Writing high-quality texts to get high positions in search results is quite challenging, but writing to rank on Google requires even more strategic planning. Successful SEO copywriters consider user needs and the working principle of search engines throughout the writing process. And this blog post reveals the main points you need to consider in your work and the tools you can use to achieve your SEO goals.
What is SEO Copywriting
SEO copywriting combines standard SEO techniques that increase traffic (such as keyword analysis) with
convincing words that force customers to take a particular action. This process
can be applied to home pages, product cards, blog posts, and your review site
profiles. With the right approach, SEO copywriting can increase the total
number of keywords for which your content ranks highly.
Why is it so crucial for promotion? Google relies on natural
language processing to understand what users are looking for and what our page
is about. Over the years, NLP models have become much more sophisticated. Put
some of your site content into Google's NLP Demo to learn more about this technology.
Then take a look at how Google's algorithms work to understand it. Thanks to Google's advances in NLP, SEO copywriting has become much less reliant on various tricks and more on creating informative and valuable content for users.
SEO Guidelines for Writing Content
SEO copywriters should consider how the search engine works and use that knowledge when writing content. It requires following SEO-copywriting tips to improve rankings. But of course, this is not the whole list. So if you want more information, use top writing services to get more value out of it later on.
# 1 Choose an Achievable Goal
Before you start writing, clearly define a keyword-related goal. Then, make sure you prepare the content with realistic and achievable goals in mind. Keyword research is the foundation of the SEO copywriting process. So first, research all the keywords for your topic.
Most likely, you're going to choose keywords that will give
you more results in search, but these keywords are often high-frequency and
very competitive. If your site has less authority, you're unlikely to rank on
the first page for high-frequency queries, no matter how good your content is.
So how do you know if your content has a chance of ranking first? The metrics of the difficulty can serve as a good benchmark for these keyword goals. Next, you'll need to find relevant keywords with metrics of difficulty that are less than or equal to your site's DA (Domain Authority). These keywords may be from the long tail (3 to 5-word phrases) or have low commercialization, but they may present real opportunities to rank your content faster and attract traffic.
# 2 Analyze the Content Ranking
Want to know what you need to do to rank first? Look at the
content that is already on the first page. Study the top-ranking sites and use
their text to guide creating your content. Next, collect the visibility of all
your competitors and compile their rankings with a visibility and competitor
analyzer.
It gives you a better idea of what they write about and how they do it. But the goal is not to create an exact copy of your competitors but to better understand the content, authority, and user experience signals of the page that Google search robots are responding to.
# 3 Understand User's Query Intent
Search queries often fall into three categories:
navigational, informational, and transactional. The search intent of your
target keyword determines the type of content you should create on the page.
For example, for transactional keywords, Google is more likely to promote
product or service pages, knowing that the user wants to make a purchase.
For informational queries, Google is more likely to rank for blogs, best-of lists, how-to articles, and resource-oriented content types. Most likely, your keywords can be attributed to one of the above types, so ensure your text is consistent with that intent.
# 4 Create a Structure
Not all structures look the same, but the idea is to
identify the overall theme, subtopics, headings, and main points that the
content will include. If you optimize your text correctly, your keywords will
be prominent in these structural components.
Of course, not all copywriters like to work on the structure, but it can be beneficial from an on-page SEO perspective. Today you can find different copywriting software tools to automate the process of creating structure. It saves a lot of time and makes writing much more effortless.
# 5 Focus on the Quality of Your Content
Google tends to rank higher for quality content for its
users. But what is quality in the eyes of search engines? Relevance, load time,
backlinks, and referring domains are a few factors. In terms of quality signals
that are conveyed through text, Google is looking for:
✔ Comprehensive and in-depth
information;
✔ Original reports and
analysis;
✔ Expert authorship and good
source selection;
✔ Correct grammar and spelling.
So it's worth doing your best to meet these criteria, and
Google is more likely to deem your site high quality. And quality content does
not tolerate long sentences, bulky paragraphs, or typos. As for readability,
your main goal is to make the content understandable to different people.
Some users will return to the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) if the content is filled with complicated terms. Similarly, poorly written and uninteresting text or full of typos will scare readers. So instead, aim for shorter sentences and paragraphs to improve the ease of reading.
# 6 Research the Topic in Depth
Although text length is not a ranking factor, text size is
strongly correlated with a site's high search position. This is because the
long text is more likely to fit the quality parameters listed in the previous
clause of this article. Also, additional research has shown that longer text
earns more backlinks and social engagement of visitors.
So try to be comprehensive in writing and research your topic thoroughly. Then, expand your content by exposing all possible subtopics. To dive in, use a tool to get site and competitor semantics. In addition, you'll find more keyword phrases.
# 7 Remember About Google Passage Ranking Update
The Google Passage Ranking update went into effect in early
2021. As a result, Google currently indexes and ranks pages and single pieces
of content. So, for example, when a user sees the SERP (Search Engine Results
Page), Google indexes the part of the page that answers that question and can
highlight it as a quick answer.
Proper structure and headings are vital to ensuring that your text's snippets rank well in searches. You can study the snippets of your output by using a snippet parser. But first, you'll see what information goes into them, which means what's worth emphasizing.
# 8 Use Text Optimization Tools
Using artificial intelligence and NLP tools can lead to
significant increases in keyword rankings. In addition, many companies offer
content optimization software that helps SEO copywriters avoid mistakes. These
tools identify common words and topics used in the top-ranked text and suggest
you include similar terms in your text.
If you use them naturally, the results can be significant. For example, there are many instances where content tools have been known to immediately impact keyword counts and average positions in the top rankings.
# 9 Offer Answers to Related Questions
Another way to boost keyword rankings is to answer questions that users ask in conjunction with your target keyword. There are several ways to find out what those questions are. First, explore search tips, which Google parser can help with. And also refer to the "People also ask" tool. Then incorporate these questions and their answers into your content. It helps expand your list of phrases and diversify your text.
# 10 Include Synonyms and Keywords in Titles
Including keywords in your h1 and h2 titles is important, but Google is now smart enough to understand synonyms and other related terms. Choose words that have a semantic connection to your primary keyword. Google's NLP algorithms use them to understand your content better. For example, adding similar queries to your titles can help you give searchers strong relevance avoiding an excessive number of your keywords.
Bonus Tip
Finally, one last additional tip concerns revising and updating your content. Over time, your content becomes obsolete simultaneously with the appearance of new information on the web. Keywords, in turn, may become more competitive, and links may break down. So review old or ineffective content to see if it needs updating.
Then, check your most important content on relevance at
least once a year, mainly if it discusses trends or uses analytics. It's also
worth using uniqueness checkers, which determine your text's relevance.
Summing Up
In reality, SEO copywriting does not end with publishing
texts on the site. The Internet is changing, algorithms are evolving, and
content needs to be updated periodically. However, if you take advantage of the
recommendations in this article, you can increase the shelf life of your
content so that it retains high keyword positions for years to come.
