![\"Supercharge](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/supercharge-content-creation-1000px.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Writing is an art, and quality content writers are valued highly by brands today.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another aspect of writing that\u2019s more of a science. And this aspect has become a desirable skill for web copywriters: search engine optimization.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re not saying writers need to be SEO professionals. But writers who understand the basic principles of SEO in order to properly optimize content offer more value for their product and more efficiency to their processes.<\/p>\n
But the majority of professional writers aren\u2019t trained in SEO. After all, it\u2019s a completely different profession.<\/p>\n
A few facts:<\/p>\n
As a result, writers seldom naturally follow Google\u2019s best practices for optimization.<\/p>\n
Yet without this skill set, content writers can\u2019t compete with other writers who do understand basic SEO.<\/strong><\/p>\n This post is aimed at content creators who want to empower themselves with enough SEO<\/a> knowledge to create more informed content \u2014 without the effort that comes with taking on a new discipline entirely.<\/p>\n First things first: Google values quality content. So, professional writers who demonstrate expertise and authority<\/a> in their writing already offer a leg up on the competition in the search results.<\/p>\n But quality content alone isn\u2019t enough. Google\u2019s algorithm uses countless ranking signals<\/a> to determine if a webpage is relevant for a search query. And various search filters (like Panda<\/a>) aim specifically at preventing poor-quality content from showing up.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that writing about a topic in a sense naturally optimizes that content. When an article focuses on a specific topic, you use words and phrases related to that topic throughout. But, key SEO insights can take that content further.<\/p>\n When it comes to content, keywords matter. While Google\u2019s algorithm is getting smarter every day at identifying the most relevant content for a search query, it still relies on content clues.<\/p>\n How can you, as a writer, help search engines see the value in your content?<\/strong><\/p>\n For writers, help comes in the form of keyword optimization<\/em> and competitive analysis<\/em>.<\/p>\n For example, it\u2019d be great if you could easily:<\/p>\n That\u2019s why you want quality content plus SEO. It\u2019s your best chance for any given webpage to show up in the search results.<\/p>\n Writers are not expected to know Google\u2019s hundreds of ranking signals. (Even SEO experts don\u2019t know all of Google\u2019s secrets.)<\/p>\n But you can know the basic ranking principles when it comes to the content \u2014 the product \u2014 that you produce.<\/p>\n Side note: Check out our SEO Copywriting Checklist<\/a> PDF for handy tips!<\/em><\/p>\n Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n Rather than just providing writing services, you can deliver tangible results.<\/p>\n After all, why else are you paid for your writing?<\/p>\n Some of the most important content assets are webpages and blog posts.<\/p>\n These writing products need to be optimized for organic search. Otherwise, the business misses out on massive opportunities to drive traffic to its site.<\/p>\n So optimizing content is really a writer\u2019s responsibility \u2014 whether the writer is in-house or outsourced.<\/p>\n By the way, according to the Content Marketing Institute, nearly half of all businesses use contract writers. Specifically, they found that 49% of B2C<\/a> businesses and 47% of B2B<\/a> businesses outsource content.<\/p>\n So companies rely heavily on contract writers to fill an expertise and resource gap. They need outside writers to make their businesses more efficient.<\/p>\n The other half of content writers work in-house. They are certainly charged with writing content that generates traffic.<\/p>\n At this point, some writers may be thinking \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m only comfortable focusing on what I know best. Let the company be responsible for what happens to the content after it\u2019s delivered.<\/em><\/p>\n And that\u2019s OK \u2014 until you start working alongside marketing and SEO teams for content. Without knowing basic optimization, you\u2019re back to blindly following (often wrong) SEO guidelines without understanding why.<\/p>\n And, without understanding SEO, you\u2019re not making the process efficient. The SEO team will likely have to go in and make adjustments to your content before publishing it.<\/p>\n This can feel intrusive and disagreeable. But it can get worse \u2026<\/p>\n Over time, many of these companies will prefer working with writers who have a basic understanding of SEO to make things easier. They will rely on writers who can speak with insight on the optimization process.<\/p>\n By creating content that\u2019s more targeted for organic search, you can alleviate some of the burden on their end. And you can increase demand for your services!<\/p>\n Luckily, there are tools that writers can use to inform their content creation with SEO best practices \u2014 without having to go through lengthy SEO training<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll talk about that next.<\/p>\n WordPress is a leading content management system across the globe<\/a>. It\u2019s likely that most \u2014 if not all \u2014 of the websites you write for use WordPress (and you probably have one, too).<\/p>\n That\u2019s what makes WordPress plugins a great option for SEO guidance when creating online content.<\/p>\n Writers often work directly in the website to create and upload content. And when they don\u2019t, they often use their own WordPress sites as a testing ground for the content they\u2019ve created before they deliver it to a client or boss.<\/p>\n Today, WordPress plugins exist to help lots of different professionals facilitate SEO.<\/p>\n However, until recently, they weren\u2019t necessarily made with content creators in mind.<\/p>\n For example, traditional SEO plugins such as the All in One SEO Pack<\/a> and Yoast SEO<\/a> offer robust features.<\/p>\n But the flaw for writers is that these plugins expect the user to know and make decisions about SEO.<\/p>\n They don\u2019t customize the technical guidance based on competitive analysis. They don\u2019t show analytics data to give the writer feedback. Instead, they can only offer standard best practices as the writer is creating content.<\/p>\n (For a more in-depth analysis of where today\u2019s SEO plugins are lacking, see a three-part post I wrote here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n It\u2019s time for writers to take optimization into their own hands \u2026 to create better, more targeted content that performs for their clients.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where this new WordPress plugin comes in handy.