Search engine optimization

How to Write SEO Content

In this article, we show what SEO texts are and how content can be optimized with SEO strategies so that it becomes more relevant in search engine rankings and is displayed in higher positions.

Why Is SEO Important? #

Imagine you're looking for a product or service - how do you start? If you immediately have a colorful logo in mind with the word "Google" on it, you're not alone. Google registers several billion search queries every day, and countless of these queries ultimately lead to a sale. That's a good reason in today's world of online marketing to look at your own search engine ranking - and especially how you can improve it.

There are a number of things you can do to be better found in search engines. These are also known as search engine optimization (SEO for short). One of these measures in the area of on-page optimization is search engine optimized content, which we will explain step by step in this article. But before we go into detail about how to write so-called SEO texts, we want to clarify a few important fundamental points.

What Are SEO Texts? #

Search engine optimization covers many areas - one important aspect concerns the content of a website. So called SEO texts can be understood as specifically created content that aims to achieve a high position in the search results of search engines such as Google. In order to write good SEO texts and be listed high in the search results for a specific search query on the search engine results page (SERP), special tools and instruments can be used to increase the relevance of the content. However, we want to make one thing clear in advance: Texts should primarily be written for people and not for search engines.

Focusing on Users Instead of Search Engines #

We think it's important not to be misled by the term "search engine optimized text" or "SEO text". Texts and content should be created primarily for users and not for search engines. Only if content is relevant to users, they will search for it, click on it and read it - and that is ultimately what you want to achieve as a content creator. If content is relevant for users, then a good foundation has already been laid for search engines to rate the texts as relevant.

However, you can give search engines a few nudges - in the following sections, we will show you some tips to make sure that the texts you create are classified as relevant.

Tips for Search Engine Optimized Texts #

So what is important for writing excellent texts and optimizing them for search engines? With the following tips, you can take a step-by-step approach to improving your content optimization. Let's dive into it!

1. First Things First: Target Group Analysis #

The first step should always be to understand the target group: Who do I want to address and how do these people think? Here it is useful to do research first and develop personas if necessary in order to be able to familiarize yourself with these people. Because understanding their search intention ultimately helps to ensure that the texts are relevant for this group.

Do you know how your target group thinks? Great, then you can tailor the texts precisely to the needs of these people by paying attention to the following aspects.

2. Define Goals: Specify Main Keywords and Secondary Keywords #

Before you start writing, you should first determine the terms with which the article should be found based on the defined target group and their search intention. So how do you proceed? The first step is to carry out a keyword research, keeping in mind the purpose of the resulting content and how the target group will search for it. With the help of tools such as SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs, terms and phrases can be checked for their relevance and search volume. You can also find out how high the competition is for these keywords.

There are a number of different approaches to determining the main keyword, each varying depending on the topic. Based on the strategy, it can be a short-head main keyword (e.g. "web development"), a mid-tail main keyword (e.g. "web development Vienna") or a long-tail main keyword (e.g. "web development Vienna Brigittenau SEO"). In most cases, a text for a short-tail main keyword is more broad and the content covers different aspects, which can be a little further apart. A text for a long-tail keyword, on the other hand, will be more specific and thematically less broad.

Once you have determined a main keyword, you should also think about possible secondary keywords. However, secondary keywords should not compete with the main keyword. They should fit in thematically with the main keyword and add a new aspect. They are therefore not just variations on the main keyword, but offer added value for the text and can also be used as headings for structuring the text.

3. Provide a Clear Structure #

A clear structure is important for writing SEO texts, with relevant headings showing the highlights of the text and the content organized into user-friendly paragraphs. So before you start writing, you should think about which topics around the focus keyword could be important.

Here are some tips on how to optimize the structure of your content:

Research popular questions: Search queries in Google, Bing and the like are often in fact questions. Questions are particularly popular when searching by voice input via "Alexa", "Hey Google" or "Siri". Taking these search forms into account in your texts can have a positive effect on your own ranking. Possible questions can be determined with the tool AlsoAsked, for example.
Use a content assistant: Tools such as SISTRIX offer functions that provide possible subheadings and a structure based on a keyword. These do not have to be adopted exactly as they are, but can provide a good indication of a suitable structure.
Include secondary keywords: If secondary keywords have been defined in addition to the main keyword, these can provide useful structure in the subheadings.
Pay attention to the structure of the headlines and sub-headlines: The headlines should be structured sensibly and formatted from H1 to H6. Use the appropriate headings and subheadings in a logical structure. This not only helps with SEO, but also helps readers to keep a good orientation while reading.

4. Write Unique and In-Depth Texts #

Once you have done the groundwork and defined the keywords and structure, it's time to start writing the texts. Create unique content that offers added value for users and that does not yet exist in this form. Above all, make sure that your texts are "unique", i.e. that they do not exist in exactly the same form a second time on the Internet - if parts of the text are simply copied and pasted, search engines can penalize your content with a poor ranking. If, on the other hand, you manage to attract users with the quality of your content, the length of time they spend on your website can increase. This is an important ranking factor for search engines.

