Very Important: SEO your Content

As freelancers, we love to write. Our clients tend to give us keywords that they would like to be the focus on their writing – but why? Why do we need to do that and what is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a method of helping websites rank higher in search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. Basically, when a user types “freelance writers”, ranking means the websites that show up on the first few pages of the search engine. When I search for the word “freelance writer“, this website by Allena Tapia appeared on the first page (after Wikipedia). That means that her site is well SEO and ranks really high for the keyword “freelance writer”.

Now, how does this impact what we do as freelance writers? Well, there are a lot of freelance writers out there and one way to differentiate yourself is to have an idea of what SEO is and learn how to optimize an article for SEO purposes. To start off, here is a good article about what SEO is:

In the SEO world, which is constantly evolving, there is so much to learn that staying on top of all the changes is practically another full-time job. I am going to relate the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Steven R. Covey, to the world of SEO in an attempt to help lay down some principles that will help you. Like Mr. Costanza says, “When the sea is angry my friends”, you need to step up and figure it out.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective SEOs

#1 Be Proactive:

The success of an search engine marketing campaign is determined by you as the expert, but that success hinges directly on your attitude.   The best part about being human is that we have the ability to choose. You can choose to have success, maintain a good attitude or even give in to failure. Some things that happen are beyond your control.  But for the most part, it comes down to being proactive and taking responsibility for SEO decisions.  You can blame Google for algorithm changes (like the recent Penguin update), you can blame your client, you can blame your computer – you can even blame the weather if you want….

More at 7 Habits of Highly Effective SEO