How to Master SEO Like a Pro

Mastering an SEO wave is an underrated skill. It requires experience, strategic thinking, quick instincts, and all the right tools. Here’s how to generate and manage an incoming surge of traffic using a smart search engine optimization strategy.

SEO-Friendly Publishing Tips 

To achieve good SEO hygiene, make sure your home base is in order. Not sure where to begin? Our Dream It Write checklist will help make your website run like a well-oiled SEO machine.

1. Backlinks. Find strategic ways to add links to your content from both internal and external sources.
   

2. Captions. Add captions to your images, files, and videos. Captions not only offer a good SEO boost, they make it clear what your users are viewing, and remove unnecessary guesswork. They also are a huge help for people who have visual or hearing disabilities to make sure they can “read” your content.
   

3. Categorize. Make sure your content is properly categorized and tagged in your web editor.
   

4. Hashtags. Use relevant hashtags for all of your social media posts.
   

5. Keywords. Sprinkle SEO-friendly keywords throughout your content but be sure to not “overstuff” it with keywords. This actually can have a counterproductive effect in the long run.
   

6. Titles. Write SEO-friendly titles with keywords that reflect the purpose of your article, blog, or app.

Do's and Don'ts of Writing SEO-Friendly Content

Many trending and SEO-friendly topics are tied to news items and other events that got people’s attention and went viral. But just because something is “trending” doesn't mean you need to jump on the wave.

Other topics are SEO-friendly because an interested group of people want to learn more about a particular topic. You may score an SEO win if you specialize in a niche market that not many people write about.

An example of how Egyptians used papyrus paper to communicate ideas in ancient times.

Let's use papyrus paper - an ancient material used largely by Egyptians to communicate ideas - as an example. Becoming an authority in this topic, for people who are interested in learning more about the history of papyrus, gains trust with users. It can also help push your content closer to the front of search engine results for people who search for the word "papyrus."

SEO Content Planning 101

Before you dive into your content planning, here are a few things to consider:

• Is this topic relevant to our audience, brand, or service?

• Does this content reflect the type of information our users want to read?

• Does our content offer a unique perspective? 

• Where should we feature this content on our website?

No matter whether the topic(s) you write about are trending or not, the key is to make sure you've adopted a healthy search engine optimization strategy that can attract the right eyeballs to your content.

Niche SEO Opportunities for Small Businesses

There are plenty of opportunities that can help you get the word out about your company online and snag an SEO win that makes sense for you. One quick and easy strategy is taking advantage of seasonal topics. Beyond the annual federal holidays, there are plenty of other SEO opportunities that can help boost your brand online.

A stack of assorted cookies.

For example, did you know that December 4 is National Cookie Day? If you own a local bakery, how about this for an idea? Leading up to the special day, consider posting teaser content on your website, app, or on social media about a discount you plan to offer, or alerting customers about a new cookie flavor that will drop on that date. You may be surprised by the response you get, including the word-of-mouth marketing that resulted from those who initially saw your post.

Important Tools for SEO and Online Success

Tracking online search trends has evolved a whole lot since the days of Google Trends. These days, there are tons of tools to choose from to monitor trending search topics.

Combining your search tool of choice with other web analytics can offer meaningful insights into how your customers interact with and discover your content, apps, and videos. Armed with this information, your team can create a user-first experience that makes customers want to come back for more, while also improving your visibility in search engines like Google and Bing.