To appear in search results, you need content that aligns with search intent, uses keywords and prompts strategically, and is structured so search systems can understand it.
The good news is that creating optimized content is completely achievable, even if you’re new to SEO.
This guide covers 16 practical SEO writing tips to help you create content that’s likely to perform well in both traditional and AI search.
What Is SEO Writing?
SEO writing is the process of writing content designed to appear prominently in search engines and AI systems for relevant queries.
Generally speaking, SEO writing involves:
- Optimizing your content for target keywords and prompts
- Making your content helpful to readers
- Helping search systems interpret what your content is about
Why Is SEO Writing Important?
SEO writing is important because it increases your chances of reaching more people who are actively looking for answers to questions that are relevant to you, which can drive business results.
Well-executed SEO writing helps you appear as an AI citation, show up as a listing, be mentioned as a relevant brand, or even have some of your actual content be summarized within an AI response. All of which lead to greater visibility.
While many practitioners are worried about how AI search is diminishing website traffic, it’s becoming clear that appearing in AI search can lead to real business outcomes. Semrush research found that the average visitor from AI search is 4.4 times more likely to convert.
Rand Fishkin, Co-Founder of SparkToro and Alertmouse, nicely explained how AI search is impacting commerce during a webinar with Near Media:
“Just because we live in a zero-click world more and more does not mean sales are going away.”
16 Tips for Creating SEO-Optimized Content
1. Find Your Primary Keywords
Each piece of content you write should be optimized for a primary keyword or prompt—the main term you want the page to show for.
To find your primary query, use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. Type a broad topic relevant to your brand into the search bar, enter your domain name, select your target location, and click “Search.”
The Keyword Magic Tool will open in the “Broad Match” tab to show you potential candidates for your primary term.
Keep the following in mind when choosing a primary keyword or prompt:
- Relevance: The keyword should clearly reflect the main topic of your page and align with your industry
- Search volume: Enough people should be searching for the term to justify creating content. Check the “Volume” column in Keyword Magic Tool to see how many people search for each keyword.
- Ranking difficulty: The keyword should be realistic for your site to rank for. Check the Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %) column—the lower the percentage, the easier it is to compete.
Let’s say you choose “dog behavior” as your primary keyword, which has a search volume of 2,400 searches per month and a PKD score of 46%—meaning there’s a realistic chance of ranking. It’s also clear that users searching this term want to learn something, so you’ll want to create accordingly.
2. Identify Content Gaps
Identify topics your competitors appear for that you don’t to find content gaps you should cover to expand your visibility in search results and AI-generated summaries.
Use Semrush’s Topic Research to see if competing sites have covered topics you haven’t yet discovered.After you enter a broad keyword and a competitor’s domain, you’ll see a dashboard with relevant topics.
If your competitor has created content for any of the topics that Topic Research suggests, the topic’s card will be highlighted in green with a checkmark next to the term. These can be great topics to include in your own content strategy.
Click to expand a card or select “Show more” to see more information about the search term:
- Volume: The number of searches this topic gets on average each month
- Headlines: The top headlines for content covering that topic
- Questions: Relevant questions to answer within your content
To find your content gaps within AI search, use the Competitor Research tool. Enter your domain and up to four rival domains, scroll down to the “Topics & Prompts” table, and click “Missing” to see topics where your rivals are mentioned but you aren’t.
3. Choose Your Secondary Keywords
Secondary keywords and prompts help you appear for related queries in search engine results pages (SERPs) and AI systems.
Relevant secondary keywords may include synonyms, related subtopics, or long-tail variations (more specific terms) connected to your main topic.
Using secondary terms is important because:
- They increase your chances of showing in more search results
- They’re often less competitive and easier to appear for
Find secondary keywords in the Keyword Magic Tool by seeing whether your primary keyword has a group of related terms that are relevant to you on the left-hand side. If so, click the group to see the specific terms belonging to it that could make great secondary keywords.
Another way to find secondary keywords is to click the “Questions” tab in the Keyword Magic Tool. To see real questions people are asking related to your topic that might be worth addressing as subtopics in your content.
4. Satisfy Search Intent
Satisfying search intent means your content matches what users expect to see for a given term—it’s the purpose behind the query.
There are four main types of search intent:
- Informational: The searcher wants to learn about a topic
- Navigational: The searcher is looking for a specific website or page
- Commercial: The searcher is comparing options before making a decision
- Transactional: The searcher is ready to take action or make a purchase
When writing blog posts, you’ll mostly be focusing on terms that have informational intent. Because users who want to learn something about a topic find helpful articles and in-depth blog posts valuable.
