They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but did you know you need less than 40 to complete standard photo descriptions? These are quick and easy to write—not to mention fun!—and they can also add a lot of value to a site that heavily relies on images.

 

What is a Photo Description?

An image description gives a short, simple explanation of a photo. This is a handy way to elaborate on a picture or add depth to a piece of content. However, there are different types of descriptions with specific requirements. Here are the most common:

• Caption: A catchy description that elaborates on a photo but doesn’t necessarily focus on the visual elements. Also known as a cutline.
• Alt Text: A concise description of important features in the picture, originally designed for readers who are unable to view or understand the image. It is often used for coding and SEO purposes.
• Image Description: A more complex description for a photo, giving members of the blind and low vision community and other groups a textual explanation of the photo.

Although each type of description has a different use, including a few can improve your content and make your photos stand out.

 

Why Do We Need Photo Descriptions?

There are many reasons why a description or caption is needed. For instance, a site that specifically sells stock images would rely on photo descriptions – since they would replace your standard product description. Or a site that sells artwork for a living would need to have someone that can put that picture into words for the consumer – again replacing the need for product descriptions. Other types of companies that may need great picture descriptions just to sell their products include clothing retailers, jewelers and more.

Outside of the company types listed above, pictures and their descriptions can also be a great help to standard content marketing campaigns.  Finding any excuse to add some relevant content into your blogs and web pages is what you must do to create an advantage over your competitors. Adding image text can help your readers and optimize your blog posts.

 

How To Write a Great Photo Description

Do you want to make a stunning description or caption, but you don’t know where to start? Never fear, the process is easier than you might think. Don’t shy away from this exciting type of content marketing and get started with these four easy steps.

 

1.  Write a Simple Title That Summarizes the Picture

In the past we’ve explained the art of creating attention-grabbing article titles, and the rules apply to photo description titles as well: They should summarize the picture while engaging the audience and matching the client’s style.

Especially for captions, titles should be both informative and interesting to read. Here are a few tips to improve how “catchy” your captions are:

• Be concise
• Keep your audience in mind
• Use strong verbs and adjectives
• Write what stands out to you

You don’t have to get too creative to write something that catches the eye of readers. Stay simple and to the point. When you first look at the picture, what do you see? Tweak a few words, add a little more spunk and you’ve got a picture-perfect photo description.

​

DO: Having Fun With Food

DON’T: Vitamin C Is a Powerful Antioxidant That’s Abundant in Fruits

 

2.  Add Timeless Details to Describe the Picture

Your photo description may be vivid and well written, but it won’t serve the client if it dates the copy. Stick with timeless details that will always be relevant. This not only improves the value of the products you may selling, but it makes an article a perfect read no matter what season or year it is.

Along with adding rich, relevant descriptions, keep in mind what the audience is looking for. Readers generally what to know the who, what, why, when, where and how of pictures. Be specific and professional, so that viewers have a better understanding of what they are looking at.

DO: Regardless of the season, guests will be more comfortable with an extra throw nearby. Swap out heavy wool blankets with lightweight cotton throws in warmer months.

DON’T: The calendar may say spring, but a cool breeze through your open window makes a lightweight throw blanket a must-have.

 

3.  Give the Picture Context So That It Pertains to the Subject Matter

If necessary, speculate about what’s happening in the picture to give it context and make it pertain to your products/services (or your clients’ products and services). This is a no-no in photo journalism, but it’s perfectly fine to use a little imagination when writing photo descriptions for content marketing purposes. This can help drive home a point and add context and narrative to a blog.

Adding a little commentary to a picture can help you link it back to the content you’re writing. For SEO purposes, don’t forget to include a relevant alt-text. Write a short explanation of the picture and connect it to the subject of the blog or article. This will help you rank for relevant keywords.

DO: Having a happy marriage can be difficult when a couple doesn’t see eye to eye. When love and respect are replaced with anger and finger pointing, it may be time to consider divorce.

 

4.  Polish Your Work

It doesn’t matter if you are writing 40 words or 400 words, always spell check the document and proofread your writing. That being said, when photo descriptions ARE your business, then having the content checked for spelling and grammar becomes even that much more important. Always have a second set of eyes looking over the content to make sure it stays sharp and makes sense.

While you’re editing, try to avoid unnecessary phrases such as “pictured above” or “an image of.” With captions and photo descriptions today, you can cut the fluff and get to the meat. Focus on what you want your readers to know about the picture and let the rest of your content enhance and support your images.

That’s it. You’re done!

 

Photo Descriptions on Social Media

Although photo descriptions are already important online, social media gives a whole new meaning to captions. A good caption of a photo on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter can lead to more customer interaction, or simply, more likes on a post. So how do you create perfect image descriptions on social media?

 

Instagram Photo Descriptions

This social media platform is already picture-based, so the little content you include counts. Instagram users scroll through their feeds quickly, so consider included smaller, catchier captions. Keep in mind that captions are cut after a few lines and require readers to click a button to read the whole thing, so keep the most important information at the top.

Here are a few Instagram caption tips from Hootsuite:

• Give shout-outs with the @mention feature
• Use emojis, quotes and questions to change things up
• Give insider tips
• Offer instructions, background information and stories
• Use minimalistic captions for striking pictures

Instagram is a space where companies, personalities and personal accounts can display images with thought-provoking captions. A simple image description is not always the best way to complement a picture. Get creative and keep in mind that you have a character limit of 2,200.

 

Facebook Photo Descriptions

This platform is more content-based, unlike Instagram. However, photo descriptions can still have catchy, short captions that can spark engagement. In fact, influencer Jeff Bullas found that the ideal length for Facebook posts is 80 characters or less. Keep in mind that you can share photos on Facebook in a variety of ways. Here are three of the most popular:

• Upload a photo with a description. You can also tag friends and change privacy settings.
• Edit a photo you have already posted and add a description.
• Add a caption to a photo that has been shared by someone else.

Whether you are promoting a business or yourself, consider adding a link to your post. This can lead to the article your picture is about, more pictures or other valuable sources.

 

Twitter Photo Descriptions

Twitter requires users to be short and concise with their captions. With a character limit of 140, your image descriptions should be catchy and easy to read. This social media platform is known for being an open and honest sphere, so get creative with the way you introduce your photos.

If you want to create photo descriptions for the accessibility of the blind and low vision community, you will have to do it manually. Once enabled, you can add a description for a photo by tapping the “add a description” button at the bottom of the image. Users who require this will hear the text through screen reader technology.

 

Take Advantage of Photo Descriptions!

The next time you have an opportunity to write descriptions for your site or social media, take it! Doing so is a great way to add some relevant content/keywords to your posts and add additional value to your readers.

If you have lots of photos that need descriptions, don’t get overwhelmed – we can help! Contact us about your photo description project and we’ll outline ways we can help you as a professional online writing service.

Comment below and let us know if any of these tips have worked well for you!

 

What if you were able to reach a larger audience in your industry while also adding credibility to your brand? Contributing to guest blogs is a great way to gain the trust of potential customers, increase your exposure and ultimately boost your SEO. Adding guest blogging to your own content marketing efforts is a crucial step to produce unprecedented online marketing success.

Read on to find out everything you ever wanted to know about guest blogging for SEO, including how to get started.

 

What is Guest Blogging for SEO?

So what is guest blogging for SEO? Guest blogging is commonly known as a marketing tactic whereby someone writes an article (or guest blog post) to be posted on a third-party website or blog. Typically, you’ll be labeled as a “guest contributor” and your blog will be scheduled to be posted on the website at a later date. Along with your name, you’ll usually be able to include a picture of yourself in your bio, a small description, as well as a link to your website and social media profiles.

 

What are the Rules of Guest Blogging?

One important thing to note is that each website that allows guest blog post contributors usually has their own set of “best practices” that must be followed in order to post on their site. Some of the ground rules for guest blogging on other sites may include the following:

• No self-promotional or sale pitches in the article about your company – must be purely informational
• Must be relevant to the reader base of that site and provide value
• Needs to be a certain word count
• Should be formatted a certain way to follow that site’s writing style guide
• May need to include images or ideas for images
• Usually can’t include links in the content back to a page on your website (outside of the one link you’re given in your bio)
• Must be submitted by a certain date and is subject to revisions by the site editor

While this is not a comprehensive list of guidelines that come along with guest blogging for SEO, these are some of the most common. Being familiar with traditional rules that come along with guest blogging on other sites can help you to make sure you’re not spending time on areas that will have to be changed later anyway. Once you do find a website that allows for guest blog posting, then you’ll want to read through their style guide and adhere to it in your writing. More on that later.

 

Why Guest Blog?

There are many reasons to write a guest blog post, but some of the most compelling reasons are to create links back to your site to help with rankings on SERPs and also to get exposure to another website’s followers and reader base.

Guest blogging has been a subject of much debate in the world of internet marketing, yet it is still considered one of the best content marketing strategies that you can cultivate. It has the potential to bring awareness to your brand, expand your network, and increase traffic to your business website. Guest blogging is beneficial for both your business branding and your authority as a writer. It can be a powerful tool if you use it right.

 

What are the Benefits of Guest Blogging for SEO?

First, it’s important to understand the benefits of guest blogging as a whole, then we’ll get into the specifics of how to get started. Here are some of the many benefits of guest blogging in general.

1. Expand Your Network

Guest blogging on sites in your niche is a great networking tactic to use in any content marketing plan. By contributing to niche blogs, you have an opportunity to engage with audiences you may never have had access to on your own. The more guest blogs you contribute on, the more readership bases you can reach. If your content is helpful, engaging and provides real value, you may have people following you directly on social media to see when your next post drops.

Not only that, you have the opportunity to potentially collaborate with other authors on other industry sites. Getting the attention of other industry influencers and quoting them, and subsequently getting them to quote you back, gets you in front of their loyal followers.

Getting active in the community through commenting, sharing, and posting is a great way to build relationships in your niche, establish yourself as an expert and attract attention to your own blog.

 

2. Increase Social Media Following

Social media presence is one of the leading content marketing methods that attract customers to your business. Guest blogging for SEO can boost the number of eyes that see your content and help deepen your pool of followers. Often, guest blogging enables you to link to your own social media platforms in your contributed piece. Not only that, many guest posting sites will promote your content through their own social media channels as well, tagging you in the process.

The number of shares your content gets through social media establishes trust and credibility. There have been some cases where writers gained as many as 200 followers a day after contributing to a blog with their social media links attached. Quality content builds the trust of your target audience, which can spread more easily through these social media channels. Enabling feedback and engaging with your audience also helps build a trustworthy relationship.

The key is that your content is shareable and useful to an audience. Once you’ve checked that box, you stand a greater chance of gaining a larger social media following through writing guest blog posts.

 

3. Gain Authority

Trust begets loyal customers. Your audience may respond to your content if you establish credibility as an industry influencer through other blogs within your niche. Guest blogging for SEO gives you the opportunity to appear on any number of trustworthy sites in your industry. Appearing as a guest blogger may add authority to your own information on the subject and draw positive attention to your brand. The more you post, the more recognizable you become and the more people will trust you as an expert.

Not only that,  guest posting leads to MORE guest posting. As you add to your portfolio of sites you’ve written a guest blog post for, it’ll open up doors to other sites that were once off-limits.

4. Bring Awareness to Your Brand

Brand voice is an important factor to keep in mind as you write guest blog posts. Once you’ve become a recognizable voice within an industry, your audience will look for that voice in your own brand. This is your chance to show your audience what you have to offer and what sets your business apart. Bring something fresh and exciting to the table! It will help keep customers interested in your brand and allow them to connect on an emotional level

. If you’re having a guest blog writer help you, you’ll want to make sure you find one that can accurately convey information the same way that you would.

To gain your target audience, you must contribute to blogs that already have an established flow of traffic. Your contribution to a blog should be relevant to the kind of content you provide on your own site. This helps the audience maintain interest in what you have to say. Building better backlinks will help optimize your success in gaining relevant traffic. Contributing to popular blogs in your niche is a great way to introduce your content to an audience rather than waiting for them to find you.

5. Increase Backlinks

Backlinks are a metric used by search engines to show that a site is relevant, popular and an authority in a certain space. When it comes to links, this benefit is true both singularly, as well as compositely. Singularly, just the number of backlinks you have to your site from different domains is looked at positively by Google. If lots of other sites are linking back to your site, despite what their site content is about, search engines assume you are a reputable site with shareable content.

Compositely, if the blogs/sites that are linking back to your site have to do with the products and services that you offer, it can help to raise your rankings specifically with industry keywords. This is the best of both worlds. So if you sell clothes and have lots of links coming back to your site from fashion websites, Google takes into account you must be an expert on fashion. Even though most of these links to your site are just in the form of your main domain name, they are still valuable when it comes to diversifying your backlink profile.

6. Boost Direct Traffic

Lastly, if you can contribute to guest blogging sites that already have a lot of authority and have a huge reader base, just by nature of being a “contributor” you raise your level of authority to readers. They immediately look to you as an expert in the industry. The more your name is seen through guest posting and the more valuable your content, the better chance you have of people coming directly to your site to get expert help from you, the expert. This type of direct traffic is incredibly valuable, as the potential customer already views you as an expert and trusts you’ll be able to help them.

Ultimately, guest blog writing for SEO increases your chances of getting backlinks to your website, raising your rankings for targeted keywords and upping your traffic levels as a whole. More website traffic to your own site leads to more potential chances to make a sale. Links aren’t given out freely though (aside from your main domain name) so getting guest posts that include anchor text links on targeted keywords can be pretty hard to come by naturally – but that’s a topic for another day.

Still, getting links to your main domain still raises the floor of your website authority as a whole and is a worthwhile endeavor.

 

How Do I Find Sites that Allow Me to Write Guest Blog Posts?

