Good writers produce poor SEO content when briefed badly, and the usual response — adding keyword requirements — makes it worse.
Do not ask writers to optimise
Asking a writer to hit term counts turns them into a compliance function and removes the judgement you hired them for. The brief should describe the reader and the question; the structural requirements belong in the brief's shape, not in the writer's word choices.
Specify the question, the reader, and the completeness bar
Who is asking, what they already know, what they must be able to do afterwards, and what the piece must cover to be genuinely complete. A writer given that produces content that covers the topic properly, which is what the optimisation was a proxy for.
Structure is the editor's job
Headings that match how people phrase the question, a direct answer near the top, scannable sections. These are structural decisions an editor can apply consistently without asking the writer to think about search at all.
Review against the reader, not a score
If the draft answers the question better than the pages currently ranking, it will compete. If it hits every tool score and reads as assembled, it will not — and no amount of further optimisation fixes that.