What comes to mind when you hear “SEO”?

Most would answer KEYWORDS!

SEO and keywords often make us nervous as content creators who don’t have “SEO” or “keyword” in their job titles.

Good news!

The keyword is just one piece of the SEO puzzle.

You don’t need to be a whiz at Google’s ever-changing algorithm or re-investigate a mile-long spreadsheet of long-tail keywords every month to win the organic traffic game.

Stuffing a piece of content with keywords no longer works as Google gets smarter and evaluates various components in a piece of content to determine its relevance and ranking.

The various factors that contribute to good SEO also contribute to good content consumption by HUMAN BEINGS.

If you look at the most popular white hat approaches to driving organic traffic, like Brain Dean’s Skyscraper Technique and 16 SEO Copywriting Tips, there’s a lot more to them than just keyword research.

The essence is to gather useful resources from reputable authority sites to support your content, provide valuable and relevant information to your audience, and write in an engaging style so your readers will spend time reading your articles, bookmark your site, and share your content.

Yes, just by doing that, you can get SEO points like increased dwell time, bookmarking, social sharing, comments, reduced bounce rates, external links, and more.

How to do that without spending hours producing content?

I write long-form content for a few SaaS companies specifically for the purpose of driving organic traffic, i.e. boosting SEO for their websites, white hat style.

I submit about 3 pieces of 2000 word articles per week on average, while I’m not working on my business, dealing with kids, or riding my bike.

I’ve perfected a system that allows me to post high-quality content on tight deadlines… (hey, I’m getting paid… not some bland kumbaya guest post).

I am NOT giving you a cookie cutter process so you can write cloned SEO articles. You can go to Fiverr for that…

I’ve prepared checks and balances to make sure you’re not just regurgitating stuff pulled from the web… you’re writing SEO friendly content while expressing your ORIGINALITY without reinventing the wheel:

1. Decide the keywords to rank for and create a title

If this isn’t your first time on the block, you’ve probably been through the keyword research movement for your niche and have a listing lying in a corner somewhere.

You are also the EXPERT at what you do, even with your eyes closed you know what annoys your ideal clients and what questions and words your friends would Google.

That means you don’t really have to do any extra work. Hurrah!

First, what do you want to write about?

So, what keywords does this topic you want to write about relate to?

Bam, you already have your keyword list!

Play around with those keywords and what special sauce you want to bring to the table. Mix and match until you find 5-10 headline options.

Your headline should be attention-grabbing, unique, curious, specific, communicate urgency, and/or indicate utility.

(Bonus tip: You don’t have to toss the rest after you pick the winner. You may want to use one with more personality for your own website and one that’s simpler for the version you post on LinkedIn Pulse. You can also reuse some other for social media graphics).

Do you have a winner? Okay! Now let’s continue…

2. Ask Google

Let’s reiterate… you are the EXPERT, so you have a pretty good idea of ​​the authority sites and reliable sources on your topic.

(If you’re writing articles for niches that you know nothing about selling melon widgets just to make a quick buck, this may not be for you.)

Now open good old Google and enter a keyword or phrase.

Lots of items come out that rank high (obviously!)

These articles should come from fairly reputable sources, and linking to high-ranking content from trusted sources in your article can boost SEO.

Explore a few, and you should have a pretty good idea of ​​what useful information you can glean from them.

Repeat for a few more keywords/phrases or related keywords/phrases…

(Note down the URLs as you go so you don’t have to wonder “where did I see this?”)

By now you should have a VERY good idea of ​​the SEO-worthy resources at your fingertips.

3. Define your point of view

Here’s the thing: if you just follow a formula and add a ton of information, you might get eyeballs, but you probably won’t get the next thing, being known for your unique positioning, building credibility, or increasing your expert status (which you will). all). generate customers, sales and everything good).

To make this whole content marketing thing really work for you, my maverick entrepreneur friend, you need to boldly and unapologetically express a unique POINT OF VIEW.

Articulate your values, beliefs, point of view, personality…and why all of this is important to your readers so you can create content that truly connects, resonates, and converts.

What is your ANGLE on this topic?

How are you going to FRAME your POV?

