I’ve written hundreds of blogs as a content marketer, but I’m still susceptible to the amateur mistake of thinking about writing for SEO only after a blog is already written.
However, I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to think of SEO as the bookends of your blog. It can inform what you should write and optimize it when you’re done.
In fact, whenever I’ve consulted SEO marketing software before writing a blog, it’s given me insight into what questions my audience is asking, how I can simplify things, and what kind of outline I should follow.
SEO content writing doesn’t need to be boring or feel like it was written by a robot, either.
Read further to get tips on how to incorporate SEO in your blog writing while still creating interesting, useful content.
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Why is SEO content writing important?
Without SEO, your content is less likely to rank highly on search engines. Ranking lower may hinder your ability to attract and engage with your target audience. It may also make your content — and your brand — seem less credible and authoritative.
A 2024 First Page Sage study found that the clickthrough rate for websites in position one on the SERP is 39.8%. This number drops drastically to 18.7% for websites in position two and then to 1.6% for websites in position 10. When you get to page two of Google, that number sinks even lower.
This means that if your website is not on the first page, there’s only a small chance consumers will find your website organically. Fewer visits to your site mean fewer opportunities to generate leads and, ultimately, revenue.
Your next best option is investing in advertising to get those users to your site. But that costs money, and if you’re on a tight budget, why not invest time in SEO writing? It’s free and will likely bring you traffic for much longer than a campaign would.
SEO also addresses the top five issues marketers currently face (see below). By doing sufficient SEO research, you can generate new blog ideas, increase engagement, attract traffic, reach your audience, and generate leads.
The Basics of SEO Content Writing
When getting started with SEO content writing, it’s important to understand the basics. Here are some fundamental principles to follow when incorporating SEO into your writing.
Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization is all about strategically using relevant keywords and phrases in your content to boost its visibility and ranking.
This aspect of SEO is super important because it helps search engines better understand your content, thereby increasing the chances of it appearing in relevant search queries and attracting organic traffic.
To select the best keywords, you’ll need to research and identify what exactly your target audience is looking for and align it with your content’s topic. Finding the right balance between incorporating keywords in a way that makes sense to readers and satisfies search engine algorithms is key.
I’ll go more in-depth about how to find keywords and how to disperse them throughout your content in the tips section.
User Intent
User intent refers to the motivation or purpose behind a user’s search query. It’s about figuring out what they really want to discover when typing something into a search engine.
There are generally four types of user intent:
- Informational intent describes people seeking information or answers to questions. These users are looking for definitions, explanations, how-to guides, or research materials.
- Navigational intent is when a user searches for a specific website or brand. They already know what they want to find and are using a search engine to navigate to a particular webpage.
- Transactional intent describes a user who’s ready to take action, like making a purchase, subscribing to a service, or booking an appointment.
- Commercial intent describes somebody researching products or services with the intent to buy something later. They are comparing products, reading reviews, and looking for the best deals before making a decision.
By understanding user intent, you can create content that aligns with what people are looking for and boost your chances of appearing in search results. Each industry and niche also changes your user intent.
For example, SEO for lawyers will be very different compared to SEO for marketers. It’s all about giving people what they need and providing a good search experience.
Readability
Writing for SEO isn’t just about what you write. It’s also about how you write. It isn’t enough to simply drop some keywords into your blog posts and call it a day. You also need to consider your readers’ experience.
This is where readability comes in.
Readability is all about striking the right balance between optimizing for search engines and ensuring that your content is enjoyable and valuable to human readers.
In addition to optimizing your content with keywords and internal links, you’ll want to focus on user experience. Write in a way that’s reader-friendly, using clear and concise language and avoiding jargon. You’ll also want to use headings and make your content more scannable (more on that below).
When writing and editing your content, ask yourself: Is this easy to understand? Does this have a logical flow? Is this engaging? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” you may need to make some changes.
Historical Optimization
Every SEO writer knows that an evergreen blog post will never be completely finished, even after publication. Thanks to algorithm updates and competitors targeting the same keywords, search results are always changing.
