How to Write SEO-Friendly Content in 4 Steps?

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the improvements made to increase organic traffic and comply with search engine parameters. The priority of SEO optimizations and search engines is to provide users with a great experience and high-quality content. Search engines reward websites that deliver quality content by ranking them higher.

SEO-friendly content is:

• optimized according to search engine parameters,
• built around a primary keyword,
• targeted to the right audience,
• responsive to user intent,
• valuable to users,
• easy to read,
• engaging,
• aligned with the brand’s voice,
• enriched with images and infographics,
• comprehensive, natural, and original.

How to Write SEO-Friendly Content

There are steps to follow before, during, and after writing SEO-friendly content. The first two are deciding your topic and outlining your content.

1. Define Your Topic

Choose niche topics that your target audience will easily consume and find interesting. Your content should relate to your website and the services you offer. Search engines emphasize content that adds value to users, so your articles need to provide up-to-date information.

You can discover what interests your audience by examining competitors’ blogs, as well as forums and news sites to find questions users ask but haven’t had answered.

In short, when choosing your topic, you can look at:

• your competitors’ blog pages,
• forums and news sites.

2. Analyze and Research Keywords

After choosing your topic, identify relevant keywords. These fall into primary and secondary keywords.

Once your content is indexed, it will rank for those queries. Your main target query is your primary keyword—it summarizes and best represents your content’s focus. Secondary keywords (like subheadings) support the main topic. For instance, if “search engine optimization” is your primary keyword, “organic traffic” could be a secondary keyword.

Three factors are crucial when selecting keywords: user intent, search volume, and competition.

Your chosen keywords should match user intent. To verify intent suitability, search your keyword and compare the results to your planned content.

For example, if your article covers “digital marketing trends,” targeting “digital marketing” is too broad, as Google returns “What is Digital Marketing?” pages for that query.

Search Volume: Average monthly searches indicate how often a keyword is queried. High search volume doesn’t guarantee more traffic for you—it also means stronger competition.

Competition: Difficulty levels (low, medium, high) show how hard it is to rank for a keyword. New or smaller sites should aim for low- to medium-difficulty terms first.

Tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator, and Answer the Public help you find search volumes and competition.

• Google Ads – Keyword Planner

Google holds about 86.64% of global search market share (Statista, Sept. 2021). Its Keyword Planner suggests new keyword ideas and shows average search volumes and competition levels per term.

Enter your product or service to get related suggestions. You can enter multiple terms, filter by language/region, or paste your site or a competitor’s URL to see which keywords they rank for. “Avg. monthly searches” shows volumes; “competition” shows how contested each term is.

• Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator

Ahrefs’ Free Keyword Generator shows search volumes and keyword difficulty (KD) for each term. Filter by country (e.g., Turkey) or by other search engines (Bing, Amazon, YouTube). KD is on a log scale: 0–10 (easy), 10–30 (moderate), 31–70 (hard), 70–100 (very hard).

• Answer The Public

Answer the Public organizes queries around your keyword, showing alphabetical combinations and questions. It doesn’t display volume or competition data, and it lacks Turkish localization—but it can still surface Turkish queries if you set the region accordingly.

3. Research User Intent

User intent explains why a user makes a search. Four main types exist:

• Informational (seeking knowledge—e.g., “What is SEO?”),
• Navigational (seeking a specific site—e.g., “AnalyticaHouse”),
• Commercial (researching before purchase—e.g., “best SEO tools”),
• Transactional (ready to buy—e.g., “buy iPhone 13”).

4. Outline Your Content

Decide on your content’s:

• length,
• and headings.

Your article must be comprehensive and up-to-date. To outrank competitors, cover topics more thoroughly than they do.

Headings

Use competitor posts to identify key subtopics and include them plus new insights. Tools like Answer the Public’s “Questions” and Google’s “People also ask” can reveal popular questions to answer. Maintain a clear hierarchy with H1, H2, H3 tags and matching font sizes. Include your primary keyword in headings.

Length

Backlinko’s analysis of 912 million blogs suggests 1,000–2,000 words is ideal. Longer posts also attract more backlinks. Quality matters more than sheer length.

5. Ensure Readability

Your SEO-friendly article must read naturally and engagingly. Avoid robotic language. Keep paragraphs around 100–150 words, avoid repetition, and present each main idea clearly.

Use and Optimize Images

Enhance clarity with relevant images, videos, or infographics. Name files with keywords—e.g., “sunflower-oil.jpg” rather than “IMG1234.jpg.”

Benefits of SEO-Friendly Content

High-quality content differentiates you from competitors and builds authority. Ranking for multiple keywords boosts visibility, making it easier to attract prospects. In short, SEO-friendly articles enhance your:

• conversion rate,
• organic traffic,
• brand awareness,
• and loyalty.

SEO-Friendly Content Checklist

Here’s a 13-point checklist for SEO-friendly content:

• 1. Outperforms competing articles in depth and breadth.
• 2. Accurate, reliable information.
• 3. Written by a subject-matter expert.
• 4. Enriched with images and infographics.
• 5. Focused on a high-volume, medium-competition primary keyword.
• 6. Uses semantically related secondary keywords.
• 7. Each heading covers one main idea plus supporting points.
• 8. No redundant repetitions.
• 9. Primary keyword in headings.
• 10. Consistent heading hierarchy and font sizes.
• 11. Consistent tone of address (“you” vs. “we”).
• 12. Consistent verb tenses.
• 13. Clear, engaging writing with no spelling/grammar errors.
• 14. No duplicate content across platforms.