What is Search Engine Optimization: Is SEO important & 7 killer tips for starters

Hello reader,

Are you someone who often spots “SEO” on ads and videos, wondering what importance it holds and what’s the fuzz about? Or do you acknowledge the importance of SEO but sense it to be a complicated theory to learn at the moment? If yes, then this article is for you!

Some writers blog for a hobby but in the back of their minds, the dilemma of whether to promote it often continues.

If you have plans to share your ideas on a large scale or to make an earning out of your content, then be assured that search engine optimization will empower your purpose. Here we’ll unravel a few basics on the same. Plus, the last part of this article will share some practical tips that you can start with right away.

By now you are obvious that SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. So,

What is meant by Search Engine Optimization?

SEO is a strategy that search engines (like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) use, to rank your page higher on their search results.

“And why would I need that?” If you want readers, moreover, if you want conversions, it has to begin with someone clicking on your website. And amongst many competitors, where would you like to see yourself ranked on the search results? At least on the first page to start with, right?

You can find your content discoverable amongst top contenders with the correct SEO strategy. This will help you to earn those clicks, to begin with, and make your content reach your readers. Again, it’s not just content, but SEO content!

How SEO works?

Google uses a spider tool that “crawls’ over your content to optimize it and if your content aligns with the algorithm, it gets pushed to the reader eyes who are searching for it in the web pool. (Doesn’t that sound like a friendly spidey?)

This requires keyword research (later on what is SEO keyword?) on what people are looking for. Additionally, you've to artfully blend SEO rules in your content, so that it doesn't compensate for human readability.

If the content is not optimized for SEO, it may not easily be visible on Google searches due to being SEO unfriendly. Then,

What is meant by Search Engine Optimization content writing?

A commonly asked question is, whether SEO content writing is the same as content writing. Although they sound similar, “SEO” makes that difference. Content writing involves outlining, typing, and finally editing, to publish for Digital Marketing purposes (after all content writing is a sub-niche under Digital Marketing).

The purpose of Content Writing is purely for our human readers. And also, comes in various forms such as

1. Blogs

2. Website content

3. Technical writing

4. Social Media Marketing

5. Affiliate marketing

6. Ebooks

7. Listicles

8. Etc.

You should be wondering whom SEO writings are intended for since there is no one else to write for other than humans. The purpose of SEO writing is for humans -as well as search engines- so that the writing becomes discoverable via organic search.

So, which one is better?

This depends on you. Some websites don’t follow SEO strategy but still have many visitors owing to the content they offer their readers. If you just prefer to blog and publish on your own amongst friends, relatives, and networks, then content writing is ok. But if you wish to be reachable to a large audience, then SEO should be your preference.

Nowadays, companies who hire writers also expect freelancers to be conversant with SEO skills. So if you are interested, below are a few valuable (and FREE) tips that you could take home and start applying.

7 killer tips for effective Search Engine Optimization writing

1. Choose a killer title!

The whole game begins with the right title because if the title doesn’t hook the readers, how would they reach the intended content?

The first thing we’ve is our niche or the topic we want to write on. This may take time for beginners and the only option they could focus on is being a general writer who writes on various niches.

The second thing is to discover how much of a trending topic the title is.

This is achievable through a few SEO writing tools like UberSuggest, Buzzsumo, Google Trends, etc. With their help, we can get helpful stats on the usage of keywords.

There are more tips on making our title popular. The title should open a curiosity loop in the minds of readers to know more about the topic and feel assured of getting it closed by the end of the content.

Let me share with you a gift for writing killer headlines that will benefit you a lot as a writer: Cool tips for a great Headline, Unlimited Headline Tips, Tips for Killer Headlines…

2. Choosing the right keywords

And this is the main arena where the show takes place. Many people ask “what is SEO keyword?”. It is the utilization of trending keywords that is searched online by surfers. The above SEO writing tools will give us complete information on that. Just type the keyword you want to write about and you’ll get the list of all related keywords.

Set a primary and a secondary keyword. The primary keyword should fit in the heading, subheadings, and conclusion. This doesn’t imply that we overstuff our content with keywords forcefully but this should look natural. Believe it or not: SEO strategy can even detect whether the article is intended for the audience or SEO. The latter won’t give good results.

More on this, after entering the keyword on Google search, try adding related keywords to your articles as well.

Related Keywords

An invaluable tip: Google also shows what people are asking for, and this is for a reason. Google wants your write-ups to serve the audience through these questions. If you do, the content gets leverage.

4. Adding appropriate images

Make sure you add images on the page, as much as possible. After all, they act like spices to a meal, making the meal tastier. Mamamiya…

These could be infographics or even stats.

Not only do the images need to be appropriate, but size matters as well. It should be the right fit. Research says that the larger the image size is, the heavier it makes the website, and the longer it takes for the page to load. And many users won’t be interested in a page that takes more time to load. Interesting info from https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-copywriting/

Adding appropriate images contributes well to optimized content that qualifies for Search Engine Optimization.

5. Content

Your content should be easily readable so that the reader doesn’t have to stop anywhere and simply skim through it.

Not just that, your paragraphs should consist of 4-5 lines or lesser, broken into 2-3 crisp and short sentences. The paragraphs should explain not more than 1 concept.

This is achievable with an outline prepared before starting the write-up. Outlining is an essential step in writing that should be practiced by every writer, as it gives an idea about what subheadings we will include. Not just the subheadings but where the keywords will go, in which subheading, and in which part of the content (without overstuffing them).

Consistent formatting is also essential. Avoiding plagiarism, spun content, and grammar defects are obvious checks that are needless to mention.

6. Adding links

Adding interlinks on your pages helps the SEO to form a virtual sitemap, making it more optimized.

Not just interlinks, but providing reference links to other websites makes your blog more authentic. This is very essential for beginners because they have no popularity or authority at that moment and so they borrow it from others.

So adding links is another efficient way to rank your page on Google. The latter is called backing up the content with original references.

7. Practice

In the end, there’s nothing more effective than practice. Practice makes a man perfect. Keep writing daily. Posting daily also freshly feeds the SEO and increases the chances of your content becoming easily discoverable.

Conclusion

Hoping that this article benefitted you with a basic idea of what is search engine optimization (SEO) tool, which is important for making our content discoverable to a wider audience on search engines like Google.

Writing for SEO should be naturally achieved without losing the flow in your content that enlightens the readers, and also qualifies for ranking well on the search.

There’s another tip that I skipped. Please comment below if you are interested to know and also add your ideas.

P.S: These are a few beneficial tips that I mentioned and you can explore more. But starting with these instantly will help you a lot. Hoping to read your article written for Search Engine Optimization. Do share the link :)

FAQ

Q. What is SEO in simple words?

Search Engine Optimization in simple words can be likened to a matchmaker between your content and your reader. All you need to do is tell SEO that you need its help, by optimizing your content with SEO rules.

Q. What is SEO keyword?

Keywords that are most searched on the web by surfers are categorized into primary and secondary. When placed rightly and naturally in your writeup it greatly optimizes your content. This surely requires research through SEO tools as mentioned above.

Q. How many keywords should be inserted in an article?

The total number of keywords that an article should contain is 0.5% - 0.75% of its total word count. This is for the primary keywords. The secondary keyword could repeat 3 times in the main body.

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