Now that you understand the wide-ranging benefits of guest blogging for SEO, the next step is to find places that allow you to submit authority guest posts! This is also known as learning how to leverage guest blogging networks. There are a few easy ways to get started with this and you aren’t limited to just one – many companies take advantage of all of these guest posting methods and more in order to get a jump on the competition.

Identify “Information Wells” in your Industry

First, you need to find where people within your industry are getting their latest news/trends and important information. Obviously, there are major business sites like Forbes that would be fabulous to get on, but you likely won’t be able to post on a site like that in the beginning (unless you’re willing to shell out some dough for a sponsored post). One pro tip is to start smaller, local even. Are there local business news sites that you could publish on? When you google keywords related to your “industry” news, what comes up?

Start compiling a list of these different sites and the contact information of who you might need to reach out to (or a link to their contact us page). Many of these sites may already have established contributor guidelines, where others may not and it will be something you set up in a custom setting.

Build Relationships with Online Journals That Allow Guest Blogging for SEO

Next, you need to identify which of these sites allow authority guest blogs from contributors. Likely, you’ll have to go through a vetting process to become a regular content contributor, and you may need an existing writing portfolio before you’ll be considered. This is where writing on your own blog comes in handy because it is at least one published source of your writing you can show off to a site.

Once you get access to a site as a contributor, you’ll usually be given the green light to write guest blogs a few times a year, if not more. This is a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your space, since you’ll be in front of many more eyeballs than a typical business website, and you’ll have multiple chances to write about topics they may be interested in.

Build Relationships with Other Site Owners That Complement Your Products/Services

This method of guest blogging for SEO is the most organic of them all, and the strategy is slightly different than the one we just discussed. Essentially, you are working to develop relationships with other site owners related to your industry and writing guest blogs for them. On the flip side, you are also potentially letting them write for you as well. You’ll want to make sure you’re genuine in your guest blog post pitches and that you’re trying to appeal to their reader base instead of just wanting a link back to your site.

The idea is to find another company that has complementary products and services in your industry that you don’t compete with directly. If you are competitors, you’ll never work out a deal to swap posts/links. If it’s a business site that does something similar to what you do but isn’t the same, these are the best to reach out to. In a sense, you can scratch each others’ backs to get in front of each others’ reader base. You also can probably work out a deal to get the coveted “anchor text” backlink from one of your highly targeted keywords as well.

The only con to this method is you may only get one or two guest blogs published before you’ll want to move on to a different site. That being said, one or two posts is a huge win if you can get an anchor text link utilizing a top keyword.

Employ a Guest Posting Service (aka Link Building Service)

A form of guest blogging can also be done through guest posting services that have developed their entire business model around helping business owners get guest posts and backlinks. The quality of the sites that your guest blogs will be posted on may not be the best, so your link value may not be as high, but typically the volume of posts and links you get makes up for that.

Link building companies typically get you “anchor text” links as well, meaning the actual keyword you’re trying to rank for will be the one being sent back to your site. This is the most coveted of all backlinks because it’s an obvious indicator to Google and other search engines that this other site sees you as an expert for that exact keyword. Otherwise, they would not have created a hyperlink using that text.

Backlinking using a guest posting service can be a worthwhile avenue to go down, but it doesn’t usually increase the branding, reputation or authority of your site on a human level. Because of this, you likely shouldn’t replace the direct guest blogging you’re doing on your own to establish your brand. Rather, these two things can complement each other very well.

 

How Do I Get Started Writing Guest Blog Posts?

OK, so we’ve outlined the major benefits of guest blogging as a whole as well as how to identify sites that will let you contribute. So what’s next? How do you get started writing a guest blog post? Do you use a guest blog writing service? While you definitely need help with the writing, you also need to make sure you have a content marketing plan and some keyword research in place.

Get Your Content Marketing Ducks in a Row

Before you can write a blog or properly utilize a guest blog writing service to help you craft high-quality, authoritative guest blog posts, you need to make sure your content marketing campaign is set up and you have metrics to help measure success. You are writing to target a specific audience (or audiences). Identifying the right niche and tailoring your post to gain that audience’s attention are important factors in getting successful results.

Utilize Keyword Data

Content writing with keyword research in mind can help you when developing the guest blog posts that will bring customers to your business. As we’ve outlined here, guest posting offers wider opportunities for search engine visibility and lets an audience get familiar with your brand. Because guest blogs usually incorporate links to your own blog, using relevant keywords may pad your backlinks and make them more visible to search engines.

Consider your keywords and content carefully before you start to write; to generate the best results, you need to make each word count.

Hire a Guest Blog Writing Service

Last of all, just because you know you need to write guest blog posts it doesn’t mean you have to write them yourself. In fact, in many cases you SHOULDN’T write them yourself. If you don’t have a background in writing and editing, writing a guest blog post can not only be incredibly hard but can take you a very long time. As an industry expert (or someone in the process of establishing themselves as one), you need to spend your time being at the cutting edge of technologies and trends in your industry.

Take a cue from some of the top industry influencers worldwide and get yourself a ghostwriter to help take your thoughts, bullet points and ideas and translate them into a flowing, engaging blog post. This provides you with the opportunity to scale your guest blogging for SEO and make your efforts much more worthwhile. There are many guest blog writing services that exist (like us!) to help pair you with a writer (or writers) of your choosing that have experience in your industry and can learn to speak in your voice, style and tone.

 

Guest Blogging for SEO Recap: It Can be Done!

So while there is a lot to know about guest blogging for SEO, it’s also something that every business can start venturing into. Start small, make your writing count, and start building your guest blogging portfolio from the ground up. The longer the go, the more your brand will benefit and the better chance you have of increasing traffic, leads and ROI.

Have any other great guest blogging tips? Leave them in the comments below!

 

Since the re-explosion of content marketing in the 21st century, content creation has quickly evolved into an essential business activity. As with any essential business activity, brands need to determine the most cost-effective way to get it done without compromising quality.

Typically, this means deciding between one of two strategies: Developing an in-house writing team or outsourcing SEO content writing services to a content writing agency.

So what’s the difference between the two and what are the pros and cons of SEO content writing services? We’re here to answer your questions.

 

Insourcing Versus Outsourcing Content Creation

Quality SEO content writing is the primary driver of traffic, leads, conversions and profit. For these reasons, you probably already have a content marketing strategy in place. (If you don’t, keep reading, as this article can help you save time and money on creating a strategy that works best for you.)

For content to achieve all of its touted benefits, you must publish original, informative, helpful and engaging content on a consistent basis — consistent meaning multiple times a week. Whether brands have an existing strategy or not, most can agree that getting to the point where they’re able to publish quality content with the necessary consistency is no easy task. Brands that have been in the content race for a while also know that there are two common ways to get to the finish line:

• Insourcing Content Creation: Brands develop a culture of content within their organization and either hire in-house copywriters or delegate content-related tasks to some or all team members.
• Outsourcing Content Creation: Companies pay freelance copywriters, blogging companies, SEO content writing services or similar third-party entities to write content on their behalf.

Having helped thousands of brands realize their content marketing objectives as an agency, you’d think we’d be biased and say, “Choose us, choose us!” We’re not going to do that. We realize that making the most of your content marketing efforts is not as simple as picking between options one and two. You need to do your homework, weigh the pros and cons of all possible strategies and understand how your final decision aligns with your long-term goals.

 

Pro: Save On Overhead, Benefits, Overtime, Training and Other Items

At first glance, it may seem like hiring a web content writing agency is more expensive than hiring an in-house copywriter. While pricing structures and fees vary from firm to firm, you can expect to pay anywhere between $25 and $150 per blog post from an agency. Depending on your content needs, that can quickly add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars per month. Before you balk and say “No, thank you,” consider the alternative.

The average salary for an in-house copywriter is $49,982 per year. When you have a full-time employee, you need to offer benefits. Those amount to about $21,625 per year. Add to those figures the cost of hiring ($4,000), payroll taxes ($4,119) and equipment ($2,800), and your “average-priced” copywriter suddenly costs you $82,526 per year.

Even if you were to buy SEO content writing services on the high-end at $150 per article order one article every day, you would still pay less to outsource content creation than if you were to hire an in-house writer.

Balance Your Needs Through Outsourcing

When calculating costs, you also need to factor in content need versus output. According to the results from a recent survey we conducted, the average in-house writer can pump out 87 500-word articles per month. For a small business to stay competitive, the data shows it needs to publish no more than 30 blog posts per month. As a small business, hiring a full-time writer would not be worth the expense.

But what if you are an SEO agency, large enterprise, e-commerce business or some other corporation that requires a large volume of content each month? A single writer would not suffice, but two or more writers would still end up costing you too much. At the end of the day, and if cost is one of your main concerns, outsourcing your content creation to SEO content writing services makes far more financial sense than keeping the work in-house.

 

Pro: Gain a Fresh Perspective

Though this perk is only available through large SEO content writing services and companies with tens, hundreds or thousands of writers on payroll, it’s a strong one. By working with an agency such as BKA, you gain access to dozens of qualified writers, each of whom has his or her own distinctive writing voice. Each writer also takes unique angles to similar topics, providing each blog or website with much-needed diversity.

While it is true that consistency is crucial to building a loyal following, you don’t want to be so consistent as to bore your audience or, worse, scare off potential readers. Additionally, whereas a single author may get stuck in a rut after writing about the same topic day after day, agency writers often approach each new topic with enthusiasm because the topic is new to them.

Agency writers are also more likely to explore new ideas you or an in-house writer might have overlooked, or to go more in-depth on topics that seem like general knowledge to you but on which your readers may want additional clarification.

 

Get Specific With SEO Content Writing Services

If you desire a mix of both consistency and diversity, many agencies will allow you to pick your writers based on samples. You can identify writers whose voices align with your brand and isolate those that may be best suited to specific projects.

Finally, though the client onboarding and writing processes vary across agencies, at BKA, we welcome branded style guides. Our writers use these guides to inform their writing and ensure that each deliverable is in line with clients’ expectations.

 

Pro: Save Time

One of the main reasons business owners outsource content creation to SEO writing companies is that they do not have the time to hire and train new employees. According to Investopedia, it takes, on average, 42 days to find and hire the right candidate to fill a position. Integrating new hires and getting them to the point of 100% productivity can take another six months of training. If you don’t have time for that kind of commitment, you’re not alone.

When you hire SEO content writing services, you can count on the writers to be fully trained and qualified from the get-go. If training is necessary, the agency will take care of it — not you. Not only does this free up time for you to focus on other, more important aspects of your business, but it also allows you to implement your content marketing strategy sooner rather than later. Instead of having to wait six months to see any sort of return on your investment, you can start seeing results within a matter of weeks.

 

Pro: Scale Your Efforts

Some of the greatest perks of working with a blog writing service are the flexibility and scalability it promises. On the one hand, SEO content writing services have access to several writers — often hundreds — meaning they can meet your content needs at every stage of business growth.

If you’re operating on a small budget, you can negotiate entry-level packages or, if working with BKA Content, order standalone pieces. As your business and budget grow, you can increase your investment without having to worry that the agency won’t have the means to keep up. When business slows, you can scale your efforts back until it picks up again.

Content writing agencies also afford you greater flexibility. Because they work with writers from a variety of backgrounds and with varying levels of experience, you can play around with different content types, including but not limited to blog articles, web pages, landing pages, product descriptions, infographics, recipes, white papers and E-books.

 

Pro: Get Content On a Consistent Basis

Consistency is key across all aspects of your content marketing strategy. We touched on consistency in terms of style and tone in the “Perspective” section, but a consistent publishing schedule is just as important.

According to Forbes, an inconsistent strategy can confuse visitors and reduce a brand’s value by as much as 20%. On the other hand, consumers view brands that maintain regular strategies as more credible, reliable and trustworthy, and more able to provide a better customer experience.

Several factors may affect a single writer’s ability to maintain a rigorous writing schedule, including meetings, in-office distractions, vacation days, sick days and writer’s block. Because most SEO content writing services have several writers to take on assignments, however, you can have peace of mind that none of these factors will interfere with your content creation schedule. If a writer assigned to your project suddenly falls ill or decides to take an impromptu “personal day,” your account manager can reassign the project to an available writer and ensure it reaches your inbox as promised.

 

Con: You Get What You Pay For

When it comes to content creation, this old adage rings true. While we at BKA believe that content shouldn’t break the bank, we also know that good writers don’t come cheap. If you do decide to outsource, be wary of agencies or freelancers that offer too-good-to-be-true rates as, chances are, their services are too good to be true.

If a writer or agency agrees to write articles at $5 a pop or to deliver a month’s worth of content for just $200, beware: Either the writer or firm will relegate your project to the bottom of the to-do list, or you will likely receive low-level, hard-to-read, keyword-stuffed and overall bad content.

 

Con: Lose Expertise

Consumers are smart and incredibly perceptive, especially when it comes to spending money. As a result, most are able to discern between a “fluff” piece written for marketing purposes and a piece written by a real expert. This is especially true in highly technical fields, such as technology, health care, finance and software.

In these types of industries, buyers desire valuable content that delves deep into a given topic with the kind of specificity and accuracy that only a subject matter expert can deliver. SMEs are typically involved in the day-to-day operations of an organization and speak industry lingo naturally, both in their speech and their writing. You cannot fake content from an SME, and, in many cases, you shouldn’t try to.

Another thing to consider when hiring SEO content writing services is a lack of familiarity with your brand. While you can always provide style guides and feedback to get agency writers to the point where they can emulate your brand’s voice, no one will know your brand values quite as well as you or your employees do.

 

Con: Lose Time

When outsourcing content creation, there are two main problems companies routinely run into that can cause them to lose time. The first is an inability to find a reliable and/or quality content writing agency. For content marketing to be successful, the efforts must be consistent and of value. It may take you a while to find an agency or writer that offers both — possibly longer than the seven or so months it takes to hire and train an in-house writer.

