SEO Writing: 8 Steps to Create Search-Optimized Content

If no one is searching for the topic you’re writing about, you won’t get search traffic no matter how high you rank.

So, the first step to creating SEO content is to do keyword research. Here’s how to get started:

Eyeball the report for keywords that actually make sense for you to target on your website. For example, if I owned an online shop that sells tea, I might target this keyword because searchers are clearly looking for tea recommendations, so I can easily "sell" my product in the content.

Google’s goal is to serve the most relevant results. They do this by figuring out why searchers are looking and what they want to see.

This has two implications for SEO content writing.

Search intent is the why behind a search query. If you want to rank high on Google, you need to align your content with search intent.

To check search intent, Google your target keyword. For example, if we search for “how to make money," we see that most of the top-ranking pages are lists of ways to save money:

Despite the term “how to," searchers are not looking for a guide—they’re looking for a list. So, if you’re targeting this topic, you’ll likely have to follow suit and create a listicle, too.

Broadly aligning your page with search intent doesn’t mean you’re giving searchers everything they want. There may be subtopics or features they expect to see.

For example, pages ranking for "affiliate marketing" all include a definition:

This is why Google recommends that your content provides a comprehensive description of the topic.

This means you need to include every subtopic searchers expect and want to see.

The easiest way to discover important subtopics is to look at the common keywords the top-ranking pages rank for. Here’s how to find these common keywords:

This will open the Content gap report, which shows you the common keywords these three pages are ranking for. Eyeball the report to find relevant subtopics you could cover.

For example, if we were targeting the keyword “inbound marketing," these would make good subheadings:

Google wants to reward pages that bring new information to the table.

At Chiang Mai SEO 2023, SEO Cyrus Shepard shared four ways to add something new to the conversation:

Here are some ways to show these:

Sweating already? You should be. Creating high-quality content isn’t supposed to be so easy. As Ryan Law, our Director of Content Marketing puts it:

Before you put pen to paper, you should create an outline. Creating an outline will help you:

By matching search intent, being comprehensive, and writing from a unique angle, you already have the necessary ingredients to create an outline. All that’s left is to put them together.

The easiest way to do this is with ChatGPT. Give it a prompt like:

It’ll generate an outline for you:

Pretty good!

This stage is about free writing without worrying too much about making the words perfect. Just get it all out.

I always write my drafts in Google Docs. This allows for easy communication between my colleagues, editors, and designers.

If you’re easily distracted, use some of these tricks:

As writers, we often have trouble seeing the wood for the trees. That’s why having a second pair of eyes is helpful.

Getting someone to review your draft can help point out inaccuracies, inconsistencies, failures in logic, phrasing errors, and grammatical mistakes.

You can ask team members or employees to give their feedback. If you have an audience, you can consider getting their feedback as well.

At Ahrefs, each draft goes through at least one person.

Here’s an example of how we improved the accuracy of our post, thanks to peer feedback:

This will make the content better in Google’s eyes.

Once you get the feedback, revise your writing accordingly and start polishing your article.

Your goal here is to provide the best possible answer in the most efficient way.

Efficient means you want to make it easy for them to consume. Here’s what you can do:

The title tag and meta description are the first things a searcher sees after Googling their query:

How enticing they are could mean the difference between a searcher clicking through or ignoring your page.

So, you want to make sure both are compelling for your article.

Here are some tips on writing an attractive title tag:

If you’re stuck, ask ChatGPT to brainstorm title tags for you and use them as inspiration:

Here are some tips on writing a compelling meta description:

Again, you can use ChatGPT to brainstorm meta descriptions for you:

After your post is published, you should always add internal links from other pages on your site to the new article.

Not only does this make your site user-friendly, but it also helps Google crawl and understand what your new page is about.

Here’s how to find relevant internal link opportunities:

This report will show you the page you should link to, the page you should link from, and the keyword context where you can add an internal link.

Go through the report and add your internal links.

If you can write and rank content that searchers are looking for, you'll get passive, consistent traffic to your website.

SEO writing boils down to creating the best possible answer to a given query presented in a way that’s easily understood and skimmable.

As long as you nail that and the basic on-page SEO best practices I mentioned, you’ve mastered the content side of SEO.

If you’re eager to learn more about writing and SEO, check out some of these other guides: