(Last Updated On: February 18, 2023)

Key Points

• SEO writing can be hard, but it’s worth it to learn for future success.
• Outsourcing a professional to create your written content can help reduce your workflow and overall SEO.
• It takes a lot of hard work, time, and effort to learn SEO best practices, but once you get it down, Google will change its algorithm.

SEO blog writing can be, well, difficult and it takes a ton of time, effort, and consistency to succeed. So, you may be asking yourself, “Is SEO Blog Writing Hard?”

In fact, a recent Orbit Media Studios survey suggests that 71% of bloggers say SEO is the most important source of traffic for their website and around 50% of bloggers publish weekly.

Simply put, businesses need SEO to thrive in a modern and ever-evolving world. 

The remaining content will explore how hard SEO blog writing is, how long it takes to create content and the best tools and practices for doing it yourself. 

Let’s start with some of the basics:

Why is SEO Writing Important?

Writing for SEO is vital to the successful lifespan of your content. 

A fully optimized SEO website or piece of content can attract the right customers to your brand by targeting audiences at each stage of the buyer’s journey.  

In doing so, you gain an increase in conversion rates and organic traffic.

Actually, “quality of content” is rated the #1 most important success factor among bloggers.

Additionally, content SEO writing can give your content marketing efforts a boost and improve your rankings in search engines such as Google or Bing.

This is commonly referred to as SERPs rankings. 

Organic rankings that are achieved through high-quality content tend to have a longer lifespan than the average blog post. 

Not only that, but it increases click-through rates because people generally prefer to visit links that appear naturally on search engine results in pages rather than results that display as ads. 

With that said, here are some SEO basics you should know:

• Have an understanding of keyword research and targeting
• Understand on-page and off-page SEO
• Information Architecture
• Link building
• Technical SEO
• Tracking and measuring your SEO results

Furthermore, did you know that:

Not only that, but Google updates its algorithm 500 to 600 times per year.

That is insane!

What this basically means is that you never really know when or how an algorithm update may affect your SEO efforts. 

That’s why it’s always best to stay up to date with the latest SEO news, updates, and happenings.

How Long Does SEO Blog Writing Take?

The SEOLady suggests that a 1,000-word blog post or article can take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to write depending on the industry and skill level of the writer. 

However, that isn’t counting formatting, editing, understanding of basic audience search intent, keyword research, and other SEO basics. 

SEO thought-leading experts such as RockContent suggest writing two to four articles per week, as this seems to be the best way to see an increase in organic traffic to your website. 

You could, however, outsource your SEO blog writing to SEO writing professionals such as myself, other freelancers, or agencies who know exactly how to write, format, and optimize your content. 

Here are a few tips for fast and effective blog writing:

• Use outlines
• Do a content dump and edit it later
• Do your research first
• Take breaks to avoid burnout
• Use tools that make it easier to write
• Write small and readable paragraphs
• Use modern but relevant visuals like infographics and memes
• Don’t use fluff 
• Use statistics
• Be direct but friendly
• Use a spellcheck and AI editor

Should You Outsource Your SEO Blog Writing?

I have met many business owners, and over time, I can tell you how difficult it is to know when to begin considering hiring a ghostwriter. 

Although you may find it risky to hire outside of your company, it may help you focus more on core functions, as this is the most common benefit of hiring an independent contractor. 

You also might be wondering the following questions:

• Can I afford to outsource?
• When should I begin outsourcing?
• Is a freelancer or agency best for me?

To be honest, outsourcing is a whole lot cheaper than growing as a business by hiring more staff. 

Outsourcing gives project managers and entrepreneurs the ability to use contracted employees rather than hire new team members that are part or even full-time. 

This means you aren’t obligated to pay a full salary or other working benefits, all you have to do is pay per project or hour. 

I recently read a report from Clutch that found around 37% of small businesses are currently outsourcing at least one business project or task to reduce costs and improve other available skill sets. 

It also stated that businesses are most likely to outsource IT, accounting, and digital marketing services such as SEO. 

Let’s continue on: 

Should you use a freelancer or agency?

With that said, how do you know if you should hire a freelancer or agency?

Okay so, I’m going to keep it real with you. As a freelancer, it’s probably best to hire us for a specialized task or project.

For example, do you need an SEO blog article written in 2 days at a reasonable price? 

I got you.

Do you need something that can give you the whole SEO package with digital marketing, blog writing, videos, and everything optimized? 

Get you an agency. 

With that said, here is how to know when to begin outsourcing:

• You can’t keep up with your workflow
• Your employees are doing too many tasks
• Mistakes are happening too often
• The budget is getting tight
• You can’t find the right person for the role
• Routine tasks are taking too much time

SEO Best Practices

If for some reason you aren’t familiar with the term SEO, it means search engine optimization and it’s the practice of using a website’s technical configuration, links, content, and pages to perform better in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

The goal for your website is to appear on Google’s first page, and effective SEO practices provide a conversion rate of 14.6%. 

On top of that, more than half of web traffic is driven by organic search results.

Additionally, remember that SEO is a process. No outsourced mastermind can fix that. 

(source: Solvid)

Meaning, that it’s going to take 6 months to a year before you start to see any major ranking progress. 

It takes time to build up domain authority and become a thought leader in your industry. 

With that said, here are some best SEO practices you can begin using right now:

• Add your target keyword to your headers
• Use your keywords early on in your content
• Optimize your title tag for SEO
• Optimize your page and website speed
• Track your results 
• Don’t forget to alt-text and resize your images
• Use internal and external linking
• Create awesome, high-quality content 

SEO Blog Writing Tools

As I’ve mentioned, blog writing is tough, but tools can make it much easier for you. SEO tools can range from keyword planning, metric tracking, editing, and even headline-generating. 

With the help of these tools, you can begin writing SEO-optimized content all by yourself. 

Here are some of the best SEO tools you can use for blog writing:

1. Google Trends 
2. Google Analytics
3. Google Search Console
4. Moz Keyword Explorer
5. Yoast SEO
6. Copyscape
7. Grammarly
8. Hemingway App
9. Canva
10. AnswerThePublic
11. Google “People Also Ask”

Google Trends can help you identify what keywords are trending where Google Analytics is awesome for metric and traffic tracking, and Search Console helps you, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your website’s performance in Google Search results.

Moz Keyword Explorer and Yoast SEO can help you find the perfect keyword to target for your piece of content, whereas Copyscape will help you check for plagiarism.

Grammarly and Hemingway App can help you edit and grade your writing so that you are free of errors and spelling mistakes. 

Canva is my personal favorite and can help turn you into a graphic designing genius, free of charge!

That’s About It!

SEO blog writing is hard, but with the right teachers, information, and understanding you can write awesome, optimized blog content.

Comment below or book an interview with me so we can succeed together!

Next Up…

• Best Blogging Platforms and What They Offer – Find out the best blogging platforms to boost your traffic!
• Google Had Another Big Helpful Content Update, What Does It Mean For You? – Google changed its algorithm, again, so what does it mean for you?
• A Buyer’s Journey: How to Target the Stages – Are you targeting the right stages? Find out now!