Semrush Just Dropped 12 SEO Writing Tips for 2026, and Most Agencies Will Still Ignore the Boring Ones

Semrush published a fresh list of 12 SEO writing tips for 2026, and a few clients sent it to me. So I read it twice and then sat down to write what I actually think.

Short version: the list is solid. The problem is that the tips that will matter most for local businesses and growing brands are also the ones marketers are most likely to skim past.

Part 1: What Semrush Actually Said

Semrush published "12 SEO writing tips to earn visibility [2026]" on June 10, 2026 (Semrush, 2026). The article is a practitioner-focused checklist aimed at writers, in-house marketers, and SEO leads trying to earn visibility in both classic Google search and AI answer engines.

The 12 tips, summarised, cover: finding a primary keyword, choosing secondary keywords, analysing search intent, making an outline, creating quality content, using keywords naturally in your content, structuring content with subheadings, making content easy to read, adding internal and external links, writing an optimised title tag and meta description, optimising the URL slug, and getting feedback on your content.

Part 2: The 66th Take

Here's the thing about a list like this. Every tip on it is correct. None of them are wrong. But treating all 12 as equal is how brands waste time pushing content that ranks for nothing and gets cited by no AI system.

Let me rank them by what actually drives outcomes for the kind of clients we work with: local service businesses, ecommerce brands, and SaaS teams trying to win category visibility.

The 3 tips that actually move rankings in 2026

If you only do 3 things from Semrush's list, do these.

1. Original data and examples. This is the single biggest separator between content that gets cited by ChatGPT and content that disappears. Generic restatements of what's already on the internet do not earn citations. Specific numbers, screenshots, client outcomes, and first-person observations do.

2. Match the SERP feature, not the keyword. Semrush mentions this and then moves on. I'd put it at the top. If the SERP for your target term is dominated by a comparison table, a how-to with steps, or an AI Overview that pulls from list posts, you need to write that format. Writing a 2,000-word essay when Google wants a 12-row table is how you stay invisible. This is also why we built our depth map process before any writer touches a draft.

3. Descriptive H2s and H3s. This is the boring one nobody clicks on. It's also the one that determines whether an LLM can extract your content as a clean answer chunk. Headings like "Pricing" lose. Headings like "How much does a roof replacement cost in Vancouver in 2026" win, because they match how people and AI systems phrase questions.

The tips Semrush undersells

The tips I'd demote

Short sentences and active voice are good writing advice. They are not ranking factors. A long, well-constructed sentence that answers a specific question will outrank a choppy, shallow one every time. Edit for clarity, not for word count.

The TL;DR at the top is fine, but it's become a tell. When every article opens with "TL;DR: here are the 5 things you need to know," readers tune it out and so do AI systems looking for substantive content. A real thesis statement in your opening 2 paragraphs does the same job better.

What Semrush did not say, and should have

The list is a writer's list. It treats SEO writing as a craft problem. In 2026, the craft is necessary but not sufficient. The 3 things missing from the article that matter more than half the tips on it:

• Entity and author signals. Who wrote this, what else have they written, and is the author entity connected to a real, citable person? AI systems weight this heavily.
• Review and citation density off-page. A page does not earn AI visibility in isolation. It earns it when the brand around it shows up in third-party lists, reviews, and structured directories. This is the part of GEO that sits outside the writing itself.
• Format honesty. If your page is a thin product page pretending to be a guide, no amount of writing tips will fix it. Sometimes you need a new page in a different format, not better prose.

What to actually do with the Semrush list

If you're an in-house marketer reading this, here's the order I'd run it in. Pick your next 5 pieces of content. Before writing, decide: what SERP feature am I targeting, what original data am I bringing, and what is the H2 structure that matches the actual question being asked. Write the draft. Then come back and apply the rest of Semrush's tips during edit.

Do not apply 12 tips evenly to every post. That's how you end up with content that ticks every box and earns no visibility. We see this pattern constantly when we audit prospect sites. Everything is technically correct. Nothing is specific.

The brands winning in 2026 are not following longer checklists. They're going deeper on 3 or 4 things that compound. The Semrush list is a good reminder of what those things could be. The work is deciding which 3 to actually commit to.

If you want help running that decision against your own site, we do this as part of every SEO retainer. Start with the audit tool or get in touch.