SEO Copywriting: Tips, Best Practices, and How To Find Work

According to the latest research, only 0.63% of Google searchers click on search results on the second page. This means that appearing on the first page of Google search results is crucial, and the competition is intense.

What makes that statistic important?

The internet has rapidly become where people shop, learn, play, communicate, fall in love, work, and find entertainment. They look for websites or apps by typing queries into search engines.

The results that appear first on those searches are most likely to attract your attention, making search engine optimization (SEO) important.

How you write your content, what keywords you use, and what potential value you create for customers drive visitors to your website.

SEO is over 10 times more effective at driving traffic than organic social media. Learning how to write compelling and engaging content is vital for a business looking to improve its SEO copywriting, as well as to a writer providing this service.

We’ll go over what it means to excel at SEO copywriting and provide best practices that can help increase traffic to your website.

What is SEO copywriting?

SEO copywriting is creating content that aims to rank higher on search engine results pages and provide readers with meaningful information.

The idea is to please both readers and search engine algorithms. SEO copywriting uses page layout and content, as well as keywords and phrases to tell search engines like Google what the article is about. When done well, the page will rank highly for people searching the right key words.

The real skill required in SEO copywriting is to balance the goals of user search intent and search engine ranking.

Writing a blog post that’s full of keywords but offers little to no new or useful information will likely fail to help your readers fulfill their search intent.

Similarly, writing a meaningful piece of content without using keywords strategically can relegate it to a low-ranking position on search engines, generating no traffic.

The benefits of SEO in content marketing and online visibility

Content writing while keeping SEO in mind can increase your business’s reach, marketing success, and sales.

Some advantages of fine-tuning your SEO copywriting skills include:

• Improving your website’s authority and ranking on Google
• Increasing website traffic
• Generating more backlinks
• Converting visitors into customers
• Increasing sales
• Improving your credibility in the industry through your Google rank

Top 8 SEO copywriting tips

With nearly 65% of the American population expected to shop online in 2024, your goal should be to make your website readily visible to potential customers.

If your website doesn’t pop up in the first few results thrown up by a search engine, you might not capture a sizeable chunk of your target audience.

To help you reach that target audience, ensure your website’s content is optimized for SEO.

We review a few SEO best practices to help you write compelling website copy that appeals to readers and search engines.

1. Conduct keyword research

Keyword research is the first step in SEO copywriting. You can do this using keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Frase, and Semrush.

Based on your topic, the keyword research tools will give you a list of high-volume search words and phrases ideal for your content. However, your work doesn’t end there.

Vet these keywords to figure out which ones represent the intent of your content. Typically, there are two kinds of search intents: informational and transactional.

Informational search words look like “How to ride a bicycle,” and the user intends to learn about riding a bicycle. Transactional searches are phrased like “Buy iPhone X” or “Review LG 29-cubic-foot French door refrigerator.”

If you’re an SEO copywriter targeting customers for sales, focus more on transactional than informational keywords. With transactional keywords, you can further classify specific keywords based on the level of intent—low, medium, or high.

For example, the more specific the search word is about a model type, price, or brand, the greater the intent of the customer to buy.

Tip: Long-tail keywords are typically less competitive and allow you to rank more specific pages higher on search engine results.

2. Write metatags and headlines

Metatags are lines of text that describe the content of a webpage. They don’t appear on the webpage or in search results but are part of a webpage’s HTML source code.

Search engines use metatags to figure out what a particular webpage is about. They also help web browsers determine how to display your content, depending on whether a user is accessing your website from a desktop computer or mobile device.

As a result, metatags are an important component of SEO that can help your website rank higher on search results.

Unlike the metatag, a meta description is a concise explanation of what your content consists of—and this is what readers see in search engine results under the headline when they search for a key term relating to your content.

The recommended length of a meta description is 150 to 160 characters.

Headlines refer to the underlined blue text that marks each result on a search engine results page. They’re what users first see after typing in a search query and what they rely on to decide which search result to click on.

An effective SEO headline balances what the user is looking for with what search engine algorithms use to rank webpages. Including a relevant keyword in your headline improves its chances of ranking higher.

Ideally, your headline should describe the content of your webpage succinctly. Write your headlines in a way that provides immediate clarity and context to the content of your webpage.

