What Is SEO? What Is SEO Writing? A Quick Rundown for All Writers to Know
A quick (but thorough) rundown about what SEO is and how it relates to your job as a writer or aspiring writer. And why it is a fun, in-demand skill to learn if you want remote work!
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SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” which is optimizing your content to rank well on search engines.
SEO writers are in high demand since they help companies expand their reach and monetize their audience.
Aside from ranking well, SEO helps your own website get seen by more clients, without you ever having to pursue them yourself.
Want to jump in further? Sign up for our free SEO training: “How to Launch an Uber Successful SEO Writing Career - without the Cheap “Newbie” Rates, Vicious Competition and Perpetual Stress”
This article is perfect for writers and aspiring writers who want a quick rundown about SEO and SEO writing specifically. We’ll shed light on why SEO is an in-demand skill set to learn and how it can benefit every single kind of writer out there.
We’ll define what SEO is and how it relates to your world as a writer. So if you want to launch, grow and maintain a successful writing business, you’ve come to the right place!
And, if this stuff sounds exciting, don’t forget to sign up for our free SEO writing training. It dives even further than what we cover in this post.
What Is SEO?
“SEO” is the acronym for search engine optimization. SEO, in its essence, is the strategic optimization of online content to enhance visibility on search engines.
For our students, we break it down even further using these definitions:
Search engine optimization is the process or techniques that are used to improve the quantity of website visitors coming to a site and the quality of those visitors.
In plain speak: If you want more of the right people to see your free content and/or paid products or services, you improve your website’s SEO score.
And in the plainest speak: SEO is what you do to rank higher and get more traffic to your site.
Search engines employ complex algorithms to index and rank websites based on relevance and authority. The ultimate goal of SEO is to align your website (or a client’s) with these algorithms, ensuring that it not only appears in search engine results but secures a favorable position.
Most online businesses want more traffic coming to their site, and they want the right kind of people coming to their site.
As a business, you don’t want the wrong people coming to your site. The wrong people – those who aren’t going to be your customers – won’t buy from you or work with you.
Businesses, including professional writers like yourself, want qualified leads and clients coming to them over and over again. SEO is the process to make that happen (hopefully).
What Is SEO Writing?
Now, I want to give you the “writer’s definition” of SEO in regards to how you’d likely relate to it.
“SEO writing” is writing that implements SEO strategies to help content rank better and better serve the people reading it.
For writers, SEO is a way to improve your website so that it gets seen by people who are either searching for products and services you offer or people seeking information in which you have extensive expertise.
SEO is a way to manipulate the content you write so that it gets picked up by search engines and ranked on the top page.
The biggest misconception about SEO writing and SEO content writing is that it is an ill-willed manipulation of your content. And people immediately think of scammy content that is laden with keywords. That kind of content is out there, but luckily it is now being downgraded.
SEO (and SEO writing) is actually a great way to connect people with the right content, products or services they need.
When you sit down to write a piece, SEO is a skill or a set of tactics that you can use to increase your chances of ranking higher online. It’s a way for you to help more people out with great, problem-solving content.
How the Need for SEO Writing Has Evolved
If you’re a writer or aspiring writer looking for work, you’ve probably seen the acronym “SEO” somewhere in the requirements for a job description.
When I started freelancing in 2017, it wasn’t like that. SEO was a new buzzword that clients and business owners were only beginning to understand.
However, now SEO is a necessity for any business that wants to survive and drive revenue online – even yours!
Recently, one of our students asked a question about writer job descriptions. I started browsing various job descriptions for copywriters, ghostwriters and content writers. What did I see?
Nine out of ten jobs listed “SEO writing skills” as a requirement – even if the job wasn't related to SEO.
So now, SEO writing skills are being considered standard skills for all writers to possess. And luckily, SEO can benefit your own freelance writing business, so learning SEO and SEO writing is a win-win for you!
What Types of SEO Content Writer Jobs Are Out There?
The demand for skilled SEO writers is growing, and so are the types of projects writers can participate in. Let’s talk about some SEO writing jobs and projects to consider.
SEO Content Writing
This is the most common type of SEO writing work, but within this one category, there are so many opportunities!
The types of SEO content you can write may include: listicles, thought leadership, how-to’s, expert interviews, authority writing (where you have a notable credential; e.g. doctor), best practice guides, product reviews, product comparison and more.
And to add to the diversity of content writing jobs: You can help your clients write for people in all stages of the customer journey – from problem awareness to post-purchase product help guides.
Video Script SEO
If you have zero video skills, no worries! There is no need to actually create videos if you don’t want to.
Video SEO uses the same principles as regular SEO: keyword targeting, keyword placement, user intent, eye-catching headlines and intrigue to name a few.
However, writers can create the scripts, headlines and descriptions for these videos to help them rank higher. And since video marketing has been taking over the internet for the last few years, video SEO writing is a high-demand skill.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you promote a product or service, and if someone uses your unique promo code or link to purchase, you get a percentage of that sale.
Affiliate marketing can be used on your own site, or you can write for clients. There is immense opportunity to generate passive income for yourself or your clients, as long as it is done well.
The first goal of affiliate marketing is to get your content in front of as many targeted people as possible (with SEO skills of course). Then, the next goal would be to get people buying the products and services you promote.
Ecommerce Product Descriptions
Even though many might argue that product descriptions are a copywriting job, ecommerce sites need to get their products in front of a larger audience and stand out amongst the competition.
SEO writers can create not only the SEO product description itself, but help with title tags, meta descriptions and more. And the great thing about SEO product descriptions is that they’re pretty easy to do, and they usually come in large volumes of work!
ASO
Much like the military, the SEO world is brimming with acronyms. “ASO” stands for app store optimization, which is another great way to find work, especially if you’re into techy stuff like apps!
Similar to SEO, ASO aims to earn the top spots on app store searches. It uses many of the same tactics as SEO and is a great service to add on to existing SEO projects.
SXO
Yay, more acronyms! “SXO” stands for search experience optimization, which starts to creep into the realm of user experience (UX) and copywriting.
SXO typically starts with SEO strategies and takes it a step further to build stronger relationships with potential customers. There are a ton of great SXO projects you can add to existing SEO services too!
SEO Copywriting
SEO copywriting is a unique skill set combining written SEO tactics with marketing copy. It’s a balancing act between writing content that ranks on search engines while also getting people to convert when they come to the page.
SEO copywriters possess both SEO writing skills and copywriting skills. At least, the legitimate ones do.
And these skills can take you very far in terms of what opportunities you can take on as a writer, what companies you work with and how much revenue you can generate for your clients.
Website Writing Optimization
From on-page SEO writing tactics to a little bit techy SEO stuff, writers who are trained in SEO can find consistent work helping their clients optimize their website on the back end. This includes optimizing your own writer’s website for SEO too.
And don’t worry: You can still find plenty of work without diving into the really techy and complex stuff!
Social Media and SEO
Most social media platforms are considered mini search engines. But don’t worry! Search engines like Google are not going anywhere. Social media search engines will not take over the world. And no, you don’t have to abandon writing blogs and articles!
But it’s good to know that younger generations tend to search more on social media platforms than search engines like Google or Bing.
As with almost anything SEO, SEO can be transformed to fit the needs and functionalities of social media.
Luckily, social media is actually starting to build more and more SEO algorithms within their user experience, so the tactics you use in your SEO blog writing will remain pretty much the same.
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