Published 19 Mar 2026

How to Write SEO Content to Rank High in Search Results?

With real small business data to teach you how to avoid SEO pitfalls and write content that ranks.

Search Engine Optimization - you kind of know what it is, but not really. A somewhat mystical concept connected with visibility on the internet. Some stuff about keywords, some stuff about how pages rank in search results.

Is SEO actually that vague? Yes and no. Google doesn’t reveal the full ranking algorithm - it’s their business secret. But we do have fairly strong hints and confirmed ranking factors from Google’s documentation, patents, and SEO research.

In this article we’ll explain how to write SEO content and show a few statistics from our own research on small business websites in the US, so you can learn how to effectively outrank competitors with content SEO.

What is content SEO?

In the previous post from our SEO series we talked about the technical side of SEO - making sure a website is configured properly so bots can read it without any problems. Now we’ll focus on the content itself, which means content SEO.

Once a bot lands on a page, it starts by analyzing what the page is about - its topical relevance. Then it evaluates the quality of the content and, by comparing it with other pages, determines where it should rank in search results.

The brutal definition:

Content SEO is about creating content whose quality will be rated as highly as possible by the bot.

But rated based on what?

Topic and content strategy

Choosing keywords and related phrases (main + long-tail keywords)
Matching the content to user intent (informational, transactional, navigational)
Topical completeness and logic - whether the page fully answers a given topic
Semantic connections - synonyms, natural context, and logical links between sections and pages

Content structure

Logical hierarchy of headings (H1 → H2 → H3)
Bullet points, tables and graphics that make content easier to scan
Readability (Flesch Reading Ease, average sentence length)

Content refresh

Regularly adding new information, statistics and examples
Removing outdated fragments
Adding new sections as the topic evolves

Let's start form the top of the list.

How to develop a SEO keyword strategy?

Before you start diving into the details, it’s worth taking a step back and looking at your website holistically.

Define the main topic areas of your website and your goal

If you’re running a business, this part is fairly simple: your topic areas are your offer, and your goal is to be discovered by customers who want to pay for it.

It’s also worth identifying your competitors and looking at their websites. How do they structure their content? How are they different from yours? The goal is not to be identical, but also not completely different - you want to build your own brand while mastering how to write SEO content.

Identify keywords

Start with a brainstorming session of phrases that describe what your website is about. Think about what your potential customers might type into a search engine. From this exercise you’ll get your seed keywords.

If you want to build reach beyond local search, or if you operate in a highly competitive local SEO niche, you’ll probably need to use paid keyword tools. These tools help you identify phrases with high search volume and relatively low difficulty. You simply enter your seed keywords and explore the related keyword suggestions.

And remember: not all keywords are equal. According to SE Ranking (2025):

The majority of keywords get very little traffic, with nearly 74% having 10 or fewer searches per month.

Think about keyword intent

When people type something into a search engine, they usually have one of four types of intent:

Informational intent: the user is looking for information, asking questions like “what is this?" or “how do I do it?" Example: how to write SEO content
Commercial intent: the user is comparing solutions. Example: best website builder for small business
Transactional intent: the user wants to make a purchase. Example: business website price
Navigational intent: the user is looking for a specific brand or website. Example: IKOL login

According to SE Ranking:

Among searchers, 70% have informational intent, 22% commercial intent, 7% navigational intent, and 1% transactional intent.

Depending on which page of your website you’re writing, you’ll need to target different types of intent.

A homepage usually targets navigational keywords (your brand name) or broader commercial phrases (for example CRM for small business).

Product or service pages mostly focus on commercial and transactional keywords.

Most blog articles target informational queries (for example how to write SEO content), although formats like product comparisons or guides can also target commercial intent (for example best website builder for small business).

How to write SEO content?

Alright, we know why we’re writing content and what our keywords are. Time to actually start writing.

Let’s begin with a fairly obvious question:

How many words should a page have?

There’s no single correct answer. What we do know is that a page should probably not have fewer than 200–300 words, because that’s usually too little semantic context for search bots. A page should contain enough content to fully answer the user’s query, and that depends largely on search intent.