The second challenge you may face involves managing freelance writers. From keeping tabs on productivity to ensuring projects get done to handling payments and tax forms, you will quickly learn that working with contractors requires a whole different set of skills than managing your in-house team.

 

Con: Get Pushed to the Back Burner

Though a reputable agency has several measures in place to prevent unmanageable workloads, some — especially younger companies — may take on more work than their writers can realistically handle. While there is no way for you to control an agency’s workload, there are aspects you can look at to determine its commitment to deadlines. Those include company age, customer reviews, client roster, portfolio and team roster.

For example, a one-year-old company with two customer reviews and a small portfolio likely has only a handful of writers on staff. On the other hand, a 10-year old agency with several account managers and a client roster that includes well-known brands probably has the means to tackle sizeable projects in a timely fashion. Though you should not discount younger agencies, if you anticipate ordering large amounts of content on a consistent basis, it may make sense to work with more established SEO content writing services.

 

Con: Struggle To Find a Reliable Agency

In your search for the right agency for your brand, you may discover that not all content writing firms are created equal. Unfortunately, there are several so-called agencies out there that are, in fact, “content mills.” These mills prioritize profits over all else, which is evident in everything from their low-quality writing to poor customer service to complete disregard for client deadlines. You may have to go through one or several bad apples before finding the right fit, but with persistence, you will find it. That said, the same conundrum holds true with in-house writers.

 

BKA Content: The Best of Both Worlds

At the risk of sounding redundant: Not all SEO content writing services are created equal. You have your freelancers, your content mills, your subscription services and everything in between. While you can learn about the various types of content writing companies here, you can reap the benefits of both an in-house writer and a content writing agency when you choose to work with BKA Content.

 

Writing Options

At BKA, we offer several tiers of service depending on your content needs, one of which is our managed services model. Under this model, you get access to our thousands of writers, all of whom must undergo a rigorous application process and training period before being granted the freedom to select articles. Once onboarded, writers are either invited to join or try out for “teams” according to their interests, industry knowledge and writing levels.

 

Managed Accounts

Each team consists of writers who have specialized expertise in certain fields, such as law, medicine and IT. A personable account manager oversees each team to ensure writers complete projects on time and in accordance with clients’ expectations. The same account manager maintains ongoing communication with clients and acts as an intermediary between them and the writers. This model gives you the same level of control you would have with an in-house writer, but without the hassle of actually having to manage the writers yourself.

 

Scalability

Our solutions are also scalable. From standalone articles to monthly orders to large, one-off batches of high-quality optimized content, we have the team and the resources to tackle it all.

 

Mindset

Finally, our team cares. We truly do. We understand that for many business owners, the decision to hire an in-house writer over SEO content writing services comes down to relationships and loyalty. They want to know that their writers are just as invested in their bottom lines as they are. We get it, because here at BKA Content, we prioritize relationships, too.

Though our team is mostly virtual, we strive to maintain a family atmosphere and one in which everyone feels appreciated. At the end of the day, we believe that it is this value that enables us to deliver a better content experience time and time again.

 

Ready To Hire SEO Content Writing Services?

If you’re ready to partner with BKA Content, or if you want to give our SEO content writing services a test run, browse our Content Shop to learn more about our self-service options. Or, you can reach out to us directly to learn more about our managed services option.

Of all the business responsibilities to outsource, most experts can agree that article content creation tops the list. You need content to compete online for search engine rankings, and a lot of it.

Unfortunately, to create even just a single article that performs well, you need to dedicate about four hours to article writing efforts. And you need to do that approximately 11 times a month! In the words of Sweet Brown, Ain’t nobody got time for that. Enter the need for article writing services.

 

 

Why Use an Article Writing Service Instead of Going the DIY Route?

Before we get into the benefits of outsourcing article writing, let’s first look at the cold, hard facts of blogging:

• The most popular blog post length is between 500 and 1,000 words. The average blog post length is 1,050 words. However, articles with 2,000+ words are the most likely to generate “strong results.”
• The average blog post/article takes 3.5 hours to write. However, the same study that came up with this average shows that twice as many article writers as previous years spend 6+ hours on a single post.
• Publishing articles two to four times a week produces the most results in terms of both traffic and conversions.
• 11+ posts per month is the magic number.
• Brands that post 16 blog articles a month see 3.5 times more traffic than those that post just once a week.

Assuming you want to compete, and assuming you can spin an article in 3.5 hours, you’re looking at almost an entire workweek dedicated to writing. (Cue Sweet Brown again.) In fact, because content creation does require such a significant time investment, 70% of brands outsource article writing to an article writing service. Here are 12 reasons you should be outsourcing, too.

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The Benefits of Article Writing Services

As you’ll see below, there are many other benefits of a content writing company that go beyond just bandwidth.

1. You Will Save Time Using an Article Writing Service

As you can glean from the stats above, content creation requires a lot of time. Research, writing and posting articles at the consistency necessary to see results is a full-time job, and that’s before you take into consideration other content marketing efforts, such as keyword research, optimization and promoting posts.

 

 

As a business owner, you likely agree that time is your most precious resource. There’s barely enough time in the day as is for you to concentrate on your core business responsibilities, much less to take on the job of a content writer. When you outsource SEO article writing, you can still have as much input as you want in the type and tone of the articles you purchase, but with more freedom to focus on other, just-as-important areas of your business.

 

2. You will Get More Consistency Using the Same Article Writers

Sure, you can hammer out 500-word blog posts whenever you have some free time. However, sporadic content marketing efforts have little to no real impact. When you invest in article writing services, however, you can ensure you get the copy you need to maintain consistently strong content marketing efforts.

The best copywriting agencies have a team of skilled writers on staff who can produce large amounts of copy in relatively little time. Depending on the size and scope of a project, the turnaround time for a large project for a single copywriter is about a week. The turnaround time for an agency with a team of writers can be as quick as two days. When you buy SEO articles instead of trying to create them yourself, you can get the content you need to keep up with an effective content marketing calendar.

 

3. You Can Save Money Paying per Project

The average salary for a full-time, in-house content writer in the United States is $50,000. However, as you very well know, employees cost more than just their annual salary. In addition to regular pay, you also have to factor in the overhead cost of maintaining a full-time writer. That includes expenses associated with IT, equipment, equipment maintenance, specialized training and employee benefits, to name a few.

 

 

When you buy articles online, you have to worry about paying for the content and nothing else. The article writing agency takes care of paying the writers and any other associated expenses while you have peace of mind that the money you do invest will yield a substantial ROI.

 

4. You Will Have More Flexibility per Article Writing Project

Content creation is a form of marketing, and like with all marketing, you need to be able to scale your efforts up and down based on the season, the economic climate and your needs. For instance, if you own a pool toy business, it may not make much sense for you to invest in content writing during the fall and winter months. However, as winter gives way to spring, you will need to push out content frequently and consistently to remain competitive in the search engines.

When you hire a single, in-house writer, you can’t scale your efforts up or down as needs dictate. However, when you outsource your SEO article writing, you can invest in just enough content to stay relevant during the off-season, then ramp up your efforts considerably during the peak season. Additionally, if your business experiences an unexpected lull, you can adjust your article content orders based on your available budget. This is something you cannot do with a full-time writer.

Outsourced article writing services also allow you to more easily adapt to your changing content needs. You will definitely need blogs on a regular basis, but at some point, you may decide that your website needs a content overhaul.

Or maybe your audience has expressed a desire for more in-depth resources, such as an e-book or whitepaper. A single, in-house writer would not be able to keep up with your blogging schedule and complete multiple other projects. An article writing company, however, would be able to.

 

5. You Get the Benefit of Experienced Article Writers

You may know how to write, but you are likely not a professional writer, and that is OK. What this means, though, is that you may not have a firm understanding of SEO writing best practices and standardization. An SEO article writing service does.

Professional article writers who have experience in writing content for the web understand web writing best practices. They know SEO. They know what makes a great headline. They know how to structure content for maximum effectiveness, and they know what tone of voice works best for different audiences.

A reputable SEO content writing agency will ensure that your articles are well-written, informed and designed for maximum engagement. It will ensure all writers adhere to strict standards and that the copy those writers produce is consistent in tone, style and quality. Finally, an article writing company will put your copy through several quality checks and revisions so that, when the article content does make its way into your inbox, it’s nothing short of perfect.

 

6. You Can Access a Wide Range of Content

 

 

We touched on this point briefly in number four, but it’s worth highlighting separately: When you invest in article writing services, you can experiment with multiple types of content. While your blog and website content will remain the foundation of your content marketing strategy, other types of content can help you expand your reach and maximize your blogging efforts.

A common example of content that helps to optimize is that of social media posts. Social media marketing offers multiple benefits, the two biggest of which are extended reach and increased engagement with your audience.

When you post an article to your blog, the only people who will read it are those who either happen across your website or who find your article through a Google search. When you post a link to your article on, say, Facebook and LinkedIn, along with a quick blurb on what it is about, you can reach audiences that would otherwise never have given two thoughts to the topic. That is the beauty of social media. When you work with a copywriting agency, you can order social media posts in bulk or as add-ons to long-form articles.

Social media content is just one example of the different types of content you can play with. Once you establish consistent article writing and blogging efforts, you may decide that you want to impress your audience with a whitepaper, or that your best-selling products need their own landing pages. You may decide you need to redo your website, or that your business can benefit from weekly email newsletters. These are all types of content a writing agency can produce for you.

Additional types of content you can order include meta descriptions and title tags, press releases, product descriptions, Amazon descriptions, video scripts and page rewrites. You may even have access to high-quality stock imagery when you work with a reputable content writing company.

 

7. You Can Access Writers With Experience Across Multiple Industries

B2B businesses and agencies often find that they cater to multiple types of businesses. For instance, an insurance agency may sell policies to construction companies, fire departments and fisheries. A website development company may want to attract businesses in the medical, legal and dentistry fields.

The best type of content identifies the readers’ unique pain points, speaks their lingo and empathizes with them. It can be hard to create this type of article content with little to no actual knowledge of the industry to which the content is directed.

When you outsource your content creation to an article writing service, you get access to a number of different content writers from diverse backgrounds. The writing agency can assess your needs and find writers who are most suited to discuss the topic of your choosing in the most thoughtful and authentic manner. This ensures that you publish content that resonates with your target audience in the best possible way.

 

8. You Can Benefit From Fresh Ideas From Writers

 

 

So, you sell toilets … Though a necessity, the toilet is not exactly an exciting product. And anything that is exciting about it has probably been said before. It has a remote controlled bidet? Awesome! It’s a single piece? Great. It’s elongated? What does that even mean?

Though you’re the industry expert, you may not understand how to best sell your product to your target audience. Everyone knows they need a toilet, but most people are willing to settle for the cheapest one. What can you say about your commodes that will make readers want to splurge?

You might not know, but a content writer may. Whether discussing the history of the toilet, how to purchase a toilet or gift ideas for people who spend a lot of time in the lavatory, a creative article writer can take a dull or tired topic and give it a fresh perspective.

Regardless of the industry you’re in, you may discover that you’ve run out of things to say about your product or service. If you do have an in-house copywriter, you may have noticed that his or her writing has become flat and uninspired. If that’s the case, hand off your SEO article writing to a content agency that employs several writers.

Each writer can offer a unique perspective on the same topic. For instance (and not to obsess over toilets), one writer may write about finding the best toilet for your design scheme, while another may focus on toilet features that maximize comfort. The point is, when you buy articles from a writing service, you can count on them being varied in nature and to keep your blog from becoming stale.

 

9. You Can Maintain Your Enthusiasm For Content Marketing

SEO article writing requires more than just the ability to write. From researching topics to writing, and from deciding which type of content to use to how and when to publish your articles, you may quickly discover that the whole process is draining from start to finish. And, you’ll just have to do it all over again the next day or week.

The whole process can make you wary of writing, but it can also make you wary of your marketing itself. By outsourcing the content creation process, you can conserve your energy — and therefore, maintain your enthusiasm — for your own company marketing.

Moreover, because professional article writers can lend a fresh perspective to your offerings, you can gain renewed passion and excitement for them every time you read a newly written piece. Just as importantly, so too can your customers.

 

10. You Can Strengthen Your Content Marketing Strategy (or Help You Develop One)

So, you have a full-time content writer whom you love … great! Keep her on payroll. However, no matter how skilled your writer is, she can only do so much on her own. When you pair her capabilities with those of an article writing service, you can drastically increase the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy.

One of the greatest benefits of investing in the best article writing services is that it helps you strengthen your content marketing strategy, or motivate you to develop one if you haven’t already. Agencies are in the business of creating articles and web content that works. They keep up with best practices and follow the trends. They use their knowledge to produce content that converts on your behalf which, in turn, keeps you coming back.

If your SEO article writer is best at building relationships through content, let her keep doing that. An article writing company can do everything else strong copy is supposed to do, such as increase search engine rankings, generate more traffic and boost conversions. By combining your existing efforts with content writing services, you can do more than you thought possible.

 

11. You Can Easily Measure the ROI of Your Article Writing Investment

 

 

Measuring the return-on-investment of outsourced services is easy, as they either make you more money than you spend or they don’t. How can you tell, though, if your content is making you money? Some things you can look for to gauge the effectiveness of purchased article writing services include the following:

• A surge in traffic to your website
• The number of times a piece of content has been shared or engaged with
• The number of views a particular piece of content gets, along with the number of subsequent conversions
• An uptick in online sales and/or revenue since you started to buy articles

High quality content writing services specialize in the production of content that converts and that helps businesses meet their goals. One thing to consider, however, is that article writing doesn’t typically increase traffic, shares and sales overnight. Content marketing is usually the long play. Plan on 6 to 12 months of creating content, updating content, reoptimizing content and sharing that content to start seeing real results.

