Writing SEO Texts: Step-by-Step Guide

1. What is SEO?
2. Before starting to write SEO texts: Where do the keywords come from?
3. Next Level Keyword Optimization: semantic optimization
4. W-questions: Google's favorite keyword
5. Mini-FAQ on writing SEO texts
6. Instructions: Write SEO texts in 8+1 steps
7. In summary yet again: This is how you write SEO texts

If you are involved in online marketing in the broadest sense, you have certainly heard the word Search Engine Optimization (abbreviated SEO) often. You may be aware of what it entails, or perhaps not. Then this article is great for you. If you also want to learn how to make your texts SEO-friendly and which Tools for writing SEO texts are useful, you've come to the right place! 

What is SEO?

Back in the 2010s, it was said that SEO texts should have a certain length and contain between one and five Keywords in a specified amount. Back then, the algorithm couldn't recognize similar words yet. So if a keyword was "Travel to Egypt cost", it had to appear exactly like that in the text. Try to accommodate that skillfully.

Writing well-readable SEO texts was therefore difficult. Because imagine if you only had 300 words available and had to include 5 strings of words each four times in it. Then your hands are somewhat restrained. Today, search engine optimization looks different. What was done back then is now called keyword stuffing. If the algorithm of a search engine recognizes that you are doing keyword stuffing, your page will be "penalized", i.e. ranked lower or even completely banished from the search results.

How a search engine algorithm works

These days, the search engine optimization of texts means the following: People use search engines like Google, Bing, Ecosia & Co. every day. They always have a certain intention. They are actively searching for information.

The search engines want to display the websites at the very beginning that help the person searching the most and deliver a positive User Experience. Which websites these are, the search engines determine by checking (crawling) all pages (more or less) and evaluating them based on an algorithm.

So in order for your websites to rank really well in the search results, they have to serve certain search intentions and be considered valuable by the algorithm.

The catch: On the one hand, nobody really knows what is important to the algorithm. Google does not just give out this information. Instead, SEO experts must develop their collective knowledge with trial-and-error. In addition, the algorithm is constantly changing as new insights are gained about search behavior and the needs of internet users. So theoretically, your website could rank super on one day and not at all on the next.

The thing about ranking

Why does everyone want their websites to land way up at the top of the first page of search results? To put it harshly: search engine users are lazy. In realistic terms: The average person has no idea how the algorithm works. Many don't even know it exists. They fundamentally assume that the first result is usually the best.

Sistrix has provided hard numbers on this: Over 99% of all clicks happen on the first page of Google, with the webpage in the first position getting almost 60% of all clicks. Even the second search result only has a 25% chance to be clicked on compared to the first. The second page of the search results is not even visited by 1% of all users. This naturally makes the fight for the top positions understandable.

By the way: The first result on Google is not the one with the best SEO ranking. The top four results are Google advertisements. In the screenshot, you can see what happens when you search for "CRM software" on Google. The majority of the screen is taken by the ads. Only at the very bottom can you see an organic result. Organic means that no money has been paid for the placement at this location.

To then even see the results for positions 2, 3, 4 etc., you have to scroll first. Then a Google feature is displayed that answers frequent questions about the keyword. The practical thing about this is that users don't even have to go to a website. But the answers in it come from websites. If you like an answer and feel that you could get more interesting information there, you can directly go to the corresponding website.

If you look closely, you can see that OMR also ranks well for the keyword "CRM software", namely in the top 5. That's not actually bad. Thanks to Sistrix we know that only a small proportion of people who enter the keyword on Google will also go to the OMR page. But considering how many people search for it on average, there is still a decent amount of traffic for it.

Technical SEO: A digression

From a fundamental perspective, search engine optimization is first and foremost a technical matter. If your website is not technically search engine optimized, you can write the most amazing SEO texts. No one will see them in the end. Technical SEO includes things like the correct integration of the robots.txt file, the optimization of Page Speed and ensuring that a page is also indexed.

This will not be covered in detail here. You surely have already understood that SEO is more than just texts. Pure text writers alone cannot hoist a website to the first position of the search results. This only works if the website is fundamentally well set up or if it is an absolute niche request. If you want to learn more about this, check out our article on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Before starting to write SEO texts: Where do the keywords come from?

