In order to create SEO-optimized content that appeals to your intended audience, you’ll need to:

1. Conduct Keyword Research

Every content strategy should begin with keyword research. You can use free tools like Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and Answer the Public to find out what topics and questions your audience is searching for.

Taking the time to perform keyword research before writing one word of content will save you tons of time and hassle in the future. If you don’t conduct thorough research, you’ll end up with a lot of content that your audience doesn’t care about and doesn’t drive traffic, and that doesn’t help your site become visible or grow your business.

Keyword research shows you what your audience is searching for and helps you better understand their needs, challenges, and desires. It also helps you find the keywords you should be able to rank for. With this information, you can then create content that answers their questions and solves their problems, ultimately, helping you generate more traffic and attract the right people.

Another important component of SEO research is analyzing competitor content. SEO competitor analysis helps identify valuable keywords that competitors are ranking for, uncovers new keyword opportunities, and provides insights into the level of keyword competition you’re up against.

2. Develop a Content Plan

When doing keyword research, competitor analysis, and identifying which keywords you have a good chance of ranking for, you’ll select your primary and secondary keywords. A primary keyword usually has a high search volume and can potentially bring a considerable amount of organic search traffic to your site. Secondary keywords are phrases that support your primary keyword and help fine-tune your content by adding value and depth. Secondary keywords are often more closely related to user search intent than primary keywords.

Once you have a list of keywords you want to try to rank for, you’ll use them to create a content strategy. With this strategy, you can devise a content structure for specific blog posts and other optimized content.

3. Craft Compelling Headlines and Introductions

When searching online, users have a short attention span and most only skim content looking for the nuggets that will give them value and answer their questions or solve their problems. This is why crafting compelling headlines and introductions for every piece of content is so critical – they create the first impression when a visitor lands on your page and, if the headline and intro aren’t interesting enough to make the reader want to continue reading and stay on your site, then they’ll leave and likely not come back.

Here are a few ways to begin an engaging intro when learning how to write SEO content:

• Open with a relevant statistic or fun fact
• Begin with a fascinating story
• Ask your readers an intriguing question
• Start with a quote

A great way to learn what engaging content looks like is to begin studying headlines and intros on other pieces of content and researching your competitors. For the ones that grab your attention, analyze them and find out why. For those that were less than stellar, do the same. Eventually, you’ll become more naturally attuned to what makes for compelling headlines and intros and what doesn’t.