<\/p>\n The Bruce Clay SEO WP™ plugin<\/a> fills the gaps where other SEO plugins fall short for writers (and SEOs, too).<\/p>\n Its features are designed with content creators in mind who want to write SEO-friendly content.<\/p>\n Let\u2018s look at seven features within the plugin that help writers deliver better content \u2026<\/p>\n Our plugin makes knowing some key metrics easy for writers. It offers insights on how to optimize the content based on analyzing the top-ranked competitors.<\/p>\n For example, how many words should be on a page? There\u2019s no magic number because the answer depends (on things like query intent and competition behavior).<\/p>\n Some pages on your site might need to be 500 words and some 2,500 words to fare well in search results. It\u2019s different for every keyword topic.<\/p>\n So the plugin evaluates the top-ranking webpages for your keywords. It examines total word count, title tag length, meta description length, the number of times a keyword is used, and other factors. And you get the resulting recommendations in real time as you write<\/em> \u2014 versus having to find it out after you\u2019ve published.<\/p>\n Other SEO plugins only give you the ability to track one keyword in your content as you are writing (unless you purchase a premium version).<\/p>\n Content creators often work with multiple keywords, including a primary and secondary keyword<\/a> per page. So they need to be able to see how their keyword set is performing in terms of how they are optimizing the page.<\/p>\n Even better than being able to track the numbers in terms of how many times you\u2019ve used a keyword in a post is the ability to see it visually. This helps with keyword distribution, which ensures the keywords you\u2019re using are properly distributed throughout the content on the page.<\/p>\n Every keyword will have different search results, and different pages within the top spots. When you\u2019re able to understand the readability of your content compared to the top-ranking pages, you can easily make tweaks to better compete.<\/p>\n As an example, a medical website may have very different standards of what constitutes an \u201ceasy read\u2019 versus a comedy website.<\/p>\n The plugin lets writers know instantly if the content is on par with the other pages in the top of the search results for a keyword.<\/p>\n When multiple people are working on a website, duplicate content can happen.<\/p>\n The plugin automatically checks meta titles and descriptions to make sure they\u2019re unique on the site. Alerts let you know when two titles or descriptions are identical. This helps prevent inadvertent duplicate content that could be filtered from the search results altogether.<\/p>\n Writers often hand over their content and never find out how it goes. Wouldn\u2019t it be great to see important metrics on your web content performance?<\/p>\n We wanted to give this kind of feedback to writers directly in WordPress!<\/p>\n With Bruce Clay SEO for WP, you can see important analytics data about your body of content on a website and individual pages. Then you can use that data to inform and improve future content.<\/p>\n Our plugin integrates with Google data to show you things like:<\/p>\n The robust SEOToolSet<\/a>\u00ae<\/sup> powers the Bruce Clay SEO plugin. This is what sets it apart from server-based plugins.<\/p>\n Plugin subscribers can use additional, professional SEO tools and reports outside WordPress if desired. The integrated SEOToolSet is designed for specific SEO tasks like page analysis, keyword research, rank tracking, crawl error detection, and much more.<\/p>\n Access to the SEOToolSet is included<\/em> with a plugin subscription \u2014 just for when you want a deeper dive into SEO.<\/p>\n This plugin is live! You can install Bruce Clay SEO on your WordPress site and try it out for a week for free \u2014 with a 7-day free trial<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Also, we made it fully compatible with Yoast<\/em>. So you can take advantage of both plugins and give yourself a real competitive edge.<\/p>\n Start your free trial of Bruce Clay SEO for WP<\/a> and see what your SEO plugin has been missing!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Writers can significantly enhance their content by incorporating effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies. SEO helps improve the visibility of their content in search engine results, driving more organic traffic to their websites or platforms. Here’s how writers can optimize their content for SEO:<\/p>\n Remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adaptation. By following these strategies, writers can optimize their content for search engines while providing valuable and engaging information to their readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Writing is an art, and quality content writers are valued highly by brands today.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s another aspect of writing that\u2019s more of a science. And this aspect has become a desirable skill for web copywriters: search engine optimization.<\/p>\n Fortunately, a new WordPress SEO plugin designed for content creators bridges the knowledge gap to help writers make content that can compete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":66747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1232,281],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/a>Why Should Writers Care About Optimization?<\/h2>\n
Keywords Still Matter<\/h3>\n
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What a Writer Needs to Know<\/h3>\n
![\"B2C](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/B2C-content-outsourcing-CMI.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"B2B](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/B2B-content-outsourcing-CMI.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/a>WordPress Plugins Help Bridge the SEO Knowledge Gap<\/h2>\n
<\/a>7 Ways to Create Optimized Content with the Bruce Clay SEO WP Plugin<\/h2>\n
1. You can get customized optimization guidance based on top-ranked competitors.<\/h3>\n
2. You can optimize content for more than one keyword.<\/h3>\n
![\"Keywords](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/optimize-more-one-keyword.jpg\")
<\/a>3. You can see a visual map of keywords within a post.<\/h3>\n
![\"keyword](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/plugin-keyword-highlighting.png\")
<\/a>4. You get a reading level score compared to top-ranked competitors.<\/h3>\n
5. You get automatic duplicate content warnings.<\/h3>\n
6. You can view content performance data.<\/h3>\n
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![\"Bruce](\"https:\/\/www.bruceclay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/plugin-traffic-tab.png\")
<\/a>7. You get access to rich, integrated research and analysis tools.<\/h3>\n
Get the Bruce Clay SEO Plugin<\/h2>\n
<\/a>FAQ: How can writers enhance their content with effective SEO strategies?<\/h3>\n
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