9 Best SEO Writing Tips For Beginners To Create Content That Ranks

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The Ultimate Guide To Blog Content Creation

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Creating content that ranks high on search engines can feel like a puzzle, especially if you're new to the SEO world. You've got the writing skills, but how do you make your words stand out to readers and algorithms? That's where SEO content strategies for beginners comes in. By mastering key techniques, you can transform your content into something that resonates with your audience and rises to the top of search results. This article will guide beginners through the best SEO writing tips, helping you create content that ranks and achieves your goals.

Feather's Notion to blog can be a valuable resource in this journey. It makes SEO writing for beginners more accessible and equips them with the tools they need to succeed.

What is SEO Writing?

SEO writing is about creating content that ranks high on search engine results pages. It’s not just about using keywords. It's about crafting engaging and valuable content for readers while considering SEO techniques.

These techniques include keyword targeting, page speed optimization, cleaning up your site’s code, and earning backlinks. All these strategies help boost your site’s rankings in search results.

SEO Writing vs. Traditional Copywriting

Writing for SEO is different from traditional copywriting. While both aim to engage readers, SEO writing focuses on ranking content well in search engines. Traditional copywriting might not consider search engine rankings as much.

SEO writing involves creating fresh, quality content that search engines can rank. This is crucial if you want to earn top rankings for search results related to your business.

Why SEO Writing Matters

Without fresh, quality content, search engines have nothing to rank in search results. That’s why SEO writing is crucial to earn top rankings for search results related to your business. Ultimately, higher rankings allow you to gain more:

Traffic

Leads

Revenue

Obtaining top rankings is a huge win for your business, and SEO writing is key.

How to Optimize Blog Posts for SEO

Why Content Is Important for SEO

How to Write SEO Content for Website

How to Write SEO Optimized Content

SEO Content Writing Examples

Importance of Content Writing in SEO

SEO Content Planning

How to Use AI for SEO Content Writing

Challenges in SEO Content Creation

SEO Content Writing Tips

Understanding the Basis of SEO Writing

SEO isn't just about cramming keywords into your content. It's about crafting content that speaks directly to your audience; Google’s algorithm updates, like Penguin and Panda, target content that prioritizes keywords over quality. Your audience can spot shallow content a mile away.

They need clear, helpful information. If your content doesn’t deliver, they’ll bounce, and trust in your brand will plummet.

Authority in content creation is about more than just backlinks. It’s about demonstrating expertise. Whether you’re a seasoned expert or have done your homework, you must convey confidence and accuracy. When your content is well-informed, it’s more likely to earn quality backlinks, which boosts your search engine rankings.

Keywords: The Fuel of SEO Writing

Keywords are crucial, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle. They help search engines understand your content. You must choose keywords related to your business that have high search volumes and low difficulty. Once selected, use them throughout your content and metadata, like title tags and meta descriptions, to boost your relevance to search engines.

Originality: The Core of Effective SEO

Copying content is a big no-no in SEO. Not only can it lead to penalties, but it also does nothing to help your audience. Your content should be fresh and original. Use online tools to check for duplication, ensuring your content stands out in the crowded digital landscape.

Streamlining Your Content Workflow

Run your blog and newsletter with Feather today! Create a new account and send emails from Notion, or go from Notion to blog in minutes!

9 Best SEO Writing Tips for Beginners To Create Content That Ranks

It’s wise to keep on top of content and SEO marketing trends to stay ahead of your competition and spot any opportunities to see your content. We’ll take you through 9 key tips to help you write with SEO in mind.

1. Understand the KPI of Your Writing

Good SEO writing is not just about including a few keywords and being left at that. This is where your content marketing KPIs play a role, as they will help you determine the end goal of each piece of content. You should also have content in your marketing mix that drives people through the marketing funnel from awareness to conversion.

SEO is magic as it becomes this intersection of tech and story. You can tell a powerful story, sprinkle the magic of SEO on top of it, and not only will your readers see it, but more importantly, search engines will see it, and you can move to the top of the rankings. For example, top-of-the-funnel content for driving awareness includes:

Blog posts

eBooks

Infographics

Bottom-of-the-funnel content to encourage conversions includes demos, testimonials, or webinars.

