SEO writing: the guide to writing optimized articles

SEO is an exceptional acquisition channel: efficient, scalable. But it is also a very demanding channel. Web writing requires rigor and mastery! In this guide, I explain step by step how to write SEO articles. Identification and choice of keywords, structure... Here are the basics you need to know to succeed in your natural referencing.

In a previous article, I gave you all the keys to Writing a blog post like a pro. Structure, writing method, etc.

But what is the point of writing a great article if no one is reading it?

Yes, a good article is also An article designed for SEO !

In this guide, I will therefore share with you the best practices for optimizing your content.

On the program:

• Identify the right keywords (methods, tools)
• Structuring your “SEO friendly” article
• How to “push” your new content on Google

To be noted. Here, we will mainly talk about Google, the number 1 search engine.

Of course, you should not overlook other engines either, such as Bing, the second most used engine in France. Attracting more and more Internet users, Bing also provides the results of some alternative engines such as Ecosia, the tree “planter”. It now has 3.9 million active users per month in France, out of 15 million in total.

SEO: why is it important?

Imagine: you are doing your shopping and you are in the pasta department. You want shells. What package are you going to take? Probably the one in front of you, the one at the head of the gondola.

Well Google is like a supermarket, with billions of products presented. And if you want to be selected by Internet users, you must therefore position yourself well in the search results.

How to do it?

Thanks to The magic of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

How does Google work?

Our friend Google has one objective: to satisfy the needs of its users. When they make a request, he wants to recommend content that he thinks is relevant to them.

Your goal will therefore be to send as many positive signals as possible:

These are your keywords used in your text (the ones that search engine users are typing in). But also your structure: fluidity, presentation of information, etc. Yes, Google no longer only analyzes keywords.

To make it very simple, when you publish an article, Google will send an army of small robots that will crawl your page. They will check whether or not your content is qualitative enough to be highlighted to Internet users.

SEO: how do you identify the right keywords?

First step in SEO writing: choosing the right keywords. This phase is crucial for your SEO.

You have to define your main keyword — It should correspond to your subject — as well as your secondary keywords (long-tail) to work on a specific semantic universe. Long-tail keywords, incorporated into your article, contain at least three words.

What is a good keyword?

He must of course To be wanted. Opting for terms that are never entered by Internet users is absolutely useless.

However, beware of keywords that are too popular, those with a high traffic potential. As the competition is very tough, you will risk drowning in the crowd.

A good keyword is also a keyword relevant to your target audience, your persona.

Example: if you sell software for accountants, the key keyword would be “accounting software.”

But this word is far too generic: in addition to being far behind in the results, you will not have the most qualified traffic. Accountants very rarely type this term on Google. They're looking for something more specific.

The question you need to ask yourself is not, “What would bring the most traffic to my site?” but rather “What terms would my target audience be looking for?” ”

The keywords you are going to choose must therefore meet these three criteria. :

• Interest
• Feasibility (competition)
• Relevance

SEO writing: keyword research

If you've done your persona job well, you need to know your target audience perfectly: what vocabulary do they use? What terms would she write on the search engine? What questions are asked before coming to your site? Etc.

If this is not the case, I invite you to read this article on The persona: what is it and how to define it

Several methods to identify your keywords

Simple Google search (Google Suggest)

You can simply type your queries into the search engine. In the bar, it will give you suggestions for popular searches. It will give you an overview of published articles, as well as the number of results. You will be able to see what terms are being used, and analyze the competition.

Tip. In the search bar, use the syntax “allintitle:” You will get the number of results based on a keyword (and only articles that have the keyword in the title).

Example for “blog post.”

For these “manual” searches, I recommend that you Perform in private browsing to avoid default customization.

You can also type: How, What, What, What, or When + your main targeted keyword.

Related Google searches

At the bottom of Google's results pages, you'll find a block called “Related Searches.” This one contains other long-tail key phrases that Internet users are looking for.

Use SEO tools

Some tools will give you more precise information on keywords: search volume, competition, relevance, etc.

Here is a non-exhaustive list:

• The Google Ads Keyword Planner (free). It gives the results in the form of a range (1K-10K).
• Google Trends (Free tool to find out the popularity of a query)
• Ubbersuggest
• Ahrefs
• Semrush
• Kwfinder
• SEOQuantum

Ahrefs example (7-day trial for $7):

In the Keyword Explorer, enter the targeted keyword:

Arhefs will give you all the necessary information (difficulty, search volumes, competition, etc.), as well as other keywords related to your search (Keywords Ideas).

