7 SEO-Driven Writing Tips That Will Help You Rank Higher On Google Organically
Earn more ROI with these 365 to Vision Writing Tips
Writing without SEO in mind hurts your business or your personal brand awareness.
Google one of your services or products. Are you on page one of the search results, ranking in the top five positions? If you’re not in the top five organic (not paid) positions, you’re missing out on 70.4% of traffic.
According to Search Engine Journal, a study that took into account 80 million keywords and billions of results reported the following clicks on the top positions:
28.5%
15.7%
11%
8%
7.2%
Searchers are wise. And they get wiser by the day. They trust a top organic result for a search query over the top paid Google Ad.
My specialty is SEO-driven writing, something I discuss in my book, 365 to Vision: Modern Writer’s Guide (How to Produce More Quality Writing in Less Time).
Over the past two decades, I have written over 15,000 online articles and have ghostwritten over 500 articles for CEOs in major publications. Hundreds rank in top positions for queries that satisfy a searcher’s intent.
Once, not long ago, content only needed to engage. Now it also must be optimized for search engines. If not, your business or personal brand growth can fail miserably online.
The following seven tips will help you optimize your online writing.
1. Understand User Intent First, Then Complete Keyword Research
Many writers who understand SEO go the traditional route and base their content strategies on just keywords.
But ranking high for keywords that don’t produce ROI for your business or your brand awareness is futile—vanity metrics, if you may.
The modern, more effective way is by focusing on user intent first, keywords second.
The former means creating content and keyword strategies around the searcher’s intended outcome.
There are three main types of searcher intent:
Information (e.g., “What is the history of Ducati Monster”)
Navigational (e.g., “Ducati Monster groups on Facebook”)
Transactional (e.g., “Ducati Monster for sale”)
For respected digital marketing agencies, designing blog topics around keyword and searcher intent is an absolute given.
You must first understand what your target readers are ultimately looking for. For example, if you’re a motorcycle insurance agency looking to get people at the top of your sales funnel, you’ll focus on information-based searcher intent.
Brainstorm and begin thinking like a target customer:
What’s the average rate for motorcycle insurance in my state?
How much does age affect insurance costs?
Do I really need full coverage on a used motorcycle?
Check Quora, Reddit, and other reputable online forums to see the conversations going on among your prospective customers.
Then, based on your research, begin keyword research for a main “target” or two keywords for each article.
Use tools like SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner (free with a Google Ad account signup) and search volume and keyword difficulty rankings that you actually have a chance to rank for.
For example, with SEMrush, “writing for SEO” has a search volume of 1,600 visitors per month. This is much easier to rank for than “SEO services” with a search volume of 12,100.
An even more focused keyword that will be easier to rank for is “writing meta tags for SEO,” which only has a search volume of 50.
Ranking factors also depend on your website's authority — which derives from links from other relevant and reputable websites — and a sound technical platform. You need a smooth-functioning (and fast!) technical platform before anything can truly rank consistently strong. (More to come in upcoming 365 to Vision newsletters).
Again, only use one or two target keywords per article, and keep that page's content hyper-focused on the main topic that includes that target keyword.
Also, try to use the target keyword(s) in the:
Title tag/headline.
Meta description.
Headline tags.
Image alt text (words that describe the image; search engines can’t read images without words).
2. Optimize The Title Tag
The title tag is the title (or headline) that shows up in search results. This provides one of the strongest signals to search engines about what your online article is about.
This goes for any webpage: service pages, product pages, blogs, landing pages for email signups, etc.
The title tag should:
Feature the target keyword,
Say who the post is for, what the post is about, and create curiosity or a promise.
Be 50-60 characters in length (characters, not words). Search engines typically truncate after 60 characters. With that said, my company ContentMender has experimented with much longer title tags and saw some positive results. (More on this in a future Substack.)
3. Optimize The Meta Description
This element is under the title tag in search results. Though Google says this has zero direct ranking factors, a meta description has strong indirect ranking factors.
Think of this as an ad for your article that needs to be 140-160 characters (again, not words).
4. Optimize Headline Tags
Think of these as subtopics for each section. All seven points here are headline tags, which should be highlighted and made Headline 2 (H2) tags.
The H1 tag is the title for most web platforms, and you should only use one H1 tag per page.
5. Use Bullet Points
Overall, blog posts work best at a minimum of 1,000 words with 500 words per page. Use bullet points and bullets wherever possible; they also send strong signals to search engines about the value you place on that section of content.
With that said, try to use strong keywords within these bullets. They also add value to the user experience because they immediately direct attention to themselves.
6. Use Related Keywords
You’ll want to use related keywords throughout your content, which shows a search engine’s relevance to the post’s or page’s target keyword that was used in the title tag and the content’s theme.
According to the SEMrush marketing tool, a few examples for the target keyword “writing for SEO” include “what is SEO writing,” “writing for search engine optimization,” and “SEO writing guide."
You don’t want to force these. Instead, make a list and infuse the related keywords into your content naturally.
7. Optimize Internal Links
An internal link is simply when you hyperlink a word or phrase to another page on your website. For example, if I said, "to learn more about mastering your writing, visit ‘How Can You Become A Better Writer Kill Complancy’."
This link points to another internal page on the 365 to Vision Substack and shows that the post is relevant to this one.
The internal links send strong signals to search engines that we think other pages are essential, which helps strengthen overall SEO.
Although ranking organically at the top of search engines takes months, top-ranking content maintains its impact, unlike ads that disappear once the ad spend runs out. And once an organic piece becomes popular, it can have an effect like compounding interest in investing and continue scaling your business or brand daily.
If you create consistent and frequent content and keep your website’s technical SEO performance strong, this content will continue ranking highly.
The result is greater ROI. The No. 1 avenue toward this increased ROI? Online writing that puts equal emphasis on quality and SEO.
There’s much more to discuss on this topic, but these are the basics that can positively transform your online content.
Writing is a huge part of living the 365 to Vision lifestyle. The clearer you can communicate through writing, whether an email, article, or social post, the clearer your message to your readers. This means more productivity, which equates to more earnings and more time to screw around. Many articles in this newsletter will be dedicated to writing.
Portions of this post originally appeared on Forbes.com.