SEO Content Writing shouldn’t be a random collection of actions. It’s organized into three main areas:
- Research
- Write
- Promote
We’ll go into each of these areas soon, but I first wanted to mention a few things. One, you won’t necessarily see results straight away. SEO is a slow burn sort of marketing approach, but those who burn longest usually succeed. Expect at least six months on a new domain before Google takes you out of their sandbox and starts consistently showing your content.
Two, SEO content writing isn’t just about reads. You totally need to make it about revenue too. You’re writing to make money in your business, whatever that may be. SEO is there to drive the right customers to consider what you have to sell.
Now, let’s get into it.
Step 1 – Research
It shouldn’t be any surprise that Research is the first step. If you were writing any sort of content on your blog, the research component would just be about knowing who your readers are, seeing what they’re already reading, and writing what they hope to read more of. But with SEO Content Writing, this actually becomes easier.
With SEO, it works because people search for things in Google. They mainly do this through keyword search, i.e. they’re typing in words and hoping to find relevant information. If you use keyword tools like Uber Suggest by Neil Patel, you’ll be able to find some rough search volume around this, which gives some indication of the content people are hoping to read, as well as what’s already out there. Use this to your advantage, reverse-engineer and profit!
Step 2 – Write
Actually creating the content is the next important step. While I’ve called this section “Write”, it’s really about creating the best sort of content that gels with your audience. Written content is pretty safe, but what if your readers like video summaries? Can you record yourself reading the text in your content out? This helps to also build brand awareness and trust between you and your readers.
You could also make gifs, infographics or other types of images. These are nice summaries of your content that can get shared around Google, helping with link building, brand awareness and bringing readers in as well. Point is, use writing as a foundation, but don’t be afraid to use other mediums as well. They all have ranking power in Google too.
Step 3 – Promote
This is the last step that people don’t do enough of. They assume that if they write and they’ve considered the on-page SEO components, that it’s enough.
You might get a few impressions if you choose your keywords wisely (and Google decides to rank you for them), but that’s never going to be enough. You also have to share your content or otherwise promote it to communities where people might benefit from it.
How would they benefit from it? If they’re in those communities complaining day in, day out and you address those complaints in your piece, chances are they’ll love reading it and sharing it around too. Communities are the secret of getting readership. The people are already there, find out what they want and give it to them. The promotion then becomes effortless.
1, 2, 3. Seems simple, doesn’t it? It does take time for SEO content writing to work, but this is a straightforward process that can pay dividends over time. You just have to give it at least 6 months. The results afterwards speak for themselves.