Also, your SEO headline (the one that appears on search results) can differ from the headline displayed on your webpage.

Tip: Work on 5 to 10 versions of a headline before picking one that looks the strongest.

3. Create a content outline

Just like your headline, think about headers to use throughout the article. This helps you structure your article and create a content outline. Headers can be useful ways to employ target keywords in the article.

Based on your keyword search, you can decide what the structure of your article should look like, what subtopics you should cover, and how you want to lead customers toward a Call to Action (CTA).

A cursory glance at the articles around your primary keyword can help you identify gaps in their information. You can use these gaps to develop a stronger SEO strategy and deliver a more comprehensive article to readers.

4. Check alt tags and anchor text

Two other important elements to be mindful of when creating an SEO copy are alt tags and anchor texts. An alt tag describes the appearance of an image used on the page. Search engines use it to determine what a particular image in your article is about.

While using keywords in alt tags to increase the keyword volume may be tempting, the best practice would be to avoid doing so. Write a succinct and accurate description of the image that uses keywords naturally, without forcing them into the content.

Anchor text is a phrase or word group that links another webpage or a specific element within your page. It’s typically underlined and appears as blue-colored text.

When choosing a part of a sentence or phrase to use as anchor text, look for the one most relevant to the information in the link referenced. In addition, don’t try to force the use of a keyword in anchor text. It may make more sense to use contextual words or phrases.

5. Link internally and externally

Linking your webpage to other websites is fundamental to how Google recognizes your ability to credit sources and make data more accessible. It’s also a way of letting Google know you’re connected and eager to share knowledge.

Readers, too, will likely trust your content more if they can see links to other websites or authors backing your claims. As a rule, whenever mentioning statistics, key research, or quoting someone, link your mention to the source where you got the information.

Adding internal links (links to other pages on your website) is equally important, allowing readers to look at your other content and gain a deeper understanding of your brand. Internal links show Google you’ve published before and have several strong posts on your website that attracts visitors. This helps Google rank you better.

Ideally, you should use:

• Internal links to direct readers to more in-depth pieces or new concepts
• External links to direct them to external research work or statistical analysis  
• Appropriate phrases and words as anchor text

6. Include CTAs

Most SEO content is published to boost sales for a product or service. So, skillfully directing customers toward making a purchase or signing up for a service should be a priority.

You might subtly plug a reference to your product in the middle of the piece without gushing about it. You can also use the final concluding paragraph to highlight three or four key benefits of your product and why a customer should opt for it.

Use this section of the piece to make the product sound enticing to potential customers while keeping the tone conversational and casual.

7. Publish and analyze content performance

Once the body copy of the article and all other SEO elements are in place, it’s time to publish. Monitor how the post has been doing for over three months.

You can use metrics like website traffic, bounce rate, time spent on the page, and Click-Through Rate (CTR) to determine how well your piece is performing.

Remember that achieving a good rank on Google isn’t instant. It can take anywhere between 6 to 12 months. If you’re operating in a highly competitive keyword market, it could take a year or more!

It all depends on the quality of the content, links, and metatags. If you optimize your website for these three things, your content is more likely to rank well on search engines.

8. Update and optimize content

As time goes by, update your content to keep it competitive. A few competing pages might rank higher than yours with better use of keywords or by linking to trending research or statistical work.

Look at your content routinely to make sure it gives readers the latest information and links to recent articles. Similarly, keep a watch on new keywords that are likely to bring you more traffic and use them in your articles.

Regular updates help make sure your website has fresh and high-quality content.

SEO copywriting best practices

Now that you know how to write good copy for SEO, let’s look at strategies to help you achieve search engine ranks.

While you might think including a fair number of keywords in your piece is enough to help you rank better, ranking is a far more complicated process.

According to Google, the most important factors in search engine rankings it considers include:

• Search query or keywords
• Relevance of content
• Quality of content
• Readability
• Expertise of sources
• Backlinks
• Mobile-friendliness
• Page speed

While page speed and mobile friendliness are technical fixes, maintaining a balance between all the other factors can be the real challenge.

We review a few best practices associated with SEO copywriting to help get that balance right.

Test new headers within the content

Adding headers within the content can help break up your piece into easily digestible parts. No one wants to read a huge block of text. Breaking it up allows readers to navigate the article and glean the basic structure from its headers.

