SEO Guidelines for Content Writers

You have been asked to write some content, and given a keyword (or just a vague idea!) that content should rank for. So, what should you try and do with that keyword within your content? These simple guidelines try and help you with doing that.

Before we start, gone are the days the keyword needed to be inserted 10 or more times in the copy for SEO purposes. Google is much cleverer (not a word !) now and understands natural semantic language; doing this might actually send spam signals to Google so definitely a no-no.

What Google does want to see is content written by a human that clearly knows what they are talking about, and that content is engaging enough to keep the reader on the page to the end of the article.

Here are some more specifics:

Target keyword: right to work checklist

600 words or more. Any less and it could be seen as low value “thin” content. this content is fine for sharing on social media, but not suited to ranking on Google
Informative content that is not full of industry jargon. Assume a lower reading age than you think, and assume a less knowledgable reader in your industry than you first assumed. This should lead to higher time on page (indirect ranking factor)
Keyword in meta title and description – better at start of of the title/description. This is done via an SEO plugin like Yoast
Keyword in heading (H1)
Keyword in first paragraph
Keyword in image name (e.g. right-to-work-checklist.jpg)
Keyword in image alt tag & title (e.g. right to work checklist
completed by professional relocation agent)
Image size no bigger than needed/space, optimised for web
(use Canva or other image editing software) e.g.: 1750 x 800 pixels
Choose most relevant category (content clusters good
for SEO, that align with services on website)
Don’t only have content in PDF; have web page too
Evergreen vs topical/trending content – what to choose? Probably a mix of the two, but it is evergreen content that will contribute to long term growth in organic traffic

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