If you work with a reputable content writing agency with a long track record of helping small, medium and large businesses succeed online, chances are you will receive content that increases leads and that converts.

 

12. You Gain a Trusted Article Marketing Partner

When you buy SEO articles from the right writing agency, you can develop a longstanding and dependable relationship with it. Partnering with the best article writing service over the long-term is hugely beneficial, as it means that, over time, it will deliver more authentic content that truly resonates with your target audience.

This is because the article writers are able to get to know your business, your industry and your unique preferences, enabling those writers to write more authentically and with a higher level of enthusiasm.

Moreover, when your trusted content writing agency becomes an extension of your business, you can have peace of mind that it, too, views your company as an extension of it. A content writing service wants you to succeed so it can succeed, which means it will get the job done well and on time, every time, and that it will go above and beyond to meet your expectations. Though rare, business relationships such as these are invaluable.

 

How To Buy SEO Article Writing Services Online

You’re sold. We knew you would be. Now that you know you want to buy articles, what’s next? While you can find a comprehensive how-to guide here, we’ve decided to provide a condensed framework below:

 

Determine a Budget For Content Writing

The easiest way to begin shopping for SEO article writing services is to determine your budget. How much can you reasonably spend on content writing each month? How much should you be spending? This number should give you a good starting point.

Though your own budget will serve as the ultimate guide when it comes to narrowing down your options, you should pay attention to what your competitors are doing. How much do they spend a month? What’s the industry average? How often do they post? If you want your investment to pay off, you should at least make sure the article content you purchase keeps you competitive.

 

Assess Your Content Needs

 

 

Just as important as determining your budget is determining your content needs. You may find an affordable article writing service that you like but realize that it employs only a handful of writers for dozens of clients. This won’t help you, especially if you hope to maintain a consistent content schedule. Maybe the writing agency specializes only in blogging and social media, which won’t do you any good when you finally undertake that website redesign you’ve been planning.

Make sure the article writing company has the capabilities to meet your unique content goals, whatever they may be. You should also account for scalability, as there’s a good chance that in the future, you will want to increase your content marketing efforts.

 

Test Out an Article Writing Company’s Services

Armed with your budget and an idea of how much content you will need, narrow down your options to article writing agencies you can afford and that can meet your needs. Review websites online, read through samples and request quotes to further narrow down your top choices to two or three content writing agencies. Order a test article from each. You can’t know what a writer or agency can really do for you until he or she writes a piece specifically for your brand.

When ordering the test piece, make sure it’s one you will publish. This guarantees you’ll review it with a critical eye and treat the whole process as if you’ve already hired the writing firm.

 

Equip Your New Writing Partner With the Tools To Succeed

Once you’ve found ‘The One’, your job isn’t over yet. To ensure that an article writing service delivers content that speaks to your brand, engages readers and converts, equip the writing company with all the right materials. This includes information about your business, existing marketing materials, samples, links to authoritative industry sites, an outline, suggested topics and a style guide.

Investing in Article Writing Services: Time to Test the Waters

Investing in SEO article writing services is necessary, but we totally get it if you’re hesitant to drop money on a writing agency you’ve never worked with before. Our self-service content ordering makes it easy for businesses to test the waters and to scale their article writing efforts to be in line with their needs and budget. Learn more or jump right in and use our blog writing services today.

When it comes to the top SEO content writing benefits, the numbers don’t lie. High-quality SEO articles can be a huge asset to your business strategy.

Of course, content isn’t just about numbers. Here at BKA, we understand the effect the written word has on brand image and authority. Content can be both persuasive and useful, which is why more and more companies are implementing a content marketing strategy to reach their customers in new ways.

Because content is so valuable, it’s important to create articles and blog posts that are top-notch and optimized. That’s where SEO content writing comes in. With the help of findable content that is engaging and persuasive, your business can thrive and become an expert in the industry.

 

7 SEO Content Writing Benefits

If you haven’t implemented a content strategy yet (or are reconstructing your previous strategy), you may wonder how SEO content writing can help your company. We guarantee that buying and publishing high-quality SEO content is worth the time and money to create. To prove it, here are seven incredible SEO content writing benefits for your business.

 

1. SEO Content Writing Improves Search Engine Rankings

Search engines (like Google) bring blog posts, landing pages and websites to users who are looking for them.

But when someone searches for a topic relevant to your business, how do they find your article?

This is where SEO plays a huge part in the success of your content marketing strategy.

 

How Do Search Engine Rankings Work?

Search engines make it simple for users to find answers to their questions. This is possible due to the complex nature of search engines and their algorithms. Search engines discover URLS, send computer bots (called spiders) to visit and download the websites they find and process key information from the websites they crawl. Once this is complete, the page is indexed, which then makes it available when search users are looking for similar pages.

But how do search engines know when an article can answer a search query? Basically, when a user searches a specific query, Google and other search engines sort through their indexes to find the most relevant articles to answer the query. Specific algorithms rank content based on their relevancy and other SEO factors.

Your goal as a business is to make sure you get on the first page of Google results. To get the most traffic, aim to be in the top ten ranking results. After all, not many people go past the first page, even though there may be thousands of blog posts concerning a certain topic.

 

How Do You Improve Search Engine Rankings?

SEO content writing is written in a way that can easily be interpreted and indexed by search engines. Luckily, Google doesn’t have favorites, at least when it comes to organic content. All you have to do to improve search engine rankings and get to the top page is to incorporate SEO techniques. These include some of the following:

• Focus your content on specific keywords.
• Use headings like H2 and H3.
• Include metadata such as the meta description and title tag.
• Insert images and use bullet points.

SEO techniques combined with quality content writing can help your blog posts show up when people search specific keywords. You can use content marketing tools to decide which keywords are worth trying to rank, and what keywords people are looking up that are related to your industry.

Because of the many SEO content writing benefits, many companies turn to content agencies to produce the level of quality a piece of content needs to successfully rank. Outsourcing can also save you time so your marketers can spend more time reoptimizing articles, promoting new content and creating topics for new blog posts.

 

2. SEO Content Writing Brings Traffic To Your Website

Simply put, your search engine ranking efforts are all directed towards one goal: gaining more traffic. When people search keywords related to your industry, you want to be the one who answers their questions. Especially when they are looking for a product or service, you want your website to show up as a good candidate.

 

How Do You Increase Traffic?

The best way to increase traffic is to up your SEO game. Great content has the potential to earn you backlinks from other industry professionals and insiders. While all relevant (read: relevant) backlinks are helpful, those from popular domains can lead to a surge of traffic in little time.

Not only will backlinks give you traffic, but they can also earn you Google’s esteem, as backlinks are one of the criteria that the search engine uses to rank sites. This, in turn, leads to more traffic as people start to find your website organically – all thanks to your article writing endeavors.

And although search engine rankings should be one of your top priorities, you can gain a lot of traffic through social media sites. SEO content writing is persuasive and high-quality, which entices readers and improves your traffic.

 

 

3. SEO Content Writing Builds Brand Authority

Included in the many SEO content writing benefits is the capability to build brand authority. Have you ever wondered why some sites with seemingly no reputation are commonly cited by industry experts and major news publications? The answer is simple: The website owner built a reputation for being an industry expert through authoritative content.

Authoritative content is the type of content that informs and helps readers to understand something. You are giving valuable information to someone who needs it, therefore making your business an authority on the subject.

This is a powerful way to show your expertise in your industry. Creating blog posts that answer customer questions directly can help you be seen as a trustworthy source of knowledge. This can be done by any business with information or helpful advice that benefits their customers.

 

How Do You Create Authoritative Content?

There are a few things that you should keep in mind when creating content that builds brand authority.

First, you need to be honest. Writing false or exaggerated information can repel customers and negatively influence their perspective of your brand. To be an authority in a field, you have to have the knowledge required.

However, there are many ways you can slowly build up authority. Share informational content about basic things in the industry, compile (and cite) resources of other experts and teach consumers about the benefits of the products or services you offer. As you begin to grow as a business, so does your expertise. Content marketing can help you along this journey.

Next, create content for the benefit of the reader. If you want to build brand authority, sometimes you need to sacrifice the desire to advertise or sell your products and instead write something that doesn’t have strings. Sure, you can include links and CTAs, but readers will trust your words more when they don’t suspect you’re trying to sell something to them.

Stick to your brand voice, be honest and find creative ways to help readers. Brand authority is just one of the SEO content writing benefits you can have with a content strategy.

 

4. SEO Content Writing Increases Brand Awareness

As you increase traffic and build up your brand authority, this creates ample opportunity for new audiences to find you. Content marketing is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to target new audiences, increase brand awareness and generate new leads.

When you create informative content writing that is optimized for relevant search terms, you increase the likelihood that Google will place your site before new audiences that are interested in what you have to say and offer. High-quality website content writing also increases the likelihood that other industry professionals will link to your content.

 

Why Is Brand Awareness Important?

Simply put, brand awareness is the first step of any potential customer. Without sufficient knowledge of a brand, people won’t buy your products. If you can create positive brand awareness through content marketing, you help readers feel familiar and comfortable with your company, which can lead to promising relationships and partnerships with them.

 

5. SEO Content Writing Forms Relationships With Customers

There’s a reason why this kind of content catches the attention of readers and builds up your brand: it’s useful and attractive to the reader. And if you can touch the heart or mind of a reader, you can create a connection that leads to more sales and referrals (which may be one of the most important SEO content writing benefits).

Great SEO content writing educates, engages, entertains and builds trust. Each of these traits is a cornerstone of any great relationship, so it makes sense that investing in quality content writing services is one of the best and easiest ways to form and strengthen relationships with customers and to build brand loyalty.

And of course, customers are important to any business. You want them to be satisfied with the work or products you give them, and hopefully, they’ll want to share those products with their friends! This added connection of informational content can nourish those forming relationships.

 

6. SEO Content Writing Generates New Leads

The real reason anyone hires a content writing company is that content generates leads and drives traffic. Businesses always need new sources of leads so they can generate revenue.

SEO content writing is the best way to ensure people searching for your products or services can find your site and, once there, decide to do business with you. This is the reason why you want to target keywords related to your industry. If someone is searching for a specific product or service, you want your website to show up in the top 10 for them to find.

SEO content writing focuses on getting the reader’s attention, but it also persuades them along the buyer’s journey. Use links, CTAs and mobile-friendly share buttons to encourage readers to act on what they’ve learned. Of course, you don’t always want to be advertising to them (as most of your content should be informational), but you can slip some strategic marketing efforts in each and every blog post.

 

7. SEO Content Writing Can Stay Evergreen

While it’s true that many pieces of content are time-sensitive, just as many will still be relevant years into the future. This type of article is called “evergreen content,” which means it can continue to drive traffic for years after its publication date, depending on the relevancy and quality of a piece.

Another great SEO content writing benefit is that this kind of content is designed to produce long-lasting articles and blog posts. And when you start to see a dip in traffic, you can boost it again with little effort on your part, such as by sharing that still-relevant article on social media or linking to it through one of your more recent articles.

Learning how to create this kind of SEO content writing will ensure that the work and effort you put into an article will not go to waste. As any smart business would want, content should be able to last.

 

How Do You Create Evergreen Content?

Not every piece of content can be evergreen. Announcements, press releases, posts about current issues and seasonal articles add diversity to your pool of content, but they tend to only be useful at one time. These are important to include, but they aren’t the kind of posts that endure the ages.

The kind of content that lasts years and years are about topics that consistently matter to people, such as how-to guides and definitions. These topics can be discussed any season or year. As Neil Patel says, “evergreen content is ever relevant.”

Once you pick a great topic that seems like evergreen material, use these tips to increase its potential to stay relevant:

• Don’t use specific events, occasions or dates (especially in your title). Of course, if you are creating a guide for big events such as Covid-19, you may find more benefit in the traffic you get during the timespan of the event.
• Update your content. Although you may have some solid SEO content writing, you’ll want to periodically update the content to help it stay as current as possible.
• Use the right keywords. When taking the time to create evergreen content, make sure you pick strong keywords to buoy up your content throughout the years.

If past articles are struggling to rank, you may find it useful to repurpose the content into new, more evergreen content. You could make infographics, cut the article into two new topics or share tidbits on social media. If you have high-quality SEO content writing available, there is always a way to improve and promote it.

 

Discover SEO Content Writing Benefits for Yourself

At BKA Content, we are, and always have been, in the business of creating optimized content for our customers. In the 10+ years since our inception, we’ve flourished from a small WordPress website with a single order form into a robust team of dozens of project managers, hundreds of writers and dozens of editors. We attribute our growth to several factors, two of which include our commitment to producing quality, well-researched and engaging content, and our dedication to adhering to SEO best practices in our writing.

If you want to discover SEO content writing benefits for yourself, work with a team that already has processes in place for gaining rankings through content, such as ours. Contact us today to learn more.

I get asked all of the time about the things that writers can do to help their SEO content writing stand out from the saturated internet content landscape. What a loaded question! Do you have a few hours to spare while I get into it?… JK

While I can think of numerous things to increase content writing quality, I thought I would come up with a “readers digest” version of a few key tips that companies/writers can use to make high-quality content for SEO.

 

How To Create High-Quality Content for SEO

Oh man, where do we start?! There are so many factors that can go into how to write high-quality SEO content ranging from the industry you’re in, to the subject matter, to the white space in your post! Rather than get into every single detail of what makes a piece of content high quality, I’ll address the biggest things I think you can do to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Again, this isn’t an end-all list for how to create quality content, but doing the following things will help the search engines, as well as the readers, to pick your content out from a crowd.

 

1. Write for a Reader, Not for an Algorithm

In my day-to-day responsibilities, I’m continually shocked by companies that call and ask if we “spin” content or “keyword stuff” here at BKA Content.  While the majority of the SEO community knows that these things have no long-term value, there apparently is a large majority of the industry that still hasn’t come to grips with algorithmic changes in search engines that prioritize content that accurately answers user queries.  While it is very important to know how to use keywords within your writing, don’t make the mistake of focusing the entire meat of your content around a search engine algorithm.  Instead, focus your writing around the person who will be reading it.

