Content Writing is a crucial aspect of Digital Marketing. What is even more essential, however, is the use of the right keywords in content writing. Keywords help in driving traffic, improving search rankings and reaching the desired target audience.
Are you into SEO content writing, and wondering how to effectively use keywords to optimise what you are writing?
Read on for content-writing tips and steps that will improve visibility on various search engines, especially Google.
Step 1: Keyword Research
- Identify the relevant keywords through tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush or Ahrefs. One of the benefits of keyword research is that it will help you identify keywords that are relevant to your topic and align with the audience’s intent.
- Focus on long-tail keywords, as these are more specific, less competitive and easy to rank, thereby improving the conversion rates.
Step 2: Understand Keyword intent
- Match content with the search intent, and make sure it aligns with what the users are searching for, whether it is informational, transactional or navigational.
- Understand the importance of keywords in content writing; by matching content with the intent, you are going to make sure that the right information reaches the audience.
Step 3: Integrate the Keywords Naturally.
- Avoid keyword stuffing, as overusing keywords can lead to penalties from search engines and disrupt readability.
- Use synonyms and variations as they help in diversifying content and making it more comprehensive.
Step 4: Optimise Key areas
- Include the primary keywords in the title tag and meta descriptions to improve CTR and search rankings.
- Use the keywords in the heading or subheadings to structure the content and make it more scannable.
- Use the primary keywords in the first 100 words to optimise the content and signal relevance.
- Sprinkle the keywords throughout the body, but maintain a natural tone; aim for a keyword density of 1 to 2%.
Step 5: Optimise for featured snippets
- Use question-based keywords for higher chances of appearing in the featured snippets.
- Provide clear and concise answers, as they are more likely to be picked up by the search engines for snippets.
Step 6: Leverage internal and external links
- Internal Links: Use keyword-rich anchor text to link your content with related content within the site and enhance navigation and SEO.
- External Linking: Link to authoritative sources using related keywords to enhance credibility and SEO.
Step 7: Monitor and Adjust Strategy
- Track performance by using tools like Google Analytics and search consoles to monitor keyword performance. Adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Update the content accordingly: Refresh content with updated keywords and trends to maintain relevance.
Step 8: Mobile friendliness and fast load times:
- Make sure that the content is optimised for mobile devices, as most search engines prioritise mobile-friendly sites.
- Slow pages can negatively impact the site rankings, so make sure the content is not too heavy and the site loads quickly for audiences.
Learn SEO Content Writing
Do you want to learn SEO Content writing, and make sure that your content always uses the right keywords? Or do you want content writing tips to make your skills better?
Worry not, because you can now learn how to write the best content, optimised for search engines, with IIEDM!
IIEDM’s SEO writing course teaches you everything you learn: from the fundamentals of SEO to on-page and off-page optimisation, as well as advanced SEO and how to use the Google search console.
Conclusion
To conclude, SEO content writing is simple enough as long as you follow the steps mentioned above. Using keywords not only brings the content to the forefront, it also gives you, the writer, a template to follow. You understand how to use each keyword in your content, making it visible to the target audience!
