Balancing Creativity and SEO in Content Writing
If people like your content, Google will like your content.
By Chris Porteous •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In the realm of search engine optimization (SEO), content is king. Be it website copy, blog posts or guest posting, content is an integral part of effective SEO. However, not all content you create brings glory to your business. Unique, high-quality content blended with creativity supports SEO efforts.
If you're not creative in your writing process, you will be creating content like many of your competitors, reducing the chances of standing out from the crowd. In this article, I'm going to share six SEO content writing tips that will help you balance creativity in your work. Let's dive in.
Related: 4 Content Assets You Can Publish on Your Website to Attract Attention
1. Search for important keywords.
The first step to creating useful content is to find important keywords and phrases that your audience uses to search on Google. Use Google Keyword Planner, a free tool, to find out terms that your audience uses to conduct online searches. Once you have made a list of keywords, you should include them in your content.
Naturally incorporate keywords into your content. Stuffing keywords in your content will do more harm than good to your business. The more long tail keywords you use, the better it will be for your content to rank on Google.
2. Solve your audience's problems.
Writing content that solves pain points of your prospects and customers is a surefire way to ensure the success of your SEO efforts. People tend to share content that they find useful, increasing the reach of content. The more people who read your content, the more Google will like your content. Therefore, you should make sure your SEO content strategy revolves around your audience's problems.
3. Organize content for skimmers.
Humans have a shorter attention span than goldfish -- and the notoriously ill-focused goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds -- meaning that your visitors might leave your web pages without reading your content completely. Even if they stay, most of them are not going to read between the lines.
That said, be sure you organize your content for skimmers. Use bullet points, subheads and italics to highlight important information. Write short sentences and short paragraphs. Place important information in the beginning, the middle and the end of your content pieces.
Related: Consumers Don't Have an Attention Problem. It's Just That Your Advertising Isn't Very Good.
4. Include facts and figures.
Facts and figures are essential to persuasive writing. They support your hypothesis and argument in your content. If you make your SEO content writing rich with supporting data, you will create persuasive, inspiring content. However, you should engagingly present data so that your content doesn't look like a boring report painted with numbers. Also, make sure that the data you are using make sense easily. If your audience struggles to get the meaning of the numbers you mentioned in your content, they will lose interest, no matter how useful your content is.
5. Use enticing, relevant images.
It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words -- and eyesome images help you get noticed. Always use engaging, relevant images in your SEO content. There are several good ways to include images in your content. Product images, blog images and infographics are ways to enrich your content. Whenever you are using an image in your content, don't forget to add an ALT tag to make it search engine friendly. Sometimes, it is difficult to find/create suitable images. The benefits a good image can offer is worth your time.
6. Write for humans.
While writing SEO content, consider the following questions:
- Is this the way a normal person will say things?
- How will someone feel hearing what I have written?
- Am I making my points clear enough?
If you throw away all the big marketing words and write in the tone and language of your audience, your content will make a lasting impression.
Related: 3 All-Too-Familiar Writing Patterns You Need to Eliminate From Your Marketing Copy Today
Conclusion.
Unique content is vital for the success of your SEO efforts. If you write content based on important keywords, organize it for skimmers, include data to add credibility and complement it with relevant images, there is no reason why your audience wouldn't love to read your content. Remember, if people love your content, Google will love your content.
