5 Ways to Incorporate SEO Into Your Writing While Still Keeping Your Sanity

Let’s face it, SEO writing sucks for several different reasons. For one, it rarely offers much in the form of creative opportunity. Also, it’s nearly impossible for requisite SEO structure to not get in the way of things like fundamental grammar, article flow, etc.

That said, the severity of SEO vexation will vary depending on things like topic, article length (and structure), and of course, the skill and talent of a writer. For a skilled writer, even the most stringent SEO requirements will likely just manifest themselves as a roadblock between a keyword-oriented topic and a high-value end article.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, poor SEO writing can (and will) sap any form of interest from the reader, as well as cause an article to lose all credibility. It can also put a severe handicap on the development of any form of literary prowess.

In this article, we highlight some tips and techniques you can employ to help keep your sanity – and end up with a good, high-value piece – while implementing various forms of structured SEO writing.

What Is SEO Writing, Anyway?

If you’re just getting into SEO writing for the first time – or if you’ve stumbled upon this article by chance and don’t even know what ‘SEO’ means – let’s take a minute to discuss some SEO 101.

The term SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization.’ When people go online and type in a primary search phrase, Google (most of us use Google, right?) employs a sophisticated algorithm to scan the internet of billions and billions of web pages. It then gives us a list of what it thinks are the most relevant web pages based on your specific question or search phrase.

Search Engine Optimization is just what it sounds like; content optimization designed to make a specific web page appear higher on Google’s list of search results for a given phrase or question. There are many different facets of SEO – keyword-oriented SEO writing is just one of them.

The Apartment Complex Analogy

Think of Search Engine Optimization like a building code inspector that’s going to inspect a newly constructed home. For the house to pass all code requirements, it has to meet or exceed most (probably not all) of the inspector’s criteria. In other words, the home’s foundation must be at a certain depth in the ground, the studs in the walls must be spaced correctly, the insulation and electrical components must be up-to-code, and so on. There are dozens of different standards that a home must meet or exceed to get the green light to go on the market.

SEO is much the same. However, instead of dozens of different criteria, a website (the new home) is likely scanned by Google (the code inspector) for hundreds of different standards. Things like download speeds, article content, writing quality, programming and coding, backlinks, site authoritativeness, and user-friendliness will come into play when Google scans and ranks the relevance of a specific web page for a particular question or search term.

SEO Writing: An Ever-Evolving Process

In the past, SEO writing primarily emphasized the inclusion of specific keywords for a given article. For example, a website geared towards attracting traffic for the search phrase “best car for sale in the USA” would construct a report based on variations of these exact words.

For example, the article’s title might read something like: “Our Team of Experts Reveals the Best Car for Sale in the USA.” Additionally, the article would be organized into several different sections. Each of them would have a header at the top that included variations of phrases like “best USA car for sale,” “best-ranked USA cars,” and so on. The body of the article would also include dozens of similar keyword variations.

The same general process largely remains true today, although it now appears that high-quality organic writing outweighs extraordinarily keyword-heavy content. Whereas websites in the past would put together 10,000+ word articles with hundreds of exact-matching keywords, the emphasis now seems to be more on quality, high-authority, and high-value writing.

Some Things Never Change…

With that said, keyword placement will always be a crucial part of any kind of SEO writing. Without proper use and investment of keywords, Google will have no idea what your article is about, and it will not be able to rank your page for any of its search results.

Many companies today employ both a team of writers and a team of SEO experts. The SEO team spends countless hours searching the web for relevant keywords that pertain to the specific niche of the website(s) in question. Once they’ve determined appropriate keywords for a particular Google search, they’ll then research optimal placement of these keywords throughout an article.

Of course, it ultimately ends up being the writer’s responsibility to produce an article that contains relevant (and adequately placed) keywords, but that also reads well, flows well, and offers high value to the reader.

Amalgamating all of these components into a flowing, high-quality end product can be challenging. However, it is most certainly possible – especially if you employ the following five tips and techniques for effective SEO writing.

5 Ways to Achieve Quality SEO Writing Skills…. Without Losing Your Mind

The following five tips mostly apply to articles that are being written from an SEO keyword outline. SEO teams often provide writers with a spreadsheet that highlights – in precise detail – the exact placement of keywords in article titles, headers, paragraph text, and more.

Implementing all facets of the SEO outline while maintaining a high-quality, organically-written article is tricky. Follow these steps, however, and you should end up with less of a headache.

Use Google!

This first tip is for writers that may be working on their own and don’t have the advantage of a team of SEO experts providing detailed keyword-oriented SEO outlines. If you want to write a keyword-oriented article but don’t know which specific keywords or keyphrases to include in your content, just use Google.

Suppose you want to put together an article on the best Italian-made espresso machines. There’s a market for those, to be sure – but how are people searching for them on Google?

Here’s what you have to do to find out. Open up a new Google page, click on the search bar up at the top, and start typing your question. If you begin typing “best made in Italy espresso machine,” for instance, Google instantly knows what you’re looking for and will automatically suggest the phrase “best espresso machine made in Italy.” This means that this is the single most popular search phrase for people looking for this specific item.

