8 Steps to Create Search-Optimized Content

SEO writing is the process of writing content to rank on search engines like Google.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to create search-optimized content your readers and Google will love.

If no one is searching for the topic you’re writing about, you won’t get search traffic no matter how high you rank.

So, the first step to creating SEO content is to do keyword research. Here’s how to get started:

Go to Keywords Explorer
Enter a broad term from your niche
Go to Matching terms

Matching terms report in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Eyeball the report for keywords that actually make sense for you to target on your website. For example, if I owned an online shop that sells tea, I might target this keyword because searchers are clearly looking for tea recommendations, so I can easily “sell” my product in the content.

Keyword metrics for the keyword "what tea is good for cough"

Google’s goal is to serve the most relevant results. They do this by figuring out why searchers are looking and what they want to see.

This has two implications for SEO writing.

Match search intent

Search intent is the why behind a search query. If you want to rank high on Google, you need to align your content with search intent.

To check search intent, Google your target keyword. For example, if we search for “how to make money,” we see that most of the top-ranking pages are lists of ways to save money:

Despite the term “how to,” searchers are not looking for a guide—they’re looking for a list. So, if you’re targeting this topic, you’ll likely have to follow suit and create a listicle, too.

Cover everything searchers want to know

Broadly aligning your page with search intent doesn’t mean you’re giving searchers everything they want. There may be subtopics or features they expect to see.

For example, pages ranking for “affiliate marketing” all include a definition:

The top-ranking results for "affiliate marketing" all feature a definition

This is why Google recommends that your content provides a comprehensive description of the topic.

Google’s Helpful Content guidelines specify that Google is looking for a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of a topic.

This means you need to include every subtopic searchers expect and want to see.

The easiest way to discover important subtopics is to look at the common keywords the top-ranking pages rank for. Here’s how to find these common keywords:

Go to Keywords Explorer
Enter your target keyword
Scroll down to SERP Overview
Check three relevant top-ranking pages
Click Open in and choose Content gap

Accessing the Content gap report from the SERP Overview in Keywords Explorer

This will open the Content gap report, which shows you the common keywords these three pages are ranking for. Eyeball the report to find relevant subtopics you could cover.

Common keywords the top three pages for "inbound marketing" rank for, that could serve as potential subtopics

For example, if we were targeting the keyword “inbound marketing,” these would make good subheadings:

What is inbound marketing
Inbound marketing examples
Inbound marketing strategies
Inbound marketing tools

Google wants to reward pages that bring new information to the table.

Google’s Helpful Content guidelines specify that Google is looking for original, insightful, or interesting information in content.

At Chiang Mai SEO 2023, SEO Cyrus Shepard shared four ways to add something new to the conversation:

Make effort
Be original
Demonstrate your talent or skill
Improve accuracy

Cyrus Shepard's slide from his Chiang Mai SEO presentation that shows how to add something new to your content

Here are some ways to show these:

Interview experts — If you’re not an expert in the industry, interview one. Even better: Interview a few, extract their wisdom, and condense their knowledge into an article.
Write from experience — For example, if you’re writing about Soylent, try having only the meal replacement for 30 days and write about what happened.
Run experiments, studies, and polls — Having unique data is one of the easiest ways to include something new.
Do deep research — Research isn’t remixing the top-ranking pages or asking ChatGPT a few questions. It’s going beyond that: reading books, finding primary sources, listening to podcasts, diving into research papers, and more.
Be opinionated — Challenge truisms, express your point of view, and back it up with evidence from your expertise or experience.

Sweating already? You should be. Creating high-quality content isn’t supposed to be so easy. As Ryan Law, our Director of Content Marketing puts it:

Great writing should feel hard. If you can crank out an article by opening a few browser tabs, so can everyone else. But interview someone, read a book, find an esoteric research paper, or collect some data… and your willingness to do something difficult gives you an edge.

Before you put pen to paper, you should create an outline. Creating an outline will help you:

Plan what you want to say (including the angle, headings, subheadings)
Prevent writer’s block
Make the writing process faster

By matching search intent, being comprehensive, and writing from a unique angle, you already have the necessary ingredients to create an outline. All that’s left is to put them together.

The easiest way to do this is with ChatGPT. Give it a prompt like:

Write an outline about link building outreach. It should include sections about what link building outreach is, why it is important, how to do it, and additional tips. It should also incorporate my original data where I found that the average conversion rate for link building outreach is 1-5%.

It’ll generate an outline for you:

ChatGPT's outline for a post about link building outreach

Pretty good!

This stage is about free writing without worrying too much about making the words perfect. Just get it all out.

I always write my drafts in Google Docs. This allows for easy communication between my colleagues, editors, and designers.

If you’re easily distracted, use some of these tricks:

Download a Pomodoro timer like Marinara to keep yourself focused.
Use a website blocker like BlockSite to stop yourself from checking X or accessing YouTube.
Put your phone on airplane mode.

As writers, we often have trouble seeing the wood for the trees. That’s why having a second pair of eyes is helpful.

Getting someone to review your draft can help point out inaccuracies, inconsistencies, failures in logic, phrasing errors, and grammatical mistakes.

You can ask team members or employees to give their feedback. If you have an audience, you can consider getting their feedback as well.

At Ahrefs, each draft goes through at least one person.

We show that each post is peer-reviewed via a "Reviewed by someone" line

Here’s an example of how we improved the accuracy of our post, thanks to peer feedback:

Back-and-forth comments in one of our drafts

This will make the content better in Google’s eyes.

Once you get the feedback, revise your writing accordingly and start polishing your article.

Your goal here is to provide the best possible answer in the most efficient way.

Efficient means you want to make it easy for them to consume. Here’s what you can do:

Add visual elements. You’d want to think about where an image could explore more and illustrate better than words.

Use bullets and lists (like what I’m doing now.)

Avoid big words (where necessary). Author Morgan Housel writes: “Big words mask little thoughts. They’re an attempt to fool the reader into thinking you’re smart when you have nothing smart to say.”
Use Grammarly to fix any grammatical errors
Use Hemingway to simplify your writing

The title tag and meta description are the first things a searcher sees after Googling their query: