If you have a bright idea on how to solve specific problems, great products to sell, or valuable services to offer, you should make yourself very visible online. However, learning how to write SEO content can be challenging if you are new to it. To help you out, here are some tools, techniques, and tips in SEO content Writing for beginners. 

What is SEO Content Writing? 

To understand what SEO content writing is, you should first know what SEO means. In simple terms, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a set of practices in improving your website so that it will have a higher rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). There are several important ways to achieve your goal, and SEO writing is only one of them. 

With SEO content writing, the writer should not simply write articles the way he wanted to. While writing articles free of grammatical errors and misspelled words is a must, this is only one of the major requirements. This is why even the best English writers and journalists can fail when it comes to writing for SEO. In short, SEO writing is unique. 

What is Keyword Optimization? 

Keyword optimization is simply the process of choosing words or phrases that are relevant to the topic. These SEO Keywords should be among the most searched words by your target audience and have the highest potential for driving organic traffic to your web pages. Truth be told, keyword research is complicated and requires analysis. 

Once the right keywords have been selected, you or an SEO writer will incorporate them into your website’s content and other on-page elements. There are several ways to optimize keywords, including adding them properly on SEO and post titles, Meta descriptions, subheadings, title tags, alt tags for images, and within the article. 

Free SEO Keyword Research Tools for Beginners 

Choosing the right SEO keywords to use is not based on wild guesses and what you dreamed about last night. Instead, it involves data collection and in-depth analysis. This is why you need some tools. Most of them are premium but free versions are also fine. Here are some of the best keyword research tools I have been using over the years: 

#1 Google Keyword Planner 

Formerly Google Keyword Tool, Google Keyword Planner is free and you don’t have to run Google Ads to enjoy its benefits. All you need is a Google Ads account and some relevant keywords. Here, you can check their search volume and also discover new keywords. Note, however, that the competition level is only for Google Ads, not for SEO. 

#2 Ahrefs Keyword Generator 

Ahrefs Keyword Generator offers both free and paid versions, which currently range from $99/month to $999/month. If you don’t have the budget, the free version still has very useful features aside from keyword research. Here, you can submit your website and Ahrefs will analyze the URLs, inform you about the errors, and give you some tips. 

#3 Semrush 

Semrush is a very popular SEO tool packed with over 55 amazing features. This includes keyword research, competitor analysis, content optimization, and link building. Semrush offers a free 7-day trial to its Pro and Guru Plans but you should input your card details. The free account has limits but is still very useful in keyword research. 

SEO Keyword Research Techniques (Do’s and Don’ts) 

Now that you have some ideas about keyword research and tools, you should know how to analyze keywords to help you choose the right ones. You should also know how to optimize them properly within your articles or blog posts. These techniques can help a lot in boosting your web pages to enjoy a higher rank in SERPs and get organic traffic. 

• Keyword Research 

Keywords are considered the brain in SEO writing and keyword research is the technique that will help you choose which ones you should use. All you need to do is enter your keywords on the keyword research tool, and it will give you reliable results. The process seems to be simple, but it will test your creativity in choosing the keywords. 

Even as a beginner, you will find keyword research tools very easy to use. In an instant, they will give you an average monthly search volume, say 1-100, 1-10K, or 10k-100k, depending on the popularity of those keywords. These tools will also show you other important parameters and will even suggest some related keywords to choose from. 

• Keyword Analysis 

When doing keyword research on keyword research tools, enter multiple keywords separated by a comma. If you are writing about dog food, don’t just enter, “dog food.” Instead, include specific and related words such as “best dog food”, “dry dog food,” or “dog food price per kilo.” These sets of words or phrases are called long-tail keywords. 

While doing the research, you will notice that primary SEO keywords have a high search volume but have super-high competition. On the other hand, a lot of long-tail keywords also have a high search volume but lower competition. You have to check several keywords and analyze them thoroughly before choosing one or some of them.   

