The Ultimate Guide to SEO Blog Writing

The Ultimate Guide to SEO Blog Writing

The journey into SEO has plenty of twists and turns and stops along the way. The industry is so diverse and utterly comprehensive that it has become multifaceted and immensely demanding. One of the most difficult aspects of SEO is content creation.

And blog writing is one of the most powerful content creation tools in the world of SEO, so you’ll want to read this guide to SEO blog writing if you want to make sure that you get your blogs right, every time.

As you might have already read somewhere, content is what gives an SEO strategy its ability to work. What you might not know is that by adding monthly content to your website you will be boosting your website ranking consistently.

Naturally, it makes no sense to be adding new pages or new page content to each page every month, since you will eventually both run out of space and push website visitors away as the overwhelming amount of content is just really unnatural.

With blog writing, you have a way of adding refreshing new content, based on your content strategy, to your website without having to alter your existing pages.

What is SEO blog writing?

Blogging is one of the most common forms of content creation and it differs from website content writing in that it is generally created around a single topic, which it gives loads of information about.

Blogs are not outwardly designed to be persuasive, but they can be greatly beneficial to the overall online sales process, often giving clients that extra information needed to make a decision or by providing an answer to a problem that the client may be having.

SEO blog writing is only different from other types of blog writing as these content pieces will have various SEO factors and can be used to give the website SEO a boost whenever it needs one.

How do you write content that converts?

Here is a how-to guide to SEO blog writing.

What many people do not grasp about any kind of online writing is that it is not at all about the amount or even the type of words you put on a page.

Writing content is all about conversions.

Conversions are what brings in money. When you convert a website visitor, you are basically turning them into a paying customer. But to do this, you need to convince them that what you are selling is worth them buying. And this is where the content comes in.

Many people underestimate the sheer difficulty of getting content right. There is no doubt that anyone with a grasp of any written language can write content but not everyone can be persuasive. And not everyone has the time.

For this reason, many people will rather hire someone to do the writing for them. This saves time and heartache, as professional writers already know what needs to be done to get the content to live up to expectations.

But hiring someone can be costly and when you risk your budget getting eaten up, you might be keen to rather learn how to do things yourself so that you can save money while also being able to post content whenever you feel like it.

In order to take on content writing, you are going to need to learn how to write content that converts, and we are going to share a few steps to take in order to do just that.

1.    Find converting content ideas

Here’s the thing, whatever it is that you are planning on writing, it is quite likely that someone else has already extensively researched and written about it. Don’t be disheartened by this fact, as it means you can, through some research, find the content ideas that are already converting clients.

The downside though, and there is always one in these cases, is that you can’t just copy what someone else has done. With billions of words published online on a daily basis, web users are always craving something new and fresh. So while you can glean the information from existing content ideas, you should always try to add that twist in either the information or the way that you layout the blog, so that whoever visits your website is treated to new and valuable information that they really want to read.

When you are looking online for content ideas, don’t just focus all of your attention on written blogs. Have a look at videos, online publications (these are great because they are up to date and generally on-trend), infographics, and presentations. You can also scour social media for ideas because again, these kinds of content posts are very much on-trend when it comes to the hottest topics and the latest information.

Once you have exhausted the conventional channels for content research, you can always turn to use various tools including the ever-popular HARO (Help A Reporter Out). On websites like this writers can ask experts about the topic directly. While you might be an expert in your field, it doesn’t hurt to ask others for their input.

Another great place to look for good content topics is Buzzsumo. There is a free plan as well as a paid-for option on this website, but the free option is generally quite good at helping you to find a few good topics with the ones that are interacted with the most getting prioritised and shown first. You will also be able to see things like social shares and the number of backlinks the featured articles get.

One important thing to keep in mind when creating your blog is that shares are often far more valuable than the actual visitors. You want your blog to be shared far and wide so that it has the ability to reach as many people as possible.

With this being your goal, when you are researching your topics, see how many shares the most popular pieces of content get. You can easily get this information if the site has a social share plugin that counts down the number of shares each post gets. Blogs often display this as a way of raising authority and encouraging more shares, using the principle of people not wanting to be left out of a trend and so when they see that the article has many shares, they share it too.

Another thing that you can do to boost the number of shares you get, is to have a look at various layouts, the use of headings, and the use of images and videos. Images and videos are more attractive because they are more eye-catching.

2.    Optimise your blog content for better rankings

The best way to give your blog a fighting chance to bring in readers is to optimise it just as you would your website’s landing page. The reason for doing this is because your blog is going to be so different from the other pages on your website, from the type of content you are featuring right down to the goals you want to achieve with your blog.

Since we know that the average visitor is only going to read about 20% of what you post, per post, it is so important that you make the best bits of your content easy to read and really stand out.

When you are crafting that perfect landing page style blog, you need to consider adding value to what they will be reading by addressing their anxiety, giving them answers to their questions, educating them on things they might not have known before, give clarity, and perhaps even give them a little bit of an enlightening and uplifting distraction.

Valuable blog writing is so important because it has a lot to do with solving problems. When you are writing, make sure that you have an understanding of what it is that your potential clients might be struggling with, and then give them valuable, actionable steps to resolve the problem so that they are encouraged to support your company. Be sure to clearly define the problem that you addressing, you never want your readers to have to try to guess what it is that you are saying.

You will also want to make sure that when you are creating value, you are clear and direct with the information you share. Don’t use vague language or words like “best” “next level” “leading” or “unique”. Your readers have already come across these words so many times before and they probably won’t be able to tell why you are the best, the leader or unique when you are just copying the words that 50 other companies in your industry have already used.

