Is it actually important for writers to understand SEO?
In a word, yes.
With a majority of marketing budgets being devoted these days to digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization is crucial for staying relevant and competitive.
As an essential member of a marketing team, you can work with web developers, strategists and others to improve your team’s chances of getting discovered by search engines and reaching a wider audience.
While some aspects of SEO are the domain of web experts and not necessary for you to understand in detail, other SEO factors are best left to writers like you. Understanding these essentials will help you create more engaging and relevant content that is more likely to get noticed by people you’re trying to reach.
Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know.
What SEO is
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines, and target unpaid rather than direct or paid traffic. Ultimately, SEO is about making your website more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs).
How it works
Search engines use algorithms to crawl and index websites. When someone searches for a keyword or phrase, the search engine will return a list of results that are relevant to the search query. The higher a website ranks in the search results, the more likely it is to be visited by users.
Why use it
SEO can yield a number of benefits, including increased website traffic, improved brand awareness, higher conversion rates, increased sales and improved customer satisfaction – basically, the key outcomes most marketing teams are looking for.
How writers can help
There are several ways that you as a writer can improve your website’s SEO, such as creating high-quality content, using relevant keywords and building hierarchies into web structure. Many of these activities involve collaboration with other members of the marketing team in order to capitalize on everyone’s strength and knowledge.
What else you should know
SEO is a complex and evolving field. It’s also an ongoing process that requires time and effort. However, by following best practices, you and your team can help ensure that your online marketing goals are met, driving company success.
Featured image above by Vecteezy
Sources
Hydrangea Studio 