SEO is overrated.
Sounds strange, right? Do bear with me, let me explain.
By the way, this post is for web content writers, admins, small business owners, and anyone who’s losing sleep trying to wrangle the beast called SEO. And that includes me.
SEO is a Beast Until it’s Your Pal
So okay, let me be clear: SEO is not the culprit, the issue is with the methods we adopt. Don’t just create content for SEO sake, create content which answers questions and solves problems for your target audience.
Researching keywords, adhering to Yoast or Rank Math suggestions may score you green lights but should you do it at the expense of your originality or worse, God forbid, your very message? Why do you want to sound like everybody? I see you don’t even have to be a good writer or even care about writing to create content to score SEO points.
The solution? Write or create content to address or solve problems for your target audience.
While I know search engine optimization is important if you want to be found quickly on the internet, I’m just sick of our attempts at getting desired results.
And I say ‘our attempts’ because I also have fallen into the same trap, churning out websites, pages and posts to satisfy almighty Google. The situation is even more dire for brands and small businesses with tiny marketing budgets.
Our websites have the same structures, focus keywords are generously inserted, slapped, smudged into headlines, titles, headings and subheadings, opening paragraphs, and urls.
Out of place and sometimes silly-sounding “long-tail keywords” are smacked into subheadings and sprayed all over the post to just make sure Google bots send your site to page one in search results.
Nevertheless, there is something to gain from following the rules of content creation for SEO. For instance, I have learned to
- format my writing well,
- add the necessary descriptions,
- tags,
- categories,
- titles,
- URL style and length, etc.
Here’s a Possible Solution to this SEO Problem
Do not worry about SEO or keywords or link building. Do these 3 things instead:
- Write things that help people
- Write things that help people
- Write things that help people
Write about problems, solutions, perspectives that interest you, that you’re passionate about.
Tackle problems, even if it’s just talking about things that disturb or worry people. Speak on their behalf, you just might lessen the load for everyone.
The Crucial Thing About SEO
The crucial thing about this SEO content matter is to understand and imbibe the overriding principle. And remember, do not dumb down your writing in the name of SEO.
What is this principle? Create content that is easy for people to read and use, not necessarily easy or dumbed-down content.
The interesting thing is, search engines are now more intelligent and getting better all the time. Their job isn’t to just present search results, they now present search solutions.
Search Results vs. Search Solutions?
Search engine algorithms can now decipher context or user intent, that is, the reason a user’s typing in certain words or phrases before presenting their feedback.
It isn’t just matching keywords anymore, it’s now a matter of matching content as possible solutions to what users are searching for.
And that’s it. I got it, hope you did. If you have a solution, then good formatting, and clear writing, the search engines and bots will point your target audience your way.
Everything You Do Should Be to Serve Your Clients/Customers/Readers/Visitors/Users
Write, create good content, publish consistently and see what happens. Practicing SEO with this mindset will help you create brand awareness, generate leads, and improve sales. So, let’s try an experiment for the rest of this year.
