4 Tips To Help You Master SEO Content Writing

When it comes to SEO we’ve all heard that “content is king” and the better yours is the more likely you are to rank higher. While this might be great for companies with dedicated staff writers, many people end up as dedicated content writers without any training.

Instead of researching multiple content writing templates in hopes that you can follow a simple formula to get the best results, consider changing up your tactics and use these tricks instead!

Start In The Middle

Almost every writing template you’ll come across will say that any good work must start at the beginning, but unfortunately that isn’t actually the case for most strong writers.

When you start your writing at the very beginning, it means you already have to know the rest of what you’ll say ahead of time. This gives you very little maneuverability, and if the tone of your work starts to change mid-way, everything that’s been written prior needs to be edited.

When you start your writing in the middle however, it allows you to slowly put together a piece of content piece by piece.

Try to think of what you want the content to actually say, and start in the middle of that discussion. This might mean writing small paragraphs, or even single sentences that you think are strong and deserve a place in your content.

When you finally piece these thoughts together, you’ll be able to write an opening that actually reflects what is about to be said.

Know What Google Disregards

Fitting keywords into content is a struggle for even the best copywriter, especially when they aren’t grammatically correct.

Even without a strong understanding of Google’s methods, people know that their searches don’t have to be perfectly worded to find what they’re looking for. This creates problems for writers like location-based keywords, as terms like “florist Toronto” for example don’t fit in a sentence correctly without a word like “in”.

In situations where you need to use these keywords, it’s important to know that punctuation doesn’t affect search results.

For a content writer, this is big news. Instead of hoping readers don’t notice that there is something obviously wrong with a sentence, you can utilize a comma, semi colon, or even a period in-between words.

Instead of having to say, “are you looking for a florist Toronto” you’re able to say “when looking for a florist, Toronto residents have many options”. This way the keyword appears in this sentence as a whole, and seems to fit naturally.

Don’t Stop Writing

Whether or not you’re a professional content writer with thousands of hours logged behind a computer, or a marketing specialist who was thrown into the world of writing by fluke, the only thing that makes someone’s writing better is time.

Practice does make perfect when SEO content writing, and skills start to develop as you continuously work on them.

If this means that you contribute more to your company blog, start your own, or even enroll in online writing courses to keep you on track, you will find your writing skills significantly improving.

With practice, you’ll find a personal voice in your writing, and it will not only rank better but read better.

Think Ahead

No matter how passionate you truly are about content writing, one of the easiest ways to master the skill is simply to stay organized. When you’re organized, you’ll know exactly when you have to write, what you have to write, and what you have to say.

An easy trick for doing this is writing down a calendar of topics you want to talk about, keywords you want to use, and any extra notes you have about how you want the writing to sound. This way you can do research ahead of time and archive any information you know will be relevant in the future.

This method of organization works great for those whom may not be able to come up with ideas at a moment’s notice, and need some level of preparedness before jumping into writing.

When trying to master SEO content writing, remember that there is no quick trick to becoming the next great blogger. But with practice, patience and a little planning, you’ll be able to write content that will work to get you found

^{* Lead image adapted from KlaireLee}