Additionally, headers allow you to use keywords and relevant phrases that boost the page’s SEO. Use keyword research to create a coherent article structure using headers and subheaders.

Research shows more than 50% of articles using H2s, H3s, and H4s perform better in traffic and shares.

Target keywords you can realistically rank for

When researching keywords for your topic, you might be tempted to use the ones right at the top with the largest Google search volume.

However, those keywords are highly competitive—and if you’re a new website with little to no domain authority, you likely won’t rank well. What’s more likely is that you’ll get lost in a sea of similar content created based on the most popular keywords.

Instead, look for keywords that show medium to low competitiveness and aren’t as difficult to rank for.

For example, if you’re selling tote bags, you’ll look for keywords around that. If you use the most obvious one—“tote bag”—you’ll find it extremely competitive. Instead, if you choose a more specific keyword like “pink tote bag” or “reusable tote bag,” you’ll find that search volumes are considerably lower.

For your new webpage to rank better, target keywords specific to your product or service that aren’t as competitive as the top keywords. Focusing on keywords directly related to your topic—transactional or informational—can help you rank higher in search engine results.  

Naturally include keyword synonyms within the content

Google’s algorithm is highly intelligent. It scans through your content to identify synonyms and related phrases. This helps it determine the strength of your content more thoroughly.

The algorithm identifies if your content creation is rich enough to answer the reader’s search query. Using keywords and synonyms of your keywords can boost the ranking of your article without needing to overstuff the article with primary keywords.  

Write for search intent

Search intent differs based on the person doing the search. Some might be looking for information, others might be looking to buy a product, and others may want to visit a specific website.

Keywords or phrases always have an intent that you should be aware of.

For instance, you should only use the keyword “buy black tote bag” if your website wants to sell black tote bags. Similarly, use a keyword like “history of Buddhism” only if your website can educate readers on the history of Buddhism.

Keyword intent is usually classified as:

• Informational. The user wants information on a specific topic.
• Navigational. The user wants to be directed to a particular website.
• Transactional. The user is looking to make a purchase.

Write for humans first, then search engines

SEO copywriting isn’t about writing half-decent articles and tossing some keywords around to make it easier to rank. Search engines are very smart and don’t want to recommend articles to their users that don’t meet the high standards they set.

At the very least, your content should answer a user’s specific question. If you can do that well and with quality, search engines will likely reward those efforts.

It’s important to write for human beings and not just for algorithms. Some things you can do to ensure your writing stands out include:

• Break up your text into sections with subheaders
• Write short paragraphs
• Make sure your article is easy to skim
• Use conversational language
• Give a lot of examples
• Keep your language simple
• Link to other authoritative articles
• Link to sources where you take statistics or quotes
• Use images, bullet points, infographics, and charts to give readers a break from the text

Provide value and solve problems

Your content should have value in the eyes of the reader. If you write generic content or paraphrase what’s already out there, there’s no added value created by your writing.

Search engines won’t push content to the top of their results when they know it doesn’t bring any value to the reader.

As a writer, look for new research, add new points, identify better examples, and use more recent statistics for your article to have any value for Google’s algorithm or the reader. You can do this by finding a new way to solve an old problem or looking for new problems to solve.

Give your content a unique spin

Go through the top results for your primary keyword and see how competing websites tackle the topic. In addition to adding new and relevant information, you can take a new spin on it.

For example, if most competitors have written text-heavy pieces on a particular topic, opt for a piece with more infographics. Similarly, you could work on a listicle or how-to guide instead of writing a typical article.

Focus on user experience

User experience is key to attracting and retaining traffic on your website. You might lose potential customers if your content is engaging but poorly organized or badly structured.

Google also rewards websites that focus on enhancing user experience by ranking them better.  

You can do several things to create a better user experience:

Break up content with media (photos, video, etc.)

Your target audience has a world of content waiting for them a mere click away. You have only seconds to show them that yours will engage them in the way they expect to be engaged.

How can you hold their attention and make them stay?

The answer lies in offering readers a wide variety of content to engage with. Use images, videos, GIFs, graphs, and music to convey your message.

There’s a reason apps like TikTok and Instagram are popular—people are far more interested in engaging with various forms of content than sitting and reading a wall of text.