Here are 3 tips you should keep in mind for writing unique texts:

Good and useful content: Make sure that the text solves problems or questions that your target group might have. It is often worth going into depth and dealing with the topic in detail.
Avoid keyword stuffing: A certain keyword density is of course important, but your content should above all be "natural". Don't try to stuff as many keywords as possible into your texts but create pleasant and informative content. Search engines like Google don't just look at individual keywords, but take a holistic view of the depth of content in a text. More on this in point 5 on WDF*IDF analysis.
Text length: There is a lot of speculation online about how many words or characters the perfect SEO text should have. However, it is also clear that there is a lot of disagreement on this topic. Our tip is therefore not to fixate on a specific number of words. The quality and uniqueness of your text is much more important for SEO content. The right text length will then come naturally.

5. WDF*IDF Analysis: Optimize the Depth of Your Text #

If you have written an in-depth and interesting text, then you have already completed one of the most important tasks. To optimize the texts even further, you can deepen the content with special SEO tools. For us, TermLabs.io has proven its worth. This application can be used to analyze how relevant your content is compared to other texts on the Internet for the selected keyword. Termlabs.io offers a very good WDF*IDF analysis for German-speaking countries. The short form WDF*IDF stands for "Within Document Frequency*Inverse Document Frequency": The tool analyzes and evaluates your text in terms of content relevance and word density compared to similar content on the internet. This allows you to compare the content density for the selected keyword with the "competition". The analysis shows you which terms on the topic are already sufficiently present in the text and which terms should be integrated more strongly to support the main keyword.

However, Termlabs.io is only designed for german content. An alternative for english and other languages is offered, for example, by Seobility.

Important reminder at this point: WDF*IDF analysis is a great tool, but you should always make sure that your content is unique and offers something that is not yet available on the Internet in this particular form. If you focus purely on WDF*IDF tools when writing texts, the texts can lose their uniqueness and be very similar to other articles which in turn can have a negative effect on the ranking.

6. Internal and External Links #

Links to relevant and trustworthy sources increase the credibility of your content. Internal links allow you to refer to related content on your own site.

With external links, you can show users and thus also search engines that your content is thematically relevant to the linked pages, which can potentially result in a better ranking. When doing so, it is important to pay attention to the following things:

Use trustworthy links: Only use links to websites that are trustworthy and have a kind of "authority" on the topic. This will increase the credibility of your own texts.
Relevance of links: Only use links to websites that are thematically relevant to your content and offer added value. This way you can increase user-friendliness and thus increase the relevance of your texts.
Use appropriate anchor texts: Anchor texts are the words or texts that are displayed as a hyperlink to a website. Instead of using texts such as "Click here", it helps to give readers a direct indication of where the link leads. "9 tips for SEO texts" would be an example of a very specific and helpful anchor text.

7. Metadata #

Another essential aspect of content SEO is that important metadata is defined and optimized. Besides the title tag, which is displayed as the title in search engines, the meta description provides a brief summary of the page. The content for both types of metadata should therefore be written in a way that will attract interest from readers and generate more clicks.

In this context, we would particularly like to emphasize the use of alt tags: Search engines cannot "read" or directly understand images. However, you can make life a little easier for Google, Bing and other search engines by providing alternative texts (alt tags) to explain the images in a few words. This can make images easier to understand, which can have a positive effect on the ranking. However, adding alt tags is not only relevant for SEO, but even more important for creating accessible content and thus improving the user experience. The reason for this is that for example people with visual impairments may use screen readers that are also not able to "read" the images and therefore require a description of the images in order to be able to interpret the content in a user-friendly way. You can find out more about the important topic of accessibility on the internet here.

8. SEO Is a Matter of Permanent Optimization #

Search engine optimization doesn't work immediately, it takes time. If you have created unique content and optimized it into a so-called "SEO text" using the tips in this article, you should not expect miracles the next day. In the case of Google, you can apply to have your website indexed if you have created new content or changed the text on an existing page. Although this can speed up the process, you should still give your new content a little time to be evaluated by search engines. Over the following weeks and months, you should monitor the performance of your newly created content via the Google Search Console.

If it becomes apparent over the next few weeks after publication that the results of impressions and clicks are below expectations, you can take further SEO measures for optimization - for example, further deepening and optimizing the content of the page.

However, it should also be made clear at this point that content-based SEO alone is sometimes not enough to achieve a top ranking. There are also other important ranking factors in the area of search engine optimization, both in on-page optimization (e.g. measures for technical SEO, optimization of loading speed etc.) and in off-page optimization (e.g. link building through backlinks to increase the "authority" of your domain). A good mix of on-page optimization and off-page optimization should be part of every SEO strategy.

9. Beware of Keyword Cannibalization #

Finally, we would like to point out one more important thing: If you write SEO texts, you should always consider your website as a whole when selecting keywords and not just the individual article.

Why is this important? Well, if you write SEO texts without a keyword strategy, it can happen that some of your articles compete for the same or relatively similar keywords, which can lead to a "cannibalization" of the respective subpages. The internal competition on the website for a specific keyword can ultimately result in a relevance problem and have a negative impact on the ranking, as the search engine does not know which page it should display in the search results. For a good SEO strategy, you should therefore avoid different pages or posts with very similar topics and consolidate them if necessary.

You Want to Learn More About SEO? #

How a website ranks in search results can be crucial to a company's success. Those who actively use SEO and write texts that are targeted at specific keywords, continuously improve their chances of being ranked well. An optimal SEO strategy should rely on various measures in on-page optimization and off-page optimization in order to reach its full potential.

Do you want to optimize the content or technical aspects of your website and need support with SEO? Then get in touch with us at hello@bitperfect.at, our team looks forward to hearing from you.