When it comes to SEO, your content is arguably as crucial as your outreach and on-page skills.
Lousy content doesn’t rank. If you really want to get your site into the top positions, then you’ll need to focus on your SEO writing skills.
Whether it’s for your own site or for a client, you simply must be well-versed in how to write food SEO content.
As an SEO consultant that hires writers regularly, We’re going to break down everything you need to know to improve your writing and optimise it for SEO.
What is SEO content?
Let’s make sure you know what SEO content actually is. In a nutshell, it means creating optimised content for search engines like Google.
The fundamental truth is that content requires many optimisations to rank well in the search results.
You might be thinking that this is a load of nonsense. But I have seen great content that sits down on the tenth page of Google, despite it being helpful and highly informative.
The truth is that good SEO content requires a bit of technical knowledge to get it right.
Luckily this isn’t the most challenging thing to learn. And we’re going to show you exactly how you can do it.
Keep up to date with the latest best practices in SEO
I’m not saying that you need to get a degree, but it’s great when a writer understands SEO and the technology that most of the web is built on.
SEO changes all the time. Best practices are constantly changing, and it can be hard to keep up if you aren’t regularly writing content.
Find great SEO newsletters and regularly read what SEOs are saying. Google updates its algorithm all the time, and you should be aware of how these changes affect content writing.
Another way to stay informed is to be active on social media, especially Twitter, as there is a huge community of active SEO content writers.
I’ll leave a list of some of the resources that I use daily to keep on top of SEO trends below
Resources to keep up to date with SEO trends
Moz has been there since the beginning of SEO. Their blog is packed with a bunch of knowledge, and they are always writing on the latest trends in SEO. Check out their whiteboard Friday videos too.
Search Engine Land is the NYT of the SEo world. The content is more like news, but they follow updates to Google with a fine tooth comb.
The Google webmaster blog is from Google. Therefore, you should really be checking it out now and then.
Reddit is a great place to understand real-world SEO problems and see how people solve them. You can even post any questions you might have about best practices when it comes to writing SEO content.
100 days of SEO is a weekly newsletter where they take a deep dive into a facet of SEO.
Get a portfolio
If you really want to be a pro SEO content writer, then you’ll need some proof that you can do it.
It’s a bit of a catch-22, but I always like to ask a potential writers for examples of their work when hiring them for an agency.
I’m not just talking about writing work. An indication that they are interested in SEO or have tried something in the space is excellent!
My advice for upcoming writers is this – start a website and regularly write great content on topics you care about. Learn by implementing this, and you’ll soon get your head around the basics of SEO.
This will improve your ability to write great SEo content. If you don’t fancy the hosting costs or trouble of managing a site, ask for guest post positions.
The bigger the publication or blog, the better it looks on your portfolio. And when people like me see your published content, we’re gonna want to work with you.
If you can use SEO tools in your research, then go for it
When writing content, you’ll need to be great at researching a topic. Often, this will be a topic you’re not an expert in.
So you need to be able to brush off any feelings of being an imposter and position yourself as an expert by doing proper research.
When getting a brief for a piece of content, the client will often provide you with a list of keywords.
But what if you showed the initiative and did some of this yourself?
So let’s talk about keyword research:
Tools like Ahrefs and Moz can be costly, but if you have access, you can research topics extensively and understand which keywords to target when writing.
You shouldn’t just throw these keywords in. Think of it as a brief covering the topics the keyword is about.
Also, don’t be afraid to provide well-researched titles and meta tags when writing content.
Finally, ensure you apply for jobs and show off all of this research and work in your profile. When it comes to SEO, your content is arguably as crucial as your outreach and on-page skills.