Typical ranges look like this:

Homepage: about 300–1000 words
Service / product page: about 500–1200 words
Blog post: about 1200–2500 words

We checked how homepage content looks across small business websites in the US. The results were as follows:

37.04% have fewer than 300 words on the homepage, which may not provide enough context for bots to clearly understand what the page is about
45.89% have between 300 and 1000 words, which is a reasonable range for a homepage
17.07% have more than 1000 words, which is generally more than necessary for a homepage

Number of words on business homepages

We also looked at the average word count. On average, small business homepages in the US contain 662 words.

Broken down by business type:

Service businesses: 697 words on average (a typical amount - enough to introduce the company and outline what it does)
Online stores: 844 words (the highest average, likely because featured products often appear on the homepage)
Restaurants: 406 words (lower, because menus are usually on separate pages and the homepage only needs a short introduction)
Personal websites & portfolios: 409 words (also lower due to their simple, presentation-style nature)

Average number of words on homepages across different types of businesses

How to use keywords for SEO

Now that we’ve chosen our keywords, the next question is: where and how should we use them in the content?

A few years ago SEO often meant simply repeating keywords throughout the text. Today Google’s algorithms analyze semantic context, so that approach not only doesn’t help - it can actually hurt.

A good practice is to use the main keyword in several key places:

in the page title
in the first paragraph
in one of the headings
naturally throughout the article
in internal link anchors

But this doesn’t mean repeating the exact same phrase over and over again. One key part of learning how to write SEO content is using semantic variations of your main keyword. If the main keyword is SEO keyword strategy, the text may also include phrases such as:

keyword strategy for SEO
how to choose SEO keywords
keyword research strategy
long-tail keywords

This helps the content cover the topic more broadly and makes it easier for Google to understand the page’s topical relevance.

How many keywords should a page target?

A common mistake is trying to target too many keywords on a single page.

In practice, a simple model works best:

1 main keyword
3–8 related keywords

The main keyword defines the topic of the page, while related keywords help expand it. If a single page tries to rank for several completely different topics, Google may struggle to determine which searches it should appear for.

That’s why it’s usually better to create multiple focused articles, each dedicated to a specific topic, rather than one page trying to cover everything.

What keyword density should your content have?

There’s a concept called keyword density. If a 1000-word article contains a keyword 10 times, the keyword density is 1%.

A density between 0.5% and 1% usually looks natural. At 2–3%, it may start looking like keyword stuffing, which should be avoided - search bots can recognize it and may rate the content quality lower.

It’s not calculated purely mechanically though. As you already know, Google also looks at context and synonyms.

For simplicity, you can follow a rough guideline:

In a 1000-word article, the main keyword can appear about 5–10 times.

For secondary keywords, 1–3 mentions per article are usually enough

Part of mastering keyword density is understanding how to write SEO content that reads naturally while including your main keywords.

What to keep in mind about SEO UX - or SXO?

So far we’ve talked a lot about bots, but what about real users?

Well, bots also take into account user experience signals, such as:

Core Web Vitals (we covered some of these in the blog about performance analytics)
Mobile usability (more on the technical SEO side)
Dwell time and other signals showing how users actually interact with the page
Readability of the content

This is where SXO (Search Experience Optimization) comes in - it’s basically SEO + UX. It’s not enough to rank for keywords; your content also has to keep users engaged, easy to scan, and helpful, so that people actually stay, click, and convert. SXO principles directly affect how to write SEO content that both bots and humans prefer.

Since we’re talking about content writing, let’s focus on readability. Easy-to-read content keeps visitors engaged longer, lowers bounce rates, and makes information accessible to a wider audience - including people on mobile devices or with limited time.

How to make your content readable:

Write in short, focused paragraphs
Use short sentences
Break text up with headings
Use bullet points and lists
Stick to simple language

How readable are small business websites in the US? We looked at several metrics to find out. First up: average words per sentence on homepages:

All businesses: 18 words per sentence
Service businesses: 18
Stores: 18
Restaurants: 20
Personal websites: 16

Average words per sentence on homepages across business types

How does this translate? Typical readability levels:

10–15 words per sentence → very easy
15–20 → good readability (recommended for most sites)
20–25 → medium difficulty
25–30 → hard

All types of business homepages mostly fall into the sweet spot. Restaurants had slightly longer sentences, portfolios slightly shorter.