That’s why it’s important to have a content update strategy that ensures your older web content is fresh and relevant in search engine rankings. This practice is called historical optimization.
To figure out which blog posts you need to update, assess your older content by conducting a content audit to find underperforming or outdated pieces. Then, determine how to improve the piece.
This usually involves refreshing the content by adding new information, removing outdated information, optimizing keywords, and improving formatting and readability.
Tips on How To Incorporate SEO in Your Writing
- Start with keyword research.
- Use headings to your benefit.
- Optimize your content for featured snippets.
- Write for humans, not search engines.
- Optimize your title.
- Include keywords in your meta description.
- Add alt text to images.
- Resist the urge to keyword-stuff.
- Link to high-authority websites.
- Aim for scannable, longer posts.
- Link to other posts on your site.
- Compress images for fast page load speed.
- Design a link-building strategy.
1. Start with keyword research.
Google processes an estimated 95,000 search queries a second. Staggering, right?
If you want to cut through SERP clutter and outrank your competitors, you need to target the specific keywords and phrases your potential customers are searching for. Otherwise, how else will they find your content and website?
Start with a keyword research tool. Sites like SE Ranking, Ahrefs, and Google Keyword Planner give you details on what users are searching for and how popular those queries are.
For an inside look into how Ahrefs can aid in your SEO keyword research and beyond, check out our case study and exclusive interview here.
Google Trends can also give you a feel for what keywords are popular at any given time. If you see searches steadily declining over time for a specific keyword, you know that’s probably not the right keyword to target for your marketing. The opposite is true for rising trends.
If you’re ever running low on keyword ideas, get inspiration from your competition. Use competitive intelligence tools to see what keywords their domains currently rank for. If these keywords are relevant to your business, consider using them too.
However, keep in mind that the most obvious keywords don’t always align with your strategy. Additionally, your focus keywords will evolve as trends shift, terminology changes, or your product/service line grows.
Be sure to conduct keyword research periodically to ensure you’re still focusing on the right keywords for your target audience and not missing out on vital ranking opportunities.
2. Use headings to your benefit.
Headers help Google’s web crawlers understand your blog post and the sections within it.
Think of the crawlers as readers who are skimming your blog. They want an overview of what your article will cover. That’s your H1. Your H2s, H3s, and H4s break down the subtopics within the piece.
So, your subheaders should reflect the content in the body and include high-intent keywords. When you use the right keywords, meaning the ones your target audience is using, you have a much higher chance of ranking on the SERP.
3. Optimize your content for featured snippets.
Featured snippets on Google are the most direct answers to search queries. For instance, if I were to search, “How do you write a blog post?” Google might use a featured snippet to show the best answer.
To earn a featured snippet on Google, you’ll need to answer the question thoroughly and succinctly.
For instance, if the search term is “How to screenshot on Mac,” you can put “How to Take a Screenshot on a MacBook Computer” as your H1 or H2, followed by the steps in a numbered or bulleted list.
Once you’ve done that, be sure to include part of the question in your answer. Using the example above, you would start the paragraph with the following: “To take a screenshot on your MacBook, here are the steps…”
Additionally, start each sentence with an actionable verb, like “click” and “select.”
If the keyword requires a definition, write an answer that’s no more than 58 words to increase your chances of capturing a featured snippet.
4. Write for humans, not search engines.
“If an AI can write it, an AI can serve it to users instead of a link,” writes Search Engine Journal senior editor Ben Steele, a contributor to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing Report.
Your target audience needs a reason to click on your content. And with all these SEO guidelines, it’s easy to forget that if you’re on Google, you’re looking for an answer.
The best way to improve your chances of ranking is by writing high-quality blog posts. Steele predicts an “increased demand for verifiably human content about deeper and more complex content.”
What does that look like? Thorough answers, scannable sections, organized subheaders, and visual aids.
Keep your buyer personas, their motivations, challenges, and interests in mind. It’s also important to choose topics that will resonate with your potential customers and address their pain points.
