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How to Write SEO Content That Ranks in Google and AI Search (Content Writing for SEO 2026 Guide) — Transcript

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0:00By the end of this video, you'll know
0:01how to take any keyword and turn it into
0:04a piece of content that actually ranks
0:06in Google and in AI search. This will be
0:10an over-the-shoulder repeatable process
0:12that you can use every single time you
0:14sit down to write. I'm Matt Kenyon and
0:17I've partnered with Surfer to bring you
0:18this process step by step. We're going
0:21from keyword to publish post. I'll show
0:24you every decision along the way and
0:26I'll walk through Surfer's content
0:28editor as we go so you can see exactly
0:31how each step works in practice. One
0:34thing before we start, this whole
0:36process assumes you already have a
0:38target keyword. One main keyword per
0:42piece of content. If you don't have a
0:44keyword yet, no problem. I'll link a
0:46keyword research tutorial in the
0:47description. Go watch that first, come
0:49back with your keyword, and pick up
0:51here. Let's get into it. Step zero,
0:54check search intent. Now, before you
0:56open any tool, do a quick gut check.
1:00Search your keyword in Google and look
1:02at what's actually ranking. If the first
1:04page is all how-to guides, you're
1:07writing a how-to guide. If it's all
1:09listicles, write a listicle. If it's all
1:11product pages, a blog post probably
1:13won't rank for this keyword. So, if
1:16that's what you're writing, then it's
1:17probably best to pick a different one.
1:19This is search intent. Google has
1:21already decided what type of content
1:23searchers want for your keyword. Your
1:25job isn't to fight that. It's to match
1:27the format and to do it better than
1:29what's already there. Anyway, that gut
1:32check takes 30 seconds.
1:35But if you skip it, everything that
1:37follows is pretty much wasted. No amount
1:39of optimization fixes a content type
1:42mismatch. Intent confirmed? Good. Let's
1:45get to writing. Now, I'm going to walk
1:47you through this using Surfer's content
1:49editor. The tool does matter less than
1:51the principles though. Namely, cover
1:53your topic with authority. Show
1:55first-hand experience where you have it.
1:57Match search intent. That's true no
2:00matter what you use, Surfer just makes
2:02it a lot easier. Okay, we're going to
2:04start by entering our target keyword.
2:07For this example, we're going to be
2:08targeting how to write a case study.
2:11Surfer will prompt you to select your
2:13content type. If you're not sure, you
2:16can select SERP-based and it will
2:18automatically pull in real-time data
2:20from the search results for that
2:21keyword. After that, you'll get an
2:23opportunity to add special context,
2:26instructions, and brand knowledge. If
2:28you choose to use Surfer AI to generate
2:30the article, it will bake that
2:32information into the draft itself. Now,
2:35this can be anything from your brand
2:36voice guidelines, product or service
2:38details, or non-negotiable talking
2:41points. If you sold a service that
2:43helped people write case studies, for
2:45example, this is where you drop a short
2:47description of your service, who it's
2:49for, and the problems it solves. Even
2:52better, you can save this as a custom
2:54template. So, the next time you spin up
2:56an article, your brand voice, product
2:58positioning, and house style are already
3:01loaded. Next, we'll enter writing mode.
3:04And here, you've got a choice. You can
3:06start with an AI draft, or you can write
3:08it yourself from scratch. For this
3:10video, I'm going to walk you through the
3:12full content writing process, so you can
3:14see how every piece fits together. But,
3:17if you need speed, and a lot of people
3:19do, Surfer's AI draft is a genuinely
3:22strong option. This is where the brand
3:25knowledge and context you just added
3:27really pay off. Most AI-generated
3:30articles read like slop because the
3:32model has nothing to work with except
3:35the keyword. Surfer's draft is
3:37different. It pulls in your brand voice,
3:40your product, your positioning, every
3:42detail you added in the last step, and
3:45does real-time SERP analysis. So, it's
3:47writing an article that actually sounds
3:50like it came from your company based on
3:52the most up-to-date information on the
3:54topic. In my experience, the draft comes
3:57back about 90% of the way there. It's
3:59structured, on topic, and already
4:01optimized for both Google and AI search
4:04before you type a single word. You just
4:07review, tighten, and add your own
4:09personal experience on top. And one more
4:12thing worth knowing, Surfer doesn't
4:14charge extra for AI articles anymore. No
4:16separate credit bucket, no premium tier.