• Keyword Difficulty 

As the term implies, Keyword Difficulty (KD) is an SEO metric that tells you the level of difficulty or competition of a certain keyword. KD is expressed in numbers (0-100), with a higher number indicating a higher difficulty level. Choosing a higher KD level requires a longer time before your web page can appear on the first page of search engines. 

Note also that KD applies to organic search results. So far, the best technique to know the chance of beating your top competitors is to identify them and how strong they are. In short, you should search which websites (referring domains) are using the same keywords you plan to use. However, this feature is usually only available in paid plans. 

• Keyword Variations 

As the name suggests, Keyword Variations in SEO writing are several variations of your keywords. These variations are similar to your keywords but not exactly the same. They may include reworded words, synonyms, plural forms, singular forms, or even misspelled words. Incorporating them into your content can also help increase your page rank. 

For example, you enter “dog food price per kilo” on the tool. The possible alternative keywords that will come out include “dog food prices per kilo” and dog foods price.” Hence, you can use any or all of them along with your chosen keywords as long as you properly incorporate them within your content. In short, don’t overuse your keywords. 

• Keyword Density 

Keyword density (KD) is an SEO metric that refers to the number of times a certain keyword appears on a published article or blog post and is usually expressed in percentage. For instance, if you use your keyword 20 times in a 1,000-word article, the keyword density is 2%. In the past, keywords with higher KD have higher chances of ranking high. 

Also called Keyword Frequency, KD used to be a popular term during the early years of SEO. Over the years, there has been no official rule or guidelines on the exact ideal keyword density. Although there were some recommendations from SEO experts, it still depends on several factors. These days, KD is no longer useful for SEO content writing. 

• Keyword Stuffing 

Keyword stuffing is an SEO technique that you should never do. Here, the goal is to blatantly increase the keyword density and manipulate search engine rankings. This cheating technique is among the earliest black hat SEO practices and used to be effective. But today, Google and other search engines consider this a strong violation. 

Aside from cheating, keyword stuffing can also make content difficult to read and can negatively impact the user experience. This technique of using keywords or keyphrases excessively is now strictly monitored by search engines. Google penalizes abusive websites caught doing keyword stuffing by lowering their ranks on their search pages. 

SEO Keywords Research Tips for Beginners 

If you have come this far, you now have an idea about the most challenging part – choosing the right SEO keywords. Unfortunately, there is no proven single technique for that. You really have to do deep analysis and conduct some experiments. But since you are only a beginner in SEO, here are some tips while doing your keyword research: 

#1 Know your target market 

Not knowing your target market will be your biggest mistake in SEO writing. You may be able to rank your web pages on search engines but for the wrong purpose. If you use keywords that are not related to your target readers, you will end up earning huge amounts of useless traffic. No matter what you do, you cannot convert them into leads. 

#2 Expand your topic 

Once you know your target market, you can also expand your topic. If you are writing about a healthy dog food product, you can include its nutritional content and how dogs can benefit from them. In doing so, you can add related keywords and attract more organic traffic. Aside from that, this can help you write longer articles or blog posts. 

#3 Choose long-tail keywords 

As mentioned earlier, long-tail keywords are better than regular keywords since they are aimed to get more organic traffic. Remember, dog owners are not only searching for dog food; they are also looking for different characteristics of dog food. Regular keywords also have higher competition and beating your competitors is hard if you are a newbie.  

#4 Choose low-competition keywords 

As a beginner, you are still a small fish in a big ocean and the chance of getting noticed is very slim. So, why not be a big fish in a small pond? By choosing low-competition keywords, you will have a higher chance of beating your competitors. And as you slowly climb the ladder to the top, you can start choosing keywords with higher competition. 

#5 Create a keyword spreadsheet 

While collecting keywords, create a spreadsheet for them in MS Excel or Google Docs. By copying the details from the keyword research tool, you are not only saving your time; you are also making your tasks more efficient. It will also help you analyze which of your keywords should not be included and new suggested keywords to replace them. 

#6 Conduct experiments 

Don’t waste your time collecting tons of keywords and changing your mind frequently. Once you have analyzed which among them is better to use, start conducting experiments. There will never have a magic tool that can tell you in advance what exactly can happen. Trying them is the only way to know that you made the right choice.  