While some SEO tools can help on the technical side of your site, you can also opt to use content writing SEO tools to help you write correct, concise, and human-friendly content that will rank well and engage readers.
These types of tools include standalone SEO- and keyword-research tools (like Google Search Console and Ahrefs) as well as AI editors and writing assistants (like HubSpot’s Content Hub).
There are also tools that measure content engagement, allowing you to see how long people spend on a page, whether or not they visit multiple pages, or how far people are scrolling down your site.
Pro tip: Writing can be difficult when juggling all of these variables. One way to simplify the process is to organize your main thoughts or big ideas. Then, use them as a prompt for an AI tool, like HubSpot’s free AI blog writer.
As with any AI content generator, you’ll want to go through the draft and add your own experience and expertise, which will make it fun for humans to read.
5. Optimize your title.
Even with a great, SEO-friendly post body, a bad headline could hurt you in the SERP.
To title your post with SEO in mind, write something compelling that includes your main keyword. Here are a few tips:
- Incorporate numbers. (“5 Ways to Rock a Matte Lipstick.”)
- Include your offer in the title. (“How to Write a Cover Letter [+ Free Template]”)
- Add a teaser. (“We Tried the New [Insert App Name] App: Here’s What Happened”)
We’ve got more ideas on title optimization in this in-depth look at blog SEO.
6. Include keywords in your meta description.
Are you adding meta descriptions to your post? If your answer is “no,” then you‘re probably missing out on traffic. Let’s get into why they’re important.
We‘ve talked about a couple of the ways a blog post can communicate with Google: subheaders, keywords, and snippets. However, that’s not an exhaustive list.
Meta descriptions are another area Google crawls to determine search rankings. Meta descriptions are the one- to three-sentence descriptions you’ll find underneath the title of a result.
Use meta descriptions to sum up what your post is about, and remember to:
- Keep it short.
- Use one to two keywords.
- Make it compelling. After all, there will be similar posts, so your description needs to stand above the rest.
Most content management systems (CMS) have meta description boxes built-in, so you likely won’t have to look far to use the function. WordPress users may find this in the Yoast plug-in, which will guide you through the recommended word count.
HubSpot’s metadata description box in Content Hub is similar:
7. Answer the questions no one else will
In his bestselling book “They Ask, You Answer,” content marketer Marcus Sheridan and INBOUND speaker explains that answering avoided questions is “an approach to communication, company culture, and the way we sell as a business.
“It starts with an obsession: ‘What is my customer thinking?’ And when I say ‘obsession,’ I really mean that. It extends past ‘What are they thinking?’ to ‘What are they searching, asking, feeling, and fearing?’ Some companies think they understand these questions, but the fact is most do not.”
These questions might be pricing, how much your product costs, industry tips or secrets — basically anything your industry is avoiding writing about. These questions are untapped SEO opportunities that you can take advantage of by answering them with great content.
I saw this in real time on a client’s website, which I helped build. The company didn’t want to discuss how much their service costs in case competitors decided to underbid them. I pushed the idea of a pricing calculator instead — to let people put in their information and what they’re looking for to get a price range.
Their quote requests skyrocketed. No competitor was willing to even give a price range on services, so my client generated SEO traffic to capture new leads.
Consider writing an entire blog that addresses a topic your industry doesn’t want customers to know about to see what kind of traffic you can generate.
8. Resist the urge to keyword-stuff.
The goal is to make your page fully optimized, not overbearing. Find natural fits for keyword additions, but don’t force them to the point where your content is illegible.
For example, if your keywords are “account-based marketing,” “startups,” and “sales,” avoid a meta description like this: “Sales for account-based marketing startups.”
Instead, focus on one or two keywords to make the description more natural: “Are you looking for killer strategies to boost your account-based marketing game? Discover our research-backed techniques in this post.”
With this approach, you‘re still using keywords, but you’re not oversaturating the post. Remember, your goal is to solve for your audience. If your users have a poor reading experience, that will signal to Google that your post isn’t meeting their needs.