4:19If you're on a Surfer plan, you can
4:20generate as many drafts as you want. All
4:23right, for this walk-through, I am going
4:25to write it myself, heading by heading,
4:27so you can see the full process. Let's
4:29keep going. Now, by far my favorite part
4:32of the content editor's interface is
4:34this clear, step-by-step process on the
4:37right-hand sidebar. This is like a balm
4:40for my OCD brain. All we have to do is
4:43walk through these one by one. Starting
4:45with step number one, research and
4:48create outline. There are three tabs
4:50here: competitors, questions, and notes.
4:54The competitors tab is likely where
4:56you'll be spending most of your time. It
4:58shows you the actual outlines from the
5:00pages currently ranking for your
5:02keyword. The headings they use, how they
5:04structure their content, what topics
5:06they cover. You can expand each
5:08competitor and see exactly how they've
5:10organized their article.
5:12Above that, Surfer generates an
5:14AI-powered outline based on what's
5:16working across all these competitors.
5:19You can just hit insert outline, and it
5:20drops a complete structure into your
5:22editor as an awesome starting point.
5:25Now, you can do this manually. Open each
5:27of the top 10 results, read through
5:29them, and take notes on what they cover.
5:32That absolutely works, it just takes
5:34much longer. The content editor
5:36compresses that work into just a few
5:38seconds. Either way, here's how to use
5:41competitor data. Don't just accept any
5:43outline as is. Treat it as your starting
5:46point. Look at what all 10 competitors
5:48cover. That's table stakes. You need
5:51that. Then look for gaps, topics only
5:54one or two competitors mention, or
5:57topics none of them cover that you know
5:59are relevant. Your outline should be
6:01about 70% proven topics and 30% unique
6:06angles, of course, depending on the
6:08topic at hand. Now, this is where AI
6:10tools really earn their keep. If no
6:12unique angles are jumping out, sometimes
6:15I'll copy and paste the outline into
6:17Claude and simply ask, "If I want to
6:19write an article on how to write a case
6:21study" you insert your keyword in place
6:24of that "What's missing from this
6:26outline that could help me more
6:27thoroughly satisfy the user's search
6:30intent?" And then I'll say, "Do deep
6:32research across X, Reddit, YouTube,
6:35Facebook, LinkedIn, and more to get the
6:38freshest possible user signals." A lot
6:41of times AI will surface things that you
6:43never would have thought of. Like when
6:45my Claude code agent found out that the
6:47number one pain point across community
6:49sites is how to actually get client
6:52permission and buy-in [music] for case
6:54studies, which is completely missing
6:56from my current outline, and to be
6:58honest, probably not something I would
6:59have thought of. I was also missing
7:01things like how to write questions that
7:04draw out great answers from
7:05stakeholders, the power of video case
7:08studies, and how to use anonymized data
7:11when clients don't want to be named in
7:13case studies.
7:14I added all of these as subheadings to
7:16my existing outline. Now, another thing
7:18that sets you apart from competitors is
7:21real, concrete examples of whatever it
7:23is you're talking about.
7:26In this case, I wanted to find some real
7:29case study examples worth studying and
7:31include those in the article. So, I spun
7:34up another agent to hunt the web for the
7:36best case studies around. My agent
7:39surfaced the standouts. The goal was to
7:42move the reader from theory to real
7:44examples they could learn from. Now,
7:46I've been doing SEO for over a decade,
7:48and so I can tell you confidently this
7:50step used to take hours, sometimes even
7:53days of manual research and massaging
7:56the outline. With Surfer and some handy
7:59AI tools, it takes a fraction of the
8:01time and honestly is more thoroughly
8:04researched most of the time. Okay. Once
8:07I'm happy with my outline, it's time to
8:09start writing. Now, we're in step two,
8:12write and optimize. This is where you
8:14actually write the content, and Surfer
8:17gives you real-time feedback as you go.
