For content creators’ getting new people to see their content is always a top priority. One of the most important channels for earning more viewers is search engine optimization (SEO).
But what exactly is SEO? And how can you use it to your advantage? In this article, we’ll go over everything about search engine optimization, and what you can do in order to improve your SEO so you can attract more organic traffic to your content.
What is SEO?
Imagine that someone is looking for content on ‘how to make videos’. They enter that phrase in the search engine, and the results show. Let’s say you have a piece of content that addresses this exact query, but your link is showing up in the tenth position. Instead, you want to make sure your content is ranked at second, or even first. This is essentially what SEO is. It’s about optimizing your content page so that it ranks higher than your competitor’s content, and thereby increasing your organic traffic.
But is it that important to appear above another result? Absolutely. Because the first three search results take more than half the total volume of traffic.
Why SEO matters for content creators.
If you make video and photo content on subscription platforms, as well as mainly operate through social media, SEO could feel like something that’s unrelated to you. But that would be a mistake, because SEO is hugely important for content creators. Here’s why.
SEO is how people find your profiles in the first place.
First of all, SEO is how people find you. There is a reason why ‘Google’ is now a word in the dictionary. People are always coming to search engines to look for something. If they happen to be looking for the kind of content you provide, you want to be seen by those people right?
Or maybe they have heard of you and want to find more of your content. For instance, let’s say a user comes across your content on a different platform that you may not be present on. That user wants to see more of your content, so they follow the watermark on your video by searching on Google. Then voila, there’s your main profile.
SEO is not just about search engines.
In addition, you may think SEO is limited to Google and other search engines and has no bearing on how traffic moves on the platforms you’re on, but that’s not true. SEO can apply to any platform that hosts content that users may search for. For example, what do you think is the second biggest search engine in the world? Bing? Yahoo? Wrong. It’s Youtube. As of 2017, Youtube has 3 billion searches per month, which is more than Bing, Yahoo, AOL, Ask.com combined.
Pinterest logs in more searches than DuckDuckGo, and has positioned itself as a search engine for inspiration.
Essentially, anywhere people search for content can act as a search engine, which is why SEO is so important. You need to apply best practices everywhere as much as you can.
For the purpose of this article, we’ll mostly mean Google when we talk about SEO best practice, but remember that SEO is not simply limited to the traditional search engines. Anywhere with enough search volume can be a place to apply SEO best practices.
Preventing illegal links from getting traffic
Lastly, SEO is how illegal links win traffic that should be going to your profiles. It is now unfortunately commonplace that creators will suffer from pirates ripping content off and redistributing it elsewhere. The thing is, these illegal links can show up above your legitimate links if left unchecked. No creator wants someone to search for their name, only to have Which is why you need to combat these illegal links by doing diligent SEO yourself.
SEO best practices for content creators
There are a number of different factors that go into SEO, including things like keyword research, link building, on-page optimization, and of course, creating high-quality, keyword-rich content. Let’s go over a few of them.
1. Do your keyword research.
Before you start writing, take some time to do keyword research. This will help you identify the keywords and phrases that people are searching for when looking for your content.
You may wonder, ‘why would I need to do keyword research, when people are mainly looking for my creator name?’
You’re partly correct. Your creator brand keyword will normally be your main source of SEO traffic. However, this doesn’t mean that you should rely on it alone. Your content could be missing out on subject matter keywords that could rank well. For instance, if you have a video that parodies a popular tv show, that could be a keyword that you can target.
Or, if there is a trending keyword that you see yourself latching onto, you can research those keywords and then create content around that.
You can do this by using free tools, or actually get paid solutions that are much more robust. Either way, keyword research is the best way to prepare your content for SEO.
Some core aspects you should look for are:
- Keyword volume: this is how many searches there are on a monthly basis. The higher the keyword volume, the more searches there are, and therefore more traffic potential.
- Keyword difficulty: this is how difficult it may be to rank on the keyword. The more competitive the keyword is, the more difficult it will be to rank.
What you want to look for is a sweet spot between decent keyword volume and keyword ease. Once you have that, you’re ready to actually start optimizing your content for search.
2. Use keywords throughout your content.
Once you've identified the right keywords, make sure to use them throughout your content. As a rule of thumb, you have to use them at least in the following sections:
- Title tag: this is where search engines will first scan. So you absolutely need to include your core keywords in your title tags.
- Meta description: this is also another place search engines will look into but will be mostly overlooked by average users. Make sure to keep it brief, since search engines generally only look at the first 150 characters of the meta description.
- Headers and subheaders: Headers are super important when it comes to search engines and readers. It pretty much sets up what the main content will be about, and that’s why you need to include your keywords here.
- Page content: Of course, you have to include the keyword in the page content. One of the big things to consider is keyword density. The more keywords are stuffed, the better your SEO. But it’s not so simple. You still need to sell it to people, not just search engines, and if you simply have your keywords repeating across the content, people will get turned off, and they won’t stick around even if they come to the page.
3. Create High Quality SEO content
There is content, and then there is SEO content. SEO content is essentially content that is designed to attract search volume. This means that it’s created with high intent for ranking. Here are a few tips for how to create that high quality SEO content that will surely rank.
1. Write quality content
The content you create is what will ultimately be judged by search engines, and search engines have high criteria when it comes to quality. They look for things like how many pictures and videos you have, how long your article is, how well researched it is, so on and so forth. So make sure it's well-written, informative, and engaging.
Also, quality content can get you backlinks. One of the biggest and the most difficult factors in SEO is backlinking. Backlinks are basically links from other websites that go to your content. The more backlinks there are, the more it signals to Google that your content has authority. The main force that drives backlinks, is simply having good content that people want to link to.
2. Look at what your competitors are doing
One of the best ways to see how you can rank well is to search for the keyword, and then referencing that content to create an even better one. This is otherwise known as skyscraping, where you’re literally trying to outdo the best ranking content.
3. Promote your content
Once you've created quality content, promote it through social media, guest blogging, and other marketing channels. The more people that see your content, the more likely it is to rank well in search engines.
4. Do link exchanges
We covered that backlinks are extremely effective at SEO, but it can also be hard because if you’re not gaining much visibility to begin with, how can people find your content to link to?
One of the best ways to earn backlinks that doesn’t involve shady tactics is link exchange. Basically, you go to another website and ask them that you’ll link one of their content in exchange for them linking one of yours. It’s a win win essentially.
5. Measure and iterate
SEO takes time. From the moment you post a content, it can take up to 6 months for it to see results. So you have to be patient. Once you start to see some results, you then have to figure out ways to make it better. SEO is a marathon.By consistently optimizing and adding more quality content to your existing ranking page, you can significantly raise your search position, even overtaking pages that once ranked way above you.
Conclusion
SEO can be a complex and daunting domain to cover, but once you get it right, it can really scale into something great. That’s the best part about SEO. When you do it right, it can generate traffic for you for years to come.
By following the best practices laid out in this article, you can give your content the best chance of ranking highly in search engines. And remember, SEO is an ongoing process — so keep learning and stay up-to-date on the latest trends to ensure your content stays ahead of the competition. For SEO, perfection is a series of iterations. Good luck!
