Cookies help us provide, protect and improve our products and services. For more information about our use of cookies, please refer to our Privacy policy.
Writing high-quality content that ranks in the search engines is a difficult job! And when is it a job well done? In this post, I’ll give you a handy SEO copywriting checklist with some quick checks you should definitely do before you publish your article.
First do the hard work!
Before you get to the moment of using this SEO copywriting checklist, a lot of work should have happened already. You should have done your keyword research, decided upon the exact topic and set up the structure of your article. All before the actual writing has even begun. Nobody said SEO copywriting was easy! To write awesome articles that will rank, you should definitely read our ultimate guide on SEO copywriting.
Lots of the checks you should do, to make sure your text is SEO-friendly, are covered in the content analysis of our Yoast SEO plugin. That’s a checklist in itself. But besides that, you should definitely ask yourself these 8 questions from the SEO copywriting checklist below. Did you really think of everything? Then it’s time to hit the publish button!
When scanning through the text, the topic of your article should be instantly clear to your audience. Make sure your subheadings fit the topic of your post. Also, check the first sentences of every paragraph. Ideally, these core sentences should cover the topic of each paragraph.
Most people don’t like to read long pieces of text. Check whether you need to shorten any lengthy paragraphs. Five or six sentences per paragraph is ideal.
4. Have you added internal links?
Before publishing your article, think about linking to similar articles. Maybe you have a cornerstone content article on a similar topic. Make sure that you link to that article. Or perhaps your new article is the best you have written in a long time. In that case, also make sure to add some links to this new piece in your previous articles.
What do you want people to do after they’ve read your article? Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to read another article? Make sure your call to action is clear and that people will be able to click from your article to other places on your website.
6. Could you optimize for related keyphrases?
You’ve probably thought about which keyphrase you would like to rank for with the article you’ve written. Especially if your article is lengthy, it also makes sense to optimize for related keyphrases. So, if your keyword is [games for children’s birthday parties] you could also optimize for [hide and seek] or [musical chairs], for example.
A text can be made much more readable with the proper use of transition words (or signal words, same thing). Transition words are words like ‘most important’, ‘because’, ‘thus’, or ‘besides that’. They give direction to your readers. Make sure every paragraph has some of these transition words.
If you choose the right category and tag (or tags) for your article, you clarify your site’s structure to the search engines. This helps them understand what your site is about. In addition, it will also help visitors on your site to find this article or related articles.
Writing articles that’ll rank in the search engines is something that takes time and effort, but it will pay off! So, besides checking the Yoast SEO plugin, refer to this SEO copywriting checklist. Make a habit of asking yourself these 8 questions before you hit that publish button. If you’ve covered these, you can confidently publish a piece of quality content that’s well-optimized!
Marieke was head of strategy and former CEO at Yoast. After the sale of Yoast to Newfold Digital in 2021 she is no longer active at Yoast in 2023. Marieke, together with her husband Joost, actively invests in and advises several startups through their company Emilia Capital.
June 08 - 10, 2023
Team Yoast is Attending, Organizing, Speaking, Sponsoring WordCamp Europe. Click through to see who we'll be there, what we'll do there and more!
See where you can find us next »
30 May 2023
Our head of SEO, Jono Alderson, will keep you up-to-date about everything that happens in the world of SEO and WordPress.
All Yoast SEO webinars »
7 Responses to SEO copywriting checklist: 8 things to check before publishing
sowmyasri • 4 years ago
For all these content should be genuine to get rank well, thanks for sharing the article
sachin • 4 years ago
Great post about SEO copywriting. Thanks! Marieke.
youranklocal • 4 years ago
Thank you Marieke. Very helpful
Momoh Ibrahim • 4 years ago
I am using yoast correctly, though i don’t really know the benefits of making sure all the yoast button go green.
Hanif • 4 years ago
Looks to be a good tip.. will definitively aid my work as copywriter at Textuar
For all these content should be genuine to get rank well, thanks for sharing the article
Great post about SEO copywriting. Thanks! Marieke.
Thank you Marieke. Very helpful
I am using yoast correctly, though i don’t really know the benefits of making sure all the yoast button go green.
Looks to be a good tip.. will definitively aid my work as copywriter at Textuar
Thanks for these tips.
Thanks, these are the great tips.