2. Create a Structure Based on a Strategy

Creating an effective content marketing strategy is integral to your overall strategy. Without one, it will be challenging to ensure that you are creating relevant content that drives prospects through the sales funnel and that what you create will appeal to your buyer personas.

The Hub and Spoke SEO Strategy

There are several strategy approaches, but one that works well for SEO is the ‘Hub and Spoke model’ (also known as the ‘Pillar and Clusters model’). This approach generates content around a broad topic as a hub piece and then generates supplementary content that links to it and goes into more detail—these are your spokes.

Boosting SEO Performance

For example, let’s take SEO writing. A hub piece would be ‘What is SEO Writing?’ and a spoke piece to link to and support it would be ‘SEO for Bloggers: How to Optimize Your Articles.’ This approach will help you build a lot of content (and show expertise) on a particular topic, increase keyword rankings, drive traffic, and grow KPIs such as leads and sales.

3. Find SEO Keywords by Using Keyword Research Tools

Keywords are a crucial element of SEO writing. There are five essential steps to keyword research:

Define

Brainstorm

Filter

Inspect

Prioritize

Optimizing Keyword Selection

Once you have a target list, you can use research tools to help rank and explore keywords. There are free tools like AlsoAsked and AnswerThePublic, but the searches are limited to a free account, so you won’t get huge volumes unless you pay. Paid tools such as Semrush and AHREFS are handy and give you a complete account of keyword volume, competitive insights, etc.

4. Make Sure Your Headers Are in Order

Blogs are an essential part of a company’s content marketing strategy. They allow you to draw people in through relevant and engaging content that can increase dwell time and encourage click-through.

Optimizing Blog Structure

Today’s users are digitally savvy and want information quickly, so blog headers are essential. When people read more extended pieces of content, they tend to scan or skim. That means they are looking for information that’s important to them. Use headers throughout your blog to give a flow to it, improve accessibility, and highlight what each section is about. H1s should be the most important, followed by H2s and H3s.

5. Write Using the Tone Suited to Your Industry

Every industry is different, and the messaging and tone for one sector do not necessarily work for another. For example, a consumer beauty brand may use imagery and an upbeat and friendly tone, while a B2B software provider may need a more formal and factual approach.

Building Your Brand Voice

When it comes to tone, think about the one you use carefully as one that’s risqué may turn your customers off rather than engage. You should also keep your community in mind and be inclusive so that when a user visits your website or social media feed, they can see what you are about.

You may already know what tone works for your prospects and customers. But if you don’t, it’s crucial to understand your ‘ideal’ customer. This requires creating buyer personas for your audience segment so you know how to attract and engage them.

6. Include Relevant Internal and External Links

Links are the best way to guide website visitors to other relevant content. To get the most from your content, including internal links that will drive people to the content of interest - think of the ‘Hub and Spoke model.’ You can also drive people to the ‘money pages’ that allow them to purchase.

Building Effective Backlink Strategies

External links or backlinks are an essential part of SEO. They link to your content from third-party sites. The more external sites that link to your content, the better, as it will drive search rankings and show value in your content.

If you use third-party links as part of your strategy, focus on high-quality backlinks rather than many low-quality ones that will have little impact on your SEO.

7. Suit Your Writing Based on the Platform and Output

Any content marketer will tell you that each platform requires its content. That means that how you write for a blog will not work for a social media post or landing page. Each content type and platform requires its approach and style. If you’re writing a blog, you’re taking people on a journey and creating a story.

A Google ad must hit all the relevant keywords and be compelling to encourage a click within seconds.

8. Write Compelling CTAs

If you’ve spent a lot of time creating content, make sure you allow people to take action. A CTA aims to convert a reader or visitor into a nurtured lead.

There are several types of CTAs you can use:

Sign-up or Subscribe: This encourages people to sign up for a newsletter or updates.

Learn More: This invites people to a tailored landing page or another site section. It can also act as a teaser for launch events, as Apple did in this email invite.