8:20This is the point in the process where I
8:21just go heading by heading and write
8:23naturally. I always say that if you
8:26spend enough time in the outline
8:28process, the writing process should feel
8:30like paint-by-numbers. I'll usually have
8:33my AI agent in another window helping me
8:35surface research, and it's off to the
8:37races. Another thing I love about
8:39building a strong outline is that
8:41telling myself I need to write a 3,500
8:44word blog post is extremely
8:46overwhelming. It's much more
8:48psychologically manageable to reframe it
8:50as, "Okay, I'm just going to write about
8:52types of case studies, then how to write
8:54a case study." One section at a time,
8:57chipping away at the piece bit by bit.
8:59Now, I want to talk a little bit about
9:01writing the hook. Different writers will
9:03have different philosophies on this.
9:05Some say you need to write the hook
9:06first. Others say you need to write the
9:08whole piece to internalize the subject
9:10matter, and only then should you write
9:12the hook. I personally am somewhere in
9:15the middle. Sometimes if I have a hook
9:18in my mind, I'll immediately write it
9:20first. Other times the hook won't come
9:22to me until I'm about halfway through
9:24writing the piece. Now, for this
9:25particular piece, my research surfaced
9:28the sentiment that people are saying
9:30that nobody actually really reads case
9:33studies. People just need to to that you
9:35have them, which is honestly a really
9:38kind of contrarian and maybe a little
9:41bit controversial hook, which I really
9:43like. So, I was like, that's totally the
9:45hook. Something like, "Nobody actually
9:48reads case studies, but you need them
9:50anyway. Here's how to make one worth
9:52skimming." That definitely would get my
9:54attention if I were a reader. Okay, I've
9:56finished my first draft. Let's look at
9:58some of the tools we have on the
10:00right-hand side of the screen to make
10:02this piece as optimized as possible for
10:04humans, Google, and AI search. First,
10:08your on-page targets. The word count,
10:11headings, and paragraphs are all based
10:13on the top-ranking posts. Don't think of
10:16them as hard and fast rules, but more
10:19like a compass pointing you in the
10:21direction of the kind of depth Google
10:23wants for this keyword. If you're way
10:26over, consider trimming. If you're way
10:29under, you're likely not covering the
10:31topic in as much depth as users expect.
10:34Next, you've got the content score, the
10:37gauge [music] at the top. Now, before I
10:39get into what the numbers mean, it's
10:40worth understanding what this score is
10:43actually measuring. Here's the reality
10:45of SEO. We don't actually know how
10:47Google's algorithm works. We write
10:49content, it goes into a black box, and a
10:52ranked results page comes out the other
10:55side. The only thing we can really
10:57observe is the SERP, which pages Google
11:00decides to rank and which [music] ones
11:02it doesn't. So, the best any of us can
11:05do is reverse engineer, and that's
11:07exactly what the content score is.
11:09Surfer analyzes the pages currently
11:12ranking for your keyword, finds the
11:14patterns they share, and measures your
11:16content against those patterns. [music]
11:18Entities, facts, word count, structure,
11:22all pulled directly from what Google is
11:24already rewarding. It's not an arbitrary
11:26number. It's a measurement of how
11:28closely your content matches what's
11:31already winning. [music] And Surfer
11:32recently rebuilt the content score in a
11:35way that makes it a lot more powerful.
11:37You'll see three numbers now. The big
11:39one in the middle is your overall
11:41content score out of 100. On the left,
11:44your SEO score, how ready your content
11:46is to rank in Google, and on the right,
11:49your AI search score, how ready your
11:51content is to get cited by large
11:53language models. That AI search score is
11:56something I'd pay special attention to.