"Keyword" is a term from SEO marketing and is synonymous with "search term". Keywords are therefore what people enter day in and day out into the search masks of search engines. They are relevant for writing SEO texts because they dictate the direction of a text and must of course appear in it. You can find the keywords that suit you with the help of an extensive and well-thought-out keyword research.

A Keyword-Research is a somewhat complex task. You have to look at...

• which keywords generally come into question,
• which keywords make sense for the aim that should be achieved with the SEO text,
• how competitive a keyword is and
• if it's worth participating for a certain keyword.

Partially, these are SEO-strategic aspects. For example, when it's about the aim of a text: If you want to sell red shoes, it naturally makes sense to use the keyword "buy red shoes". But if you actually just want to write about the musical Kinky Boots, the keyword doesn't make sense. If you want to learn more about keyword research, you can find more helpful tips in our detailed guide to keyword research.

To inform you about aspects like search volume and competition, you can use SEO-tools. These are popular SEO-Tools for this area:

• Seobility
• Sistrix
• Ahrefs
• Quaro
• Semrush
• Mangools

You can see a section of the widely used SEO tool suite Sistrix in the screenshot.

Next Level Keyword Optimization: semantic optimization

Little tip: Since 2013, the algorithms of Google & Co. have become worlds smarter. So if you get the keyword "Sewing Knitting Difference", you don't have to include it in your text exactly like that. That would read terribly. Instead, you could write for example:

• This is the difference between sewing and knitting
• How do sewing and knitting differ from each other?
• In contrast to sewing, knitting is…

Also, these days, the algorithms can identify synonyms and related terms. So if you want to optimize for the keyword "dog", you can use these terms:

• Dogs, Bitch etc.
• Wauwau, furred nose, four-legger, man's best friend etc.
• Doghouse, dog owner, dog collar, food bowl, walk, throwing toy

By the way, this means that theoretically, you don't even have to include the keyword "dog" in your text to rank for it.

Source: Innotag

Semantic optimization with tools

You can use a suitable WDF*IDF tool like Ryte to semantically optimize your texts. The tool helps you find out which terms are considered more relevant and play a more important role for the page ranking in the search engine. The software calculates how often the keyword appears in the document compared to other terms and term combinations (WDF = Within Document Frequency). The tool also indicates how heavily the keyword is weighted compared to all other documents/articles in the index of the search engine (IDF = Inverse Document Frequency).

In Ryte, you simply enter the focus keyword, select the language and the region for which you are writing the SEO text, and start the analysis. The tool then shows you relevant keywords and makes recommendations for which terms you should use more or less often. For the focus keyword "writing SEO texts" for example, terms like keyword, SEO, SEO text, text, content, search intention, target group etc. are relevant. You can use this semantic optimization as the first step and let the results inspire you while writing your SEO texts.

Source: Ryte

Caution: Don't let tools dictate everything to you. They are a great help, but they shouldn't take the thinking out of you. If a term has no place in your text, leave it out. Even if a tool says it should appear. SEO consists of so many components that in the end, it doesn't matter if just one of them is missing.

W-questions: Google's favorite keyword

Many SEO managers swear by W-questions. This is because many people either directly enter a whole question into the search box or at least have an implicit question. Remember Google's feature with answers to important questions about a keyword? This is what the W-questions aim at.

Where do you get the W-questions from? You can start with a brainstorming and think about what questions there could be about a search term. You can also enter the keyword on Google and see what questions the search engine suggests. But you can also simply use an SEO tool - many have an integrated W-questions function, such as the free version of HyperSuggest. But AnswerThePublic also specializes completely on the detection of W-questions.

If you simply enter a keyword, it will spit out a list for six predefined prefixes (question words). But in the free version, you can only see the first 10 results. This is how we handle it: We kick all prefixes except one out of the list and only display the results for that one. For the question word "how" in connection with "SEO" we still get 69 results, but with the first 10 we can work super.

We play this game for every prefix. We take out the results for each one and enter them all in an Excel or Google spreadsheet.

Mini-FAQ on writing SEO texts

After we have shown you how to get valuable W-questions for writing your SEO texts, we are following our own example. Just in case you haven't noticed yet: This article here is of course search engine optimized. There are also all kinds of questions about SEO text writing that are asked particularly often. So here is a little FAQ.

