Clients and group members ask me all the time about ranking and SEO for their business blog posts and articles. After a while I (finally) recognized that I was giving the same SEO in a Nutshell answer over and over again. So, I said “Hey, maybe this is a good topic for a quick article!!”
Brilliant, right? DOH!
Every once and a while, maybe once and a great while, I take my own advice, so here you go: SEO in a nutshell.
SEO in a nutshell
My best advice for you with regards to SEO is to not think about it.
Not at all.
At least until after you have created your article and delivered really good content for your readers. Then, and only then, read over your article. In most every case you will see a “key word phrase” pop out at you. Then you can go back and make sure you’ve added that phrase enough times, bolded it, used it as a headline (h2, h3 tag), etc. basically following the latest SEO best practices (they don’t really change much, even though you may think they do…trust me they don’t).
This may be contrary to what other “experts” will tell you, but here’s the thing: Google and the other search engines are smart and getting smarter all the time. When you don’t think good, valuable content first you not only cheat your readers, but in time the search engines will figure it out (kind of like parents usually find out what the kids did while they were gone – which reminds me of a story about a party my daughter had, drinking, and covert trash disposal to cover it up, but that’s for another time and place).
And when Google does figure it out, your rankings will be hurt. so, why set yourself up for that? Just write good stuff, your tribe deserves that, right?
Always, write for your readers and then, be smart with your SEO.
That is the long term answer to the SEO puzzle. The very best part? This SEO in a nutshell plan will stand the test of time.
