Writing for SEO, a Little Science and a Lot of Art

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Writing for SEO photography of hands on laptop computerSEO is about the science of numbers.
But writing for SEO is genuinely an art.
Good digital writers master both.

SEO is a Science

SEO is all about numbers — algorithms drive numerical page scoring that results in higher page ranking. Keywords used in the proper places achieve a better score. High-quality inbound links, especially those using your target keywords, dramatically increase scores. Outbound links, especially blogs which reference other blogs, also score higher. And so on, and so on. That’s the science part.

Tips for Writing Effective SEO Content (MarketingProfs)

Writing for SEO is an Art

Digital Writing - Writing for SEOBut the art comes in telling your story well while weaving particular keyword phrases into the title, heads, subheads, and body copy. Forcing specific phrases into these critical locations can make your article sound forced, stilted, or downright weird.

You cannot inundate your copy with repeated keyword phrases; Google doesn’t like that. Ensure your keywords are present in your title and heads, then sprinkle them about 4-5 times in a 300-word article. Bold them where you want to emphasize and nudge your SEO score slightly higher.

Seasoned digital writers don’t see this as a burden but a fun challenge — tell a good story, use keywords consistently (perfectly), follow them seamlessly into your copy and Shazam, writing for SEO.

Writing for SEO doesn’t always come naturally. It requires practice, thinking, and multiple editing passes. The more you do it, the easier and more natural it becomes. Soon you just write that way without thinking.

The What and How of What You Say

Begin with some planning. Decide 1) what you want to say in your story, and 2) keep in mind what search phrases your audience would most likely use to find your article/page. Now write, edit, and edit again. Sounds easy, but it’s not.

If you want to read deeper into this subject, here are a couple of articles/papers. Enjoy.

SEO Copywriting Made Easy (thanks to Copyblogger)

Next time we’ll talk about the title and article length, and use of graphics.

Happy digital writing.

Cheers,
steve

 

Steve Lee, APR
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One thought on “Writing for SEO, a Little Science and a Lot of Art”

  1. A little science? One needs some magic touch for this! Kidding.

    I got green status after a few corrections on my 2nd update, but looking at the Yoast page analysis I want to learn how to eliminate a couple of persistent yellow check-marks. I’ll email you about it.

    This week I kept my blog to 306 words (a challenge for me!) is 300 words -not counting title- really the optimum max?

    Interesting exercise and new level of writing.

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