Top 9 SEO Strategies in 2020: Writing Tips

There are ever-green rules for effective SEO promotion, however, Google becomes smarter year by year. Now, it uses very sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to achieve its primary goal  -provide users with the top-notch content instantly, and make every search result as tied to the user’s request as possible. In 2020, SEO is going to evolve even more by strictly cutting off irrelevant and low-quality webpages and showing the green light to those who are able to meet modern requirements.

How to work SEO step by step and are there are some writing secrets to make your strategy effective? We know the answers and are going to share them in this ultimate guide to SEO writing and promotion in 2020.

Master the Skill of Writing for SEO

So, let’s start by answering the main question – what makes effective search engine optimization? Our answer is as follows.

Effective SEO is a mindful combination of technical and creative parts of the process. And the first step to making your SEO really effective is mastering the skills of writing for search engines and people at the same time. Yes, you need to satisfy both parties with your content.

How to do it right? Here are some rules.

• Write as you speak. Most users are looking for simple answers to difficult questions so you shouldn’t overload your content with specific and technical vocabulary until the topic really needs it. Don’t complicate what can be simplified.
• Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Instead, design your content in such a way that the users may briefly scan it and stop on the most important sections. This strategy will help you to improve the dwelling time on the page.
• Don’t use the passive voice and excess adverbs. These linguistic elements make your texts hard to read.
• Make your keywords invisible for users but greatly visible for Google. Do you remember the times when the web pages were just filled with the canvas of keywords and had no informational value for users? This approach really worked out 10-15 years ago, at the dawn of search engines. Now things have changed. Modern users don’t like it when the keywords are far-fetched. They want them to be organic. The first thing to do to achieve this result is to carefully match your keywords with users’ search intents, and we will tell you how to do it right further.

Utilize AI Tools for SEO to Get More Insights

Fortunately, now there is no need to do everything manually. What is more, you may easily get access to data-driven insights with the help of AI tools that are developed to solve different tasks within your SEO promotion. Here are the most useful ones to make use of in 2020.

• Uber Suggest will help you with picking up with quick-win keywords regarding your topic and taking into account current trends.
• HubSpot Blog Post Ideas Generator is able to suggest hot blog topic ideas by entering a few keywords into the search bar.
• Answer the Public is a great AI tool that will help you to discover what do users ask regarding your topic and optimize your content for voice search.
• Crayon is able to find out what SEO strategies do your competitors use and utilize their best practices.
• Hemingway app will make your text more readable getting rid of complex sentences, passive voice, and unnecessary adverbs.
• Segment will analyze the behavior of your users and customize the content on your website according to their preferences and interests.

Carefully Match Your Publications With Search Intents

Your users may have different search intentions, and each of your content pieces should carefully match these intents.

For example,

• The user may want to buy something so use the long-tailed keywords with the endings like “buy”, “for sale”, “order online”, “for hire” on the pages with your products or services description. You may also use them in your CTAs in the blog posts.
• The user may want to find out how something works. So, use the “how-to” keywords on your blog publications, and video tutorials.
• The user may want to find out where he may get something. In this case, you should use the keywords specifying the location, for example, on the main pages of your website if your business operates in a certain location (like food delivery).

So, how do you plan an SEO strategy to cover different search intents? Before creating your SEO-optimized publication, answer yourself a question  -which of users intents would I like to satisfy? Then, research the appropriate keywords using the tools we have shared above. Don’t use more keywords than you really need  -strive for a balance instead. To achieve good SEO results, use them as follows.

• Use the main keyword in your H1, intro, two-three body paragraphs, conclusion, and meta title.
• Use the secondary keyword in the second paragraph, meta description, and URL.
• Use one additional keyword per 200 words of your text.
• Use long-tailed keywords to provide answers to the specific questions.

Design Your Articles With Voice Search in Mind

Voice search optimization is a must-do step for the winning SEO strategy 2020. 50% of all users’ requests are already made with the help of the voice. And here is the great difference between the way users type and speak.

Let’s compare.

• Written search request example – Versace dress buy London
• Voiced search request example – where can I buy a Versace dress in London?

As you can see, the search queries are quite different. And the answers to them should be different too. In a case of voice search, especially from mobile devices, users get the only one answer in Google featured snippets. Your goal is to make your piece of content visible in this snippet too, according to a particular search query.

That is why it makes sense to design your content in such a way that several of your subheadings are questions with short but ultimate answers to them.

Use the AI tool we’ve mentioned to research the questions that are most relevant to your business, and find the ways to provide the best answers to these questions in your publications to become visible in Google snippet and reach the users who search with the voice.

Make Use of High-Quality Guest Posting

Your search engine optimization strategy can’t be effective without high-quality backlinks. The presence of backlinks is one of the most important ranking factors that Google takes into account when deciding on the value and trustworthiness of your content. That is why you should plan your guest posting strategy step by step. What is more, your backlinks should appear organically, that is, gradually, one by one. Otherwise, Google will conclude that you are using black SEO strategies to be promoted and punish your website.

So, here is how to do it right.

• Make the list of authoritative blogs that have something in common with your business but aren’t your direct competitors. For example, if you are selling goods for fitness, you may get in touch with the blogs on proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.
• Get in touch with the blog owners and send them customized letters explaining what you like about their blogs and pointing out your desire to prepare a top-notch quest publication.
• Come up with a high-quality article with the link to your website and send it for publication on a third-party service.

Keep in mind that you should constantly strengthen your positions on Google with the help of backlinks so you should always be in touch with third-party blog owners. However, you can make your guest posting strategy automated by using the Adsy guest posting service. This platform allows you to reach authoritative blogs owners worldwide, choose the most suitable websites, Pick the Writer, and order the creation of high-quality articles.