11:58When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity,
12:01or Google AI mode a question about your
12:03topic, those models pull their answer
12:06from somewhere. Your AI search score is
12:09a direct measurement of how likely that
12:11somewhere is you. Every point [music]
12:13you push that score up is a better shot
12:16at your content being the one that feeds
12:18the AI's answer with your brand named
12:21inside of it. Push both scores into the
12:23green and you've pretty much covered the
12:25whole board. Organic traffic from Google
12:28today and citations in AI answers
12:31tomorrow. So, how do you actually push
12:33those scores up? Two optimization tracks
12:36sitting side by side in the sidebar.
12:39Optimize for SEO and optimize for AI
12:42search. Let's walk through each. Now,
12:45under optimize for SEO, you'll see
12:48entities, which sounds like a scary
12:50insider term, but an entity is just a
12:53specific concept or term that the
12:55top-ranking pages consistently mention.
12:58Think of them as the vocabulary of your
13:00topic. If the top 10 results for how to
13:03write a case study all mention customer
13:05testimonials, ROI, and pain points, and
13:08your content doesn't, Google notices
13:11that gap.
13:12You'll see a count, something like 38
13:15out of 81. That means you've covered 38
13:18of the 81 entities Surfer identified.
13:21You don't need to hit all 81, but the
13:23more relevant ones you cover naturally,
13:26the stronger your topical coverage. And
13:29you don't want to force them in. This
13:30isn't keyword stuffing. If a term does
13:33not fit your content or sounds unnatural
13:36or forced, definitely skip it. But, if
13:39you're missing a core concept, that's a
13:41signal your content has a hole. Now,
13:43this next part is one that didn't exist
13:45a year ago. Under optimize for AI
13:48search, you'll see facts. These are
13:51ideas that LLMs have a history of citing
13:54when users query terms around your
13:56topic. So, if you want to be a source
13:59for AI assistance, you increase your
14:02odds by including these facts. Here's
14:04what's happening behind the scenes.
14:06Surfer pulls information from two types
14:08of sources. You can see them labeled
14:11right here. AI models and web pages.
14:14It's scanning what ChatGPT, Google AI
14:17Overviews, and Perplexity are saying
14:19about your topic, and it's also scanning
14:21the top-ranking web pages. Then, it
14:24identifies the specific facts that these
14:26sources consistently include. Facts are
14:30grouped by topic. So, for how to write a
14:32case study, we have a group called
14:34writing tips with three facts underneath
14:36it. Things like identifying your goal,
14:39including specific data, and making the
14:41customer the protagonist. Each one is a
14:44concrete, verifiable piece of
14:46information that AI systems look for
14:49when deciding whether to cite your
14:50content. The logic is simple. When
14:53someone asks ChatGPT, "How do I write a
14:55case study?" it pulls its answer from
14:58pages that contain real, specific,
15:00factual information, not pages full of
15:03vague advice. The facts panel tells you
15:06exactly what to include, so your content
15:08becomes the kind of source that AI wants
15:11to cite. And if you don't want to add
15:14entities and facts one at a time, hit
15:16auto optimize. It handles both in one
15:19click. It adds missing entities
15:21naturally and inserts relevant facts,
15:24all while preserving your voice and
15:26writing style. Now, one thing worth
15:27calling out, if your score is stuck even
15:31after auto optimize, the gap usually
15:33isn't surface level entities or facts,
15:36it's coverage. You're likely missing a
15:38subtopic the ranking pages all cover.
15:41Open the competitors tab again, look for
15:44a heading two or three of them share
15:46that your outline skipped and write that
15:48section. Eight times out of 10, that
15:51will fill the gap. A few writing
15:53fundamentals while we're here.
15:55First, lead with the answer. I'm a big
15:58fan of bluff, bottom line up front. If
16:01someone searches, "How long does it take
16:03to rank on Google?" your first
16:05paragraph, nay, your first sentence
16:07should give them the answer, typically
16:10three to six months, and then you can
16:12explain the nuance. Don't bury the lead.