Get Started: This can encourage people to sign up for a course or start learning.

Download Now: You can use this to urge users to download an eBook or whitepaper.r

Donate or Get Involved: This is used by the non-profit sector to raise awareness of a campaign or drive donations. Airbnb recently got involved in helping house Ukrainian refugees by asking people to ‘Host a refugee.’

Get My Discount: This can prompt people to sign up for a mailing list to get a discount code.

Try for Free: This is for a free trial or demo. We use this example on our site to invite people to try a free digital skills test.

9. Always Optimize!

You may think that once you hit ‘publish,’ your job is done. Unfortunately, that’s not the case when it comes to content. There’s always room for improvement, even for top-performing blogs or landing pages. Information can get old, especially if you’re using statistics or including third-party reports.

Adapting to Keyword Trends

Keywords also go in and out of style, so the ones you identified for a campaign six months ago may no longer be searched for. So, you always need to optimize your content. The best way to do this is to audit your on-site SEO, particularly for key pages that drive leads or revenue.

You should also monitor content performance. If you see a slide in views or leads, try to identify why. You can do this by examining your data and identifying decreased content over time.

SEO Content Creation for Small Businesses

SEO Content Writing Checklist

SEO Content Writing Tips

SEO Content Optimization Tips

SEO and Content Creation

SEO Content Tracking

SEO Content Development

Effective SEO Content Writing Techniques

Elements of Successful SEO Content Creation

10 Best SEO Optimization Tools For Content Optimization

1. Feather: Your Ultimate Blogging Companion

Feather is an SEO-friendly blog and email newsletter service that allows you to publish and manage content directly through Notion. With no coding or design skills required, Feather lets you write blog content on Notion and automatically publish it to your SEO-friendly Feather blog. Want the HubSpot experience through Notion?

Feather has enabled seamless CRM and blog management for you. Custom CSS options, email collection, and more are at your fingertips. Write on Notion and automatically publish it to your blog. Collaborate effortlessly during the publishing process. Feather also lets you send newsletters to your subscribers directly from Notion.

Run your blog and newsletter with Feather today! Create a new account and send emails from Notion, or go from Notion to blog in minutes!

2. Master SEO with SEMrush: A Comprehensive Tool

SEMrush is a powerhouse for evaluating domain authority, monitoring SERP movements, and uncovering new ranking opportunities. It checks for broken links, HTML tags, and overall site suitability for crawling. The tool identifies SEO issues and provides practical recommendations for improvement.

Use its search functionality to filter content and find exactly what you want, including keyword difficulty and search volume. The 360-View Competitive Analysis is a standout feature that lets you analyze competitors’ SEO to improve your strategy.

Plans

Free Trial: 7 days

Pro: $99.95, Guru ($191.62)

Business: $374.95

3. Google Search Console: Your Free SEO Ally

Google Search Console is a robust, free tool that tracks and analyzes your website's SEO performance on Google’s SERP. Add a verification code to authenticate your website and upload your XML sitemap, a roadmap of your content that informs Google about your site’s eligibility for crawling.

Your Free SEO Health Check

You're in good shape if there are no broken links or void HTML tags. Search Console provides insights into how users and Google perceive your website, guiding you to optimize for higher rankings. It’s also compatible with Google Analytics for a comprehensive data view. Pricing: Free.

4. Stay Ahead with Moz Pro: The SEO Expert’s Choice

Moz Pro keeps you prepared for Google’s frequent algorithm updates by offering a brilliant route for SEO optimization. The tool provides site crawls, keyword suggestions, and the free MozBar toolbar to view SEO metrics like page and domain authority in real-time. These features make it easy to plan content ahead of time. The toolbar is a free Google Chrome extension with additional features through MozBar Pro.

Plans

Free Trial: 30 days

Standard: $79

Medium: $143

Large: $239

Premium: $479

5. WooRank: A Versatile SEO Powerhouse

WooRank is a favorite among SEO experts for its ability to track and report digital marketing data. It scans your website’s technical and content efficacy and provides improvement recommendations. The tool’s SEO analysis allows you to enter competitors’ names to find their keywords and use them to optimize your content.

