SEO-friendly writing (and why most content strategies get it wrong)
Writing for SEO (search engine optimisation) does not need to be as hard as it is made out to be. SEO-friendly writing has been pegged as bowing down to Google’s rules while ignoring the reader.
That’s not true.
Even in 2025, I’m seeing writers, editors and content marketers complain about having to shoehorn keywords into their articles and tweak their H2s “for Google”. I recently read a LinkedIn post by an editor lamenting how she was tired of writing grammatically incorrect headlines so her content could rank on Google.
How did we get here?
The basics of SEO writing
Think of the internet as a huge library. One that gets millions of new pieces of content every day. Search engines are the demented librarians trying to organise that mess. The librarians don’t get a lot of say in what goes into the library, but they are in charge of retrieving books when people ask for them.
When you type a search query into a search engine like Google, it tries to fetch the content which it thinks best matches your query.
It’s not perfect – but it’s improving.
When you’re writing for SEO, you’re not writing for the search engine. You’re writing for your target audience, whilst respecting the method with which they’re trying to find you (usually a search engine).
And as an author and former magazine editor, I can tell you: this is the basics of most writing forms.
When I wrote my book, I had a strong idea of my ideal readers and what would entertain and delight them. When I was finished doing the creative bit, I honed my book into a format that my ideal readers could access – an edited manuscript put together into a physical book with a nice cover. Everything was considered: the typeface, the size of the book, and how it would be distributed.
Writing for search engines is the same.
You must ALWAYS write for your intended audience first and foremost.
Then, you must polish that content, format it and distribute it in a way that will help your ideal audience find it and engage with it.
Quick checklist for SEO-friendly content
For your content team…
Have you identified and written for your target audience?
Have you identified and addressed the business purpose?
Is it well-structured (with headings?)
Does it meet your tone of voice guidelines?
Do the images have alt text?
Do you have a plan to distribute the content?
Apidae Strategy helps leading brands create SEO-friendly copy that’s on-brand and conversion optimised. Contact Apidae Strategy to find out more.