Why start with SEO when you write content?
Most people choose a random idea with little to no thought about optimizing it for the search engines. More generally, too many people have a great idea they think will be “the next big thing” or take off as a successful business. The reality is most of these ideas are doomed to fail before they even get realized. The problem lies in not understanding marketing or applying it in the form of SEO.When they choose an idea, write some content, create a headline, and throw it up on their website, they secretly hope to get some traffic. This is like shooting at a target in the dark. Here’s why…
Effective Marketing Starts With Your Audience In Mind
Marketing is the vehicle that delivers a solution to an audience with a need. Without marketing, great products will just collect dust and audiences will be left without a solution. Optimizing your content for search engines IS the marketing that will get your solutions found by your prospects.
Therefore, it’s important to first think about what it is your audience needs and give that to them.
The beauty with search engines is that people are actively searching for answers, solutions, and information. You can literally tap into this and see what people are looking for, then go about creating content around it.
How do you know what people are searching for? You look at the keywords or search phrases they use.
Knowing Your Audience Starts with Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of discovering and finding which keywords people in your niche are looking for. Effective keyword research reveals keywords with a good amount of monthly search volume and low competition. Ideally, look for long tail keywords, which are keyword phrases with 3 or more words. The benefit of long tail keywords is that they are much easier to rank for (low competition) and are more specific (higher conversion rate).Each page or blog post you create should only target one main keyword. The purpose of the content is to back up and flesh out the keyword concept, while primarily focusing on giving the reader high quality and valuable content that solves their problem, answers their questions, and gives them exactly what they want. This builds trust and establishing your brand or company as an authority which increases the chance that you’ll make a sale at a later point.
To do keyword research, you’ll need a keyword research tool. The most common one is the free Google Keyword Planner, however, lately Google has started limiting the accuracy of the monthly search volume for accounts that are not spending on their Google AdWords platform. As an alternative, there are many different tools out there. We recommend KW Finder or Longtail Platinum. Both of these tools have the ability to calculate the keyword competition or difficulty level.
So you’ve done your keyword research and chosen your keyword. Now what? The next step is writing your content and optimizing it around the keyword.
Optimizing Your Content
There are certain on-page HTML elements that are SEO sensitive which the search engines look at to determine what the page is about and how relevant it is to a certain keyword as well as how high it should rank it as part of the 200 other factors.We have a full guide on how to optimize content for a keyword that you can read more about.
Do You See Why You Need To Start With SEO?
By creating content around what people are looking for, you will increase your chances for ranking high in the search engines and getting more free, targeted traffic. You now have a proven strategy that works, so start applying it and using it the next time you write content for your website!
That’s it! If you feel this post has helped you, or you want to share your thoughts, then leave your comment below. If you feel you need more explanation or clarification on this topic, let us know and we’ll update this post shortly afterwards.
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