You can also install extensions on your browser suchlike Keyword Surfer. This tool is free. Simply type a keyword into the Google search bar to see the associated search volumes.

Example for accounting software:

Keyword Surfer also offers you a list of similar queries with their volume.

“Spy on” your competitors

If your competitors did their job well, they probably took the time to research the keywords on which they should position themselves for their Ads. They have already tested several keywords and have only kept the best ones.

To do this, you can also use Ahrefs (one of the best tools in my opinion).

On Ahrefs, enter your competitor's domain name.

In the left menu, click on “PPC Keywords.”

Export the extracted data to Excel or Google Sheets (Ads tab).

Then search for “Organic Keywords”, SEO keywords. Always in the menu on the left.

You can select keywords with high potential by specifying the positions (from 1 to 3).

Finally, export all this new data to your Excel or Google Sheet file (SEO keywords tab). Analyze all the keywords and pick the most relevant ones for you.

A well-optimized SEO article is a well-structured article

One of the essential parameters in SEO is the structure of your article..

Remember, Google's small robots crawl your page and make sure that your content is qualitative enough to highlight it. And its structure is just as important. It must be legible and intelligible, both for robots and for visitors.

In a previous article, we saw the structure of a blog post: title, title, capo, paragraphs, etc. Now let's see how to “optimize” this structure in SEO.

The title (H1 tag)

It should contain your main keyword.

Le Chapô

The field is the text placed just below your title. In a way, it's the synopsis of your article. It allows the reader to quickly become familiar with your content.

It should contain your main keyword and secondary keywords.

The hook

Here, you have to set the scene for your readers and... Google! He needs to understand what to talk to you about quickly. He must also know the solution to the problem posed.

“Of course, all content matters. However, Google tends to give more weight to the content that is highlighted from the start. So don't overlook anything that's “above the fold.”

Timothée Allemmoz, SEO expert at Growth Room.

Subtitles (H2, H3, H4, H5, H6)

They structure your article and should include your main keyword and/or secondary keywords.

The body of the text

The presentation of your article is also important.

• Put information in the form of a list. In addition to making it easier to read, “Google likes this type of information to put it on position 0,” explains Timothée.

• Put important information and some key words and phrases in bold. A word in bold (tag<strong>) has more weight for search engines. You will improve the relevance of your content in the eyes of Google. However, be careful not to put your tags <Hn>in bold, namely tags <H1><H2>, etc. They highlight your text sufficiently.

To be noted. You can write long articles. Google highly values them because the longer a visitor stays on your page, the more they will consider your content. The search engine will consider it relevant to Internet users.

The images

Visuals, which make it possible to dress and ventilate your content, should not be overlooked.

The most common mistake: inserting images without changing their names.

Here, you must complete the name of your file as well as its alt attribute. Remember that Google has a category called “Google Images”. Internet users will be able to find your article via your visuals.

However, this task can be tedious if you have a lot of images.

On his site hello-papaye.com, Timothée recently published a very interesting article on” The essential WordPress plugins in SEO ”. And among them, we find” SEO image ”.

“This plugin will save you a lot of time since when you upload your photo to your site, the plugin will “recognize” the image and will change the name of the file and fill in its alternative attribute.”

Timothée Allemmoz, SEO expert at Growth Room.

The CTA

Your article should include a clear and relevant CTA (Call To Action). The ideal is to encourage Internet users to leave a comment.

“Comments are taken into account as content. Google takes these into account and should not be overlooked.”

Timothy Allemmoz.

Internal networking (internal links)

Do not forget to insert internal links in your article, links to other content with the same theme.

Indeed, Google tends to favor sites that have covered a subject in detail. If two sites have written about gourds, the search engine will highlight the one that talked about it the most.

The semantic cocoon technique is a perfect example of optimized internal networking, find out more Why and how to create one !

Two advantages:

• The robots will be able to index your old articles again.
• You will decrease your bounce rate. A low bounce rate is a very good indicator for Google. He will consider your content to be very qualitative.

“If you have published a lot of articles, do a simple search in your CMS or type on Google “site:domain.com keyword ”

Timothée Allemmoz

How many internal links should I put?