16:14The searcher came for an answer, give it
16:16to them, then earn their time with
16:19depth.
16:20Second, use short paragraphs. I'm
16:22talking two to three sentences max. I
16:25know all of you English teachers are
16:28cringing. Walls of text kill mobile
16:31readability though, and most of your
16:33traffic is mobile. Third, use
16:36subheadings every 200 to 300 words.
16:39These help readers scan and give Google
16:42and AI assistants explicit signals about
16:45what each section covers. A good tip
16:47that SEOs have used for decades is to
16:50phrase your headings as the questions
16:52users are actually asking. Lots of
16:54brands still do this and it works like a
16:56charm for both traditional and AI SEO.
17:00Fourth, prioritize clarity over
17:03cleverness. Aim to write at about a
17:06sixth-grade reading level, definitely no
17:08more than an eighth-grade level. Write
17:10so nobody has to reread a sentence to
17:12understand it. Okay, back to my piece.
17:15I've added in the remaining facts,
17:17naturally inserted a good amount of SEO
17:20entities, and gotten myself a
17:22respectable score. But, we're not done
17:24yet. Step three is internal linking.
17:27Internal linking is one of the highest
17:30leverage things you can do for a new
17:32post, and it takes 5 minutes. Now, when
17:34we say internal links, we're
17:36specifically referring to contextual
17:38links from your existing content,
17:40usually the body copy, to your new post,
17:43and from your new post back to related
17:46existing content. You know, the things
17:48all over the average Wikipedia page
17:50leading to every other Wikipedia page.
17:53These help Google discover your page
17:55faster and build topical context. When
17:58you link from your keyword research
18:00guide to this new case study post,
18:02Google understands these topics are
18:04related and that your site
18:05comprehensively covers content
18:07marketing. Connect your Google Search
18:09Console and Surfer scans your existing
18:12content to find relevant internal
18:14linking opportunities. It uses your
18:16actual site data combined with semantic
18:19analysis to suggest links that make
18:21sense, not just keyword matches.
18:24Thanks to Surfer, you can insert all
18:26your relevant contextual links without
18:28even leaving the content editor. This
18:30used to be a manual process of searching
18:33site:yourdomain.com
18:35and finding relevant pages one at a
18:37time. Now, it's done in a single click.
18:41I'll usually aim to add somewhere around
18:43three to five internal links within this
18:45new post pointing to my existing related
18:48content, then go back to three to five
18:51existing posts and add a link from each
18:54of them to this new page. Now, that
18:56second part is really easy to overlook
18:59and forget. Your new page needs incoming
19:01links from your own site, not just
19:04outgoing ones. Those incoming links tell
19:07Google this page matters and where it
19:09fits in your content ecosystem. Now,
19:12with our internal links dialed in, we're
19:14ready to move on to step four,
19:16pre-publish and review.
19:18This is your quality gate, the final
19:21polish before publishing. Now, at this
19:23point, I'll reread the piece, and this
19:26is kind of a little pro tip here, but I
19:27do it on a walk outside. I do it on my
19:31phone, and I do it out loud. Now, this
19:34kind of kills uh
19:35three birds with one stone, I guess, to
19:38expand the metaphor. The first is, when
19:40you read something out loud, you're much
19:41more likely to catch awkward phrasing
19:44that sounded okay as you were writing
19:46it, but sounds weird or throat cleary or
19:50like unnecessary hedging that kind of
19:53weakens the entire piece. Secondly, I
19:55like to go on a walk simply because when
19:58I get out of my house, get out of my
20:00home office here, and just kind of walk
20:02around, there's a lot of science that
20:03shows that it engages your brain in a
20:05different way. And it can help you
20:06identify things to make the piece even
20:09better. And then, obviously, I'm reading
20:10on my phone because I'm out of the
20:12house, always wearing my AirPods so my
20:15neighbors don't think I'm insane talking
20:17to myself. I'll also ask myself, how can
20:19this piece be even better? For me, this
20:23means including real screenshots of case
20:25studies, potentially sourcing some
20:27expert quotes from brands who are doing
20:30case studies well, and if I have access
20:32to design resources, building custom
20:35visual assets for the piece. Think
20:37infographics, diagrams, stuff like that.
