SEO content writing has been a booming career and freelance field over the last few years. Why is that?
You and your clients’ customers go to Google first to look for new products, services, businesses, and brands.
In fact, reports indicate that anywhere between
- 75-90% of Google users never make it to page two. They stop their journey on page one.
- 94% of all clicks on Google go to organic results. Not paid ads.
- SEO content writers typically make $25-$50 per hour and higher (depending on the industry and niche).
This is why SEO content writing is so valuable. As a writer or freelance writer, if your SEO content writing expertise can help businesses land as high as possible on search engine results pages, and get more visibility, brand awareness, traffic, customers, and revenue –– you are golden.
For these reasons, this writing skill can help you make great money as a freelance writer. And honestly, it’s not as hard as it sounds.
Continue reading for The Complete Guide to SEO Content Writing…
What is SEO Content Writing?
SEO content writing is the practice of creating content that is optimized for search engine visibility. The goal of SEO writing is to increase your website’s or blog’s organic traffic by ranking higher in search results pages (SERPs).
Why is it Such an Important Writing Skill?
With over two billion active websites on the web, it’s becoming a little harder and harder to get noticed.
However, with roughly 5.6 billion searches run through Google every day and a grand total of over 2 trillion global searches per year –– there’s plenty of traffic to go around for everyone.
And I just read somewhere recently that less than 10% of all websites actually have content on page one. That leaves tons of page one real estate for new SEO content writing!
All of this is why SEO content writing is so necessary.
To get a website ranking well for maximum exposure and traffic, SEO writers use a variety of skills, tools, and techniques for:
- Keyword research
- Content planning and strategy
- On-page optimization
- Link-building
- Copy and headline writing
- And more
SEO content writing is critical because it helps your website or blog stand out from the millions of other websites and blogs out there.
SEO content writing isn’t a fad or waning job market either. It’s here to stay. As long as people use search engines to find information online, content writing is essential for businesses and website owners.
Your Crash Course in SEO Content Writing
If you have read any 3-4 of the other blogs I’ve written, there’s a good chance that you’ve already multiplied your all-around writing skills.
This post is a practical guide to help you funnel all of your brilliant new writing skills into SEO content writing. This will help you grow your clients’ businesses and your business as a freelance writer.
Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Content to Rank
1) Get to Know Your Audience
The first step in great SEO content writing is research. You need to define your ideal audience –– getting as specific as possible.
Example: Say you’re working with a freelance writing client of yours that runs a local gym. The first questions you should ask yourself about their target audience are:
- Where do they live?
- What’s their age range?
- What’s my gender demographic split?
- What kind of jobs do they have?
- What’s their average household income?
- What kind of training are they interested in and what are their goals?
- What else do they like? (hobbies, brands, shoes, clothes, supplements, trends, music, entertainment)
- If you had to put together a mood board or design board that defines your audience, what would be on it? What would that look like?
After you’ve got a really good idea of who your audience is, refer back to the two most important points of SEO: search users go to Google for two things…
- Solutions to their problems: Businesses, products, and services that can help them do that.
- Answers to their questions: Businesses, brands, or personalities that can provide expert advice to guide them toward a solution.
If you define your audience and can do one or both of those two things through SEO content writing –– there’s no audience you can’t win over and sell.
2) The SEO Writing Process: Brainstorming
Now that you know who your audience is and what they want, it’s time to start brainstorming content ideas. The SEO writing process starts with quality brainstorming and keyword research.
First, I put myself in the shoes of our newly defined target audience. What would they be searching for to find your business or your client’s business?
I like to brain-vomit all my keyword ideas for a client in a Google Doc or Google Sheet first.
Let’s stick with that same example and say you have a client who owns a local gym. I’d probably start my brain vomiting process with high purchase intent keywords like…
- Gym near me
- Fitness center in [City Name]
- Best gyms near me
- Top gyms in [City]
- Where to workout in [City]
- Best places to workout in my area
After I have a good list of SEO keywords brainstormed, I start to run them through SEO keyword tools to generate more ideas, verify which ones get the most monthly searches (“search volume”), and examine how competitive it is to rank for each of those keywords.
3) Use Keyword Tools to Dig Deeper
To do this, you’ll need to use a variety of tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Google Trends, SEMrush, Ahrefs, SpyFu, or Moz Keyword Explorer.
There are a lot of great options out there, but those are some of the industry-leading pieces of SEO software to guide the process. You can also find a lot of great, discount replacements for this type of software on AppSumo.com
Once you’ve selected your target keywords for you or your client, it’s time to start writing SEO content around them.
4) Use SEO Tools to Guide Your SEO and Content Writing
SEO content writing consists of two major components:
- Concrete content writing skills.
- Leveraging the right SEO software and writing software to guide your writing.
My current SEO content writing software stack consists of four different types of software. Each serves a unique, invaluable role in helping me write engaging content that ranks.