There is no limit. But avoid putting in ten thousand. Your text should be pleasant to read.

To be noted. By putting a link at the beginning of your article, you will give it a lot of importance. This “recommended” content will carry a lot of weight. Google will take that into account.

External links

External links, also called outgoing links, are links to other sites. These are also important.

If you don't put one in, you'll be sending a negative signal to Google, which, as a reminder, LOVES sharing knowledge. Once again, it wants to give the best to its users. So don't overlook it!

For outgoing links, remember to check the “Open in a new window” box so you don't lose your reader.

How many outgoing links should I put?

No limits either. However, avoid putting a lot of them in to prevent your visitors from fleeing. Also, the more you put on, the more you will discredit yourself in the eyes of your readers.

Advice. Be sure to put quality outgoing links!

Evaluate its content

You've done a good job so far, but Is your content really well optimized?

Before publishing it, Do a little SEO audit. You may need to make some adjustments.

If you use WordPress, Yoast SEO will tell you if everything is good or not (green, orange, or red dot). It will suggest changes to you. On the other hand, this plugin is not the most efficient (especially the free version).

You can use other tools like 1.fr or Yourtext.guru.

“I really like Yourtext.guru because it gives a graph with a curve that goes from green to red and each vertical point represents a keyword to be used in its content. It indicates whether we are under-optimizing or over-optimizing. This tool is very visual. Quickly, we can know if our content is good or not.”

Timothée Allemmoz

Yourtext.guru also offers keywords, content ideas, competition analysis, etc.

The Meta description

Also, before you hit the “publish” button, don't forget your Meta description. Your main keyword must be present and/or based on its semantic universe.

It must be sufficiently explicit and encourage clicking. After the title, it is the second thing that Internet users read!

The URL of your article

Also, think about your URL.

Your URL should include your main keyword. This should be placed first, just after your domain name. Your URL should not contain special symbols or accents.

New article: how do you bring it up more quickly?

In SEO, you don't have to be in a hurry. When you publish an article, it can take weeks or even months to come up.

3 tips to give him a little boost:

• Index it. ” Once you have published your article, you take your URL. You put it in your Google Search Console, and you ask for indexing. You have to do this every time you publish a new article. You can do the same on Bing Webmaster Tools,” explains Timothée.

• Make links to your new article (old articles that have authority). We saw that previously.

• Make backlinks

The importance of backlinks in SEO

What are backlinks?

Backlinks are links from other sites that point to your site.

Example: Michel writes an article and links to your article. It recommends you as qualitative content.

Backlinks are also positive signals for Google. They are a guarantee of trust. Google will consider your site reliable and authoritative. And the more backlinks a site has, the more its popularity increases in the eyes of Google. It will therefore make you go back up more easily.

If the competition in your field is too strong, these links will help you take the lead.

“It is very difficult to stand out in a competitive search without backlinks. There are tools like SEObserver which allow you to quickly get an idea of the backlink profile of any site ranking in Google results for a given query. Those in first position are often the ones with the most qualitative connections. ”

Timothée Allemmoz

How do I get backlinks?

If your content is qualitative, we will recommend you. Afterwards, it is happiness that comes with luck. On the other hand, you can ask for it, make a deal with another company. Exchange requests are made regularly, so do not hesitate. Of course, don't propose to a company that won't see any relevance for them.

To be noted. Backlinks should be qualitative. Don't do anything stupid! Google's algorithm also studies the quality of other sites.

Share your article

Your article is published, it is now necessary to share it to give it visibility. This sharing will not get you back on Google, it will only bring you traffic. On the other hand, know that Pinterest can help you.

“The links on Pinterest are not insignificant”, assures Timothée.

Optimize your old content

Once your articles are published, don't forget to optimize them regularly (updating, adding new information, etc.). Google gives as much importance to a modified article as to new content. You will improve your internal structure and therefore your reputation in relation to Google.

You now know the basics of writing an “SEO Friendly” article. So yes, between writing and optimizing, there is a lot of work. An article cannot be written and published in less than one hour. Spend time on it, the results will only be positive!

However, know that there is no magic recipe in SEO.

“You have to test, test and test again”, Call Timothy back.

It's up to you to play!

In addition to SEO, there are many other scalable acquisition channels, and it is our mission to find them for you at Growth Room! You can contact us at welcome@growthroom.co

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