus on one or two keywords to make the description more natural: “Looking for killer strategies to boost your account-based marketing game?” Discover our research-backed techniques in this post.”
With this approach, you still use keywords, but you don’t oversaturate the post. Remember, your goal is to solve for your audience. If your users have a poor reading experience, it signals to Google that your post doesn’t meet their needs.
9. Link to high authority sites.
When creating your blog post, don’t be afraid to link externally.
Linking to reputable websites not only provides blog readers with additional reading material to expand their knowledge, but also shows search engines that you have done your research.
Nothing strengthens a blog post like research-backed statistics from influential websites. Compelling statistics help you build a more convincing and concrete argument that will help you gain the trust of your readers.
10. Aim for longer, manageable posts.
In times of short attention spans, you might think that shorter blog posts are the way to go. In fact, search engines like Google prefer longer, detailed blog posts.
Think about it: the more content there is on the page, the more clues search engines have to figure out what your blog is about. At HubSpot, we have found that the ideal length can be between 1,200 and 2,400 words. If you are unsure, look at SERP competitors and user intent.
The downside to longer blogs is that they may overwhelm your readers. One way to combat this is to break down your content into bite-sized, scannable pieces.
Bullet points are a great way to achieve this because they are easy to understand and attention-grabbing, especially on mobile devices.
Make one long sentence into two and limit your paragraphs to no more than three sentences.
Pro tip: Need help fine-tuning? Checkout Drift Kings Media’s AI Paragraph Rewriter Tool for effortless refinement.
11. Link to other posts on your website.
Linking to other pages or blog posts on your website helps search engines create an accurate sitemap. It also helps your audience discover more of your content and get to know you as a trustworthy, credible source of information.
On the user side, internal links to other valuable content keep readers on your site longer, reducing bounce rates and increasing your conversion potential. And isn’t that exactly what it’s all about?
When linking to pages on your website or even external sources, use natural language for your anchor text. Avoid spam or generic calls to action like “Top-rated cheap laptops” or “Click here.”
Instead, use descriptive keywords that give readers an idea of what they will find when they click on the hyperlink, such as: B. “Download your SEO guide.”
Never force links to your top websites, recommended products or discounted items. Include links that highlight the points made in your posts and are naturally related to the topic.
12. Avoid AI-generated blogs and content.
AI has come a long way, and that means more and more blogs are generating entire blogs written using artificial intelligence.
However, AI still cannot be considered human-written content – both humans and search engines are pretty good at recognizing it. This means that AI-generated content gets flagged by search engines and hurts your SEO.
Instead of AI generating entire blogs for you, use AI as a tool to speed up your creation process and check for SEO. For example, you can have AI create an outline for you based on search engine results so you have a starting point for your writing.
AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude.ai can be useful; For example, I just pasted the text of this blog post into Claude 3.5 Sonnet and asked it to identify missed SEO opportunities. Use our list of AI SEO tools to find more tools (and more use cases!).
Recommendations included checking the freshness of the content and ensuring I provide you with the latest statistics and tools:
Keep in mind that tools like ChatGPT or Claude operate in a vacuum – meaning they don’t have the context needed to assess the risk of content cannibalization, for example. As with anything related to AI, human control is still important.
HubSpot’s AI-powered content agent, breezesupports authors at the beginning of the writing process. It also helps with tasks like creating SEO-optimized landing pages that aim to increase your conversion rate.
13. Include an FAQ section on your blog
Search engines reward content that provides them with direct and easily identifiable answers to frequently asked questions.
As AI overviews become more common in Google searches, well-written FAQs can help propel your content to the top of the SERP.
Remember, you want to answer questions succinctly and optimize for SEO. Adding FAQ sections can also be an easy way to refresh and update an old blog to improve SEO.
Start with SEO writing
There are many tips and tricks to optimize your blog for better SEO results.
Still, SEO can be overwhelming for many content writers and small businesses because it’s more of a marathon than a sprint.
The best way to get first page is to regularly publish helpful, authoritative blogs that are fully optimized.
Remember that SEO criteria are constantly changing. So what works one year may not work the next.
Subscribe to HubSpot’s marketing blog for the latest information on what Google and other search engines need to rank on the first page.