Words per sentence alone isn’t enough. Flesch–Kincaid Reading Ease is more sophisticated - it looks at sentence length and word complexity (more syllables = harder to read).

Flesch Reading Ease	rating	found in
90–100	very easy	simple marketing, short ads
80-90	easy	light marketing, B2C landing pages
70–80	fairly easy	blog articles, popular guides
60-70	normal	standard business content
50-60	fairly hard	expert or technical content
30-50	hard	industry documentation
0-30	very hard	specialist or academic texts

The most content marketing aims for 60–80 Flesch points, balancing professional tone with readability for the majority of internet users.

We looked at whether readability on business websites aligns with this best practice - it turns out it mostly does, since the largest share of homepages falls within this ideal range.

Percentage distribution of business websites across different readability difficulty levels

12.93% of business homepages were very easy to read

18.69% were easy to read

30.3% were fairly easy to read

20.9% were normally difficult to read

10.99% were fairly hard to read

4.88% were hard to read

1.32 % were very hard to read

The average score was 73 on the Flesch–Kincaid Reading Ease scale. For service business sites it was 71, for online stores 84, for restaurants 77, and for personal websites 65.

Average Flesch Reading Ease score on homepages by business type

What could explain these differences? Let’s check which industries scored the lowest and the highest.

Hardest to read sites:

Private investigators: 50
Speech therapy: 53
Researcher: 53
IT development: 55
Marketer: 57

These specialized service businesses are harder to read because of long technical words (“investigation", “development", “therapeutic") and the need to explain complex processes and build expert credibility, which often results in longer, more complex sentences.

Easiest to read sites:

Houseware stores: 97
Boat & marine supplies: 90
Chicken restaurants: 90
Asian restaurants: 90
Artisan & craft store: 89

Stores and restaurants are easier to read because they rely on short marketing messages and product lists, not complex sentences. Words are often short and everyday (“menu", “food", “shop").

So, should we always strive for the highest possible readability? Generally, yes - but if your industry doesn’t allow for it, don’t force it.

Publishing, monitoring, and maintenance

Okay, we know how to write content, now there’s one crucial question – how do you make sure you don’t lose all the work you’ve done?

Let’s start with consistency – Google likes it when new content appears on your site. According to Orbit Media (2025):

48% of marketers publish new content 2–4 times per month.

Next – after publishing, check if your new content is indexed, and then monitor how it’s performing: does it show up in search results for your targeted keywords, what are the impressions and clicks? Monitoring also helps you learn how to write SEO content better over time.

Also, remember to update your content. SEO content isn’t a “write and forget" game. Google favors fresh and valuable content. Regular updates help maintain or improve your rankings. Regularly updating your content also improves the SEO experience, keeping pages relevant and engaging for users. Swap in new data when you have it, and remove outdated info.

Good SEO content answers questions better than your competitors

After reading SEO guides, you might think it’s all about tricks: the perfect number of keywords, ideal text length, or secret headline formulas. In reality, SEO content is simpler – and harder at the same time.

Google’s main goal is to answer one question: which page best satisfies the user’s query?

That’s why effective SEO content follows a few simple rules:

clear keyword strategy
alignment with search intent
complete answers to the topic
readability and good UX
regular updates

Our analysis of small business homepages in the US shows that many sites still struggle with the basics: some have too little content, others are hard to read, or don’t use keywords effectively.

This is where platforms like IKOL come in – by combining website building, content management, and AI assistance in one place, they make it easy to create and maintain SEO-friendly websites without a full marketing team.

👉Try IKOL for free👈 and start building SEO-friendly pages without the technical hassle.

The data and statistics presented in this blog post come from a research study conducted by IKOL between 2023 and 2026. To learn more about IKOL research methodology and explore other findings, visit: ikol.com/research

Joanna