
If you're a small business, chances are your marketing budget is limited. This can make it tricky for potential customers to find your products or services - that’s where SEO content writing can be extremely helpful. SEO content writing, when done right, can help potential customers find your brand when they’re searching online for products, services or information related to your brand. It’s that simple. The best part? It’s an organic way to market your business online - that is to say, it’s free! To learn more about the best practices for SEO content writing, keep reading.
Why is SEO important for small businesses?
SEO content writing can help small businesses in three crucial ways:
1. It’s a free/low-cost (depending on whether you want to pay for SEO tools/hire a content writer) approach to marketing your business online
2. It’s a great way to help the right customers find you
3. Good content writing will guide your customers directly to your marketing end goal
Why is SEO important in content writing and marketing?
While quality writing on its own is great, from a marketing perspective - there’s not much point in writing it unless it’s going to attract the right people to your business. This is where SEO comes in. SEO content writing is guided by keyword searches (aka, the searches that your ideal customers are typing in online). By writing your content around these search queries, you’re answering your customer’s questions, building trust with them and helping them to find your website Â
According to Hubspot, 85% of all blog visitors arrive at articles through organic online searches (basically, this means potential customers find blogs without brands having to pay for their articles to show up online - brands simply write and publish SEO articles online and their customers then find them in relevant search results). This should give you an idea of just how important SEO content writing is when marketing a business within a small budget. Hubspot also notes that SEO and content marketing are the top channels to use if you’re looking for a return on investment. So, if there’s room for it within your marketing budget, investing in an experienced SEO content writer should be a no-brainer.  Â
How to write great SEO content
According to marketing expert Neil Patel, "Quality has become the #1 ranking factor in Google". The days of stuffing keywords into articles to get a good Google ranking are gone (and it’s against Google’s spam policies). Instead, quality content that answers people’s questions with well-written, trustworthy information is what Google is looking to promote - which makes perfect sense. While you want your content to be guided by keyword searches, don’t worry if the keywords you use in your articles don’t perfectly match up with keyword queries - Google is very clever and can usually understand how your content relates to searches, even if the keywords used aren’t a perfect match.Â
When writing SEO content, here’s an easy process to follow:
1. Let your article be guided by keyword research - this way, you know you’re providing answers that your customers want
2. Write quality content (think spelling, grammar, tone of voice and consumer-friendly article structure)
3. Avoid using AI!! (a study by Neil Patel found that human-written content significantly outperforms AI-written content on the web)
4. Fact check and insert quality inbound and outbound links
5. Edit and proofread
6. Promote (e.g. via social media, word of mouth, etc.)
7. Regularly update content to keep it up to date
Don't have time to write great content?
I can help. I'm an experienced SEO content writer with a background in journalism. I've worked with brands and publications around the globe to help them reach the right audiences through quality SEO articles. Get in touch today and let me take care of your brand's keyword research, SEO writing, internal links, fact-checking, editing and proofreading.