The next thing to do is create a sense of urgency, which will encourage the reader to act quickly to avoid missing out on the opportunity to fix the issue while they still can. Urgency can be created by having the reader think that what you are offering is scarce or a limited offer.

Remember, the average reader still harbours a fear of missing out, so play (kindly) on those feelings. Don’t go overboard with this approach, because it can end up making the potential client over-anxious or it could result in you looking really desperate.

You should then aim to give readers more clarity which can be a signal to your readers that you really know what you are talking about. It is easy to go on and on about a subject and basically parrot the information but when you provide no real clarity on what you are talking about, people might assume that you are not actually as knowledgeable as you’d like them to think.

Then you need to consider relevance. Your content needs to be relevant both to the problem you are trying to solve, the industry that you are in, and the products or services you are selling. It should also be relevant in that the potential clients clicking on your blog should get the kind of content that they are expecting to see. Don’t ever forget or overlook how the content needs to be matched to your business.

Finally, your content needs to have a very specific bottom line. Your bottom line should be what the reader will receive if they take action.

One thing to keep in mind when following all of these steps is that your content can go one of two ways; it can improve your sales or it can decrease it. There is a thin line between these two outcomes and you need to walk this line very carefully. Never come on too strong.

While all of these steps relate to content writing and actual content optimisation, you should also do basic SEO for your blog so that it has a better chance of putting your blog in the online limelight.

3.    Work that headline

Too many writers and amateurs overlook the incredible importance of creating a headline that grabs all of the attention in all the right ways. The headline is a make-or-break part of your blog. If it is written badly or doesn’t convey the right message, your readers are going to completely disregard your website.

When thinking up a good headline includes a few powerful words like, well, powerful, smart, effective, strong, and you can’t go wrong with headlines that include numbers.

If you are writing a list and you will be using numbers, make sure that you stick to odd numbers rather than even ones, as they have been proven to be way more effective.

A well-thought-out headline will have the ability to reduce your website’s bounce rate which means people will stay on your website for longer periods and naturally the longer they stay on your site, the more likely they are to become paying supporters.

If you are having trouble coming up with a good headline, and you find that you have a writer’s block of sorts, you can always Google the topic that you are writing about and then have a look at what everyone else is doing. Don’t copy what they are doing, or at least don’t make it obvious. Use the headlines that you have come across as inspiration.

There are also various online headline generators, but they tend to produce rather generic results that have either been used before or will just disappear into the many similar headlines that are all competing for attention. But that doesn’t mean that the headline generator won’t help you out by giving you some help in creating your own ideas.

You can then do a little testing. If you see that your blog is easy to find but it is getting no clicks, it might be that the headline, or the meta description, is off-putting to readers and is having the opposite effect to what you had hoped to active. Since blogs are easily changeable, you can go back and tweak the headline or description to make it more attractive and then monitor how well it performs.

4.    Make it fun

Imagine trying to read through a boring, overly technical blog about buying a mattress. Would you manage to make it past more than 20% of the content before you click away and try a different, perhaps lighter-hearted, and easier way to read the piece?

When you are writing a blog, you are not employing the same skills and techniques that are used for writing website copy. This means you can be personal and write your blog in a way that it sounds like you are having a light conversation. Many don’t believe that tone makes much of a difference but it absolutely does.

Would you buy from a salesperson who treats you like an idiot or who is simply boring? Probably not.

This style of writing doesn’t mean you should completely disregard the basic writing rules, such as grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, and you also shouldn’t necessarily write something that is full of emotion or opinions.

But writing in a natural, flowing way, just as you would if you were having a friendly conversation with a customer, can make a big difference in whether or not you hit your conversion target. This type of writing will not only make reading your blog a fun and easy experience, but it will also help you become a better writer.

Since it is going to feel as though you are having a one-sided conversation, you should avoid making the blog all about you and what you want people to think about you. Your goal is still to convert people into paying customers.

5.    Call to action

In the past, a call to action would generally be included as a conclusion to the blog, that final push to encourage the reader to do something that you have been subtly encouraging them to do all along, like contacting your company or adding your product to their checkout basket.

A call to action can also be included in the content once you have completed the blog and you are in the editing phase. When you get to a section of the blog where you have really ramped up the emotion and you feel you have got the reader to a point where they are encouraged to support your business, insert a call to action along with a button or an easy to see link that will take them through to whichever action it is that you want the reader to take.

If you are unsure about what type of call to action is going to work, you can always change things up and test things along the way. A blog is flexible and changeable, so if you see you are getting clicks but not conversions, go back to the blog and change things up a bit.

6.    Make it readable

Initially, when you write out your blog, try to not pay too much attention to the final touches like headings, bolded words, or text sizes. You also don’t have to worry too much about the layout. As long as your text is written down, you can always rearrange things afterward.

In the editing phase of your content creation, you need to take steps to ensure that the writing is good, that you have a design and layout in mind, and that the idea you have is well-positioned. You need to make sure that the content is the best you could do and that it is engaging for both your clients and the search engine.

Look up the basics of blog layouts and be consistent in both your layout and your design.

Conclusion

Writing SEO-friendly content is not easy and it is not something that can always be rushed. Quality content can take time and loads of effort to get right. Anyone can become their own SEO writer when they have put in the effort and followed the tips on this SEO copywriting tip checklist of sorts. And if you find that things aren’t working the way you had hoped, just keep trying new things, testing your content, and keep practicing.