The main reason for this is to increase user engagement. If readers enjoy the high-quality content and consider you an expert in the space, they are then more likely to share your piece with colleagues/friends. If content writers really understand the target demographic they are writing to and accurately describe pain points, needs and solutions, content becomes much more valuable.

I know that many SEOs continue to have a hard time shifting into this new SEO paradigm, but the sooner you accept the fact that Google is trying to single out more user-friendly content, the sooner you will start seeing much more SEO content success.

Use Keywords To Drive Your Formatting

As far as keywords are concerned, the best SEO content writers know that high-quality content is a merge between both reader and search engine expectations. When I’m creating content for SEO, I use the keywords as a guideline for formatting, but other than that, I wait until after my piece is completed to go back into the piece to optimize.

Using keywords in headings, beginning and ending of the article, titles and descriptions is crucial to organic rankings, but it can (and must!) be done in harmony with writing specifically for a human reader in order for it to qualify as being “high-quality”.

 

2. Build Content Authority

While random SEO content pieces can still provide value, it is important to also give your company a voice of authority.  This means that you should give yourself credit on content pieces using the “rel=author” tag to link with the author’s Google+ account. By building authority this way, you can create a following of readers who are interested in what a specific author has to say.

Many companies are scared to do this because they don’t want to be judged for their work, but one indicator of high-quality content is that the author stands by their writing whether people agree with them or not.  Having authors who genuinely take credit for their work is a great way to increase the quality of the content that is written.

Brand Authority Comes Also Comes With Well-Researched SEO Content

In addition to using SEO authority tools like the one mentioned above, you can build brand authority by making sure your content is well-researched, properly cited and data-driven. Rather than just telling someone to believe a certain way, high-quality SEO content has the ability to show them as well. Take the time to search out relevant studies and statistics that help back up your points and make them really hit home.

Learning how to write high-quality content can often boil down to how well you know the subject matter and your ability to make an argument for your position.

 

3. Eliminate Writing Mistakes

Nothing turns off a reader more than bad spelling and grammar.  When these types of mistakes exist in SEO quality content, it tells the reader that the author didn’t read through it; thus the author didn’t feel like it was very worthwhile to share.

I understand people make mistakes (we’re all human!), but there is a difference between a typo or two in a piece of SEO content and multiple serious grammar mistakes within an article. Double-check your content, run a spell checker, and get a second pair of eyes to read it over before you share it with the world.

If You’re Not an Editor, You’re Not the One to Do This

Take it from a content expert, just because you have a knack for writing does not mean you also are a proficient editor. In fact, they are very different skillsets most times. While an SEO content writer can and should seek to improve their editing skills, it’s always best to have someone other than yourself go through the content once it’s completed to make sure it really does qualify as high-quality content for SEO.

 

4. Come up With Something New

New ideas, or new ways to think about something, are a great way to show your audience that you truly gave your content subject matter some thought and are trying to provide real insight.

If a reader finds a blog topic that piques their interest because of a new perspective given, they will be more apt to give your content the attention that it deserves. Creating quality content topics is something every writer deals with on a daily basis. When creating blog post topics, try coming at the piece from another angle, or pick a controversial (or opinionated) stand.

Give people a reason to read your high-quality content through catchy titles/headlines and you’ve won half the battle.

 

5. Interact With Your High-Quality Content

Creating high-quality content goes beyond just writing, editing and scheduling your post to be published. In fact, the best high-quality content for SEO is something you should go back to over and over again.

One of the biggest wasted opportunities I see is when a post starts getting traction on the internet and garners hundreds of comments from readers, but there isn’t a single response from the author.  If you truly value your content, you should interact with those that object or agree with it. If you have a piece of content that gets a response from your reader base, do yourself a favor and interact with a genuine comment. It’s a simple way to connect with potential customers on a personal level and build your brand authority.

Not only that, depending on the visibility your post gets, it may be an easy way to get a conversation started with another influencer in your industry who has left a comment.

Track, Optimize and Revise SEO Quality Content

As a subheading to interacting on a personal level with people that have something to say about your post, there is also more you can do to your content from an SEO perspective. One mistake that too many companies make is that they invest in writing high-quality content, but then never go back to see how it’s performing. The truth is that your content may not always perform the way you hope it will, but with tools like SEM Rush you can quickly see if you’re onto something or not.

In fact, many times you’ll start ranking for related keywords you weren’t targeting initially, but that can still propel your post forward. Once you see what kinds of keywords your high-quality content is ranking for, it’s time to reoptimize around those keywords. If you’re still not seeing rankings climb, you then can turn to revising the original content or adding new content sections to help build it out better.

High-quality content for SEO should be a living, breathing piece of your online marketing strategy. Make those quality content creation dollars go farther with continual tracking and optimization.

 

Start Creating High-Quality Content Today!

I know that there are many other factors to take into consideration when trying to write high-quality SEO content, but these 5 tips are a great start. If you’re a digital marketing agency or small business that’s looking to write high-quality content but doesn’t have the time to do it on your own, let us help!

If you’re an SEO content writer, then we want to know some of your own tips that you think should be used in order to create high-quality content. Share in the comment section below!

​If you have a business and want to expand your digital presence, you have probably at one point thought to yourself I need content for my website. It’s true, you need an online article strategy because every business owner stands to benefit from a deliberate online presence.

Right now, there are nearly 1.8 billion websites on the internet, and that number is constantly rising. Managing your business is one can of worms that you’re probably great at, but creating a solid internet presence is a whole new can. And maybe you only have an outdated and dull can opener to attempt to open it with. Creating your online presence is more than merely crafting a website with your unique backstory and essential contact information; it’s connecting with your customers and showing that you are active and your services or products are worth attention.

There are two questions to ask yourself when starting on your content creation: Do I need to write content for my website, or do I need a content writer? The answers to these questions will shape your approach and help determine where your focus is. Getting the content needed for your website may seem simple at first, but as with any job, there is a lot of work that needs to go into it.

 

Do I Need Content Ideas For My Website?

One option that might save you money upfront is to try writing your own content. There are two main reasons to write your own content: it costs less and you already know a lot about the industry. On the other hand, keep in mind that article writing takes time even when you are an expert. If you take on this work, it’s essentially saddling you with another job on top of running your business.

SEO content creation may appear easy at a glance, but when you finally sit down to write, you’ll likely realize there are a whole bunch of different pieces that make up the puzzle of blogging and article writing. How do you know which keywords to use? What are backlinks and where should you put them? Is it good enough to put all of your written content on one website? How often should you be producing new content? These are just a few of many considerations you probably need to start thinking about as you begin writing.

Becoming an expert on your niche’s topics is an important step for establishing your website (and thus, your business) as an authority in your industry. Building your site’s authority takes time. It can take months or even years before you see yourself land at the top of a search engine ranking. Before that can happen, you need content ideas. It may be easy to come up with the first couple of topics on your own, but how are you supposed to keep that up indefinitely? If you’re asking myself “I need content for my website now,” there are a few places to look.

 

Browse Search Engines

Chances are high that whatever questions you have about topics relating to your line of work, someone else has also had them. Search engines are a great place to glean such information as frequently asked questions that people ask about your industry. While the answers and topics might seem overly simple to an expert in the field, they are important to those who aren’t familiar with what you do. You can get a lot of mileage out of the simple topics and basic questions. If you are running low on ideas, do a little search yourself and see what topics start to pop up.

 

Venture Through Social Media

The number of active social media users is quickly approaching 4 billion, so there must be some content there that is holding people’s interests. A business social media account is a great way to quickly interact with your customers. You can focus on client engagement and even head off negative reviews by quickly addressing concerns brought to your attention.

More importantly, you can see what businesses like yours are doing and take note of what your target clientele is responding to online. From recent news to the latest industry trends, social media can be a useful tool for discovering what is important to your clients right now. Just make sure the content you produce is unique and not copying everything your competitors are doing.

 

Check Your Analytics

If you are managing your website and creating content on your own, it’s vital that you take advantage of analytics tools. More importantly, if you are using any sort of analytics program, you must review the information it’s collecting. The right analytics tools tell you everything from how many people are visiting your site to which keywords customers are using when they find your business.

And if you look closely, these tools can answer your “I need content for my website” question. Understanding your highest-rated keywords may help guide your article topics list.

 

Do I Need a Content Writer?

Creating your own content is a lot of work. Eventually, trying to maintain your online content while running your business may get to be too much. Or maybe writing isn’t one of your strong suits. Most businesses benefit from hiring a content writer to come up with articles for them. Outsourcing your content creation can be beneficial in many ways, but ultimately, it all culminates in you being able to focus on your business. But where should you start looking when you need a professional writer? Your options range from basic content to freelancers to professional companies.

 

Basic Content Options

You may have the option to hire an in-house writer. There are many considerations to mull over before taking this dive. Hiring an in-house writer means paying another wage or salary, plus any potential benefits if the writer works full time. This makes more financial sense in the long term than the short term, and you should be sure there will be plenty of work for the writer. If your content needs come in small bursts, an in-house writer might not be the way to go.

Some mill-type companies churn out a lot of content for seemingly low rates, but the quality of the content you get can be hit and miss. You get what you pay for. Keep in mind that maintaining your online presence is one part of investing in your business. Getting the content needed for your website should be given a high priority in both quality and quantity.

If you are not making room in your budget to secure quality articles or blogs, don’t expect to see a large return on your investment. If you plan on using another company to help produce your content, perform your due diligence to make sure you will get the quality of content you want.

 

Freelancer Choices

Better than a basic content option is to work with a professional who understands search engine optimization and online content creation. Thanks to the growth of remote work, freelance writers are abundant online. On the one hand, there are many great writers out there with portfolios to back up their skills. On the other hand, finding writers of this caliber is not always easy, or cheap. Freelancers are business owners themselves and ultimately determine their own rates. If you only wish to work with the cream of the crop, make sure you can afford it.

As with the basic options, you should also be wary of too-good-to-be-true prices. Always research the services being provided and vet your desired writer as thoroughly as possible.

 

Professional Content Creation Companies

Probably the best middle ground between writing your own content, getting affordable rates and securing quality is to go with a professional content creation company. These businesses typically work with teams of writers to craft written content for a variety of businesses. Although it’s still important to research each company to ensure the fit is right for you, with most professional content companies you can expect the following:

• Writer availability
• Quality assurance
• Keyword research
• Topic ideas

In addition, some companies offer extra services, such as posting the content for your business. With the right company, you can be mostly hands-off regarding your online content. However, it is always a good idea to know what’s going on with your website and social media so as to head off any issues. Having a company take over your content creation can be similar to having an in-house writer, depending on who you work with. At the same time, if you are on a tight budget and can’t afford professional rates, it can save your wallet.

 

What Should I Look for in Content Creation Services?

While asking yourself “I need content for my website, how do I get it?” you should definitely consider outsourcing. As you’re hunting down the best place to get content for your website, you should also know what qualities to look for in a content provider – and what to avoid. For example, steer away from businesses that practice black hat SEO tactics. Black hat SEO tactics are strategies that, while not illegal, attempt to artificially inflate page rankings through questionable means.

For example, stuffing keywords repeatedly into a single blog or placing links in every blog or social media comment. Quality and authority take a back seat with this approach. Good content providers should be able to help elevate your business organically following search engine guidelines.

Specifically, the following can be indicators of good website content writing services:

 

Human Contact

In an increasingly automated world, human contact can be welcoming. Whatever business you work with, you should have the ability to reach a real person when you need to. This could be through the company’s online chat, a phone line, text message, email or social media page. Being able to order your content through a smooth and automated process online is definitely convenient, but make sure you are dealing with real people, too. This also helps if you have specific questions or needs for your article topics.

 

Quality Oversight

If you’re hiring a company to write the content needed for your website, your time might be precious. Yet you need to ensure that the content representing your business is of good quality. Your business shouldn’t be creating content purely for content’s sake. The more educational, informative, and authoritative your content is, the better it’s likely to rank.

You should be able to trust that the company you use can generate quality content in your target language. This means if you want content written in English, the writer should be a native English speaker. The company’s writers should be vetted and properly trained. If you are constantly worrying about major grammar mistakes and coherency, it may be time to find a better provider.

 

Content Management

You have a couple of options for handling your finished content. As with the writing portion, you need to decide if you will publish and promote the content yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Many content providers also offer management services and can schedule the publication of blogs and articles to blogging platforms and social media for you. While promoting content is not necessarily as time-consuming as writing it, the process still takes time. Letting someone else handle publishing and promoting can take a lot of stress off your plate.

Taking note of all of these aspects of a good company, it is vital that you’re able to form a trusting relationship with your content provider. After all, you’ll be sharing a lot of information about your business with the writer and any other necessary contacts. Check out reviews, talk to listed references, and gather as much information as you can about the company beforehand to make sure you can trust their services. If available, take advantage of a trial offer to see if they will be the right fit. As with any business relationship, it’s important to start with a solid foundation.

 

What Works Best For My Business?

If you need content for your website, there are a few different ways to find articles online. While you can’t just take someone else’s content and claim it as your own, the internet provides quick access to a variety of services for professionally created content. You can also find tips for writing your own quality content. Where you ultimately get your articles comes down to personal preference, time and budget.

Once you have established your preferred method for content generation, eventually your content library may grow large enough that you can start updating and reinvigorating older posts, but you have to start somewhere. The internet is full of article writing advice as well as professionals and companies that can do the job for you. Ultimately, if your focus needs to be on your business, then you likely need content writer services.

Has working with professional writers benefitted your content strategy? What qualities do you look for in a professional writer or content company? Share your experiences with us!