- SEO Suite and Keyword Research Tools: Mentioned above. I use Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and WriterZen.
- AI Writing Software: Yes, you read that right –– as in, software that writes for you. I mostly use Jasper.AI, and also Rytr.Me.
- An SEO plugin or Rank Intelligence Software: I love Yoast, RankMath, All-In-One SEO, Outranking.IO, WriterZen, and Surfer SEO.
- A Writing Assistant and Plagiarism Scanner: Grammarly Premium and Hemingway Editor.
You need at least keyword research software and an SEO plugin or rank intelligence tool to produce quality SEO content writing. I highly recommend testing and/or investing in all four.
Here’s why: Using all four of these tools combined
- Shave 40-70% of the time it takes me to research, write, optimize, and publish a content piece.
- Write most of the content for me. As in I just hit CMD+Return on my computer and the AI will write paragraphs of content for me.
- Reduce my grammar and punctuation error rate to about 1-2%, and scan for plagiarism across the web.
- Guide you on how to maximally optimize every aspect of your content to make it more search engine friendly, and substantially boost its likelihood of ranking.
5) Write, Edit, and Hit Publish
Now that you’ve got your keywords together and your tools, let’s pick a keyword and get started!
If you’re writing for a client that isn’t ranking for those critical, high-purchase-intent, location-modified keywords (“gyms in [city/area]” –– start with those first.
The below workflow will work for the majority of the above tools I mentioned:
- Run your keyword or phrase through your keyword research software: Verify the search volume (SV) and keyword difficulty (KD- or how competitive it is to rank for that particular keyword). If it gets significant search volume and has low competition, you’ve hit the SEO jackpot. Always be on the lookout for high relevance, high search volume, and low keyword competition for you and your clients.
- Punch your keyword and content information into your AI writing software: If you give your writing AI software a keyword and description, it can generate catchy titles, headlines, full outlines, introductions, bulleted lists, entire paragraphs, sales pitches, and more –– in seconds. And, it creates totally unique content that’s virtually plagiarism-free. This software has changed my job forever.
- Plug your written piece into your rank intelligence software: Most of these will give you some kind of score on a scale of 0-100 to indicate how strong your SEO is for your content. They even provide detailed recommendations and specifics on what you can improve and change to bump your score –– and your likelihood of raking.
- Run it through a writing assistant and plagiarism scanner: Use software like Grammarly to check for plagiarism and grammar mistakes.
After you’ve run through this process, you are 90% done.
See below for “Advanced Tips” and the last 10%.
6) Share Your Writing on Social Media
If you’re exclusively doing SEO content writing for a client, be sure to have your client share your content on all of their social media channels.
Not only does this give your content more, relevant exposure –– it also helps you generate valuable backlinks that can increase your probability of ranking. Write some captivating social post copy for your client and push that new content out to
- Any other platforms they’re active on
7) Track the Success of Your SEO Content Writing
SEO content writing is all about creating writing that produces results:
- Rank
- Visibility
- Traffic
- Conversions
- Leads
- And sales
If you aren’t tracking the results your writing is generating, how can you show value to your client?
You can’t!
Luckily, a lot of the above keyword tools are a part of full-blown SEO suite software (SEMrush and Ahrefs) that can help you track your content’s rank position, traffic, and more.
I highly recommend getting your client on Google Analytics and Google Search Console. They will give you exponentially more detailed insights into their SEO and SEO content writing performance.
Advanced Tips for High-Quality SEO Content Writing
Now that you have 100% of the tools and are 90% of the way there, what’s the last 10% of creating great SEO content writing?
Here is the shortlist of the last few items you need to take your ranking potential to the next level.
Optimize Your Writing for Featured Snippets
In order to create SEO content that yields the best possible results for your clients’ or business’s website, you need to be aware of how to optimize your writing for featured snippets.
Featured snippets are those boxes that appear at the top of SERPS that give searchers a quick answer to their query on Google –– from a website –– without them having to click on the page.
The red highlighted area blow is a featured snippet, about featured snippets!
To increase your chances of being featured in a snippet, you need to:
- Make sure your titles, headers, and headlines are clear and direct
- *Answer common questions (FAQs) related to your topic
- Use short paragraphs and sentences
- Use bulleted lists throughout your writing
- Include images, infographics, and videos when possible
- Optimize your meta tags and meta descriptions
- Use SEO-friendly URL structures
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Create Optimized URLs for Your SEO Content Writing
SEO-friendly URL structures are short, direct, and use relevant keywords.
For instance, say I have a blog post titled “The Top 10 Workouts for New Gym Goers” and my website was thenewgymontheblock.com.
My optimized URL would be
thenewgymontheblock.com/top-10-workouts-for-new-gym-goers
If you have a longer blog title, you may want to shorten your URL to just your targeted keyword, or a keyword with some modifiers related to your post.
