SEO Writing Isn’t Simply A Deliverable

“Blogging for SEO” has been a thing for a long time. While it’s still part of the strategy I run with clients, it needs to be done deliberately and not as what amounts to busy work.

At one point in my career I started offering consulting services alongside the hands-on campaigns I’d been doing. That was actually very informative to me as well, because I ended up having different conversations with clients about what they’d tried and where specifically they’d run into walls or felt like they were spinning their wheels.

Several times, they’d been blogging for a while because they figured that’s what you do. And as long as they were publishing about stuff in their field, check. Then they wanted to know why, after a year or so of doing this, did it not seem to have had much effect?

As I looked over their blogs, here were some consistent things I noticed each time:

• There were vague titles where because the author knew what they meant, they thought they could get away with “Ideas You Can Try This Fall.” In this case it was a home remodel company years back, and they were far better served to make the title more like, “3 Clever Fall Remodel Ideas For Under $X.” The number of tips makes perceived value clearer, it’s now specific about how these ideas are used, and there’s an enticer that the ideas are more accessible than the reader might have thought.
• Topics flopped about aimlessly. A couple posts might be industry news. One would be about a company barbecue. Maybe another was a thin tips piece that really could’ve used a second draft. This meant the website wasn’t establishing a clear “this is what we’re about” narrative. That’s confusing for readers, but especially for search engines and LLMs.
• Service pages were an afterthought. If the websites had multiple pages to cover their services, they were often superficial and too few. The pages were designed like they reluctantly checked some boxes, but weren’t really there to read. As a consequence, no one did.
• Calls to action were random and overwhelming. I’ve seen pages that at various points asked the reader to subscribe to a newsletter, follow them on social, call the office, attend an event, and once again please call the office. That’s far too many asks. Pages like this befit from answering a simple question: what is the main thing I want this reader to do once they’re here? Being clear on this allows you to create a flow that naturally answers questions quickly and gets them curious about you. And that thing you want them to do.

This is not me judging or making light of anyone else’s work. These are all natural impulses for inexperienced writers. I’ve made some of these mistakes myself early in my career, even as a professional.

But that’s how I know what doesn’t work.

The silver lining about having made weak content before is that it’s very clear when you start getting it right.

All of a sudden, things you publish deliberately get read, and your phone rings. Maybe not a lot at first, but in ways that clearly correlate with recent moves you made.

I posted before on Linkedin about how tracking rankings is most useful early on because it gives you confirmation that what you’re putting out there is connecting. Likely in a way it never had before.

Now you know what to lean into.

For writers who have struggled with knowing what to write, this is huge. Coming up with ideas is much easier when you filter out noise. When you’re clear on how you want to show up and what you’ve seen people be receptive to, you can start building a real narrative.

You can begin thinking in terms of what series of articles or pages would allow you to demonstrate what you’re bringing to the table. How you intend to participate with that reader in their journey.

I recommend focusing on one major topic at a time.

If you’re a dentist who offers a variety of treatments, for instance, you may decide to focus primarily on restorative treatments before delving into cosmetic ones.

Knowing that, you’d begin planning content around dental implants, filings, crowns, etc.

• You might draw distinctions about where each are most viable, what misconceptions people have about each, and what things factor into your recommendations for people as a doctor.
• Work with subsets of that broader topic, in sequence. You might spend a few weeks talking about cavities, fillings, cracks in teeth, etc. before moving on to extractions, implants, etc. It will make sense progressively as a narrative, and still add up to a comprehensive guide about this category of treatment.
• You’ve put off talking about cosmetic treatments, because that’s a different audience who have different motivations. And it’s also an entirely separate set of queries and “keywords” to try rankings for.

My experience has been that chasing too many things waters everything down. Especially early on in SEO, the amount of uphill momentum you need to build is made all the harder by lack of focus. You won’t be throwing enough at any one topic to form a clear pattern of expertise. You’ll burn out trying to grow too many seeds at once.

A question I often ask a new client is:

What service or aspect of your offerings would you be most excited about getting more of right now? It could be because it’s more lucrative, more interesting, or that you feel it’s an underserved audience.

When it comes to going through the site for initial SEO considerations, sure, you make each page as strong as you can. Increase your strength across the board.

But when it comes to writing new material (new pages or blogs) I recommend you pick and thing and run with it. For instance, if a home improvement company was most interested in building their bathroom remodel clientele, that would be the SEO focus. More than kitchens, decks, attics, etc.

Only move on to other major services once you’ve gotten some wins with your current goals.

“SEO Content” As A Deliverable…

To bring this all home, I’d say this. As a career writer I would of course say that content needs to be a part of any SEO campaign. It’s certainly a focus in all my work.

But the danger of making ‘content’ a deliverable in itself is that it’s treated as a box to check. It tends to become showy, because the subconscious drive becomes a series of targeted flexes.

I’ve told clients before that there is no way to fake being a local leader. Technically there is; plenty of tactics to engineer authority in SEO.

But when I say that, what I really mean is we’re all best served to think in terms of being the kind of company that shows up in top searches. When you say you want to rank “at the top,” also ask yourself the same tough question Google is going to:

Why should you?

And I don’t mean that in technical terms like “because my schema was on-point.” Of all the others in the area like you, why should your site be seen predominantly?

When the answers start looking like…

• because we’ve shown up for people in a way others haven’t
• because we deliver value freely, often through real thought leadership
• because our site has shared thoughtfully about a breadth of topics that prove real expertise
• because we’ve demonstrated more heart and grit than the others
• because others have recognized that heart, and that breadth of knowledge and linked to or featured us

… you’ll have a leg up. With all the tech talk in SEO about what moves the needle forward, would I say that the above matters for rankings? Even when it’s more abstract?

You bet I would.

I know thought leadership has become an overused buzzword. But it’s also the best way I can think to describe the above. It’s a cliche when the goal itself is to “do thought leadership content.”

But working a well-prioritized content plan based on clear goals?

It matters.

---