It’s best for content optimization and checking for duplicate content to increase organic traffic.

Plans

Free Trial: 14 days

Pro: $53.25

Premium: $133.25

Enterprise: Custom pricing

6. Clearscope: Keyword Optimization Made Easy

Clearscope is on-page SEO software that helps content marketing teams write better web pages and blog posts. It scans top-performing content to find keyword and header usage trends and provides clear recommendations on making content more comprehensive and relevant.

Content Optimization and Grading

Clearscope evaluates your content and assigns a grade based on its optimization level. Use its application, Google Docs plugin or CMS integration to enhance your content within existing workflows.

Plans

Essentials: $199/month

Business: $599/month

Enterprise: (Custom pricing)

7. Google Trends: Insights into Search Behavior

Google Trends offers a macro-level view of search interest trends across the globe. Unlike tools that focus on keyword optimization or site performance, Google Trends provides a broader perspective on what's capturing public interest. This can inform content strategies, product launches, and marketing campaigns by aligning them with user interest.

Plans: Free

8. Screaming Frog: The Technical SEO Audit Tool

Screaming Frog is a powerful website-crawling SEO audit tool that lets you quickly audit your site at scale. It identifies technical SEO problems and optimizes your website for better search engine ranking.

The tool focuses on technical, back-end site audits, gathering data on every URL, and analyzing SEO elements like broken links, redirect issues, meta tags, etc.

Plans: Free, Paid $259/year

9. AnswerThePublic: Uncover User Intent

AnswerThePublic is a unique keyword research tool that provides insights into the questions people ask online. It collects search questions and suggested autocomplete searches from Google and Bing to help you better understand user intent.

This human-focused approach empowers content creators and marketers to produce content that resonates with their audience.

Plans

Individual: $9/ month

Pro: $99/month

Expert: $199/month

10. Ahrefs: A Full-Stack SEO Tool

Ahrefs is an excellent all-in-one web crawler for improving SEO. Its Site Audit tool highlights areas of your website that need improvement for higher rankings. Conducted competitor analyses for SEO, identified competitor backlinks, and found link-building opportunities.

Ahrefs checks for broken links and provides in-depth reports of your best-performing web pages.

Plans

Lite: Starts at $99/month

Standard: Starts at $199/month

Advanced: Starts at $399/month

Enterprise: Starts at $999/month).

Go From Notion to Blog With Ease Today with Feather

Imagine you’re writing your next blog post with your favorite tool. You’re not worrying about coding. You’re not fussing over the design. You’re just writing; when you hit publish, it’s on your site. Feather is a service that lets you run an SEO-friendly blog directly from Notion. You jot down your thoughts, and Feather does the rest.

Simplified Publishing with Advanced Features

With subfolders for better SEO and no technical hurdles, it’s almost like magic. Need to change the design? Feather lets you use custom CSS. Want to collect emails? No problem. Feather handles it. It’s like having the full power of HubSpot but with Notion’s simplicity. You can collaborate with your team during the publishing process, making it easier to get things done. Feather even lets you send newsletters directly from Notion.

Why Subfolders Are a Game Changer for SEO

Speaking of SEO, let’s talk about subfolders. Subfolders are better for SEO than subdomains. They keep all your content under one roof, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site. Feather lets you set up your blog as a subfolder so that you can enjoy all the SEO benefits without any hassle.

Streamlining Your CRM and Blog Management with Feather

Feather also lets you manage your CRM and blog content from one place. This means you can keep track of your leads and content without switching between different tools. It’s a game changer for busy marketers who want to streamline their workflow and get more done in less time.

And let’s not forget about Feather’s newsletter feature. You can send newsletters directly from Notion, keeping your audience engaged easier than ever. Plus, you can use Feather’s email collection feature to grow your subscriber list. It’s a win-win.

Ready to Get Started?

If you’re ready to streamline your blog and newsletter management, it’s time to try Feather. You’ll be up and running in minutes, with no coding or design skills required. It’s the perfect solution for busy marketers who want to focus on what they do best: creating great content.