SEO is “search engine optimization.” The idea is to create content that can be found on search engines.
There is a problem with the way most people approach SEO.
Too many people focus on keywords rather than context when it comes to SEO.
It would seem as though SEO is all about ranking for keywords, but it is more than that. It isn’t just the rankings for a bunch of random keywords that is important; What matters most is the intent of the people who sit down to search.
Your content may rank highly for a handful of interesting keywords, but the questions you should be asking yourself is:
- Why are people searching for this keyword?
- Does it align with the way I want to serve my audience?
My website, The Religion Teacher, provides practical resources for religious educators. The situation in which I want to serve is lesson planning. When my audience or potential audience sits down to lesson plan and goes searching for resources on Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, Pinterest, or Teachers Pay Teachers, I want them to find my content. Hopefully, they will click on the links, add the idea to their lesson plan, find it helpful, and come back again for future planning sessions.
This same approach can be applied to any niche.
A fitness expert, for example, might want to use the Situation-specific SEO Strategy in the following contexts:
- Searching for recipes to prepare a meal
- Searching for meal plans
- Searching for short work out ideas
- Searching for a specific type of workout
A travel writer will want to think of all the keywords of someone searching for travel ideas for a specific location.
Someone on the marketing team for a new startup will want to think about the specific situation in which their potential customers would use their product, then create content that will help someone in that situation (whether it directly links to the product or not).
I am interested in helping other writers like me. What situations can I serve in? I could create content that would help people who are either writing or marketing their work. The situations could include:
- Searching for story ideas
- Searching for book marketing ideas
- Searching for book launch ideas
- Searching for ways to get published
- Searching for ways to outline a book
- etc.
In what situations do you seek to serve?
