How to Write SEO Optimized Articles in 11 Steps? [Guide]

Do you want your articles to rank higher in search engines?

Apart from quality content, it's crucial to optimize articles for SEO and better ranking. 

Remember, SEO is a long-term marketing strategy.

Even if it seems hard at first, you're in the right place!

We've created a guide on how to SEO-optimize an article to help you build traffic faster and improve your lead generation within your articles.

Let's master the art of writing not only for users but also for search engines!

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What are SEO Articles?

An SEO article is content written to rank well in Google search results for specific topics people are looking up. These pieces target particular keywords and phrases that real users type into search bars, then answer those queries in a clear, organized way. 

The content writing should balances what search engines need to understand the content with what readers actually want to know. When done right, SEO articles show up when someone searches and give them exactly the information they were after.

This includes:

• Creating and fine-tuning your content to fit the keywords your audience searches.
• Ensuring your content helps out your readers.
• Making it easy for search engines to understand what your content is all about.

Search engines like Google use "spiders" to crawl and understand what your content is about.

If the content isn't optimized for SEO, it might not be noticed by search engines and ranked for keywords you want it to be.

Research shows that the top 3 Google search results get 68.7% of all clicks.

Unoptimized content ranks far back in search results.

However, optimizing content is not only about optimizing articles.

It also includes the process of optimizing:

• Website architecture and performance.
• HTML code of the articles for search engines.

Let’s go through the process of optimizing the articles to help them rank better.

How to SEO Optimize an Article

This guide will teach you how to SEO-optimize articles to satisfy your readers and Google algorithms.

1. Identify Your Main Keyword

The main keyword is the primary term you wish to optimize your content for that users search for.

You must know how to conduct keyword research and select the best one for your content to satisfy the search intent.

Remember that popular(short-tail) keywords(e.g., project management) are harder to rank for in search engine results.

This is why you should:

• Choose keywords that are relevant to your niche and easy to rank for.
• Find keyword ideas by researching competitors' websites and blogs to find potential gaps.
• Uilize SEO keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SemRush, or Google’s Keyword Planner to simplify the research process.

Let's say our keyword is ‘’B2B Marketing.’’ Just type it down into Keyword Research Tool, in this case SemRush, and hit ‘’Search’’.

The tool will display keywords related to your main keyword.

Switch to the "Questions" tab.