Common content formats for informational keywords include:
- How-to guides
- List posts
- Step-by-step tutorials
You can find out which content format works best for your topic by looking at the top-ranking pages on Google.
For example, the top results for “positive reinforcement dog training” in Google’s AI Overview are informational pages that define the concept and answer related how-to questions.
Also consider entering your query into tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc. That will give you an even fuller understanding of intent for a given term.
Once you have a good understanding of what users expect when searching a query, create content that addresses that expectation to improve your chances of appearing in search results.
5. Create Quality Content
High-quality content that’s accurate, genuinely useful, original, and engaging is more likely to gain search visibility.
Writing quality content requires not just a good writer, but also someone who also has first-hand domain expertise. This is especially important if you’re creating content around “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) topics.
YMYL is a term Google uses to describe topics that can have a significant impact on a reader’s well-being. These include topics related to health/medical advice, legal matters, financial planning, or news/current events.
For example, misleading advice about vegan diet plans could negatively influence health decisions. Which is why it’s important to work with a qualified expert who can ensure your content is accurate.
6. Use Keywords Naturally
Use your keywords and prompts naturally throughout your content to ensure search systems can accurately match your content to relevant queries.
Avoid keyword stuffing—repeating queries in an unnatural way to try to manipulate search performance. Keyword stuffing can make your content seem spammy to both readers and search systems, which may hurt performance instead of improving it.
To check whether you’re using keywords correctly, use Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant. Just paste your content into the editor or import it from a URL and enter your target keywords.
The SEO Writing Assistant will show a warning if you’re keyword stuffing.
7. Structure Content with Subheadings
Clear subheadings (H2-H6) divide your content into logical sections that help readers, search engines, and AI systems understand your content.
More specifically, subheadings help you:
- Make your content easier to read and understand
- Use keywords and related terms naturally
- Allow users to find what they want
- Write in a way that’s easy for AI to extract and use in answers
Organize your content so each section has a subheading that reflects what the section is about, like in the example on the right:
Start with a descriptive title that includes your primary keyword to signal the main topic of the page. This will be your H1, which is the first heading in your content
After your H1, organize supporting sections with H2s, H3s, and so on as needed. Each heading level should support the one above it. Like this:
8. Make Your Content Easy to Read
Users, search engines, and AI systems can all understand your content better when it’s easy to read.
Plus, users are more likely to stay on the page if they can easily understand your content. And that can further improve your search performance.
Using subheadings is a good step toward better readability, but you should also:
- Use short sentences and paragraphs to improve scannability
- Use clear, simple language, so readers of different levels can understand your content
- Add visuals like images, infographics, videos, or tables to support key points
- Use bullet points and numbered lists to present information in a clear and concise way
Use Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant to get a content readability score for your content.
SEO Writing Assistant even flags specific sections that are difficult to understand. And you can use AI powered tools to automatically rewrite those portions.
9. Include Multimedia Elements in Your Content
Incorporating multimedia elements can make your pages more engaging for users and help your content compete in search results that prioritize alternative formats.
For example, the top results—including the AI Overview—for “teach a dog to sit” include images and videos. Because users expect a visual demonstration.
The Spruce Pets provides a good example of how to include video in a blog post. The video supports the content and demonstrates what’s being discussed in the surrounding text.
Beyond increasing engagement and better aligning with search intent, incorporating multimedia elements can also help you rank in image and video searches. Which can increase your organic visibility and drive more traffic to your website.
10. Add Internal Links
Internal links that point to other pages on your website help search systems understand the relationships between your pages and guide users to relevant content.
Using internal links is important for SEO because those links distribute link equity (ranking power) that can improve the search visibility of other pages.
When adding internal links, make sure your anchor text—the clickable text—is relevant to the linked content. Only link to content where it naturally supports the topic.
For example, an article about about positive reinforcement dog training can link to related content you’ve published, like:
- Training treats for puppies
- Essential dog commands
- Puppy training schedules
And adding relevant internal links strategically is a great way to signal your topical authority to search systems.
11. Link to High-Quality External Resources
Adding external links (also called outbound links) to authoritative websites for sourcing purposes shows that your content was created with accuracy and credibility in mind.
Plus, research shows that including reputable citations improves visibility in AI search systems.
Outbound links can also bring value to users. Because those links lead to resources users can visit to expand their knowledge of the topic.
Link to external sources when referencing:
- Statistics
- Reports
- Surveys
- Case studies
- Interviews
Because research and data change over time, make sure you link to the most current information. And always to the original source.
12. Optimize Your Content for Featured Snippets & AI Overviews
Optimizing for featured snippets and AI Overviews can significantly increase your visibility by placing your content directly in summarized and highly-visible search results.
For example, a search for “is vegan diet healthy” may trigger both an AI Overview and a featured snippet.