How many words should an SEO text have?

The question of questions: How long does an SEO text really need to be. Honestly, opinions differ greatly, depending on which SEO tool or SEO specialists you ask.

For the widespread Content Management System WordPress there are special WordPress SEO tools, that can also help you with the text length. The WordPress plugin Yoast marks all texts as too short that have less than 300 words. With the WordPress plugin RankMath the value is at 600 words. The SEO tool Seobility complains, if it's less than 500. Some SEOs believe, every SEO blog article must have at least 1,900 words.

The extremely unsatisfying answer is therefore: It depends. On one hand on the topic, and on the other hand also on the type of text (a product description is usually shorter than a blog article). Then there is yet another theory that one should look at how long the best search results to the keyword are. In other words, your competition can also play a role.

We are pragmatic: If a topic only gives you 1,200 words, we don't artificially inflate the text with endless repetitions. After all, from the view of the search engines, it's about the added value for the readers of the texts.

How many keywords should an SEO text have?

This is not that easy to answer. Most recommend three to ten keywords. But one of these should be your focus keyword. You can then enter this focus keyword for example in Yoast or RankMath, so these two plugins can inform you how well your SEO texts are already written.

Whether you define three or ten (or even more) keywords may not be that important. You will not rank equally well for all the keywords. And you may rank for keywords, that you didn't even consider.

We actually only recommend one thing: Write one SEO text per focus keyword. All texts compete for keywords. So if you have optimized two texts for the same focus keyword, they also compete with each other. This is called keyword cannibalism and ensures that the search engine algorithm cannot recognize which of the two texts is more relevant. In the worst case, you then rank poorly with both texts.

Which tools help with writing SEO texts?

You can write SEO texts completely without tools, but suitable software greatly facilitates the writing. The problem: There are too many SEO tools. At OMR Reviews you can find detailed descriptions and authentic reviews of SEO tools.

Our guest author Kathi Grelck uses these SEO softwares:

• Sistrix for an extensive keyword research
• HyperSuggest for the W-questions research
• TermLabs for the semantic optimization and W-questions research
• AnswerThePublic, to start with the keyword and questions research and to collect content ideas

• Yoast as a WordPress plug-in, to get an impression of what could still be optimized in the text for the search engine

Instructions: Write SEO texts in 8+1 steps

In conclusion, we will give you a step-by-step guide for writing SEO texts.

1. (Keyword-)Research for your SEO text

The topic of keywords rightfully has such a large part in this article. They are simply the basis of SEO articles. At the beginning stands always the Keyword Research of suitable keywords, related search terms and W questions. Tools such as AnswerThePublic, Sistrix, Mangools, TermLabs, Seobility or Quaro.

Afterwards, you can search yourself for the keywords and questions. For this, a quick Google search is suitable, since often questions about the topic and synonyms are displayed there.

Next, you should read about the topic on other websites. Except of course you already know the topic in detail and don't need additional knowledge. Often, the research makes up the main part of the work.

2. Structure of your SEO text

As soon as you have collected your keywords and conducted the research, you should create a structure. You can do this, for example, in Word or a WDF*IDF tool like the one from TermLabs or Ryte.

The structure helps you during writing not to lose the red thread. You then know exactly which information belongs where. A good structure can also help you to stay in the flow while writing.

The structure also has an important background for search engine optimization: You can't just blindly write an endless running text. No one will read through that. Instead, your SEO texts need:

• Subheadings
• Paragraphs
• Bullet points
• Possibly a table of contents

The subheadings can even have several levels and should at least be expressive and named with your keywords on the hierarchically higher headings, i.e. H1 and H2 level. This helps your readers to navigate through the text and the algorithm to recognize the context of your text. Headings like "Step 1" or "Conclusion" are useless.

Paragraphs and bullet points are needed because the average internet users don't read texts, but scan for relevant information. You make scanning easier if your text optically suits the content.

The table of contents is recommended for longer texts. It's best to link it with anchor texts, so website visitors can quickly jump to the paragraph that interests them.

3. Write SEO text

If you know exactly what should be in your text and how it's structured, you're already half way there. Then it's time to write. You should follow these rules while doing so:

• Nest sentences are taboo!
  
