SEO Content Writing: Best Practices For Content Users & Search Engines Will Appreciate

If this writer has had to underscore the importance of SEO content writing once, they’ve had to do it a thousand times. Simply put, if you aren’t putting these best practices at the heart of your content strategy, you won’t achieve search engine rankings and people aren’t going to find your business.

And, if you’re not being found for relevant search terms and keyword phrases – be that to do with homeware, women’s fashion, or cryptocurrency – you might as well pack up and go home. It sounds blunt, but it’s true. If you’re going to publish content to your website, you may as well do it right and give it the best chance of ranking!

There are various factors to consider when it comes to SEO content writing, and these continue to evolve along with Google’s algorithm. Not even a decade ago, you’d get away with writing lengthy content that was littered with core keywords, but now there’s a lot more to it. Think internal linking strategies, nailing the intent of the page, content diversification, and getting the word count right based on the SERP. And that’s not even scratching the surface.

In this blog though, we’ve tried to take all of the valuable information you’ll need to write good content for both search engines and users. If you follow these points, you’ll stand in good stead for having content that performs well for your chosen keywords.

Content diversification: why it’s important to write different types of content

The way to think about virtually all types of content, beyond the fact they need to be detailed and well-written, is that search engines reward work that provides the best value and user experience. After all, search engines make their money by offering an impeccable service, so if you can provide the content that does that, they’re going to thank you in the form of high search rankings (call me cynical, but I’m right).

This is why the detail you provide to your audience, and arguably how many actual words you’re publishing, is so important because it gives you as big a chance as possible of covering as many industry-related topics. A 500-word blog isn’t going to provide a user as much information and insight as a 5,000-word piece, or a 25,000 word glossary – it’s that simple.

More words allow you to answer more searched questions in more detail, including more headings, more links, more… Well, you get the idea. You’re widening the scope of your already compelling content marketing, and creating pieces of work that will include and target a greater range of keywords.

So, where does diversification come in? First, it’s important to understand what content diversification is. Content diversity means using a wide range of topics, different types of posts, and different social media channels for publication and syndication. Diversifying your marketing campaigns will increase your chances of keeping your audience engaged, and you’ll reach a wider audience. With diversified content, you can reach new markets and provide insights in multiple formats.

Content diversification can have several benefits. Instead of relying on a single type of content such as a blog post, a diversified strategy ensures that different audience segments, learning preferences, and search behaviours are catered to. From a user perspective, it does all of that, but also provides several layers of detail to whatever sector you operate in, and whatever subject matters are relevant to your offering and audience.

From a search engine perspective, above anything, it signals that you’re giving users the detail that they want to see, or that they need. Given that search engines reward content that serves a clear purpose and provides users with valuable information, this is already a positive sign for them.

In terms of your rankings, if you write a blog post to support a core product/service page, this can positively influence your rankings in two ways. Firstly, if written well and following best practices, the blog should rank for its target keyword (it should ideally be a longer-tail keyword). But, if your internal linking hits the spot and you’re driving authority back to the most relevant product/service page, that page should then be bolstered by the supporting content, and see positive ranking movements (again, providing the content is well-written).

Think about ontology

Another key point to keep in mind is SEO ontology, which is the practice of including adjacent terms and phrases which may not rank on their own but help to, A, make you sound like an expert on the topic, and B, help the target keyword for your piece perform better.

Here’s an example below…

Let’s say that we’re writing a page about Olympic swimming, and we’re targeting the keyword of the same name, which currently receives around 2,100 monthly searches.

A non-ontological piece of original content might include something like:

“Olympic swimming is a sport that is made up of several individual competitions completed by either individuals or groups during the Olympic games. It is a very popular programme of events and many people have been successful in the sport.”

Sounds fine, but not particularly ontologically relevant. Here’s an example of a piece that is filled with more ontology, and thus, will perform better.

“The Olympic swimming programme is held in a 50-metre pool every four years during the Olympic games. It encompasses several individual and group competitions such as 100m breaststroke, 800m freestyle, and 200m backstroke. Swimming has been in the Olympics since 1896, over 120 years ago and initially just had freestyle and breaststroke events. It wasn’t until 1904 that backstroke was introduced. The most famous Olympic swimmers include people such as Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, and Mark Spitz.”

In the second paragraph, we’ve bolded all the ontologically relevant phrases and terms. It’s clear to see just how much more richer and valuable the latter piece of work is when compared to the first.

Intent, intent, intent

When writing your content, it’s important to think about the intent behind each piece. One of the easiest things to do is to look at what’s already ranking on page one for your target keyword, and judge if the page is commercial or informational. In other words, do you need a dedicated product/service page, or is blog content/a guide the best format to publish in?

It goes without saying that any question-based queries are best answered with a blog post to meet their informational intent, whereas something purely commercial should have its own page. As an example, you could have “women’s heels” as a category page, and then “what women’s heels are on trend right now?” as a blog post.