 

Do I Need Content For My Website Right Now?

If you’re ready to start buying custom content for your website or you’re saying to yourself “I need a content writer,” give BKA Content a try. Our trained and vetted writers can create the content you want at affordable prices. You can order from our Content Shop today.

 

Content marketing is a proven method of driving traffic to your website and turning visitors into customers. As the name implies, this form of marketing is all about using SEO content writing to increase your site’s authority and improve your rankings for keywords that people search for organically.

But what is SEO content writing and how do you create SEO content that gets results? There are certain elements SEO articles must have in order to engage readers and build awareness of your brand.

Whether you plan to outsource your SEO content writing or use in-house employees to create your content, it’s essential to understand the defining aspects of effective SEO copy.

To help you recognize these and use them, we’ve created a 12-step list of the best writing practices for SEO content. Use this list to figure out how to write your content to ensure it’s the marketing powerhouse you want it to be. But first, let’s give you some context.

 

What Is SEO Content Writing?

While some of the most well-known aspects of content marketing are keywords and search-engine performance, the process of crafting SEO content is actually far more involved.

To effectively improve search rankings and capture the attention of human readers, content marketing articles must be interesting, factual and engaging.

 

There are numerous aspects that can make or break an SEO article or blog post. For example, articles stuffed with keywords don’t perform well in a search engine and quickly turn readers away from your brand.

On the other hand, a well-written SEO article that includes interesting facts, helpful data, and actionable suggestions can rank well in search engine results and also give a reader a favorable impression of you and your company.

When it comes to SEO content creation, you can write your articles in-house or outsource to an SEO content development service. While there are pros and cons to each approach, you may find that hiring expert writers to create your content frees up time for you to focus on the other aspects of running your business.

 

12 SEO Requirements for Writing High-Quality SEO Articles

Although you may know what SEO content writing looks like and how it works, it takes time and effort to create a quality article with all the components that define success. How do you write great SEO content? There are 12 specific parts of content writing that can boost any SEO article and help you see results. And to make all this information a little easier to remember when trying to craft high-quality SEO articles, here’s a downloadable graphic with the 12 key requirements you should focus on every time you create a piece of content.

So how do each of these elements work together, and how can you master each one? Let’s talk about it.

 

1. A Strong Viewpoint

One of the most important aspects of what is called “effective SEO content writing” is a strong, clear viewpoint. In some cases, it’s even better to center an article around a controversial viewpoint. The key is to say something that is interesting and intriguing to your audience, and to sound confident about it.

If you portray a strong argument in an article or blog post, chances are you will get a large number of readers. Some will click on your article because they agree with your point and want their opinion validated. Others will immediately disagree with your position and continue reading due to an emotional reaction. Either way, you have a good chance of engaging your readers and making your content (and brand) memorable.

It’s essential to understand that crafting an SEO article that takes a strong (or even controversial) stand is not the same as writing a piece of clickbait. The goal of clickbait is to trick readers into engaging with a piece by presenting it in a false, misleading, or overly emotional manner.

Writing an article with a strong or controversial viewpoint is not clickbait. Any opinion is good and all clickbait is bad. #ContentMarketing #DoItRight Click To Tweet

Most readers can easily spot clickbait and will develop an unfavorable view of your brand if your marketing revolves around this type of SEO content writing. However, if you are able to create interesting articles that draw your readers in through legitimate means, it can pay huge dividends in terms of traffic and search ranking.

How To Create Strong SEO Writing

Knowing what is SEO content writing and how to avoid the clickbait trap is a smart move on your part. There are several ways to craft an article around a powerful viewpoint. You can use personal experience or vivid storytelling to draw your readers in. Another possibility is to use passionate language to clearly state a position. Either way, remember that the goal of your content is to attract readers and interest them in your brand and products/services.

By taking a firm position on a relevant topic and defending that position, you can count on encouraging strong reactions from your readers. And those reactions, even when they disagree with your point, will drive people to share, comment on, and engage with your content, thereby improving your SEO results even more.

 

2. An Intriguing Persona

Another way to get your readers to relate to your content is to develop the right persona in your writing. The first step here is to understand your target audience so that you know what kind of person your intended readers want to hear from.

For example, the tone, style, and format of SEO blog writing for millennial readers will be different than the elements of a content piece written to retirees.

The persona of your SEO content writing may be based on your industry as well.

For example, you would probably use a different vocabulary and writing style to engage young readers on fashion-industry topics than you would use to engage people of the same age on subjects related to estate planning.

There are several other aspects of developing a persona for your content marketing campaign. Refining a persona for your brand may involve imagining your intended audience and thinking about what problems they are looking to solve and what questions they are asking. You may ask yourself what SEO content writing would look like for your target audience (i.e. what are they looking for and what are they interested in?).

Once you know these things about your intended readers, you can craft your SEO content to describe how your brand solves those problems and answers those questions.

Other essential aspects of incorporating personas into your SEO content development involve using the correct language style and crafting articles that reach your audience where it is.

For example, you probably don’t want to invest in SEO content writing services to write short, informal listicles for social media consumption if most of your target audience is searching for scientific data reported in a traditional news-like fashion.

 

3. Useful, Interesting Data

Unfortunately, today’s internet is full of fake news, outlandish stories and too-good-to-be-true advertising claims. While it may be tempting to use a little bit of hyperbole in your SEO content writing or exaggerate your product claims slightly, these less-than-honest methods will likely have negative outcomes, especially in terms of your brand’s reputation.

Instead of engaging SEO blog writing services that rely on stretching the truth or using clickbait-style headlines, grab your readers’ interest with interesting (but true) facts and useful data.

What is SEO content writing without useful information? Making your content interesting and informative is a great way to encourage your viewers to keep reading and to share with their own network of peers. There are numerous options when it comes to adding data to your articles.

If your audience prefers easy-to-skim formatting and short articles, consider adding visually appealing infographics to your SEO articles. Infographics share data in an easy-to-read way, and their visual nature increases the chance your audience will remember what they read.

Longer articles directed to a scholarly audience may be better places to include case studies. Well-designed case studies can position your brand as a trustworthy leader in your industry.

Despite how you include it, the fact is that data-driven content that provides real value to the reader is one of the keys to writing high quality SEO articles.

 

4. Expert Authority

Whether you create your own SEO content or outsource it to an SEO content development service, it’s essential to make sure your content comes from a position of authority. You want your target audience to automatically think of your brand as an expert source of reliable knowledge in your field.

SEO content writing that is authoritative and trustworthy can help you develop a favorable image of your brand with your readers. There are several ways to increase the authority of your content:

• Cite statistics from reliable, unbiased sources
• Present honest information that doesn’t read like a sales pitch
• Provide concrete examples of your industry-related expertise

Writing from a place of authority can help you establish your brand as a leader in your industry and ensure it stands out from your competitors. When you can link to other sources that confirm your information, it can further increase your readers’ trust.

 

5. Lists or Bullet Points

The internet has impacted the way people find information and consume media. Studies suggest that the ubiquity of the internet has also started to lower the attention span and memory capacity of the average user.

That means that your SEO content writing can’t rely on traditional article formats that include long paragraphs of unbroken text. Modern readers prefer short paragraphs, catchy headers, and different text formats that break up the page (or screen) visually.

Fortunately, there are several ways you can make your content visually appealing and easy for the average reader to understand and to remember:

• Create a list
• Use short paragraphs
• Add bullet points
• Make a table
• Add subheaders

All of these formatting options can help break up long, boring walls of text and make your content easier for readers to skim. Search engines look favorably on lists and tables too.

In fact, using these types of formatting can increase the chances of your content being included in Google’s featured snippets.

A list style featured snippet would look something like this:

And a table style featured snippet looks like this:

The key to remember is that high-quality SEO articles don’t just read well – they look good, too. Knowing what SEO content writing is all about can make the difference. It’s amazing how far a little formatting can go when trying to improve your SEO writing both visually and from a search engine’s standpoint.

 

6. A Relevant Article Topic

Another key aspect of a perfect piece of content is the topic. It may seem like you can choose any subject that’s related to your industry, viewpoint, or products and services, but some topics perform better with readers and search engines than others.

It may be useful to figure out what sort of topics your target audience wants to see and incorporate those subjects into your content marketing strategy. Here are some other good ways to develop topic-driven content:

• Assess user metrics for your site’s visitors
• Cover tangential subjects related to your industry
• Update older blog posts with new information and fresh writing
• Follow social media hashtags relevant to your industry to keep up with current events

Some SEO content writing services may provide suggestions for topics to cover, and you can also read your competitor’s blogs and social media updates to get ideas.

Building a database of possible blog topic ideas can make it easier and faster to write SEO content. If you have a list of topics to give to an SEO blog writing service, you can ensure that the content you get fits within your overall SEO content marketing strategy.

 

7. Integrated SEO Keywords

Perhaps one of the most well-known aspects of what makes great SEO content writing is keyword integration. As the internet has evolved, however, the exact methods for how to use keywords in your content have changed.

The early days of stuffing in as many keywords as possible without regard for readability or grammatical correctness have long since passed. Nowadays, most SEO experts state that newer search engine algorithms have different requirements for effective keywords.

Rather than just focusing on using a keyword a certain number of times or including it in various places (e.g., meta description, headers, title tag), it’s essential to think in a different way.

Good SEO content development nowadays should focus on answering a reader’s key questions. Consider what your target audience is likely to search for and try to include those terms or phrases within your content. It’s also vital to balance your reliance on keywords with other top elements of effective content writing which include:

• Creating content with a high E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) value
• Writing clearly
• Publishing SEO articles that are comprehensive
• Developing content that answers a searcher’s questions

What is SEO content writing if it isn’t both optimized for search engines and readable? While it’s important to make sure you include relevant words and terms in your SEO content, keywords no longer should be your sole focus when it comes to writing high-quality SEO articles.

 

When you are looking to hire copywriting services, make sure you are paying for high-quality SEO articles that answer questions and provide valuable, relevant data, not just a specific number of keyword instances.

 

8. Originality

While the importance and usage of keywords in SEO content writing have evolved a lot over the years, the value of originality hasn’t really changed. The term “originality” basically covers two areas:

• Avoiding plagiarism and duplication
• Performing your own research

Of course, it is essential to ensure that your in-house writers or the SEO blog writing service you hire produce content that is original. Your SEO articles shouldn’t copy the format, words, phrases or ideas of other articles that already exist on the internet or in print.

It’s a good practice to use a plagiarism-checker on your content before you publish it to make sure you haven’t accidentally copied something that is already written.

Plagiarizing existing content is dishonest and can negatively affect your brand’s reputation. It can also destroy your search ranking, as most search engines don’t view unoriginal content favorably.

It isn’t enough to simply avoid plagiarism, however. Another essential aspect of what makes good SEO content writing is to perform your own research and come to your own conclusions. When you research the answers to common questions and then provide that information to your readers, it proves that you are a reliable expert in your industry.

Taking the time to perform your own research can provide benefits to you as well. You can learn what your competitors are saying about certain topics and find out what your target audience is getting from other sources.

Doing comprehensive research also gives you the tools to craft better articles: content pieces that are compelling, thought-provoking and timely.

 

9. Proper Sourcing

As discussed above, excellent SEO content writing should include data and facts that you (or your hired SEO content development service) find during your original research. The way you cite that information in your content is equally important.

 

There are several different methods and formatting guidelines for citing sources, and in most cases, you can choose the one that creates the visual effect you prefer. The most important aspects of sourcing include the following:

• Get information and facts from reliable places
• Prioritize high-quality sources: government, news, and scientific websites
• Give credit in your writing to the source of data and statistics
• Make sure hyperlinks work properly
• Include data sources in the graphic when you develop your own presentations or infographics

Information and textual data aren’t the only elements of your content that require proper sourcing. It’s also essential to make sure you provide the sources of any images you incorporate as well.

One of the easiest ways to ensure you are sourcing images in the right way is to get them from a trustworthy stock photo provider. Many of these providers offer free images that require no attribution.

The photo provider should include detailed instructions about attribution that make it easy to ensure you are giving the proper credit to artists as you engage in your SEO content writing.

 

10. An Attention-Grabbing Headline

You don’t want to dedicate your own time or spend money hiring SEO content writing services if you can’t get your intended audience to read your articles. One of the most important elements of a perfect piece of content is an exceptional headline.

According to Neil Patel, the headline accounts for up to 50% of your blog posts’ effectiveness.

Headlines are important to search engines and human readers. A good headline can improve your content’s chances of ending up at the top of a search engine list (based on its ability to include keywords and reflect search queries), and it can also encourage anyone who sees it to click through and actually read the article.

While you may immediately think of powerful headlines in relation to blog posts, they are important in other types of content as well.

The headline of your company’s landing page can make the difference in a visitor checking out your services and signing up for your email list or leaving your site immediately. A strong headline gives your content a much higher chance of being shared on social media or linked to on other sites.

According to @NeilPatel, the headline accounts for up to 50% of your blog posts’ effectiveness. #ContentMarketing #Content Click To Tweet

While the headline alone can’t guarantee that a person will read the entire article, a poor headline can pretty much ensure that a person will not read the article.

How To Create Great SEO Headlines

There are several elements of a strong headline in high-quality SEO articles:

• Length: Overly long headlines may be truncated in search results.
• Numbers: Adding numbers to your headline can intrigue a reader to check out what those numbers mean.
• Language: Powerful verbs and emotive words can immediately compel an emotional response in a reader.
• Relevance: Your headline must accurately describe the article so readers don’t feel tricked or manipulated.
• Subject: Making the reader the subject of your headline by incorporating “you” language can attract attention.
• Value: An intriguing headline provides hints about how the article will answer a question or solve a problem.

An attractive, intriguing headline is one of the most important keys to SEO content writing that performs well.

