Why "Just Write Naturally” Is Terrible Advice
(If You Want To Be Found)
“Just write naturally for your audience.”
It’s the kind of advice that sounds simple… almost wholesome.
You hear it tossed around in writing guides, marketing circles, creative groups, content strategy guides.
And in a vacuum, it’s lovely.
It evokes a kind of ease—like you’re sitting down at a cafe, opening your laptop, and pouring your thoughts into a document that just happens to resonate with exactly the right people.
But if your goal is to be found—to rank organically, to have strangers discover your work through search—then that advice gets complicated. Fast.
I learned that the hard way.
In the early days of writing online, I believed I could just write in my own voice, for my own audience, and everything else would take care of itself.
But I also wanted my work to rank. I wanted it to show up in search engines. I wanted it to be discoverable regardless of whether I was actively promoting it or not.
But that didn’t happen.
What I didn’t realize at the time is that those goals—writing naturally and writing to rank—often pull you in opposite directions.
I’d spend hours trying to write what felt “natural,” while simultaneously optimizing for keywords, formatting for search intent, and matching tone to the query.
It felt like trying to walk a tightrope while juggling… and also reciting a script.
And the result?
Well, it wasn’t always good writing. And it didn’t typically rank organically either.
I’ve seen a lot of people hit that same wall.
They followed the advice: “Just write for your audience. Be authentic. Let the algorithm find you.”
So they did.
They started blogs. They launched small businesses. They created content with a hope and a prayer that it would rank, get found, and somehow resonate with an invisible audience out there in the void…
Only to end up discouraged when that never happened. Then they gave up.
They remain invisible to this day.
Here’s the reality:
If you’re writing with the hope of showing up in organic search, you’re not just writing for your audience.
You’re writing for algorithms.
Yes, I said it.
I don’t care what anyone tells you—when you’re trying to rank, you’re writing for systems. Mostly invisible ones, with their own proprietary algorithmic rules and priorities.
And lately, those rules have been shifting.
The number of words that people use to search are getting longer, more specific, more conversational—thanks in large part to tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which are changing how people think and ask questions.
At the same time, SERPs—Search Engine Results Pages—are more crowded than ever.
Between AI Overviews, People Also Ask boxes, sponsored placements, and rich snippets, the first true organic result often doesn’t even appear until someone scrolls past ‘the fold’.
And if you’ve ever tried to make sense of things like N-grams, latent semantic indexing, how Google interprets entities, or weighs in brand-specific search volume…
Well, it’s enough to make even seasoned SEO professionals rub their temples.
All of this means: writing “naturally,” in the purest sense, doesn’t always cut through.
You have to write strategically.
With structure. With clarity.
And with a deep understanding of the actual language your reader is already using to search for answers.
Not to mention, a core understanding of how search engines determine which content gets sifted to the bottom, and which content gets surfaced at the top.
But here’s the part I’ve come to peace with:
Writing for search doesn’t mean you have to lose your voice.
It just means you learn how to adapt it.
You can still write in a way that feels like you—
But now you’re also writing in a way that meets your reader where they are.
Sometimes that means swapping a poetic phrase for something more direct.
Sometimes it means repeating a term that feels clunky—or placing it in a header, even when you wouldn’t have done so otherwise—just because it’s what people are actually typing, and it’s how the search engines ‘read’ your site and organize the information.
It’s not selling out.
It’s just being clear.
And clarity, I’ve found, is one of the most generous forms of writing there is.
...Because the deeper truth is this:
The algorithm may bring someone to your work.
But it’s your voice that makes them stay.
And that’s part of why I write this specific publication here—on Substack.
Not to rank. Not to optimize.
Not to reverse-engineer search queries or play by the rules of content pillars, backlinks, or SEO scaffolding.
But to speak plainly.
To think on the page.
To share something real without counting keywords or trying to game the system.
So that you can learn how to create content that does rank. Otherwise, this article would have headers crafted with keywords.
Paragraphs would have forced phrases that might not necessarily flow as naturally otherwise.
And you'd find internal and external links sprinkled throughout—carefully selected from authoritative sources, alongside my own articles expanding the topic.
But here, to get this in front of you, I don’t necessarily need to satisfy the algorithm gods.
Just the quiet voice that says, just write.
Here's what they need to know.
Closer to how writing used to feel—before content became a strategy, before “reach” or “conversions” were metrics.
Just my thoughts, from brain to page.
My words, in my voice.
No middleman. No formatting tricks.
And maybe that’s the real freedom in all of this—
Not chasing the algorithm…
but focusing on clarity.
A different form of clarity.
Thanks for reading.
If you’re trying to get seen, and want help navigating that balance, I’m happy to chat. Book a call with me today.
Or message me right here on Substack:
Either way—I’m glad you’re here.