SEO content is written differently than normal informational and descriptive stuff. You have to take care of different SEO factors and techniques such as adding the right number of keywords and keeping the text unique etcetera.
If you feel like your content is not good enough for your site’s SEO, don’t worry. Nobody starts off as an expert.
In this post, we are going to be looking at five SEO writing tips that you can implement to become a professional content writer.
1. Use Headings, Sub-Headings, and Bullets
As you will get into the habit of writing for an online audience, you will understand that the more readable your content is, the more likable it will be to the readers.
One of the main factors that lend to the readability of any type of content, be it articles or blog posts, is its arrangement.
You should try and add different heading styles throughout the text to make it easier to peruse. For example, you can start off with an H1, and then lead on to a couple of H2s and then further categorize them into H3s.
That way, your reader will easily be able to see the systematic arrangement of your content, and they will be able to skip to the parts they want to read.
If your document is unusually long, and you happen to reach H6, you can start using bullet points instead.
2. Use a Paraphrasing Tool to Keep Your Vocabulary Easy to Understand
Trust me, there are few temptations as strong as the temptation to show off your sophisticated lexiconic prowess to make yourself sound urbane and cultured.
See what I mean?
Nevertheless, you should suppress those cravings, and stick to using easy and simple words. A good way to make sure that you don’t get carried away with using complicated vocabulary is to imagine writing for a 7-year-old.
Would you tell a 7-year-old that the world is gargantuan, or would you tell him that the word is big?
However, there can be some people who, despite making efforts, are unable to keep their vocabulary from becoming complex and difficult.
For such people, using an online paraphrasing tool can be a good solution. Paraphrasing tools work by replacing specific words in the input text with synonyms. However, the changed content does not differ from the original one with regard to the meaning and context.
3. Use Keywords Properly
As we mentioned at the start of this post, SEO content is different from normal informational stuff. And one of the main things that make it different is the use of keywords.
Any type of content – be it articles, blog posts, or descriptions – that is written for SEO purposes needs to have an appropriate number of keywords in it.
The purpose of adding keywords is to create relevancy and to make it easier for the search engines to decide which words and phrases your site should show up against when searched.
It is easy enough to decide which keywords to add to your content, but it is not as easy to decide the frequency of their usage. This is where most writers can slip and mess up.
The recommended density of keywords used in the content is around 1-2%. However, as an unofficial rule, it is suggested to use the main focus keyword 1 or 2 times every 1,000 words and to use secondary LSI keywords around 6 – 7 times.
Adding too many keywords is harmful to your website since it is recognized as ‘keyword stuffing’ by the search engine.
4. Use Plagiarism Checkers to Detect Duplication in Your Content
This is actually a post-writing tip but we are mentioning it here since it is very important.
Plagiarism is anathema to search engines. Plagiarized content can get your website penalized. A Google penalty for plagiarism can mean anything from a rank drop to complete website de-indexing.
But here is the worst part.
If you are reading this post, you are probably aspiring to become a professional content writer. And if you are trying to become a professional, you obviously are not going to go around stealing other people’s content.
However, plagiarism can occur even if the writer has no intention of doing it.
So, when we advise checking for plagiarism in your content, we don’t imply that you could have deliberately done it. It’s basically a precaution to make sure that there is no accidental duplication.
Plagiarism detector tools are available in abundance online. These tools check the given content against billions of online sources to see if there are any matches in the sentences. You can use them to make sure that your content is unique before publishing it.
5. Add Visuals
Last but not least, make sure to add visuals relevant to your content.
Adding graphical representations and images is a good way to make your content engaging. An article or blog post that looks like a boring wall of text has a much lesser chance of being read as compared to something that has interesting images scattered around it.
If you are writing something informational, you can add charts and tables to make the data and statistics easier to understand.
Similarly, if you are writing something purely informational, you can just add some bright and vivid clip art and graphics…like the ones we have added in this post.
Conclusion
In this post, we looked at five different tips that you can follow in order to build your content writing skills and gain expertise as an SEO content writer.
Let’s do a quick recap of the tips mentioned above.
1. Make sure that your content is systematically divided and broken down into headings and sub-headings.
2. Use a paraphrasing tool to simplify the words used in the content.
3. Adjust keywords in the proper density.
4. Use plagiarism detectors to check for duplication.
5. …and last but not least, add visuals to make your content engaging.