SEO Copywriting refers to the art of writing content that ranks high in search. Put it simply, if you follow the basis of SEO copywriting, your content will have a better chance of getting found. In this article, I will explore the basic principles of writing a blog with SEO in mind.

The audience first

The reason why businesses create and distribute content online is for people to find it and read it. Usually, this content is in the form of a blog and has the aim to transfer useful information to the reader about the company itself, its products or services, or anything the audience of such content can relate to. For example, if your business sells outdoor equipment, your blog may feature articles about the best destinations of the season for outdoor activities as well as an article about why you company is using a specific technology.

Your content needs to speak to your audience. This is probably the biggest rule that Google has implemented in their search algorithm, in order to decide which page to rank on top.

Choose your keywords carefully

There are multiple factors that will determine the ranking and there are ways you can improve your blog’s ranking. What you should never disregard is the use of keywords in prime positions:

> Title H1

> Tag title

> First paragraph

> Titles of paragraphs (h2)

> Subheadings (h3)

It is really important to analyse the keywords choice. This can be done by using the following free tools:

> Google AdWords Keyword Planner;

> Google Trends: the overview of the performance of the keyword;

> Google Suggest: the feature of Google search; it suggests the best matching search queries for the entered keyword.

A good practice is also to simply put yourself in the shoe of your customers or potential customers; what would they be searching for?

Time to get writing

Now that you have a clear idea of how your potential reader may behave, it’s time to get to work and create the content. Where to start? Normally, from the beginning and so from the title. But the title, in SEO copywriting, is as important as the keywords you choose. So pick a temporary one and get back to it at the end, when you will be able to make a decision based on the words used on your article.

Content Analysis

The great thing about digital copywriting is that you are not alone. In the sense that technology, once again, comes to the rescue and guides you through the difficulties of writing the perfect text. Mind you, no tool will write for you! But the are some tools that will measure how well written (based on SEO rules) your article is. One of this tool is Yoast!, an SEO Plugin for WordPress.

Yoast provides readability suggestions by analysing the following parameters (and others):

• Presence of subheadings: there should be at least one
• Length of sentences: sentences should have less than 20 words
• Length of paragraphs: paragraphs shouldn’t be longer than 5 lines
• Presence of transition words or phrases: you should avoid these

Editorial guidelines

Other than the digital tools we mentioned above, you can apply other techniques that will enhance your articles. Starting from the adoption of editorial guidelines. This tool helps you define the tone of voice, the style and the audience you want to target. Anyone responsible for writing the content will need to stick with these guidelines; the good news is that writing will become a lot easier.

Editorial guidelines may include:

> forbidden words

> how many external/internal links to include

> how long each article should be

> how many sub-headings to use

> abstract or not

directions for adding images

And now the title

You should put lot of thought into your article’s title. This is because not only your audience loves titles, search engines do too! Bear in mind there are two titles: the article’s title (H1) and the page’s title (tag title). The first one is the title of your article, therefore allows some sort of freedom and creativity. The latter is the one used by search engines and will need to include your keywords if you want to have better chances at ranking at the top!

If you need help selecting a great articles, these tools will come in handy:

> HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator

> BuzzSumo

Let me know if you’ve mastered the art of SEO Copywriting and how your articles are ranking. And if you are struggling, let us know and we’ll be happy to help you out.