20:40I'll also usually do a quick scan on
20:42YouTube to see if there are any relevant
20:44videos I can embed into the piece. And
20:47no, it doesn't have to be videos from
20:49your brand. Any videos help break up the
20:52copy and increase engagement with the
20:54page.
20:55Now, once I'm done here, I'll use
20:56Surfer's three quality control tools for
20:59pre-publishing. First, the readability
21:01score. This tells you what education
21:03level a reader needs to understand your
21:05content, hypothetically. You'll see a
21:07number and a plain English description,
21:09something like your text can be read by
21:12people with at least a college-level
21:13education. For most content, you want
21:16this to be accessible to as broad an
21:18audience as possible. If the score is
21:20low, simplify your sentence structure
21:23and cut the jargon. Hit run plagiarism
21:25checker and it compares your content
21:27against what's already indexed. Original
21:30content ranks, duplicate content
21:32doesn't. Plus, it's a really bad luck.
21:34If you used AI to help draft, this is
21:37especially important. AI tools sometimes
21:39produce passages that closely mirror
21:42existing published content. Finally, AI
21:44readability. Hit analyze content and
21:47Surfer scans your article against the
21:49formatting that AI systems prefer when
21:52deciding what to cite. Clear structure,
21:55defined terms, factual claims with
21:57context. Think of it as, would an AI
22:00model be able to pull a clean, accurate
22:03answer from your page? Think of
22:04pre-publish review as your pre-flight
22:06checklist. Readable for humans and AI,
22:09check. No plagiarism issues, check.
22:12Every section delivers on its heading,
22:13check. Okay, now it's time to move on to
22:16step five. Publish or export. Congrats,
22:19you've made it. Once everything checks
22:21out, it's time to ship this piece.
22:23First, meta tags. Surfer generates a
22:26title and meta description for you with
22:28character counts right there. Your
22:30target keyword should be near the front
22:32of the title and the description should
22:34tell the searcher exactly what they'll
22:36get. For export, you have options. If
22:39your WordPress site is connected to
22:41Surfer, you can publish directly from
22:43here. Otherwise, copy your content as
22:45formatted text or markdown. Or download
22:48it as HTML or markdown for whatever CMS
22:52you're using. One important thing after
22:53you publish, don't expect results in
22:56week one or heck, even month one. Google
22:59needs to crawl, index, and evaluate your
23:02content. And most pages reach their
23:04ranking potential in 3 to 6 months. If
23:07you're in a low competition niche, it
23:10can be a lot faster. In a competitive
23:12one, anything like legal, finance,
23:14health, even digital marketing, plan on
23:17the top end of that range or even
23:20longer. So, set a reminder to check this
23:23piece in Google Search Console at 30,
23:2660, and 90 days. If you see it climbing,
23:29your process worked. If it's stuck, you
23:31can come back into the content editor,
23:34check what's now ranking above you, and
23:36fill in those gaps. Surfer's content
23:39score will update with fresh SERP data,
23:41so you can see exactly where your
23:43content has fallen behind. So, that's
23:46the whole process. Pick a keyword, run
23:49it through these five steps, and ship
23:51something this week. Nothing makes it
23:53real like doing it once. Yes, AI tools
23:57allow anybody to create content, but
23:59creating excellent content that's
24:01useful, unique, informative, and
24:04optimized for search, that's still a
24:06coveted skill set. And Surfer can help
24:09you get there. Links to all the Surfer
24:11tools I've discussed will be in the
24:12description if you want to learn more.
24:15Subscribe for more SEO tutorials, and if
24:17you want to keep learning, be sure to
24:19watch this video next. Thanks for
24:22watching, and happy ranking.

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