SEO Writing For Beginners Guide: Write Content That Ranks

SEO Writing Beginners Guide

SEO writing is critical to your site’s success. so as to rank high, you've got to understand the way to create copy that gets both searchers’ and search engines’ attention. during this article, I’ll break down the factors and best practices to think about for your SEO content.

If you’ve been within the marketing game for a short time, you’ve probably noticed some pretty significant changes over the past few years.

From the first ’10s rollout of Hummingbird and Panda to the newer updates like BERT and a hyper-competitive, snippet-centric front page, Google’s algorithms are all grown up in 2020.

And marketers, for better or worse, must evolve alongside the bots.

In this article, I’m getting to take a deeper dive into what SEO writing seems like in 2020, covering the subsequent core areas:

Read on to find out more about bringing your content strategy into this new decade.
Does SEO Still Work?

The short answer is, yes, SEO still works.

Despite the zero-click panic (no-click results now account for 50% of all search traffic) and Google’s shift toward becoming quite a source of answers, SEO remains alive and well.

Though SEO remains central to any digital strategy, that’s to not say it’s easy.

Marketers, website owners, and program optimizers face some unique challenges that didn’t exist a couple of years back.


Thanks to a better set of algorithms, including the recent BERT update, Google now relies less on links and keywords to serve relevant results. Today, Google is far better at capturing the nuances behind the search, using contextual clues to work out what to present to users.
These updates, per Google’s consumer-facing blog, all aim to supply end-users with a far better “search journey,” and use AI to weave together a story supported search histories, preferences, and other factors.


As a the result, SERP success now hinges on great (expert-level, yet engaging) content and a deep understanding of the intent behind searchers’ queries, which suggests SEO is increasingly about using topic modeling and semantic analysis to supply thoughtful answers to real questions.
What is SEO-Friendly Content?

Today, SEO writing is held to an equivalent standard as the other piece of content that users consume. In other words, SEO-friendly writing is simply plain “good writing,” with a couple of slight differences.

SEO copy aims to assist both searchers and machines quickly take stock a bit of content and find a solution that best matches a searcher’s query.

It isn’t almost plugging keywords into some throwaway blog anymore. We now face the unique challenge of writing content that appeals to human readers and Google crawlers in equal measure.

So what does “high-quality” mean in 2020, anyway?

Interestingly, the concept of high-quality content hasn’t exactly changed since 2011 when Google published this set of guidelines following its Panda update. ”

A few highlights from the post include:
Is your content something you'd trust if you were the reader?
Is it well-written? Does the author know the subject well?
Are there any spelling or grammar errors?
Has it been fact-checked?
Is the content original?
Does it provide substantial value to the reader?
Have you selected topics supported the real interests of your audience?
Is the article freed from bias?
Is there an excessive amount of ads on the website?

The 2011 post may be a good start line, though I do think it’s important to feature some new additions, too:

 SEO Writing For Beginners Guide: Write Content That Ranks

Dig into what people want. While the concept of intent is pretty straightforward, tons of it boils right down to understanding your customers so well that you simply can anticipate their questions and be ready with a solution.


Address the users’ pain points. Remind your audience that they need a drag and therefore the impact it's on their productivity, finances, appearance, health, or whatever your product/service addresses. Paint an image of a far better life using your audiences’ language to explain key benefits. For more on the way to find and address pain points, inspect my full article here.


Then solve them. The notion of mentioning a drag without offering any solutions or guidance is admittedly pretty annoying. How are you able to make your audiences’ lives easier? Additionally, you’ll want to hide potential problems that would make their journey tougher . as an example , if you offer an internet site building service to non-technical folks, you would possibly address a number of the questions they have to ask service providers before committing. Then, you'll probe your recommendations—think, “our solution helps with X, Y, Z, so you'll do A, B, C.”


Give your readers a positive experience. Even something that seems small, like slow load times or an “ugly” checkout page, can cost you, potential customers. More and more marketers are realizing that each one the small print add up and are taking ownership over their role in customer experience.

Remember, your goal as a marketer is to assist your audience find what they have and make that have as pleasant and painless as possible. that ought to be made very clear in your copy.

SEO-Friendly Content Answers Searchers’ Questions

The first rule of making “SEO-friendly” content is ensuring you answer searchers’ questions.

For marketers want to take an ad-hoc approach to look at terms and topics, writing for audience intent means you’ll get to build your content calendar around target topics, ideally for every persona and place within the buyer’s journey.