Thinking about intent also ties in with thinking about what content is most relevant to each stage of the buying process and the funnel…

Top of the funnel: Those at the top of the sales funnel have a problem they need to solve, so establish yourself as a possible solution since consumers are not married to any particular product or service at this stage. At thisVideo tutorials, infographics, checklists, and how-to guides can attract these users.

Middle of the funnel: The middle of the sales funnel is where people focus on a particular solution. Therefore, you need to show them how you can provide it. Content options include how-to guides, product overviews, and case studies.

Bottom of the funnel: At the bottom of the sales funnel, people are ready to buy, and here is where you need to explain what your product can do for them. Product overviews, customer reviews, and success stories are your best bets for converting visitors.

Demonstrating authority

Just a few years ago, building authority referred to link-building and link-building only. And of course, back in the day, we know this may have been somewhat of a dark art in the way that it was implemented. But now, link-building strategies have become a lot more sophisticated, quite like the concept of building authority itself.

Nowadays, demonstrating authority isn’t just about how many referring domains point to your website. It’s about sending trust signals, directly on your site, to Google and other search engines to prove that you’re a credible and trustworthy voice in the industry.

One of the ways to do this is to show E-E-A-T signals on your website. This acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust. These factors are used by Google to assess how reliable and credible website content is. It’s important across all sectors, but particularly for those in the ‘Your Money, Your Life’ (YMYL) categories such as health, legal, and finance, where incorrect information can have bad consequences.

Combining user-first copy with SEO best practices and E-E-A-T components is the optimal way to achieve organic success.

There are numerous ways to demonstrate these principles on-page and off-page:

• Author bios with qualifications, social links and experience
• About Us page with history, values and awards
• Testimonials, reviews and case studies
• Privacy policy and terms and conditions pages
• Trusted external links
• Accuracy and freshness of content
• Backlink profile
• Various structured data
• First-hand experience

Internal linking

Adding internal links to content ought to be a crucial step. Internal links are hyperlinks with the same source and target domains and lead to different sections of the same website. External links take you to a different website, but internal links keep you on the same.

Here are some of the different types of links you could include on a page of content:

Navigational links

These are the most popular internal links and help structure your website and guide the reader through the content. In addition, every page of your website has navigation links.

Contextual links

Links within the content of a page that direct users to relevant pages.

Image links

Images can also be used as links. Button images, charts, and infographics are examples of this. This link can benefit readers if there is a page that would assist someone who wants additional information about that image.

Footer links

Footer links, placed at the bottom of your page, are used to improve the usability of your website. A site’s footer often contains social media widgets, contact information, and an internal search tool for your website.

CTA links

CTA links are usually spread throughout content pieces directing the user to complete an action such as “get a quote” and “contact us”.

Internal linking has so many benefits – to start, a well-structured internal linking system can reduce the number of clicks required for users to access a specific page. This reduces the “click depth” and makes content more accessible. It can also help to minimise orphan pages, as internal linking reduces the chances of pages becoming orphaned, ensuring that all valuable content can be easily accessed by users and search engines.

And as already eluded to, by strategically linking to relevant parent or category pages, you can establish a clear hierarchy of your website’s content. This makes it easier for both users and search engines to understand the organisation of your site.

Best practices for anchor text and internal linking

• Anchor text should be relevant to the related link, not generic.
• Google perceives too many exact match links to be spammy, its best practice to use variations. The main thing to consider when adding links and anchor text is how naturally it fits within the body of the content. Don’t just stuff it anywhere.
• Never use ‘click here’ or ‘read this’, add context about the page ‘read more about SEO basics’
• Don’t use the same link text to link to different URLs
• Avoid using single words as anchor text. These aren’t descriptive enough to be useful.
• Avoid using URLs as anchor text, they aren’t user-friendly
• Keep the length of the anchor text succinct and relevant
• Don’t link to query strings
• Don’t link to non-existent pages
• Don’t link to the same page twice in one page
• Don’t link for the sake of it
• Avoid linking to low-authority external pages or other country’s domains
• Don’t link to anything that isn’t related to your subject (a blog about blogs linking to ironing)
• Don’t forget to regularly internal link to new content from relevant pages!
• Link to the most relevant page for the anchor text
• Link to the most important parent or sibling page first, followed by the second and third most important pages
• Think about how to place links to align with your user’s goals and your own conversion goals
• Link where it feels most natural in the text
• Place your first in-text link within the first 100-200 words
• Where you are writing a supporting blog for a category/service page, ensure the main target keyword links to the most important page to avoid cannibalisation

We hope this blog has helped you and will make your content strategy much more straightforward and focused.

If it all sounds a bit daunting, or you’re concerned you don’t have the time to do it all, you could always let our amazing content team do it instead.

For a free SEO industry report, or to chat more about our services feel free to get in touch by phone on 0161 327 2635 or email us at info@embryo.com.