3 Hot tips for a Better SEO Strategy

3 Hot Tips for a Better SEO Strategy

Understanding the Need for a Better SEO Strategy

If there is anything worth knowing when it comes to writing online, then it is knowing how having an SEO strategy can go a long way in making your writing a success!

That being said, SEO seems like a scary topic many of us don't want to learn about, don't want to deal with, and certainly don't want to be told how important it is to our work thriving and surviving.

Trust me. I know how you feel.

I avoided learning a single thing about SEO anything for YEARS.

As I am writing this I have had at least two blogs and been writing on platforms like Vocal and Medium for a while and have had next to zero success. Honestly, a large part of the reason for my lack of success had nothing to do with having (or not having) an SEO strategy. However, a big part of the reason is exactly because I refused to get bogged down worrying about something like SEO.

So, if you have seen me write out SEO several times now and have no idea what I am talking about, then let me fill you in. It stands for Search Engine Optimization. In short, it means intentionally including certain words and phrases to help search engines find your writing and bring it higher up the rankings on their search engine.

Google is pretty much your go-to friend when it comes to this type of thing because every single one of us end up using Google at least a handful of times per day. In fact, a quick google search reveals the average person is making between 3 and 4 searches per day on Google. That doesn't seem like much, but this adds up to be between 1,095 and 1,460 google searches per person per year!!!

If you can snag even a handful of those google searches each day on your topic you are writing about online, then you can see how quickly this can snowball into something bigger and bigger.

Hopefully you can at least acknowledge the potential in taking advantage of Google's systems to bring you more business, exposure, income, etc. Taking it all in can be a bit like drinking from a firehose but I'll try and make it as simple as possible for you.

How to Start Implementing a Better SEO Strategy

Weirdly enough, I have found a lot of questions online about SEO skipping from why it matters to how to make SEO work for you without touching on how to really have a strategy in place for taking advantage of the SEO system set up. So, who am I to judge? Let's go with the flow that seems to work for everyone before getting to the juicy stuff!

Vocal actually has a great article about this exact topic here. To summarize some of their points, integrate keywords well, structure and headings are important to Google, and links are good!

If you can follow some of those few simple rules, then you will be on your way to creating some great content with great SEO practices.

Make sure your keywords aren't just spammed all over the place. Be sure to make sure your content is rock solid and organized well with great headings and subheadings. Never forget to use links when appropriate, especially to your own content! These practices are going to be a good start for you. However, they may not help you succeed consistently. This is why you need to have a Better SEO Strategy!

So, here are three hot tips to get you started creating a strategy to use over and over again!

Hot Tip # 1 - Create keywords with questions in mind

You may have the perfect piece written about how to raise kittens on your farm, and that is wonderful, but if people aren't looking up "how to raise kittens on a farm" you aren't going to be getting many clicks and reads, right?

So, this first step to a Better SEO Strategy is to stick with what you are writing but be thinking about what questions might people be asking to get to your awesome content.

For your piece about raising kittens on a farm you could see if people might ask a question in a certain way where you can swoop in with the obvious answer. Imagine you are on Google searching for this exact blog post. How did you get there?

"Will my kittens be safe on my farm?"

"How to protect kittens on a farm?"

"Farm-raised kittens?"

"Kittens on a farm?"

People type in some weird ways of saying and asking questions into Google. So, for your Better SEO Strategy to work you need to be on their level. You need to be thinking of all the ways someone might ask the question you are answering and then find the keywords that work with what you have prepared and create your content accordingly.

"Farm Kittens: A How-To Guide"

"Kitten Farm: 10 Steps to Raise Them Right!"

There are just two example to get you started based around some of the questions people might be typing into Google above. Keep practicing and working on asking good Google questions and finding keywords to help keep your piece floating near the top of Google's search engine!

Hot Tip # 2 - Organize organically

Your gut reaction might be to start throwing in keywords every which way to hammer down how important your piece is to the topic at hand.

This is going to work against you in the long run, though.

What you need to be working on is how you can write as you normally would in a way that doesn't scare off your regular readers but allows for organic ways to slip in your keywords.

This may mean mapping out your writing a little bit more than you are used to, but it will be a lot better in the long run. You may also find out planning your writing ahead of time ends up making writing a little bit easier, too!

So, if you are writing about farm kittens and haven't finished the piece or are starting to brainstorm the piece make sure you have followed Hot Tip # 1 and thought through what questions you can help answer about this topic. Then, once you have done that and chosen a keyword fitting for your topic, then begin to map out what you want to write in a way that works best for you and intentionally and organically plot out where might be some good places to slip in your keywords without making it too over the top.

If you only have a few things to say about farm kittens and plan on writing something around the 500-800 words mark, then it might be good to slip in your keyword just two or three times, not including the title. However, if this is going to be a blog demolisher of 2,000+ words, then you are going to want to adjust accordingly and space the keywords out throughout your piece.

Going into the piece with an idea of how you want to practically include the keywords without it seeming forced is going to be an awesome part of your Better SEO Strategy!

Hot Tip # 3 - Link on Purpose

Links, as I mentioned before, are important for Google's search engine. Especially links to the past. Just kidding. Small video game humor.

Good links are ones with the same domain name. Essentially, linking to your own stuff is great for SEO as long as it is relevant! If I were to link to my other post about how to write a Success Strategy it would kind of fit but also wouldn't fit quite right. It is written on Vocal, though, so it does share a domain name! So, overall, not a bad link to use!

As you plan out the piece you are writing which answers a good Google question you can also keep in mind anything you have written that might touch on the subject. Use these links well, though, don't spam them all over the place. In fact, Vocal has another great article about how to practically and efficiently create a linking system with some good thoughts as to how it might apply to using links in your own writing!

One key piece of information to keep in mind, though, as you use links in your Better SEO Strategy is to make sure these links are important and you are using them for a good reason, not only to boost your SEO scores. You need to always remember to link on purpose and with intention.

A Better SEO Strategy

Well, we did it. We talked a bit about what SEO is, how it works, and three hot tips to help you create an actual strategy for your SEO practices. You can do it. You can make this whole SEO thing work for you. I hope in some small way this helps you succeed more and more and see the benefits to taking advantage of Google's search engines.

If I can do this and figure it out in little ways, then so can you! I avoided it for so long and now, hopefully, I have helped you not avoid it to make good use of it sooner than I did!

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I am a freelance writer with a background in Ministry and experience everywhere from technical document writing to copy writing to creative writing. I have interests and knowledge in Ministry, Marketing, Parenting, Leadership, and Technology. If you are looking for someone to work with and like what you see, then email me at [email protected] or check out my portfolio at .contently.com.