How to SEO for Beginners: Simple Tips to Use for Your Content

If you are going to write online content, you will need to have some expertise in SEO. It is very important to help your work stand out and get you traffic from Google. In case you don't know, SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and it is pivotal to helping your content get seen. There are more advanced tactics, but for sites like Vocal, knowing even the basics can help you be more successful as a writer. Here are some quick tips you can use for your articles to make them more SEO friendly:

The Title Matters A Lot

Most importantly for a site like Vocal is the title. People are not going to be adding meta tags or anything to their posts, they just want to post about their topic of choosing. But you can put thought into the title to not only make it stand out, but word it in a way that people will be searching for it. For example, look at the title of this post. I added the words "how to" because that is the way people might search for something. You also need to have the keywords in the title that you think people will search for. But do not make the title too robotic, you still want it to be interesting. The key is to think like someone who is on Google. How would they word what they are looking for? If you can match the wording closely, a lot more people will see your post in the search list. This is very important, as titles have a big impact on searches, so put the effort into making it look right.

Niche Topics Are Your Friend

Do not worry about going for the popular searches. Google is very competitive. Top topics are not only going to have experts making SEO posts for them, but people will also pay to get their stuff seen on Google. Top posts can cost dollars per click, and if you are a new content creator, odds are you do not have that kind of money to spend. We are all starving artists. Try for more niche topics (yes, that also works as a pun) that are less competitive. There are a lot of people on the web and they all have their own interests. You never know what people are looking for or how many people wanted a review to that movie you thought only you saw. Picking topics that are less popular can ironically help you become more popular as a writer. And do not stress about it. Write about what you like and what you know. This will make things much more enjoyable for you on days where traffic is not coming.

Length Matters (Insert Your Own Dirty Joke)

700 words minimum is what you should be aiming for roughly. But don't let that get to you if you want to write longer pieces. Around 1,000 is a good length for an article, and if you can write 1,200, even better. From my research, I have discovered you want to make sure your article is at least 300 words for a Google search. But aim to get at least 700 words, if you are able.

The Importance Of Links

Besides the title, links can really help you drive traffic to a site. When your post is up and ready, it is up to you to get the link out there. You can do your own social media posts to help drive traffic to the post, but you want to also try to get your link on as many high quality sites that you can. The more high quality sites that link to your site, the higher you will rank in the SEO lists. But quality really matters. You are better getting less links from high quality sites then getting a bunch of links from sites that Google does not think are high quality.

Put the time in to do these small things and it can help your organic traffic for your posts. This is the best kind of traffic, as you get it while you sleep. Do not go crazy over it or worry about posting about the most popular topics, but do a bit of research and add these little changes; it might help you a lot in the long run.