 

11. Actionable Information

While getting a viewer to read through to the end of your blog post or SEO article is a victory itself, it’s even better if you can encourage that reader to take action once he or she reaches the article’s conclusion. There are several possible responses you may want to encourage in your reader:

• Filling out a contact form
• Signing up for your email list
• Sharing the article on social media
• Signing a petition
• Writing a comment
• Browsing your online store
• Clicking on another page of your site
• Purchasing your products or services
• Making a charitable contribution

No matter what action you want your reader to take, you can encourage that action with the right information and tone in your article.

For example, a blog post about the benefits of a dental checkup may inspire your reader to schedule an appointment. A piece about illegal hunting may inspire your reader to make a donation to an animal-rights organization. A carefully crafted SEO article about some aspect of your industry may propel your reader to sign up for your monthly newsletter.

You can utilize content marketing to encourage your readers to take action by providing information that elicits a response. It’s also important to make it as easy as possible for your reader to respond the way you want.

Including a CTA with a link to your contact form makes it simple for a reader to schedule an appointment. Ending your article by asking your readers to state their opinions can encourage comments. Providing sharing buttons for several social media sites lets your reader pass the article along to his or her network in a single click.

 

12. Consistent Branding

Whether your SEO content writing centers on blog posts, social media updates, how-to YouTube videos or Instagram pictures, you want to make sure every blog post and article reflects the tone and feel you want to be associated with your brand.

Even if you hire someone for SEO copywriting services, you need to make sure that your branding is clear and consistent across every element of your company’s online and physical presence. That means the tone, language and feel of your content should be the same whether it’s a quick Facebook status update or a long-form blog post.

There are several steps in forming and maintaining consistent branding in your SEO content writing. It’s essential to identify your target audience and understand how to relate to it effectively.

Once you have the persona of your brand, you can focus on how your products or services provide value to your customers. You also need to identify the things that make you better than your competitors. Focusing on how you stand out in your field should be a foundational aspect of your branding.

There are visual and stylistic elements to your brand as well. Think about how much more seriously you would take a headline written in Times New Roman than in Comic Sans. Creating a cohesive visual theme for your brand is essential; it can drastically influence how your readers feel about your company and products.

The Basics of Branding Great SEO Content

Here are a few essential branding aspects of what your SEO content writing should include:

• Title
• Length
• Structure
• Tone
• Visual elements
• Font

When talking to your SEO content writing services provider, freelance writing team or in-house authors, make sure everyone has a clear understanding of your brand. Using a consistent voice, vocabulary and tone throughout all your content ensures that the reader gets the same impression of your brand from a YouTube video as from an email newsletter.

 

So… You Know How to Write SEO Content. Now What?

Now that you know what SEO content writing is and how to write it, you realize it requires time and effort to make it exceptional. It can seem like an overwhelming task when you don’t have the time or passion to research keywords, try out different headlines or check for grammar and readability issues.

Fortunately, it’s easy to outsource the writing of SEO content to an expert content writing company. Skilled writers can ensure your content is ready to draw in your readers and present your business in the best light. If you feel overwhelmed with creating content on your own, let us know – we’d be happy to write it for you!

Whether you choose to write your own content or engage SEO blog writing services, make sure each article follows this list of essential content marketing requirements. If you have any other actionable tips for how to write quality SEO content or additional SEO content guidelines or requirements, let us know in the comments below!

Before the days of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, keyword stuffing and SEO content spinning were all the rage.  While Panda and Penguin (and subsequent algorithmic updates) have made these methods completely irrelevant (thank goodness!), there are still some SEOs that are still using these keyword article stuffing tactics.

While I won’t get into SEO article writing examples of why content made by a spinner is basically worthless, I will, however, go over some SEO content writing tips and guidelines like how to correctly use keywords when creating content for SEO.

 

SEO Article Writing Tips

The purpose of optimizing articles for SEO is to help your content get found organically by search engines. You may have written the most amazing piece of content on the planet, but if it isn’t showing up on search engines you’re going to be missing out on that article’s full potential. When you invest time and money into writing good content, you want to make sure it has the best chance possible of being successful.

Here are some SEO article writing guidelines and tips to help illustrate how to use keywords in an article correctly and maximize your exposure on search engine results pages (SERPs).

1. Focus The Articles Around 1 Primary Keyword Phrase

With SEO article writing, the best practice is to focus a blog post or article around 1 keyword phrase. One of the main reasons for this has less to do with SEO and more to do with how the content is initially created. Focusing the article on a single, primary keyword helps a content writer to write a better article about that one topic/idea instead of trying to perform a circus act and somehow tying lawnmowers to contact lenses within the same keyword article.

Not only does this guideline help the writer, but it helps the reader to better understand the main point of the information being presented, and makes the website content much more relevant to what people are searching for. It’s completely fine to pepper in a few other related keyword phrases within your SEO web content, but less is more in this case when it comes to relevancy and keywords.

 

Hierarchy of SEO Keywords Example:

See the image below for an example of keyword hierarchy. The primary keyword should be the focal point of the article and should easily be the top theme presented. Other keywords inserted should be used to boost up and fortify the primary keyword’s presence as the main topic of the article. If you do this right, both readers and search engines will recognize the hierarchy just by naturally reading through the content.

Include the Primary Keyword in First and Last Paragraph

While the primary keyword should be used naturally throughout the SEO article (don’t force it!), there are some best-practice SEO content writing guidelines when it comes to placement. First, make sure you have the primary keyword somewhere in your first paragraph, ideally closer to the beginning. This again frames your keyword article in a way that search engines won’t be confused what the content is all about.

The same goes for the conclusion of the article – try to use an instance of your primary keyword. This way, you’re giving both search engines and your readers a clear idea of what your piece of content is all about. If it’s written and formatted well throughout, this should probably happen naturally – but it’s easy to double-check before you publish it on your site so you might as well be looking for it.

 

Expert SEO Article Writing Guideline: Include Primary Keyword in Meta Description, Title Tag and URL

This probably sounds a little bit like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many businesses don’t use their primary keyword in the meta description, title tag and URL of the SEO article. These are three places that search engines look to crawl pages and quickly identify what they’re all about!

Since Meta descriptions are only about 160 characters and title tags even less, it shouldn’t be hard to do some word-smithing to include your keywords in these meta tags. Don’t waste any opportunities to gain an advantage when trying to learn how to write good SEO content!

 

2. Insert Related Keyword Phrases

These related keyword phrases are also known as secondary keywords. Secondary keywords should be very closely related to your primary keyword so that inserting them into your SEO article writing doesn’t change the focus of the article, but rather reinforces the primary keyword’s focus.

 

SEO Writing Examples of Unrelated Keyword Usage

An SEO content writing example of using unrelated keywords might look like the following. Let’s say you own a ski and snowboarding shop and you’ve narrowed down that one of your primary keywords should be snowboarding goggles. Here are some bad keyword examples you could choose as secondary keywords:

• skiing goggles
• snowboarding helmets
• snowboard coats

Pretty obvious right? The other thing to consider is that if your primary keyword is “snowboarding goggles” and you’ve decided to write an article about the best types of snowboarding goggles, then secondary keywords that might have been good are now off-limits. For instance, you wouldn’t want to include:

• snowboarding goggle accessories
• how to use snowboarding goggles
• why do you need snowboarding goggles

 

SEO Article Writing Example of Related Keyword Usage

A winning SEO content example of inserting related keyword phrases would include keywords that are just slightly different than the primary keyword or just have a few extra words attached. For instance, if your primary keyword were again snowboarding goggles, some great secondary keywords might be:

• best snowboarding goggles
• eyewear for snowboarders
• goggles for snowboarding

 

Expert SEO Article Writing Tip: Longer Guides Can Include MORE Secondary Keywords

That being said, if your SEO keyword article was going to be more of a long-form guide, including thousands of words, you may be able to insert a few keywords that would’ve previously been unrelated keyword phrases, just by nature of the content. For instance, if your article was a Guiding to Snowboarding Goggles you could include keywords like:

• Cost of snowboarding goggles
• Types of snowboarding goggles
• How snowboarding goggles differ from skiing goggles
• snowboarding goggle features
• snowboarding goggle brands

You’ll want to consider the length of your content and how broad the piece is to know if your secondary keywords might now become related when previously they changed the tone of the article too much.

 

3. Use Keywords in Headers

Once you’ve established your primary and secondary keywords, the next best SEO article writing tip is to utilize those keywords in your headers. Headers signify to both readers and search engines that the content contained in them is important for navigating the SEO article. Headers have a different HTML tag than paragraph text, so it’s an easy indicator for search engines to use to notify importance.

Because of that, it’s especially helpful to make sure your primary keyword is in at least one or two headers and then maybe a secondary keyword or two in any remaining headers. Again, you don’t want your secondary keywords to overtake the importance of your primary keyword in your article writing, so make sure to prioritize them in that order.

 

SEO Keywords Example in Headers

As far as an example of using a keyword in a header, if you’re doing it as you are writing the content then it should happen naturally and shouldn’t really need to be modified. But, many times you’ll find there are primary or secondary keywords that could have been used in the header but that the opportunity was just overlooked. Here is an SEO article example highlighting that:

Keywords that could be used:

• plumbing in New York
• plumber in New York

Bad Header Example: “Contact a Plumber Today“

Good Header Example: “Contact a Plumber in New York Today“

Good Header Example: “Get the Best Plumbing in New York“

See how easy that was? Just modifying a simple header to include the targeted keywords can say the same thing while maximizing your SEO optimization.  Most of the time, you just have to be looking for it. And now, hopefully, you will be.

 

Expert SEO Article Writing Guideline: Use Headers Every 200-300 Words

Not only is this is a good tip from a readability standpoint, but it’s also great for allowing you to include more keywords in your content. Be careful, though, that you don’t overuse headers. You don’t want every single header in your SEO article to include blatant keywords or you may start to hurt readability and flow. But breaking up the content with more headers does mean you have more opportunities to splash keywords in without affecting the flow of the content writing.

 

 

4. Use Keywords Naturally in SEO Article Content

The key to implementing this SEO article writing tip is the word “natural”.  Look at the picture above. Is it beautiful? Easy to look at? Impressive? Now imagine there was a big bounce house on the top of that mountain in the lake. Would that seem out of place, unnatural or jarring to the rest of the scene? The same goes for SEO articles. They can either read naturally, flow excellently and impress a reader, or they can jar the reader out of reality with a poorly placed, poorly chosen keyword.

There are lots of SEO writing examples out there that include keywords being used incorrectly. Here are a few:

 

Example of Using Keywords Unnaturally

Let’s say after doing your keyword research your primary keyword was “lawnmowers Atlanta”. Here is a keyword article example you shouldn’t replicate:

“When looking for lawnmowers Atlanta, you should talk to the experts at…”

You may laugh reading the example above, but there is still far too much of this type of bad SEO article writing being published to the web every day.  Not only does this type of bad keyword usage make the article less relevant, but it makes the content completely unreadable and unprofessional. Readers are already turned off by poor grammar and sentence structure, but obvious and blatant keyword insertion without considering readability is a huge no-no.

 

Example of Using Keywords Naturally

The bad example above shows keywords being used unnaturally in a sentence grammatically.  It makes no grammatical sense to say “when looking for lawnmowers Atlanta…,“ however, it would make more sense to say the following:

“When looking for lawnmowers in Atlanta...”

When using a geo-location keyword, using connecting words such as “in” can make the keyword fit much more naturally within a sentence.  These connector words are called stop words, which are words ignored by search engines. PLEASE make sure you’re doing this!

 

Expert SEO Article Writing Tip: Write for the Reader

When trying to use keywords in content you’ll sometimes run into strange phrases where you’re not sure how you’d insert it even with the help of stop words. If ever in doubt, always err on the side of a keyword phrase making sense from the reader’s point of view. If that means changing up the keyword to make it fit, then so be it. Trust in quality over technicality if ever they can’t be mediated.

5. Don’t Keyword Stuff

I really can’t stress this enough. Keyword stuffing is gluttonous and ultimately uncomfortable for both the reader and the search engine trying to crawl it. For those who need a reminder of what keyword stuffing is, it’s an old SEO practice of shamelessly putting your target keyword in your written content a bajillion times. It’s easy to spot and even easier to hate. Here is an example:

 

Keyword Stuffing SEO Example

“Nothing beats a good lawnmower in Atlanta.  The best lawnmower in Atlanta will have sharp blades, a sturdy engine, and an affordable price.  Do your research on how to find the best lawnmower in Atlanta.  Using a quality lawnmower in Atlanta will ensure you have the best yard on the block.”

Keyword stuffing no longer helps content for SEO but instead can get it in deep water if keyword densities are unnaturally high.  A healthy keyword density range to stay within is 1-3% when using SEO keywords within your written content.  Any more than 3% will throw the red flag and will essentially make your content useless.

 

Expert SEO Article Writing Tips: Use Tools to Help Avoid Keyword Stuffing

One of the best ways to avoid keyword stuffing is just to use online tools that other super smart people have already created. One such tool that we love to use is the Yoast SEO Plugin. Since we do all of our company blogging on WordPress, we’ve just downloaded this plugin and it automatically analyzes your content to see if you’ve used a keyword too many times (among many other things). It’s a way to track and tweak your content without having to remember everything from the get go. Try it out!

 

How to Write Good SEO Articles

Great SEO article writing doesn’t have to be rocket science, but there is a creative science behind it. If you can master the subtleties of how to use keywords in an article while still providing high quality, engaging and informative content then you’ll quickly start winning the content marketing war.

The truth is that keyword usage will never go away but making sure that you are giving your reader quality and useful information in your content should be priority #1.  Optimizing this content for good SEO by using keywords can be done as long as you follow the guidelines presented.

For more SEO article writing tips and guidelines, check out some of our other content marketing posts. Or, if you need help writing SEO articles, contact us directly!

