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When talking about content marketing, you’re going to hear people stress “quality over quantity” like a broken record. This is entirely due to the fact that so many businesses focus exclusively on quantity, rushing to put out a ton of SEO blog posts that end up being poor quality and yielding no positive results.

You do want to put quality first, but there’s no reason why quality and quantity can’t both be important goals. 

The reality is, of course, that while quality is paramount, quantity matters, too. The more well-written, strategic, and well-optimized SEO blog posts you have published, the faster you can implement and test your strategy. This means you can see results faster too.

In this post, we’re going to share 6 hacks for how to write SEO blog post articles faster without sacrificing an ounce of quality along the way. 

1. Do Keyword Research in Bulk Up Front. 

The first thing that you’ll want to do is to start with the keyword research, conducting it in bulk before you get started.

Sometimes people think of a fun topic and then work backwards to find keywords. That can work perfectly well, but it’s extremely difficult to scale.

Instead, if you want to write a batch of SEO blog post articles quickly, start by searching for general terms and keywords in a tool like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. It will provide an abundance of suggestions, including plenty you may never have thought of, while showing you the search volume, competition level, and more for each.

Because keyword research is time-intensive, batching it up front will save you a significant amount of time later.

When conducting keyword research, remember to do the following:

Save all of the likely-to-be-relevant keywords. You don’t have to use them just because you saved them, but it will help you remember and reference them later on. Tools like Semrush allow you to do this with just a single click. Really work in bulk. Work at least a month or two in advance, but you can even consider working to plan ahead before each quarter. This way, most of your content will be planned and ready to go; you can always throw in last-minute trending topics or breaking news easily.  Only save keywords you can actually match search intent for. Ranking well for a high-value keyword doesn’t mean anything if you can’t create the content a user was looking for. If you rank for “healthy enchilada recipes” and share a vegan recipe that has a ton of calories, it likely won’t be what the user is looking for if they were hoping that “healthy” meant weight loss potential. This is why matching a user’s search intent and delivering the answers or solutions they need is imperative. 

2. Lay Out a Content Calendar. 

Download that keyword report that you’ve created, and start working on keyword clusters and potential topics. 

Keyword clusters allow you to identify high-value keywords that you want to rank for, which can be used to interlink different posts on your site. This can strengthen your site authority and SERP potential.

An easy approach is to highlight all the top keywords that you want to use as primary keywords. These will be the core topics of your posts. You can also attach several secondary keywords (also known as “tertiary” keywords) that you want to include in those posts for better ranking potential.

Here’s what we recommend doing:

Write a list of potential topics alongside their primary keyword and several secondary keywords. Based on quick competitor research, determine the estimated word count for each and how long they may take to write.  Create a plan determining how many posts you’d like to execute and publish within a set time period. This may influence which posts you publish when; tight deadlines, for example, might work better with posts that have low word counts and don’t require expert interviews.  Consider which posts should be published first. Posts that need expert quotes, interviews, professional graphic designs, or infographic creation will take longer to execute, so you may want to have “easier” posts on the docket early to keep your calendar full in the meantime. 

Balancing your content calendar is key to writing SEO blog post articles faster overall; it gives you time to get the materials you need in advance, if applicable, while prioritizing other quick-to-create content. 

3. Create Content Outlines. 

Start with an outline for every blog post that you write. This is the most essential part of writing SEO blog post articles faster.

The outline should include a post headline, H2s, and core discussion points listed in bullet points under each designated subsection. 

Here’s what part of the outline for this blog post looked like: 

At this stage, it’s a good call to do any essential research. Find the statistics that you need, any external data to back up your points, or case studies to strengthen your case.

It’s also good to include any inbound and outbound links you want to include. At a minimum, try to include three internal links to your own site or blog posts and at least two or three to non-competing external sites. These are easy to forget later, but quick to compile in one go. 

Once outlines are created, you’re not going to lose focus going down a rabbithole while writing, which can be time-consuming to rectify if you end up veering off track. And if you’re working with a team, detailed outlines are quick to review and approve; it’s much easier to change an outline than conduct substantial edits on a full-length blog post. 

4. Write Your First Draft. 

While we’re sure that most readers did not think writing SEO blog posts fast would mean waiting until step 4 to start writing, you can now see how much faster the actual writing part of the equation will be when all the prep work is done in advance.

You’ll be surprised how easy and quick it can be to complete a fully researched and outlined draft. In some cases, you may be able to knock out 1000 words in 30 minutes or less without sacrificing any quality.

Some writers recommend starting with the body and then finishing the intro and conclusion afterwards. Others prefer to start with the introduction to help focus them on the audience’s pain points and needs, almost like writing a thesis or an academic paper. Try both and see what works for you.

And after you write the first draft, leave it alone. Don’t touch it yet, just go to the next step. 

5. Wait Before Proofreading. 

Once the draft is complete, either pass it along to another team member who can edit it, or wait before you go back to proofread.

While this does add a “delay” to the process, so to speak, it’s valuable. 

If you immediately try to edit a post you just wrote, you won’t be fully effective. There’s no way to look at a just-written post with fresh and objective eyes. You understand what you meant when writing that confusing sentence, you still think the joke is hilarious, and you might not be willing to change any of it.

Read the post a day or so after first writing it. This will help you spot what actually needs to be changed. Your proofreading will be both quicker and more effective. 

After the initial read through, do a final line-by-line proofread for errors. Don’t forget to use tools like Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant to clean up the language as needed and optimize for standard writing best practices. 

6. Have an SEO Checklist to Optimize.  

At this point, you should already have some great SEO practices and optimization in place in your article. And since you’re writing an SEO blog post article, this makes sense.

Your keywords are already in-text, in your headlines, and in alt text for images. You’re now going to want to finish optimizing for SEO.

We recommend having a checklist on hand so that nothing gets missed; at a minimum, it should include the following:

Creating an SEO page title  Uploading a meta description  Running the post through a tool like our SEO Writing Assistant for further optimization  Ensuring the keyword is at the top of the post 

In many cases, this will be implemented when the post is uploaded into the CMS. You can also include it at the top or bottom of a Word document if this is how you’re sending the final draft of the content to a team member, VA, or client to upload. 

6 Hacks to Write SEO Blog Articles Faster

When to Outsource SEO Writing 

While this list may seem a little intimidating, the good news is that with some decent preparation up front, the process of creating SEO blog post articles speeds up significantly. And the more you write, the faster you get.

It’s important to note, however, that sometimes heightened speed and a streamlined process isn’t enough to get you to the level of content creation you want to be at. If you’re ready to be aggressive with your content creation and still don’t have the time after following these steps, it may be time to consider outsourcing.

If your team is stretched thin and there’s no way to increase post volume without sacrificing quality, there are plenty of great outsourcing options available. Our Content Marketplace was designed to be easy to use, offering high-quality content to businesses … even if you’re on a razor-thin budget.

Send us a topic, an outline, and a deadline within our parameters and we’ll instantly match you with a writer who has the experience you need. Multiple rounds of revisions are included so we can get you the content you need to suit your budget and timeline.

You can see more here. 

Final thoughts 

While quality is always paramount when it comes to content marketing and SEO blog post article writing, finding ways to increase quantity without sacrificing quality can be a gamechanger for businesses. Go through these steps and see how it can streamline the process for you.

And in the meantime, if you want to save more time and focus on other aspects of scaling your business, consider outsourcing to professionals. With platforms like Semrush’s Content Marketplace available, you can rest easy knowing that great content is being created for your brand without overworking your team.

No time to write? Check out how our Content Marketplace can help you here. 

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