Content is king. And building high-quality content that interests and persuades your audience is the best way of doing SEO. It is the secret to driving constant organic traffic to your website.
In this SEO copywriting checklist guide, you’ll learn how to write SEO content that not only appeals to your readers but also drives massive and relevant traffic.
Now, before you learn more about how to produce awesome SEO copy it’s important to understand the difference between copywriting and content writing.
We are a team of SEO copywriter Melbourne and this guide has been produced with real content-building practices. If you need help from a professional content writer then check out the website copywriting rates page.
SEO Copywriting Checklist 2021
- Content Topic Ideas & Planning
- SEO Copywriting Planning
- Competition Analysis
- Copywriting Effort Estimation
- Setting The Expectation
- Writing Actual Content
- How to Use Keywords In Content Writing?
- Optimise Content Above The Fold
- Word Count
- H1, H2… Optimisation
- Optimise For Featured Snippets
- Content Flow
- Highlight Keywords
- Optimise Internal Links
Content Topic Ideas & Planning
Before you think about producing link-worthy content, you need to know the topic you are going to write on. A copywriter can do a better if job if the topic is already provided.
While you can get tonnes of ideas by doing competition analysis and by reviewing others’ content in a similar niche, if you would like to succeed then you must plan and come up with your own ideas.
You can use AI tools for content planning, and learn more about ChatGPT and copywriting impact.
How to find a good blog topic?
There are many ways you can come with a compelling content topic that can be a game-changer. Here are some of the steps you can follow to come up with a powerful blog topic:
- Know your strength. For example: if you have a blog about pets and if you feel you know pets food best then stick to your strengths.
- Once you know your strength then you can use tools like Google Keywords Planner to see popular keywords in that niche.
- You can also use tools like ahref or ubersuggest and run reports on your competition to see what is already available.
- You can also visit different forums on that niche to see what people are talking about.
It is worth mentioning that no matter what tool you use, ultimately it’s you and your creativity that can bring the best, tools are just a way to help you.
How to come up with a problem-solving content topic?
The best way to come with problem-solving content is by doing the research and finding the gap.
You may find tonnes of topics that are either not converted at all or partially covered.
You can be the bridge to minimise the gap and excel online.
SEO Copywriting Planning
While a great piece of content may perform well naturally but if you would like your content to take it to the next level then you must plan SEO inclusions before starting to write the content.
The job of a copywriter is a lot easier if the content flow is already ready like:
- The topic
- Headings and subheadings
- Keyword optimised headings
- The content above the fold planning
- Internal linking planning
- Highlighting specific areas
The two main objectives of content are:
- The content should rank well and it should have the potential to acquire natural links.
- Optimising internal links to help other pages.
Content without SEO intent will struggle to perform well.
Competition Analysis
The competition analysis can happen at multiple stages.
Once you decide on the topic and SEO inclusions then it is worth checking if any of your competition may already have similar content and if that will be the case then you should aim to produce 5 to 10 x better content than them.
It’s easier to say but if you really plan well and work on it, you will be able to come with very powerful content.
Copywriting Effort Estimation
It’s good to get excited about possibilities once you do the planning.
By now you would know the amount of work that may be needed to convert planning into actual content.
You need to have an SEO copywriter who can understand your vision to take it to a conclusion.
If you may be producing something very detailed and may like to include some statistical data then you may need help from other team members or third parties who can help you with that.
Often subject matter experts are expensive to hire.
Setting The Expectation
In the SEO world no matter how best you do things, you should always have a moderate expectations.
If you keep your expectation low and work hard on the process and feel positive about what you produced then ultimately you will end up on the winning side most of the time.
Whether you are writing for a client or yourself, always have average expectations.
Writing Actual Content
The start of the page should be engaging to keep the users interested or else it increases the bounce rate. The addition of digital and interactive media also plays an important role in enhancing user engagement.
Avoid thin content production and pay special attention to keyword cannibalisation.
Avoid repeat content, it can make your page look poor and it will struggle to rank.
Writing quality copy is an art, just producing random content doesn’t help greatly. You may have noticed the issue of Google My Business posts being rejected due to poor content or related issues.
It is good to avoid lengthy paragraphs as it might be difficult to read, keep your paragraphs short and specific.
Bold important keywords where possible in different sections of your page.
Pay special attention to keywords including and internal linking opportunities.
A professional content writer can be handy when you don’t have the right person to write the copy for your website, learn more about copywriting rates in Australia.
How to Use Keywords In Content Writing?
Using keywords recklessly in your content can cause your website a lot of damage and affect your rankings negatively.
Whether it’s a blog post or a website page, there are definite rules to be followed for creating a balance of keywords within your content and avoid keyword stuffing.
- Insert the main keywords in the headline of your blogs or website copy. A strong keyword optimised headline will give you more click-through rates and bring in more traffic.
- You should include keywords in your meta title and description.
- Include your keywords in the first 200 words of your introduction, subheadings and conclusion of your blog or web copy.
- Include primary keywords in the alt tags images included.
- You should try to insert primary keywords throughout your content once every 100-150 words.
Optimise Content Above The Fold
The top section of your content is critically important.
This is what the user sees first and if you fail to make a strong impression then your content may not perform as good as it should.
Pay special attention during copywriting as well as post live based on the data and apply appropriate changes where needed.
This should hook your audience.
Word Count
There is so much debate on the word count and SEO ranking.
As an SEO copywriter, you shouldn’t worry so much about the word count, instead, your focus should be to produce quality content.
When you aim to produce problem-solving content and go deep into the topic, your word count will be taken care of.
Having said that, thin content is not recommended generally.
The word count may be considered when you try to produce similar content to your competition but better than having well-researched content with a much higher word count may have an edge to outrank your competition.
H1, H2… Optimisation
You must have an SEO strategy in place to include the right keywords in different headings of your content.
It is good to have your main keyword in h1 and other supporting keywords in h2s.
Optimise For Featured Snippets
This is another hidden opportunity which most of the SEO copywriter doesn’t think about.
It is extremely powerful and with just some focus you will be able to rank on top with the help of featured snippets.
Based on the type of content, you can optimise the top summary or provide tabular data which might be valuable to user and Google may consider showing your page as featured snippets.
Content Flow
While doing copywriting, it is important to understand to present the content and data in an appropriate format.
Bullet Points
There will be certain situations where bullet points may be more appropriate than a few paragraphs of text.
Tabular Data
If you have numbers or data to present, it’s good to use a table. Google can also that info and it may be helpful in showing your info as featured snippets.
Highlight Keywords
Highlight appropriate keywords where possible, it helps users to pay attention to specific things and it also helps the SEO.
It is important to know that only some selective keywords should be made bold.
If you make too many words bold in every paragraph then your content may look spammy.
Optimise Internal Links
As mentioned above, this is one of the most important tasks of producing content online.
Often business pages struggle to get backlinks but if you have problem-solving blogs then you may have the opportunity to acquire natural links and you can pass those value to other relevant pages by internal linking your other important pages.