How can you weave a NARRATIVE using the information you found in your research (step 2) that will drive and support your POV?

4. Outline your frame

Now that you have the raw material, let’s give your narrative a framework to organize the talking points in a way that makes sense.

First, define the problem: what are the biggest issues or challenges your readers are facing on this particular issue that also highlight your expertise?

This will help you frame your content to answer the most important question your readers have: why should I care?

It doesn’t matter how thorough your research is, how good your content is, or how smart you are… if readers don’t think the article is RELEVANT to them, THEY DON’T GIVE A SHIT.

(If they don’t give a shit, you don’t get clicks, dwell time, or other SEO-enhancing interactions.)

Once you’re clear about what’s important to your audience, you can plan your subheadings, then place bullet points under each one based on the information you find in your research.

By now, you should have a very good understanding of its content.

Before completing your outline and writing the meat, you must first set the tone for the article…

5. Don’t skip the intro

People have an attention span on the internet of 6-8 seconds, actually, that’s shorter than a goldfish.

Your introduction should grab their attention, be captivating, and pique their interest enough for them to stick around and read your stuff.

Reminder: you are the EXPERT and you know your people. Don’t let other “gurus” who know nothing about your business tell you what to say. Say something relevant to YOUR friends.

You can earn SEO brownie points with a well-written introduction by (1) making your visitors want to keep reading, thus increasing their dwell time, and (2) using keywords you want to rank for.

Here are some ideas for the introduction:

– Carrot: Present the compelling, fact-based benefits of learning about the topic of your article.

– Stick: Present the compelling fact-based drawback of not knowing about the subject of your article.

– Sugar: Our brains fire up differently when we listen to stories and pay attention. You can use your own story, your clients’ story, or other people you know and your readers can relate to. The more relatable your story, the better. Here are some storytelling techniques.

– Spice: Make a bold and controversial statement that reflects your point of view. When you take a stand, readers get excited. You show confidence and become charismatic… making readers want to know more about you and what you have to say.

6. Redact the meat

After setting the tone with the introduction, it’s time to write the meat based on your outline.

From YOUR perspective, interpret the information and SYNERGIZE IT to form opinions that are USEFUL to your readers.

You are not a parrot. Do something useful.

Be concise. If you find yourself going down the geeky rabbit hole without revisiting how your readers can use the information to create tangible benefits promised by your headline and introduction, WAKE UP… cut out the self-gratifying stuff and keep writing.

Connect to those reputable sites you found during your search for SEO juice and make sure they open in a new tab/window so your readers don’t wander away from your site.

Also include internal links (i.e. links within your site) – this will boost your site’s SEO by building links, increasing dwell time and reducing bounce rate.

7. Conclusion and commitment

You know how people like to skip to the end of the book to read the ending? A strong ending could very well make those people come back to read your stuff.

Your conclusion is a great place to summarize a couple of valuable takeaways for your readers and reiterate your unique point of view.

This is also a good place to put a call to action (CTA):

– Present a freebie related to the article to grow your list: the more relevant, the better.

– Ask readers to share your article on social media. Although the SEO juice of social media has been debatable, if you drive quality traffic (meaning if visitors stick around to read and interact with your post), it will look good in the eyes of Google. .

– Ask readers to leave a comment: Comments increase SEO, and if you use social comment plugins like Disqus or Facebook, you can again increase exposure and traffic.

ADDITIONAL TIPS:: Format for easy reading

Wouldn’t it be a shame if you have great content but visitors leave your page before they can read it? (Remember low dwell time = bad for SEO?)

It happens ALL THE TIME when people run into a wall of text.

Seems like too much work and click away. Goodbye.

This is what you should do:

– Write in short paragraphs.

– Accept the blank

– Use lists and bullet points

– Use subheadings (H2 and H3 tags): they not only make it easy to read superficially, but also give you SEO points when you incorporate keywords into these tags.

– Use images that are optimized (for example, make sure they are the correct size to reduce load time and keywords are included in the alt text)

Don’t get sucked into writing for Google and lose sight of WHY you write… to share your values ​​& convictions, contribute values ​​and captivate your ideal clients.