9. Link to high-authority websites.
As you build your blog post, don’t be afraid to link externally.
Linking to reputable websites not only offers blog readers additional reading material to expand their knowledge, but it also shows search engines that you’ve done your research.
Nothing strengthens a blog post like research-backed statistics from influential websites. Compelling stats help you build a more convincing and concrete argument that will help you gain trust from your readers.
10. Aim for longer, scannable posts.
In an age of short attention spans, you would think shorter blog posts are the way to go. But in fact, search engines like Google actually prefer longer, in-depth blog posts.
Think about it: the more content on the page, the more clues search engines have to figure out what your blog is about. At HubSpot, we’ve found that the ideal length can range from 1,200 to 2,400 words. If you’re unsure, use SERP competitors and user intent as your guides.
The downside to longer blogs is that they may overwhelm your readers. One way to combat that is by breaking down your content into bite-size, scannable chunks.
Bullet points are a great way to accomplish this, as they’re easily digestible and attention-grabbing, especially on mobile devices.
Turn a long-winded sentence into two and keep your paragraphs to no more than three sentences.
Pro tip: Need help fine-tuning? Check out Hubspot’s AI Paragraph Rewriter tool for effortless refinement.
11. Link to other posts on your site.
Linking to other pages or blog posts on your website helps search engines create an accurate sitemap. It also helps your audience discover more of your content and get to know you as a trustworthy, credible source of information.
On the user side, internal links to other valuable content keep readers on your site longer, reducing bounce rate and increasing your potential for a conversion. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
When linking to any pages on your website or even outside sources, use natural language for your anchor text. Avoid spammy or generic calls to action, such as “top-rated cheap laptops” or “click here.”
Instead, use descriptive keywords that give readers a sense of what they will find when they click the hyperlink, like “Download your SEO guide.”
Never force-feed links to your top web pages, featured products, or discounted items. Include links that enhance the points made in your posts and naturally tie in with the subject matter.
12. Avoid AI-generated blogs and content.
AI has come a long way, and that means more and more blogs are generating entire blogs written by artificial intelligence.
However, AI still can’t pass as human-written content — both humans and search engines are pretty good at spotting it. This means that AI-generated content is getting flagged by search engines and hurting your SEO.
Instead of having AI generate entire blogs for you, use AI as a tool to speed up your creation process and check for SEO. For example, you can have AI create an outline for you based on search engine results so you have a starting point for your writing.
AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude.ai can be useful; for instance, I just pasted the body of this blog post into Claude 3.5 Sonnet and asked it to identify missed SEO opportunities. Use our list of AI SEO tools to find more tools (and more use cases!).
Among its recommendations was to check for content freshness, making sure that I’m giving you the most recent statistics and tools:
Keep in mind that tools like ChatGPT or Claude are working in a vacuum — that is, they don’t have the context needed to assess the risk of content cannibalization, as one example. As with anything AI, human oversight is still important.
HubSpot’s AI-powered content agent, Breeze, assists writers at the beginning of the writing process. It also helps with tasks like creating SEO-optimized landing pages that are designed to increase your conversion rate.
13. Feature a FAQ section in your blog
Search engines reward content that gives them direct, easy-to-identify answers to frequently asked questions.
With AI Overviews triggering more frequently in Google searches, well-written FAQs may help push your content to the top of the SERP.
Remember, you want to answer concisely and optimize questions for SEO. Adding FAQ sections can also be an easy way to refresh an old blog and update it to improve SEO.
Get Started with SEO Writing
There are a lot of tips and tricks to optimize your blog for better SEO results.
Still, SEO can be overwhelming for a lot of content writers and small businesses because it’s more of a marathon than a sprint.
Consistently putting out helpful, authoritative blogs that are fully optimized is your best bet for making the first page.
Remember, SEO criteria are an ever-changing beast, so what works one year may not work the next.
Subscribe to HubSpot’s Marketing blog to get the latest information about what Google and other search engines require to make the first page.
