SEO + Blogging as a Freelancer
Search Engine Optimization a.k.a. SEO in a nutshell is the process of optimizing online content (your website copy) around specific keywords for a search engine to show your website as a top result.
Why SEO:
Optimizing your website through building a content strategy to drive your business’s direction is what makes SEO so rewarding and far more controllable than social media.
With mindful SEO practices and quality content, the work is essentially done for you. Where social media is in the hands of an unknown algorithm, your website and SEO is the hands of you.
Search engines are like libraries. Your website’s content are the books. The first page of a search engine is the librarians recommended reading section.
How do you get on page one?
In order to appear at the top of a search result, your online content must be: trustworthy*, informative, and relevant.
*URL age / how long your domain has been registered is a factor: older = more established)
How are page one results picked?
Search engine Crawlers read the content (copy, page titles, image names, meta data, etc) of your website content to organize and index all of the interweb’s content. This is where naming images, file sizes, page titles, and all those nitty-gritty backend details really matter.
The Crawlers use “rules” a.k.a. algorithms to read websites and organize this information. Image heavy websites with few words are not favoarbly categorized. This is why cooking blogs and photography services for instance write lots of content around their ingredient lists and portfolio images.
Overtime and only through the careful creation and construction of trustworthy, informative, and relevant content, search engines will begin to categorize your website toward the top of results for your chosen keywords and field.
Remember: you are not the only website using these Keywords and reaching for the first page. This is a long-game approach to business longevity.
Keywords
Keywords are essentially answers to your target audience’s questions. Keywords are what your target audience searches in a query on a search engine.
Your website will feature content throughout its pages to provide solutions to your client’s problem. Furthermore, creating trustworthy, informative, and relevant blog content will build an organic trajectory for your business to land in the top search engine results of your target audience’s eyes.
Put on your business hat and ask:
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What problem does your client need solved? and
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What would they ask / how would they ask to go about solving it?
i.e. If you offer “modern interior design” a potential client may search “cool interior design vibes”
Making note of how your target audience thinks and asks for your services to solve their problem will influence the Keywords you use. Also, keep in mind your location as many people search for solutions in their area.
A modern interior design studio in Carmel, California can write a blog post about “Cool Modern Interior Design Trends in Carmel, CA” the operative Keywords being: “cool interior design”, “modern interior design”, and “interior design in Carmel, CA”.
Be sure to avoid “black hat tactics” like Keyword stuffing your content sentence after sentence. Instead, pepper appropriate Keywords throughout 300-500 word blog posts with relevant, trustworthy, and knowledgeable information.
Remember your “Why”:
When you work with estormstudio, our In-Depth Questionnaire tailored to each branding and web design client, asks a lot about your “Why” and who your kindred clients are. These responses are the foundation of your target audience, the content you can create, and Keywords you will want to center content around.
Go ahead, and list three “problems” your business solves. Whether you sell products, offer services or both, how are these offerings a solution to your client’s problem?
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Think: I offer “handmade custom clothes” and my client may be searching for “one-of-a-kind bespoke dresses”
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Problem: client needing “one-of-a-kind bespoke dresses”
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Solution: your website offering “handmade custom clothes”
Write content about the process of handmade clothes, share behind the scenes, or a peek into making with you in a 300-500 word blog post targeting the Keywords: “one-of-a-kind bespoke dresses” and “handmade custom clothes”.
Publishing this informative content to your site will allow those Crawlers to creep your content higher on the reading list to answer your targeted audience’s questions.
Now, reference the three “problems” you listed your business solves and write the “solution” to each. From here, imagine 1-3 Keywords related to the “solution” and write a blog post about the solution targeting these Keyords.
Summary:
Decide what and who you want to target. Ask what their problem may be. Write content around the solution to get your content in front of your target. Avoid poetic language and keep wording searchable and relevant. Like your website pages, do not change blog post URLs once published to your website.
Create buckets for both general and niche Keywords to write content around. Just remember your competition and get creative on how to corner the search engine result market for each particular Keyword, and know it takes time to generate trust with the search engines.
At estorsmtudio, we create evergreen brand identities and web design for this life to the next. Now is the perfect time as you seek to create business longevity through SEO to build out or spruce up your brand’s image through branding and web design. Come say hey, and let’s see what magic we can create together.
All in all, you are left with a surefire strategy infused by evergreen content totally in control by you for let’s say the rest of forever (or as long as there is an Internet). So now, say goodbye to 24-hour social media windows and short-lived paid ads. With SEO and strategic content, you’ll be meeting your kindred clients in perfect timing.
For one-on-one advice and content strategy building sessions just say hey!