Keep in mind, not all content is formed for search. Breaking news updates, thought leadership, and social media posts all work best once they specialize in new ideas.

In those cases, pigeon-holing the “people also search for” questions into a story just comes off as a replacement combat keyword-stuffing.

SEO Content Gets right down to Business

Think about this: if you ask someone an issue, does one want them to supply a solution filled with unrelated tangents and niche-specific jargon?

Or, would you favor an easy response that covers key points and is sensible of abstract concepts?

It may seem obvious, but making some extent of completing the subsequent steps before publishing can make an enormous difference:

Don’t use more words than you would like to form your point.

Replace jargon with simple, plain-language terms.

Be sure to swap out any instances of passive with its active counterpart.

Though clarity is vital, Google also places a high value on being thorough. this suggests marketers got to take care that they don’t mistake long content for comprehensive content. 

If you'll answer an issue in its entirety during a few sentences, it’s plenty comprehensive. 

Follow the E-A-T Rules

Danny Sullivan of Google swears by the E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trustworthiness) rules laid call at the standard rater guidelines. 

While the recommendation he offers up during this particular tweet could also be frustrating to some, going to know Google’s quality standards can only assist you to improve.

Google’s Danny Sullivan on E-A-T and therefore the Google Quality Rater Guidelines

E-A-T came up repeatedly over the course of 2019, thanks partially to the the devastation caused by the March and June core algorithm updates.

While E-A-T isn’t officially a ranking factor, the rules offer a 168-page roadmap for creating the type of content that both humans and search engines love. 

It’s also, a useful resource for helping content creators keep track of the small things which will make or break your reputation, like adding a physical address to your website or ensuring your authors have bios and headshots displayed on the blog.

SEO and Intent

As evidenced therein 2011 blog post, search intent has always mattered. It’s just that within the past, Google’s algorithms would determine relevance by scanning surely keywords. 

As such, SEO copywriting has historically been focused on cramming keywords into blog posts, often in ways in which felt a touch too spammy. 

Intent Plays a serious Role in Mobile & Voice Search

A while back, Google introduced this idea of micro-moments, a series of small interactions that marketers could use to win big within the “shift to mobile.”

The the idea was to make an SEO strategy designed to make sure that your brand would be there with answers at each stage within the funnel—available any time an “I-want-to-know,” “I-want-to-go,” “I-want-to-buy,” or “I-want-to-do” moment strikes.

So, why am I harping on this micro-moments idea? 

A lot of it comes right down to the increase of voice. 

Voice search is tightly connected to mobile—perfect for quick searches performed on the move. Think, where am I able to eat? Is there a gym nearby? How late is my local cleaner open?

In 2015, Google wrote that these moments are “high-intent.” Users reach for his or her phone to satisfy an instantaneous need, whether that’s finding a hotel or looking up a fact to prove someone wrong. 

What’s changed in recent years is that searchers are now using voice-based queries to perform these quick searches. 

Optimizing for voice search helps local businesses increase their visibility and, by extension, pedestrian traffic. 

It also helps informational websites increase the probabilities that the Google Assistant will “read” their content aloud. 

To become eligible for that distinct honor, you’ll get to apply the acceptable markup to your content–which tells Google to think about your the site as a snippet result. confine mind, something like 40% of voice results are pulled from position zero.

Keywords Do Still Matter In SEO Writing

I know, I know. I did just say that intent may be a major factor when it involves writing for SEO lately. 

However, it’s critical that folks can actually find your content if you would like it to possess an impression. 

Here’s the thing: Google’s algorithms are becoming smarter a day, but they still can’t identify just what it's that creates a bit of writing read well.

By adding keywords, you’ll increase the probabilities that your article appears ahead of the proper audience. While this is often an oversimplification, believe keywords as your way of helping out the machines, whereas that specialize in intent is your way of helping out your human reader.

Some things to stay in mind as you update your keyword strategy for 2020:

Embrace a “Query Mindset” 

Today, it makes more sense to believe keywords as “queries” or “search terms” then target buzzwords. 

While it'd sound sort of a nitpicky semantics gripe, that shift in mindset is central to bringing keyword optimization and intent together. 

According to Google, October’s BERT update intended to assist searchers ditch the “keyword speak” they’ve gotten won't to and search more naturally. 

For example, rather than typing in “food near me open now,” BERT allows users to enter something like “what nearby restaurants are open right now?”

With that in mind, Google’s John Mueller advises writers to specialize in including some or all of their target query in their content. 