Google typically pulls the featured snippet and AI Overview content from pages appearing high in traditional listings that provide clear, well-structured answers.
Search your target terms in Google to see whether featured snippets or AI Overviews are present. If they are, look at what information is included in that content and how it’s formatted to see what Google and users expect to see.
In most cases, optimizing for featured snippets and AI Overviews involves:
- Providing clear, concise explanations in simple language
- Structuring content with descriptive headings
- Relying on SEO basics like gaining backlinks and ensuring crawlability
13. Create an Optimized Title Tag
An optimized title tag—the HTML page title that can show in search results—helps search systems understand your page’s topic to match it to relevant queries and can encourage users to click.
Follow these best practices when creating your title tag:
- Include your primary keyword or prompt, ideally near the beginning
- Make the title tag compelling by using specific details, numbers, or clear benefits
- Keep your title tag around 55 characters, so it’s not truncated if it shows in search results
Here’s an example of a strong title tag: How to Lose Weight on a Vegan Diet Plan (7 Easy Steps)
The above title includes the primary keyword, is 54 characters long, and uses both a number and power word to communicate value. Apply the same principles when you create SEO headlines for your own content.
14. Write a Compelling Meta Description
A well-written meta description—the page summary that can appear in search results—can improve click-through rates when it clearly communicates value to readers.
Search results don’t always display the meta description you set for your page. It can also be based on the page’s content.
It’s worth mentioning that meta descriptions aren’t a direct ranking factor. But you should still optimize them because they can influence whether users click on your result in SERPs.
Here are some tips to follow when writing meta descriptions:
- Use active voice to address users directly
- Include action-oriented language to encourage clicks. Use phrases like “learn more,” “find out,” or “dive deep.”
- Keep it brief. Google truncates meta descriptions after about 105 characters on mobile.
- Include your primary keyword or prompt to signal to users that your page covers the topic they want to learn about
Here’s an example of a good meta description: Wondering how to lose weight on a vegan diet plan? Dive deep into the secrets many don’t talk about.
The above meta description example is under 105 characters, includes the target keyword, uses active voice, and includes action-oriented language. Apply these principles when writing meta descriptions for your own content.
15. Optimize Your URL Slug
An optimized URL slug—the last part of your page’s URL—reinforces your page’s topic and helps search systems understand and interpret relevance.
Clear, descriptive slugs also make links easier for users to read and share.
Follow these best practices when creating URL slugs:
- Include your target keyword or prompt
- Use hyphens to separate words
- Avoid using dates that may make the content appear outdated
- Be concise and descriptive
Here’s an example of a clear, concise URL slug:
16. Promote Your Content
Content promotion involves sharing your content through different marketing channels, which increases reach, drives referral traffic, and leads to backlinks that can improve your search visibility over time.
For example, you can share your content in social media posts or newsletters to expand your reach. Like this:
Content promotion can include sharing content in the following places:
- Social media
- Emails
- Press releases
- Paid ads
- Other places on your website (e.g., sidebar links, pop-ups, internal links, etc.)
Examples of Effective SEO Writing
These examples show how applying SEO writing best practices can lead to strong search performance.
Semrush’s Guide to SEO
Our guide to SEO gets an estimated 5,800 organic visitors from the U.S. each month and has around 5,100 backlinks, according to Domain Overview.
Our SEO guide also plays a part in our brand’s overall AI visibility. The above image shows Semrush has an AI Visibility score of 81, meaning we’re frequently mentioned in AI search systems.
Much of our SEO guide’s success in search reflects SEO writing best practices:
- High-quality, comprehensive content
- Clear alignment with search intent
- Keyword-relevant subheadings
- Strategic use of images
American Kennel Club How-to Guide
Another example of SEO writing done well is the American Kennel Club’s guide on how to teach a dog to stay.
This guide from the American Kennel Club gets about 631 organic visits per month from their U.S. audience. And it’s accumulated 28 backlinks.
This guide on teaching a dog to sit is a good example of how creating many useful content pieces can contribute to an overall strong presence in AI search. An AI Visibility score of 90 is incredibly strong.
Here are some of the SEO writing tips driving those results:
- Clear keyword targeting
- Structured subheadings
- Multimedia support (a video featured early on the page)
- Internal linking to related resources
This American Kennel Club page also uses a step-by-step instructional format, which matches the intent behind “how to teach a dog to stay.”
Start Your SEO Writing Process
Apply the SEO writing principles from this guide consistently, and your content will be clearer, more discoverable, and easier for search systems to understand.
Semrush One can help you with each stage of the process—finding keywords and prompts, optimizing pages, and tracking performance.
Try it for free today.
