So What's This All About?

Writing content for SEO is not just a case of flinging some choice words in a rhythmic and easy-to-read fashion, hoping that readers will somehow find it and enjoy reading it…unfortunately 😆

What Does it Take?

What it takes is a big, boiling hot cup of coffee ☕ (btw, our favourite coffee in the office is Pact Coffee, check them out) and… (less exciting) research and a strategy. I am kidding though – writing content is fun once you have the foundations set. You can be creative, funny, personable while letting your organisations personality shine through and providing your readers with valuable information!

Your SEO score is likely to be nice and high, and you’ll reap all the organic traffic rewards without having to splash out on Paid Search budgets 💰, if you put in the time and effort.

According to SemRush, 52% of marketers say that their biggest challenge is writing content that draws in organic traffic.

Why are Research and Strategy So Important?

It’s important because your content needs to be targeted 🎯, have an audience in mind with whom you are trying to relate and offer a solution to whatever
questions they’re asking. This forms part of your strategy when it comes to SEO. This research involves finding keywords that are relevant to your strategy and your target audience’s intent. You need to identify, prioritise and optimise this keyword throughout your content in order to boost your SEO score and ranking. Why? Because these keywords help search engines, like Google, understand your content and know what to do with it. In this way, Google can decipher whether your content is relevant to your target audience and their search queries. That’s the name of the game, folks! Unique, relevant and engaging content is what gets you to the top of organic search results.

Here’s why SEO optimisation of your content is so important (especially if your marketing strategy is to increase click through rates to your website or a specific page):

According to Search Engine Journal, over 25% of people click the first organic listing on a Google search result, only 15.7% click the second organic listing and a mere 2.5% click the tenth listing.

SO what do we know? Writing content with SEO in mind, with good research and a strategy underpinning that content will ultimately lead to a better ranking on SERPS and a higher click through rate. Result? A growing audience.

Growing audience > generate more leads > increase revenue

You're at the Top of the Page, but No One is Clicking 👎

This is where your content comes to the party – touch, pause…ENGAGE. What you really want to avoid is being chuffed because you have nabbed that first position on the SERP only to realise that you are still not receiving any clicks or traffic. Bummer…😩

It can be a challenge for content writers to write engaging and entertaining content that also fulfils all SEO requirements. However, this is really important because if people don’t enjoy your content, they’re likely to not click on it or to bounce right off the page 🏀 .

This is where it is important to have researched your chosen topic, understood whether it is something engaging/useful for your specific target audience and employed someone with a flare for creative writing to do the job!

However! You can write the best content in the world but if your SEO Title and Meta Description are as boring as a Gran’s ultimate knitting guide 👵 …you’ll likely not receive those clicks either.

What sounds better?

Plastic Free Water Bottles | 10% off your first order | Planet First Store

Or

Plastic Free Water Bottles | Planet First Store

Research Your Topic – you’ve got to know what you’re talking about and who is asking about it. What are their pain points and how can your content resolve these for them?This includes keyword research!
Pick a Primary Keyword – optimise your content by using this keyword throughout. Avoid keyword stuffing though – keywords are useful, but not if keywords are stuffed throughout your keyword optimised blog for keyword’s sake. See what I mean?
Well Thought Out Structure and Readability – is your content well-structured and easy to read. Don’t underestimate the importance of headings and subheadings!
Add Alt-Text to Images – images/GIFs/video/audio are all very important components in content creation. They add interest, humour, interaction and they can convey a message much more effectively/quickly then streams of words.

Include the Primary Keyword in Your Meta Description – this is very important as it gives your potential viewer more insight into how relevant your content is to what they’re searching for.
Make sure your SEO Title and Meta Descriptions are “Click-Worthy” – you want to draw the attention of your viewers and make them want to click! Usually, an offering/discount is a good addition.
SEO Title and Meta Description Length – make sure the length of these two elements are just right! You don’t want your SEO Title to be too short and you don’t want it to be so long that it gets truncated.
Freshness – make sure you are always creating fresh content for your viewers. This is a proven way of increasing your visibility through SEO rankings. Google introduced this ‘freshness’ factor in 2011 and uses it regularly to boost those pages that have fresh/new content. This can also involve updating older content!
Remember to build links by linking reputable websites and also linking internal relevant pages from your own website.
Get the experts in for advice! We are SEO experts at Big Gun Digital, and more than happy to help you. Checkout some of our favourite projects where we have helped clients with their SEO strategies.

What is the Ultimate Takeaway from This?

Writing content with SEO in mind is all about having done the right research so that your content is valuable and informative for your clients – answering their search queries is the ultimate goal!