For example, if I enter the subsequent query into the Google search bar: what percentage sorts of dogs are there?

These are the highest results that come up:

Notice how the primary and fourth articles both repeat the question within the meta title, then directly answer it within the description. 

While this approach may sometimes desire keyword stuffing, the thought is to let searchers know that you simply have the solution to the question they entered.

Keyword Research must Get Strategic

Text The optimizer takes Google’s search data and uses it to research the context related to searchers’ queries. From there, the tool offers up an inventory of related topics and entities that help Google crawlers understand and categorize the content.

Answer the general public is another free keyword research tool that doesn’t even force you to make an account. the location pulls from Google Suggest data, helping users discover the questions, comparison queries, and search terms that feature prepositions. 

While you'll find that very same info on Google, Answer the Public’s mesmerizing visualizations streamline the research process.

Speaking of Google, SERP staple People Also Ask is another excellent spot to start out checking out the sorts of terms you'll build topics around. Click on the expandable menu to uncover more.

These phrases could work as standalone blog topics or as a series of headers during a longer article. In fact, SEOs are increasingly using this approach to systematically build-out focused, long-form content designed only for the snippet.

Check Out Your Search Console Analytics

Google Search Console’s 2019 revamp has made it easier for SEO pros to bring keywords and intent together to support a data-driven strategy.

Navigate to Google Search Console > Search Traffic > Search Analytics to seek out out which queries people actually enter to land on your site.

Additionally, you’ll want to stay an eye fixed on what your competitors are up to. What are they ranking for? Are they landing the snippet? Are they missing the mark somehow? 

There is no shortage of SEO tools out there for unearthing competitor keywords (Moz, SEMRush, Ahrefs, etc. All come to mind). 

Remember to specialize in the keywords themselves versus the particular content. The goal is to make original content in your unique voice, not a carbon of the last blog post, you read. 

Know that Keyword Research isn’t a One-Time Effort. 

Ultimately, the keyword strategy is getting more sophisticated than it wont to be. 

SEO writers will increasingly get to concentrate on Google Search Console query reports and builds conversational content round the topics people care about, and from there, branch off into those sub-topics.

Featured Snippets and Zero-Click Searches

I’ve talked about the featured snippet, structured markup, and schema at length several times over the past few months. 

For the uninitiated, featured snippets, or rich snippets, are available several different flavors (the graphic below shows a couple of common ones), including Local 3-Packs, Knowledge Graphs, Recipes, and Google News.

Though snippets vary considerably, all of them make use of graphic elements, outlines, or images to capture searchers’ attention.

Because the snippets aim to answer a user’s question right the primary page of Google, they often eliminate the click-through to an internet site. 

As mentioned up top, zero-click results are on the increase, which suggests that websites may find that they receive far fewer clicks than they need within the past. 

While it’s understandable to worry about the impact, SEOs got to adapt. More and more, marketers got to work on increasing visibility on Google itself by adding structured markup and following the platform’s content guidelines and technical requirements.

That said, you’re not doomed to reality during which the sole thanks to measuring your organic marketing efforts are impressions. 

Recently, we surveyed over 500 searchers to find out more about SEO and intent. 

One of the more interesting tidbits, we discovered within the data was that meta descriptions and branding wield the foremost influence when it involves click-throughs. 

Interestingly, just over half of our respondents said they wouldn’t click on a brand they haven’t heard of. 

Meaning, landing a spot within the no-click results might be an efficient thanks to familiarize yourself together with your audience, setting them up for an eventual click.

This means you’ll get to get strategic in your approach to snippets to drive clicks. Newer additions to the schema library like FAQs, HowTos, and News markup is among those examples which will drive clicks. 

Do note that while anyone can now submit News content through the Google Publisher Center, the standard standards are serious business.

Wrapping Up SEO Writing

In the end, it’s important to know that, at its core, SEO has always been about creating content that folks want to read. 

Sure, we've Assistants to deal with, and tons to find out about schema, but the particular “writing” a part of SEO writing features a lot in common with the 2011 standards. Only lately, we'd like to unlearn bad keyword habits and take a more holistic approach to content planning and creation.

There’s little question that the practice will still evolve; in any case, the SERPs are hit or miss the place.

 

But, I think the marketers who can continue with the changing demands of the customer while embracing the newest feature Google throws into the combination, will still find success within the SERPs.

Extra note

Free program module from SEMRush for site assessment. It is quite useful for a general SEO outline of any site. It has a lot of apparatuses inside and even coordinates into Google Search Console.