Be Conversational and Speak Your Audience’s Language
If you want your SEO content writing to perform well, you need to ensure that it’s engaging and speaks to your audience with wording, phrasing, jargon, and language they would use and understand.
Don’t talk above or below your audience. Especially not above.
It also means avoiding industry jargon that only those in your field would understand.
I’ve written for attorneys and accountants for years. A lot of professionals in these industries want to use technical terms and jargon like they’re writing for other accountants and attorneys. I always have to be the writer to tell them “your target clients aren’t you. You’re going to lose them unless you can explain complicated topics in simpler terms.”
It’s critical to use the same language they would use when searching for information related to your topic.
The bottom line is, that if you want your SEO content writing to be successful, make sure it’s easy to read and understand.
Keep your Writing Visually Engaging and Interesting
Keep in mind that the vast majority of traffic is looking at your and your clients’ websites on a smartphone.
If they look at a content page or blog you wrote and it’s just one giant, dry block of text after another, what do you think they’ll do?
Bounce. Bail. Skedaddle.
They’ll straight up leave and go find another site that is more visually engaging.
Luckily, there are lots of great SEO content writing tools to break up large paragraphs and blocks of text:
- Stock photos
- Embedded videos
- Infographics
- Bulleted or numbered lists
- Shorter paragraphs (no more than three lines of text)
- Using bold and italics to make important information stand out
See how many of those tools I used in this blog? 😉
Readers and web users have minuscule attention spans. Use these tools to keep your writing engaging, fun, and interesting to the eye.
Make Your SEO Content Writing Scannable
Speaking of browsing websites on smartphones and making your writing more interesting. One of the best ways you can optimize your SEO content writing for any user, business, or audience on the planet is to make your writing scannable.
Think about this: how often do you take the time to read an entire article?
I would guess hardly ever.
Unless it’s really important, scannable, or both –– you’re going to get the information you need and get out.
Heck, I’m a career writer and that’s what I do! Sorry to my other writers out there.
Use the same tips above to keep your writing scannable and easy for your readers to get the information they need as quickly and easily as possible.
Add High-Quality Stock Photos and Images
I use Unsplash and Pexels to add high-quality, free-use images to my SEO content writing. Make sure the photos and images you’re adding to your SEO content writing are high-quality and relevant to your topic.
Add Keyword-Relevant Alt Descriptions to all Images
Make sure you’re adding keyword-relevant alt descriptions for all the images in your SEO content writing. This is an important on-page SEO factor that’s easy to overlook.
To do this, simply add a short description to each photo.
My convention for adding alt descriptions to images in blogs or content pages is to use your keyword in the descriptions regularly (but don’t overdo it). Include something relevant to the text surrounding a particular photo. One way I do this is to copy-paste my H2 and H3 text into my image alt descriptions.
Use Internal Links
An internal link is a hyperlink that points to another page or post on your or your client’s website.
Internal links are an SEO ranking factor because they help Google and other search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website. They also help keep people on your website longer, which can lower your bounce rate and improve your ranking.
Be sure to link to other content on your or your client’s website that may be additionally helpful or valuable for your website visitors.
Reference Authoritative External Links
External links are links from other websites that point to your website. They are also known as backlinks, and are another significant SEO ranking factor.
The more high-quality, authoritative external links you have pointing to your website, the higher your SEO score and ranking will be. This is because Google and other search engines see these links as a vote of confidence in your website.
To get external links, you can
- Share your SEO content writing on social media
- Send out email campaigns with links to your content
- Write guest blog posts on other websites in your industry, news publications, etc.
- Submit articles to high-quality directories
- Participate in online and offline forums related to your industry (check out Quora .com)
Make sure the external links you’re adding to your SEO content writing are high-quality (reputable sources and websites), related to your client’s field or niche, and relevant to your topic.
How to Track the Success of Your SEO Content Writing
The top KPIs you should be tracking when it comes to SEO content writing are:
- Keyword and Page Rankings: track the SEO keywords you’re targeting to see how your SEO content marketing efforts are paying off in terms of SEO. You can use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console to do this.
- Traffic: track the amount of traffic coming to your website from all sources, including organic search, social media, direct traffic, etc. Google Analytics is a great free tool to do this.
- Engagement: track how engaged users are with your website and SEO content writing. This includes figures like time on site, pages per session, bounce rate, etc. Again, Google Analytics is an excellent tool for this.
- Conversions, Leads, and Sales: Try to track the number of leads and sales generated from your SEO content marketing campaigns. It’s difficult to track direct lead and sale attribution with organic content (more so than paid advertising) but it’s crucial to get as much attribution data as possible to show the results of your writing.
In Closing
SEO content writing is a great way to improve your SEO ranking and get more traffic to your website. By following the tips and tricks in this blog, you can start seeing results in no time.
Ready to kickstart your SEO content writing career? Be sure to get access to my free ebook 20 Highest Paying Jobs for Freelance writers so you can take the first steps toward launching your new freelance writing career or side hustle.
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