After all, 82% of the global internet traffic in 2022 came from videos.

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Answer key topic questions within your content

Structure your piece in a way that provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Don’t just answer the question they have at the beginning—also answer questions they might have as they go through a particular topic in more depth.

This is also an opportunity to link to other articles from your website. For example, in your piece about the benefits of using a reusable tote bag, you could briefly go over how your reusable bags are made and add a link to an article you wrote about it.

Don’t forget CTAs

CTAs are strategic tools to persuade customers to perform a desired action. Your CTA could direct them to your e-commerce store or ask them to leave their contact information for your email list, for instance.

But how can you write effective CTAs from an SEO perspective? Include your primary keywords in the CTA and briefly summarize the key points you made in the body of your article.

This helps remind the user of what they learned and takes them to the next logical step.

Use content optimization tools

Fortunately, several tools are available online to optimize content for search engines. These can be super useful and help you pick the right keywords for your topics, structure your content, and judge the strength of a piece based on the number of keywords.

Some popular SEO tools include:

• Clearscope. Clearscope is a popular tool that writers use to identify keywords. It monitors your writing and gives you a score, so you can rework the text and incorporate keywords more naturally.
• Semrush. You can use Semrush to conduct keyword research, analyze backlinks, and track performance and traffic.
• Surfer SEO. Surfer looks at the ranking content and recommends keywords, target word counts, keyword density, alt text, and many other factors. Surfer even offers on-page SEO suggestions.  

Regularly analyze SERPs for your target keyword

Once you’ve published your piece, monitor how your post is doing. The most crucial aspect is keeping an eye on the target keyword and new competitor content on the search engine results page.

Be sure to go through your articles to identify any new information, statistics, dates, or changes you might need to make. This helps keep your post relevant and supply your readers with updated information.

Examples of quality SEO copywriting

1. Search term (keyword): “successful marketing strategy”   ‍

Intent: Informational

“Businesses without a successful marketing strategy often struggle to survive. With intense competition in almost every industry, carving a niche for yourself can give your business an advantage. Getting your goods or services in front of potential customers is the first step to helping your business succeed.”

“The primary assets of a good marketing strategy are market research and long-term goals. With these in mind, you can develop a plan to advertise your product in certain locations using specific media channels that appeal to your target customer base. This sounds much better than advertising your business through mediums your target audience might not use.”

2.Search term (keyword): “reusable pink tote bag”

Intent: Transactional

“This reusable pink tote bag is perfect for a vacation by the sea—when you want to chuck in your towel, sunscreen, sunglasses, and headphones and dash off to the nearest beach! It’s also great for daily use and can easily be washed at home.”

“Made from 100% cotton and natural dyes, this pink tote bag is great for the environment. Use, reuse, wash, and dry with ease! This tote is ideal for those who invest in eco-friendly products and do their bit for the earth.”

Finding work as an SEO copywriter

If you’re an SEO copywriter who can weave magic with your words, find interesting and creative work on Upwork.

Upwork is a huge nexus of freelance and independent talent across fields like accounting, designing, art, marketing, software, and gaming. Our freelancers have experience in their specific industry or niche.

Many writers on our platform offer additional services, such as content strategy, digital marketing, and social media management.

To find the best SEO jobs on Upwork, browse through jobs posted by potential clients looking for freelance SEO copywriters. If something appeals to you, get in touch with the client and share your portfolio.

Alternatively, if you’re a client looking for a freelance SEO copywriter, browse through the profiles of talented writers on our platform looking for work.  

Use SEO to drive your KPIs

With a little practice and focus, SEO writing can be a rewarding and profitable exercise that draws organic traffic toward your website, improves your conversion rate, and increases sales.

Just remember to:

• Use relevant keywords
• Write for humans first and then algorithms
• Use optimization tools like Semrush and Clearscope
• Write creative articles that put a unique spin on topics
• Use other media like images and videos
• Use headers, alt text, title tags, and meta descriptions effectively
• Always end with a CTA

At the same time, SEO copywriting is constantly evolving. But if you keep learning and familiarize yourself with the latest trends, you can produce content that ranks high on search engines.

The ideal place to start for writers, and businesses looking for writers, is Upwork.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.