Search engine optimization is a powerful tool in the marketing toolkit. If you are trying to grow your brand online, you likely have heard of SEO content and know that it can be important to your digital marketing success. However, knowing about SEO content and truly understanding it are two different things. Furthermore, knowing how to write SEO content is another hurdle to success.

The good news about SEO content is that anyone can create it. The not-so-good news is that anyone can create it – so you will have a lot of competition. Fortunately, with a few strategies and good practices, you can make SEO content that increases your visibility and grows your brand.

Follow this 10-minute guide, and you’ll have a better understanding of SEO content and gain a competitive edge.

 

What Is SEO Content?

SEO content is any kind of content created to accommodate search engines. Keywords, images, headings and other formatting are used to help get ranked higher for a user’s search query. Getting attention from search engines doesn’t mean that the content is robotic or overly technical; in fact, it’s the opposite. SEO content (if done right) is user-focused, readable and excellent quality.

 

How Does SEO Content Work?

When someone searches online for ideas, products, answers to questions or other information, the results and their order are determined by an algorithm. The algorithm is designed to ensure that the searcher will get relevant and helpful results.

It determines this by examining the contents of the pages in its database and analyzing them based on specific criteria (such as the techniques mentioned above). By doing this, the search engine can deliver high-quality and relevant results quickly.

Search engine optimization is the process of editing your website and other online marketing channels to better match the search engine algorithm’s quality criteria. SEO content is the actual content that you want to optimize. You may have existing content to optimize, or you may produce new content specifically to improve your visibility in search results. Typically, this content helps serve both your SEO and content marketing strategies.

 

How Does SEO Content Help Your Marketing Strategy?

Even beyond content marketing, SEO is highly important in your online marketing mix. Although becoming viral seems exciting (or terrifying, depending on the context), this isn’t the fastest and most probable way to get seen on the internet. There’s no real guarantee that you can actually go viral – even if you try.

What you can do is steadily build up your brand authority online. As you produce effective SEO content, you may start ranking for dozens or hundreds of keywords that potential clients are searching for. Although it may be a quieter way to get the attention of your target market, it’s a proven way to build trust and ultimately score sales.

SEO can be used to increase the organic traffic (people who find your website without clicking on a paid ad) to your website. It can also help to make your business easier to find when someone hears of you through word of mouth. SEO can even encourage other brand and industry experts to link to your website. In short, developing strong content for your SEO is valuable.

 

Types of SEO Content

There are many different types of content that can help your SEO and grow your brand. This page is primarily focused on written content. However, audio and visual work can also be helpful. The following are a few of the major types of SEO content and how they could potentially benefit your business:

 

1. Articles and Blog Posts

These are written pieces about a topic that you think your audience will be interested in. They typically are informative rather than promotional. However, this isn’t always the case. They are among the easiest types of content to create.

 

Benefits of This SEO Content

Articles and blog posts give you the opportunity to be creative. Because of this, it’s not too challenging to get a steady flow of blogs, which can help gain and maintain traffic to your website. This kind of SEO content is a great way to grab the attention of readers and familiarize them with your brand.

Whether you are a large or small business, we encourage you to keep a consistent blog of useful, engaging content. The benefits of a blog are much too large to miss out on.

 

2. Website Pages

These are the pages of your website. Most of your SEO webpages will likely either be product or landing pages. However, all of your webpages, even the contact page, should receive SEO treatment.

 

Benefits of This SEO Content

Although blogs and articles can do you a lot of good, your main goal is to lead customers down the sales funnel. Your main web pages are what secures those sales, so you’ll want to make sure this content is the best it can be.

Having persuasive product and landing pages can make the customer’s journey so much smoother. You build trust, reflect your brand voice and persuade customers to buy.

 

3. Guides and Whitepapers

If you want to take a deeper dive into a topic, consider producing some guides and/or whitepapers, like this example from LinkedIn. These are typically much more in-depth and focused on more technical audiences.

 

Benefits of This SEO Content

Offering valuable content like guides and whitepapers gives you an edge in the industry. First, it shows that your brand is knowledgeable and could be considered an expert in the industry. Secondly, this is a great way to build a deeper relationship with potential clients. Often, businesses will trade valuable information for a reader’s email, which allows them to continue the relationship and encourage follow-ups.

 

4. Videos

Sometimes video makes the best content. Not everyone likes reading as a primary way of taking in information. Tasty is a perfect example of how video can be the most useful way to share content. Take a look at one of their most popular videos, “These Are All Cakes.”

Of course, search engines aren’t (currently) very good at watching video. So, you will need to include additional written SEO such as a transcript and/or description.

 

Benefits of This SEO Content

In just the past decade, we’ve seen a huge surge in video popularity. People enjoy consuming video content, as it is often easier to comprehend than reading. If you want to jump on this trend, make sure you use SEO techniques to get the most out of your video content. This can be a great way to build up a following and persuade leads to convert.

 

5. Graphics

Again, people like to have multiple ways to engage with your brand. Photos, infographics and illustrations can all be great content. Computers are starting to get good at image analysis. However, writing descriptions is still essential.

 

Benefits of This SEO Content

Images are a crucial way to keep readers interested in your content. You can use images (and their alt text) to break up text in your blogs and articles. You can also design infographics that are useful. These kinds of images can be shared easily across platforms, which can lead back to your website and brand.

 

Tips On Choosing The Right SEO Content For Your Business

Depending on your strategy, some SEO content may be more suitable for your website than others. However, as a general rule, we encourage you to use SEO content on all your landing and product pages. Once you’ve mastered that, starting a blog and consistently posting content is a great way to start building up brand authority.

Once you’ve established a solid content strategy and can maintain it, that’s when you can move to white papers, infographics and videos.

 

Characteristics of Effective SEO Content

The greatest challenge of SEO (and all online marketing) is that there are so many competitors. You need to stand out against billions of other websites. The good news is that not everyone is competing for the same audience or the same searches. Plus, getting noticed is very possible. It is easier than it sounds. The following are some characteristics of effective content:

• Specific Focus: As you plan your SEO content, don’t try to target really general searches. For example, “gift ideas” is both extremely general (the searchers may not be interested in your products) and very competitive (it will be hard to stand out). Something like “gift ideas for woodworking enthusiasts 2021” may be a much better option.
• Strong Headlines: Your page or article headline is a big part of what will attract visitors. First, all search engines weigh the headline strongly. If it is relevant and high-quality, it will likely rank well. Second, people who are searching tend to read headlines first. If it doesn’t grab their attention, you won’t get clicks.
• Interesting Content: This probably goes without saying, but the actual content needs to be interesting, relevant and helpful. Search engine companies try really hard to design algorithms that find the content people want. So, your top focus should be making good content for visitors.
• Effective Keyword Usage: Keywords and search phrases are at the very heart of SEO content. You should start the process with careful keyword research. Then, you should carefully use your keywords in your content. Ideally, you should have headlines, prominent paragraphs and internal links all featuring your keywords. However, don’t stuff your SEO content with keywords. Keep it natural.
• Good SEO Tags: Search engines and people both appreciate descriptions of your content. Web content can be tagged with descriptions of the page, images and more. Using these tags is important (as a bonus, it also improves your website accessibility for people with disabilities).
• Links (Inbound & Outbound): Linking to your other content as well as to outside, authoritative sources will improve your SEO. Plus, if you can earn inbound links from other websites, your SEO will also improve. Focus on writing great content to earn inbound links.

 

Benefits of High-Quality SEO Content

It’s pretty obvious that SEO content can help you increase traffic on your website, but there is so much more to high-quality content than that. Having engaging content that is useful to your readers gives them reason to choose you over competitors. It also builds your authority as an expert in whatever industry your business is in.

To really understand it, it may be helpful to look at it from the flip side. What happens if you have poor-quality content filled with errors and run-on sentences? When people see content that is less than helpful or confusing, they usually leave the site pretty quickly.

To put it simply, high-quality content is an important factor of success. It also helps you avoid losing potential clients right off the bat.

 

How To Create An Effective SEO Content Strategy (6 Steps)

Learning how to write SEO content is relatively simple, but mastering SEO takes practice, experience and refinement. However, by following the six steps described below, you can make some significant progress with increasing your brand visibility. Even a basic effort is enough to start earning more traffic.

As you strive to improve your SEO content strategy, follow these steps to stay on track and get the most out of your efforts.

 

Step One: Plan Your Content

All great SEO and content marketing needs to be grounded in a thought-out strategy. This starts by identifying some topics that your audience is likely to be interested in. Try starting with some of the commonly asked sales questions. For example, if you sell camping supplies, a common question may be: “Which tent is good for beginners?” Some good topics for this may be “The top 5 tents for first-time campers,” or “10 essentials for every camping trip.”

Other topics may just be ideas that you have that may be interesting to your audience. You can also get topic ideas through keyword research (more on that below). Overall, your goal should be to think of topics and headlines that your audience is likely to care about.

It can help to determine a few different audience groups based on the sales funnel. People who have never heard of your brand will only be interested in general topics. Those who are close to buying may want content about your products specifically.

 

Step Two: Research Keywords

Keywords play a big role in SEO content. They are the words and phrases that your audience is entering into the search engine. Learning how to research them effectively will boost your SEO effectiveness significantly.

There are many tools that you can use for search keywords. You may want to start with free options such as Google Keyword Planner. However, it is often worthwhile investing in a premium solution to help you find and plan more keywords.

Sometimes researching keywords will help you to identify topics. Nearly all keyword tools provide at least some insight into how often people are searching for specific terms. Many have features for finding related keywords, especially long-tail search phrases (long keywords based on a root keyword). This can provide a lot of insight into the topics that people are interested in.

It is important to note that Google and other search engines are optimized for human-oriented search. So, while keywords are important and need to be incorporated into your content, they aren’t some sort of magic solution. Pick keywords that make sense for the actual people in your audience. The more you keep the human element in mind, the better off you will be.

 

Step Three: Write Something Worth Reading

Once you know what you are going to write about and how people are going to find it, it is time to start working on the content itself. The most important criterion for successful SEO content is that it should be worth reading for the intended audience. If you can learn to deliver on that sole requirement consistently, you will be in excellent shape.

Of course, writing worthwhile content isn’t always easy. Naturally, a good topic can help a lot. Additionally, you should create informative and useful content. So, avoid making your writing overly promotional or biased. If the reader doesn’t learn something that will help him or her, your piece is likely ineffective.

As always, keep the audience in mind. If you are selling toys for kids, your content will be very different than if you are selling industrial machinery. Content for the former case should be lighthearted and emotion-oriented; SEO content for the latter should be detailed, fact-based and persuasive.

 

Step Four: Create Calls To Action

When you have your audience’s attention, the important next step is converting that attention into action. Common actions you may want the audience to take including buying something, filling out a form, clicking through to the next page and calling your business. The actions should be appropriate for the sales funnel stage you are targeting. If you have a long sales cycle, don’t expect to convert many sales from a blog post targeted at the awareness stage. However, you may be able to earn lead contact information.

Your calls to action should be highly visible, motivating and action-oriented. Typically, the best CTAs instruct the reader to take action such as “Contact Our Sales Team.” Usually, they are stronger when they are specific. For example, “Contact…” is better than “Click Here…” However, the efficacy of CTAs can vary from audience to audience. So, it is helpful to A/B test them to get the wording just right.

 

Step Five: Publish

Next, you are ready to put your SEO content out on the web. If you are publishing a webpage, you may simply want to make it live and ensure it is linked in navigation. You may also want to create ads that link to your product pages and landing pages.

For blog posts, articles and similar content, you should promote them on other channels. Social media can be great for getting the word out about an interesting blog post. This is especially true because your followers may share the piece if it is valuable. Promoting your content will help you to earn links and other engagement that can improve SEO.

 

Step 6: Measure and Monitor

Measurement is one of the most important parts of any marketing strategy. When you can measure your success, you can home in your strategy. Search engine algorithms change all the time, and the providers don’t share the ranking criteria. So, you need to constantly monitor your SEO content to ensure that it is working the way you want it to.

Fortunately, this can be very easy. Basic website analytics programs are often enough to see pageviews, bounce rates and other relevant metrics. A little more work can help you delve even deeper with metrics on the sources of your traffic and more.

Then, keep publishing content and monitoring it. Try some A/B tests and similar strategies for content refinement. Before long, you will start to see real results that you can continue to fine-tune.

 

SEO Content FAQs

Now that you have a general idea of how to create and promote your content, here are a few specific questions that may benefit you. If you still have questions about SEO content, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll reply right away.

 

How Long Does It Take For SEO Content To Rank on Google?

This is based on multiple factors. For brand new websites, it can take up to a year for search engines to accurately rank them. In that time frame, expect a few significant fluctuations in rankings.

For individual pages of blog posts, they can begin ranking within a few months. However, because new content is constantly being published, you may also see fluctuations that can make or break your rankings.

This is why it’s important to continually update and optimize your SEO content to keep it at the top.

 

Does Social Media Help My Website’s SEO Content?

Unfortunately, there is no direct link between search engine rankings and social media. However, posting on social media can increase your visibility and traffic. However, even if you get thousands of shares on your social media platforms, it has no impact on your search engine rankings.

 

How Long Should SEO Content Be?

Of course, this is dependent on what kind of SEO content you are using. If you are writing optimized product descriptions, you don’t want them very long. However, Hubspot suggests that blog posts should ideally be between 2,100-2,400 words.

If you do decide to write lengthy blog posts, make sure that they contain valuable information. Too much fluff can scare away readers and hurt your rankings.

 

Get Help Creating Strong SEO Content Today

Learning how to write SEO content can help you to increase your brand visibility. It is a crucial part of any marketing strategy.

However, it is often easier and more effective to hire a marketing team that specializes in creating content that ranks. BKA Content can help you achieve the digital marketing results you are seeking. Contact us today to learn more.