Come up With Long Reads

As for the volume of your article, Google has an unambiguous opinion. It should have 1000-1500 words at least. What is more, Google highly appreciates content that takes up more words since this is the indicator that the topic is fully revealed. Also, long articles often turn out to be ever-green  – you have just to refresh them from time to time, but they still bring your good SEO results in the long run.

So, thinking about your SEO strategy, pay attention to the topics that may need comprehensive research and more words to cover the topic. Here is what you can so to come up with a high-quality long-read article that will be good for SEO and valuable for your users.

• Start from researching the trending and hot topics. Pick up some of them that are directly related to your business.
• Enter the topic into the search bar and revise the materials that are already written and published.
• Pay attention to the users’ questions regarding this topic. To do it, use Reddit, Quora, and other popular social media.
• Try to find the gaps that are still uncovered by your competitors and look for ways to provide the best answers to the missing questions.
• Research the most suitable keywords, taking into account the trendy and long-tailed ones.
• Design your content in such a way that it has room for text and voice searches as well. Don’t forget that you should use the optimal amount of keywords in order not to make your text look spammy.
• Empower your article with statistical data, recent research results, and the opinions of influencers and industry leaders.
• Share your personal experience or opinion if you are sure that it is going to have real value for the users.

Repurpose Your Content to Improve Engagement

Behavioral factors and especially dwelling time on your pages are important for good visibility in search results. So, how to make users spend more time on your website? The answer is simple  -you should offer them something more engaging than just text, even a very informative one.

What is more, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to come up with something appealing to your visitors. To improve dwelling time, as well as backlinks to your website and social shares, you may just revise and repurpose the content you already have.

For example:

• If you have a lot of scientific and statistical data, turning it into an infographic would be a good option. Infographics are visual, they are easy to digest and as a rule, interesting ones get a lot of shares. You may do it independently using Canva or Infogram.
• If you have a tutorial on how to do something, shoot a video and show how to do it right in real life. What is more, videos are the most consumed type of content today, and there is no better tool to engage users and make them stay on your webpage.
• If you have a material explaining some process step by step, come up with a Slide show with the theses.

Create Great and SEO-Optimized Scripts for Your Videos

So, we have already mentioned videos as the greatest tools to improve the behavioral factors, however, videos may be useful to improve your SEO as well. To reveal the full potential of this top-notch content type, you should:

• Develop a stunning script for your video and organically use the keywords in the script. Approach keywords planning for the script in the same way you do it for your blog publications.
• Shoot or create your video with animation tools following all the rules of high-quality video. It shouldn’t be too long (if the topic doesn’t require it) but should be bright, engaging, probably humorous, and informative.
• Add your script as a transcription of your video. Doing this way, you are going to kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, your users will be able to “read” the video and it will take more time than watching and listening to. Secondly, search engine robots will be able to “read” it too, understand the essence being guided by your keywords, and rank your video on YouTube and Google Videos section better.

Optimize Your Images and Meta-Data

As for the technical specifics of search engine promotion, the first thing you should pay attention to is your images and metadata optimizations. Let’s do it right as well.

• Come up with a catching meta title and make sure that it doesn’t exceed 65 symbols with spaces.
• Write a compelling meta description as well. You may use the separating marks (checkmarks, for example), to make it more appealing. Don’t go beyond 155 characters with spaces. What is more, you may check how catching your headline is by using a Headline analyzer.
• Describe your pictures too and add some suitable keywords to them.

One more hint! Use the Market Brew predictive platform to find out how your SEO positions will change if your metadata will be changed in this or that way.

Google Ranking Factors to Keep in Mind

As we have stated at the beginning of the article, effective SEO  is equally impossible without professional writing and technical optimization of your webpages. We have already revealed the best practices for SEO writing, however, you should never forget about the technical side of issues. Otherwise, your writing efforts are risking to be wasted. That is why pay attention to other factors Google takes into account in addition to the content being published.

• Age of your website. According to the research, websites that are more than 3 years old, have better chances to become visible on the first page of the search results.
• Social shares. Social sharing is not the most important factor that influences your positions in SERP, however, Google considers your content to have more value if it has a lot of likes, comments, and shares.
• Dwell time on the page. This is one of the most important behavioral factors that is carefully analyzed by Google. The more time your users spend on the page while performing certain actions, like clicking and scrolling, the more valuable your content becomes in Google’s opinion.
• Bounce rate. The same refers to the bounce rate. If the users close your web page immediately after it was open, there can be two issues with it. You either have to obtrusive web design (revise this point), or it immediately becomes clear that your content doesn’t match the user intent.
• Mobile-friendliness. Google is very serious about the mobile optimization of the websites and considers this point to be one of the most important. So, make sure that your website is able to offer a good mobile experience too, and your articles are easy to read from mobile devices.

Conclusion

So, in 2020, SEO is not going to die. It is going to become smarter and pose new requirements to the web content. In this article, we have shared the top writing and SEO tips with the help of which your content will be equally appealing to your visitors and search engines. Keep them in mind and don’t forget that optimizing your website for search engines is the ongoing process. That is why you should take some actions every day to achieve the top positions on Google.

About the Author

Anna is a specialist in different types of writing. She graduated from the Interpreters Department, but creative writing became her favorite type of work. Now she improves her skills while working as a specialist at writing service review websites Pick The Writer, Writing Judge to assist a lot of students all over the world and has free time for another work, as well. Always she does her best in the posts and articles.