#7 Monitor and evaluate the results 

The key to knowing if you have chosen the right SEO keywords is to monitor the results and evaluate them. Although paid versions of SEO tools can help you with that, Google Analytics is still one of the most recommended ones. Aside from being a free tool, it can also show you all the keywords used by your Google visitors in finding your web pages. 

How to Write for Search Engines and Humans Efficiently 

Since Google prefers quality over quantity in terms of SEO writing, you should know how to write SEO-friendly content. But since it is still humans that will read them, how should you create content that both Google and human readers will enjoy? Below are some useful techniques I have been using for the past 13 years as an SEO writer. 

#1 Write magnetic titles 

Titles are the first set of words that your visitors will read. If they look boring, they will assume that the entire content is also boring. As I mentioned on my landing page, there is a huge difference between awesome titles and magnetic titles. The former amaze people while the latter intrigue and “hypnotize” viewers to read the content. 

Note, however, that there are two titles that SEO writers should create – SEO titles and post titles. SEO titles are the ones that appear on search engines and people see them before visiting your page. On the other hand, post titles are the ones that people first see once they click your SEO title. I will write a separate post to elaborate more on this. 

#2 Spread your keywords strategically 

Regardless of the word count of your article, always spread your keywords strategically on it. Ideally, it’s always better to add your keywords in the first paragraph. At the same time, you may place them in the middle and last part of your article. You can also add them to your sub-headings. But beware; Google might treat them as duplicate content. 

But again, keyword density should not be your main concern. If done improperly, it can lead to keyword stuffing and Google will penalize your web pages. Hence, the key here is to balance the use of your keywords and repeat them in your article only if necessary. Sentences or paragraphs with keywords should always provide substance to the article. 

#3 Put yourself in the reader’s shoes 

The best way to write for humans is to put yourself in the shoes of the readers. Whether you are creating an SEO title or a post title, write it on the level of targeted visitors. The days of hard selling are long gone. Instead, practice persuasive selling, which includes building rapport with potential customers and giving valid reasons to take action. 

To emphasize information, use bullet points when creating a list. If you are explaining a procedure or instructions or when the sequence is important, use a numbered list. Use second-person narrative (“you” and “your”) instead of “I” and “me.” More importantly, explain the details clearly and show concern to the readers as if they are your friends. 

#4 Write long-form content 

In theory, longer articles have a higher chance in SERPs since they would contain more relevant keywords. But how long is long enough? According to Hubspot, their 2019 data suggest that the ideal blog post that year is 2,100-2,400 words. A Semrush research suggests that well-written articles with 3,000+ words generated the most organic traffic. 

So far, Google has no specific rule on the word count of SEO articles that promises a higher page rank and I’m pretty sure there will never be. Over the years, the search engine giant has been consistent in caring about quality, not quantity. In fact, here is what John Mueller, Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google tweeted in July 2018. 

Word count is not indicative of quality. Some pages have a lot of words that say nothing. Some pages have very few words that are very important & relevant to queries. You know your content best (hopefully) and can decide whether it needs the details.

Can I Use AI Writing Tools for SEO Content? 

AI (Artificial Intelligence) writing tools are now everywhere and there’s no turning back. No wonder, some SEO writers are now using them. So yes, you can also use AI but it does not necessarily mean you should. I wrote a separate blog post about AI pros and cons and Google’s reaction to using them. You might want to read it before you decide. 

Other SEO Writing Techniques Beginners Should Know 

The above techniques for SEO content writing for beginners are only for articles. Writing content on a website has similar but different strategies. This includes writing SEO titles, Meta descriptions, title tags, and many more. But since this topic is too broad, it requires a separate post. In the meantime, you can start practicing writing SEO-friendly articles. 

Conclusion 

SEO content writing can be challenging for beginners. The tools and techniques are easy to apply, but choosing the right keywords requires thorough research. Thinking of relevant topics is also tough, considering that they should also be useful. So, if you have some bright ideas but doubt if you can write them well, why not try hiring SEO writers? 

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