You’ll want to go ahead and construct your main article title (the H1 title) using the phrase that Google recommends. For example, in this specific instance, you might come up with something like: “Best Espresso Machine (Made in Italy) – The Expert Barista’s Guide.”

You can also use this same technique to find similar keywords and phrases to incorporate throughout your article text and headers. Play around in the Google search bar using variants of the search phrase in question, and you’ll see that several automatically-generated phrases pop up.

Another technique is to go ahead and conduct a Google search. Type in “best espresso machine made in Italy,” hit ‘Enter,’ and then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you’ll see a handful of search phrases asking the same question, albeit with slightly different words. Use these key phrases to structure the various sections of your SEO-oriented article.

Structure Your Article – Before You Start Writing

Once you’ve got all your keywords and keyphrases organized, (whether you’ve received them from an SEO team or have drafted them yourself based on your research), go ahead and put all headers, titles, keywords, and so on exactly where they need to be in the article. You should be able to come up with an outline that looks something like this:

• ARTICLE TITLE (H1 keyword header)
• Introduction paragraphs
  • 1-2x keywords here
• H2 header (keyword-oriented)
  • Several paragraphs text
  • 2-3x keywords in this section
• H2 header
  • Several paragraphs text
  • 2-3x keywords in this section
• H2 header
  • Several paragraphs text
  • 2-3x keywords in this section
• Conclusion H2 header (keyword-oriented)
  • Several paragraphs concluding text
  • 1-2x keywords here

With the entire structure of an article in place, including the proper placement of all keywords, it will be much less intimidating when it comes to writing the article. Also, you must prioritize organic, normal writing first. Then – if necessary – go back and find a way to squeeze in the keywords into the relevant sentences of each section.

Ask Questions

If you’re finding yourself short on the creativity required to incorporate an SEO keyword or keyphrase into a specific part of an article, don’t be afraid to use the phrase in a question. In fact, many important SEO keyword search terms are in the form of a question anyway, so why not make your job much easier?

Consider the SEO search phrase “how to make a DIY birdhouse.” The grammatical nature of this phrase is already in the form of a question, so rather than manipulate the phrase and fit it into a standard sentence, just ask the question flat-out:

“Have you been asking yourself how to make a DIY birdhouse? If so, then this is the article you need to read…”

Writers so often limit themselves to the confines of structured paragraph form; so much so that they forget to consider very basic – albeit highly effective – grammatical structures that will make SEO keyword implementation so much easier.

Research, Research, and More Research (And Then a Little More Research)

This tip doesn’t have much to do with SEO writing specifically, but trust us – it will make your job of putting together a complicated SEO article much, much more manageable.

Think of something you might consider yourself an expert on. What is it – fishing? Dating? Cars? Ancient Mesopotamian history? Whatever it is, you could probably talk/write about it at length with unparalleled ease, right?

Having secure and comfortable knowledge of a topic will always make writing an article on that topic so much easier. And the easier an article comes, the easier the mandatory SEO elements will come as well.

Of course, it’s rare for an SEO writer to tackle a topic that he or she is intimately familiar with. Thus, the only option for gaining expert-level knowledge on that topic is to research. And we’re talking legit, proper research. If the time-tested adage for buying a home is “Location, Location, Location,” then the time-tested adage for quality article writing should be “Research, Research, Research.”

Plus, the more you research a topic and delve into it, the more you’ll want to talk/write about it. You’ll have something to actually say, and as such, you will be able to circumnavigate the futile efforts of trying to fool a reader into thinking you know what you’re talking about. From there, all of the SEO elements will come secondary.

Use Bulleted Lists

When trying to implement exact SEO keywords or keyphrases into a sentence, many writers assume the keyword must exist within the structural confines of an organically flowing sentence. While this is a lot of times the optimal scenario, it’s not always the easiest option.

As long as the SEO keyphrase exists where it should inside an article (as per the SEO outline), it doesn’t matter if it’s smack in the middle of a naturally-flowing sentence, in-between punctuation marks (as described above), or even isolated by itself in a bulleted list or chart.

Consider the tricky SEO keyphrase “natural organic shampoo prose.” (Prose is a high-end haircare company). This phrase would be migraine-inducing to try and fit organically into a flowing sentence, right?

No matter. Just shift the focus of your paragraph slightly and include the phrase in a bulleted list:

“You’re undoubtedly aware that natural cosmetics are a rare commodity in today’s oversaturated market of synthetic, mass-produced, chemically-laden products. However, there are several brands (and specific products) that are absolutely worth checking out:

• [insert competing brand/product here]
• [insert competing brand/product here]
• Natural organic shampoo (Prose brand)
• [insert competing brand/product here]”

From there, you can go on to emphasize your keyphrase (and/or market a specific product) by explaining how the “Prose” brand is better than of the other competing brands.

Final Thoughts on SEO Writing Tips That Will Help You Keep Your Sanity

All in all, no matter how ridiculous or convoluted an SEO writing task might seem, there will always be a workable solution out there. Some solutions may of course be easier and more obvious to find than others, but there truly is no such thing as “impossible” when it comes to structured SEO writing.

Keep the above five tips in mind when working on your next piece of SEO content, and let us know if they made your job any easier. Also, if you have any additional tips or techniques that you personally use to help tackle SEO writing (without losing your sanity), be sure to drop us a line and let us know what they are!