  In scientific or creative texts, nest sentences are very popular. On the internet, they are misplaced.
• Write as simple as possible.
  
  Don't expect that your readership are experts. Use as few foreign words as possible.
• Explain technical terms.
  
  If you target beginners with your texts, then explain important technical terms.
• Short sentences.
  
  Often this rule is broken while writing. During editing, you should be ruthless. After all, most people have already forgotten how a sentence started after 13 words.
• One piece of information per sentence.
  
  Instead of pressing as much information as possible into one sentence, make two out of it.
• Avoid passives and nominalizations.
  
  Both make texts harder to read and at the same time more boring. Write in the active instead and address your readership directly.
• Write varied.
  
  Please don't let every sentence or paragraph or every heading start the same way.
• Place your keywords in the text.
  
  As a rule of thumb: Once in the headline, once in the introduction and once in a subheading.

4. Semantic optimization of your SEO text

You don't have to laboriously use a tool for semantic optimization. You can also look at how often your keywords occur with markings or the search function in your writing program. Be your own control instance: Does it seem to you as if a word appears too often? Then cross it out! Does 4 pages pass without your focus keyword appearing? Add it somewhere in the middle!

5. Images, videos, graphics for your SEO text

The longer a text, the more tiring it becomes for the eyes. With pictures, videos and graphics, you can visually loosen up your SEO texts, provide supplementary information and thus provide added value, and additionally place external links.

Make sure that you always indicate the sources of all pictures, to be legally on the safe side. Pictures must also have a good resolution so that you can recognize something on them. At the same time, they must not be too large because they otherwise slow down the loading time of your website (bad for SEO and unpopular with users).

For videos, you should always make sure that they are hidden in the mobile version of your website or at least don't start automatically by themselves. If you don't do this, it can again slow down the loading time and also consume the data volume of your readers.

Very important SEO tip: Your pictures, infographics and videos must always be saved under a meaningful name and provided with a title, alt-description and possibly description text. Otherwise, the search engines cannot establish the connection to your text.

And because we haven't given you anything for the eye in a long time: Here is a YouTube video where you can learn where to place your keywords in your texts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88BS5GQM3PI

6. Internal and external links in your SEO text

If you include pictures, videos and graphics from others in your texts and always link them, then the external links is basically already covered. But you can also mention statistics or relevant information and link the source.

Almost even more important than the external links are internal links. These are links to other subpages on your own website. You can, for example, link from a blog article to one of your products or to another article that could also be interesting.

If you make sure that you insert at least 2 to 3 internal and also 2 to 3 external links, you're on the safe side.

7. Meta data of your SEO text

In Content Management Systems like WordPress, Joomla & Co a meta title and a meta description should definitely be entered for every page. This is what is displayed to those searching in the result lists. A good or bad meta description can cause more people to visit your site - or avoid it because the description is not good.

From an SEO view, you mainly have to ensure that the length of the meta data is correct and your focus keyword is included. Whether the length is correct, you can see in the CMS itself. If you don't have access to it, I recommend the SERP Snippet Generator from Sistrix. It shows you if the length is correct and what the final result looks like in the desktop and mobile version.

8. Review of your SEO text

If you write for contractors, your texts usually go to a proofreader or copyeditor or into an editorial office. They will then look to see if everything fits linguistically and to the requirements, looks good, and is overall just good. Nevertheless, it's always more professional if you also look over it again yourself to see if you've considered all the guidelines and the text is consistent.

Especially if you're the last control instance too, you have to take on the review yourself. The plugin from Yoast is - as previously mentioned - super handy for beginners because it points out important SEO aspects.

9. Share SEO text externally

Bonus step: It's always recommended to share your finished SEO texts externally to build up backlinks. You can spread blog articles wonderfully everywhere on social media: On Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. This is doubly practical: You make your followers aware of your article and possibly gain some readers. Additionally, you get backlinks, which the search engines like again. Your SEO text thus appears relevant and interesting and ranks even better.

In summary yet again: This is how you write SEO texts

As you see, such an SEO text can have quite a few things to it. There is more to it than you think and it's not just writing. Technical and strategic SEO understanding is also a part of it. But if you research well, write your texts structured and readable, remember to visually lighten everything up now and then and to include a few pictures, videos and links here are there, you're doing a damn good job.