Understanding SEO
mind the pop ads, gotta pay the bills
It is recommended that you read the previous posts to get where this post is coming from. These are the previous posts in order:
1. Make Money Online 101, The Truth
2. Monetize Your Blog Without Adsense
3. CPA Networks To Monetize New Publisher's Blog
4. Earn Money Using Instagram
5. Make Money Using Twitter
6. Make Money Using Pinterest
For a long time I found SEO quite confusing. Search Engine Optimization? That sounded like a big word to me that I could not understand and every time I read an article about it or watched videos, it was all gibberish. None of it made any sense.
It was long after that, approximately, four years later, when I understood that the big words are hiding something so simple big words are not supposed to be used for it. SEO simply means popularity, and there is no search engine that will rank you on anything else other than that. For example, on YouTube, the videos that stay at the top for search terms do not have keywords so much different from the videos 3 pages after them. The only difference is the amount of views and the time it took to get them, simple... popularity.
So in this blog post I will be simplifying SEO and getting you to focus on the really important things, because sometimes on the internet information the meaning of information gets lost because are writing just to get readers and sometimes do not understand fully the subject at hand. As a result, things can be made to appear more complicated than they actually are.
Now this is not to attack people who think otherwise, but I am merely looking at the other side of the coin. I have written articles on various blogs that did not have any keyword research done on them and people still discovered them. So I accidentally did the perfect keyword research?
What if I become popular before I learn what keyword research is (like many blogs and vlogs I know), do keywords matter then?
However, keyword research can be a simple thing. Google has a keyword planner that allows you to find keywords based on your original keyword or a website link. People usually take the link of the website they are trying to outrank and find it's keywords and see if they can target better lower competition keywords. There are many ways to approach this, as long as you find keywords with words that people are looking for. There is almost always someone looking for a keyword when they search on google. There are many factors involved, sometimes a keyword may be highly searched, but there may also be many people that are writing articles based on that keyword and that will qualify the keyword as a high competition keyword.
Ideally you are looking for a keyword with a lot of searches and few people that have written based on that keyword. This may give you an edge, but it will not necessarily make your website popular.
People will tell you how long each blog post should be and how it should be written, but you do not want to give yourself headaches over this. First get the content out there, and lots of it, then you can start playing and tweaking.
People will tell you to write one blog post a day or every two days and so on, but the truth its life cannot be predicted and you may write more sometimes and write less sometimes. Do not get headaches over this stuff, just write for as long as you can write.
It is useless to tweak, research, and so on when they is no abundance of content to tweak. If you are waiting for that magical day when you can pay for hosting, because you do not have any money, please do not waste your time. Start a free blog somewhere, maybe on blogger or weebly... even wix.
I wish it was as easy as that, but the truth is it is not. Yes you can spam your links everywhere and hope someone spots it and maybe even get a bad reputation or you can just create and build meaning profiles in places that matter; places like social media. It does not matter what fancy word there is to describe the place where a lot of people are and are waiting to pay attention to what you have to say. Just be where people are online and hangout with them. Be a useful person in some capacity and these people will remember you, it is as simple as that.
Then they will click on the link you have presented to them on that platform. A person can have one social media account, and one link there and do so well that they outrank someone with links everywhere. That is why I cringe every time I see someone claiming to sell back-links. Just be honest, you are selling advertising space, which brings me to the next topic; paid traffic.
The first blog post I wrote does go into greater detail on how you deal with paid traffic or any traffic for that matter. In short it is by using it to build a mailing list. If you want to build a giant mailing list, you best start paying for it through paid traffic. Otherwise you can slowly and painful build.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) just means search engines look for popular people. If you have a giant mailing list and your list is always interested in reading what you have to say, then you are forever popular. In fact, even if for some strange reason google does not rank you you are still getting visitors, offline referrals and so on. You are still making money from your blog, so why crack your skull worrying about keyword research when you can do this?
The most practical way is to learn the art of paid advertising online and build a list, then you might not even have to blog. Blog because you love doing it, not because you want it to pay you, when it pays you let that be a bonus. Paid traffic gets you there much quicker.
So, just go out and start your blog if you have not. It is the first step.
It is recommended that you read the previous posts to get where this post is coming from. These are the previous posts in order:
1. Make Money Online 101, The Truth
2. Monetize Your Blog Without Adsense
3. CPA Networks To Monetize New Publisher's Blog
4. Earn Money Using Instagram
5. Make Money Using Twitter
6. Make Money Using Pinterest
For a long time I found SEO quite confusing. Search Engine Optimization? That sounded like a big word to me that I could not understand and every time I read an article about it or watched videos, it was all gibberish. None of it made any sense.
It was long after that, approximately, four years later, when I understood that the big words are hiding something so simple big words are not supposed to be used for it. SEO simply means popularity, and there is no search engine that will rank you on anything else other than that. For example, on YouTube, the videos that stay at the top for search terms do not have keywords so much different from the videos 3 pages after them. The only difference is the amount of views and the time it took to get them, simple... popularity.
So in this blog post I will be simplifying SEO and getting you to focus on the really important things, because sometimes on the internet information the meaning of information gets lost because are writing just to get readers and sometimes do not understand fully the subject at hand. As a result, things can be made to appear more complicated than they actually are.
Keywords
Now you will hear, if you have not, a lot about keywords and yes they are important. The question is this, if human behavior is a predictable thing (which is why certain keywords work so well), then why should a lot of time be spent on keyword research? To find a sub-market within the market you are working in? As I write this article I have not done any keyword research yet, but I bet I have hit many keywords already. Why? because they are a part of language. You speak keywords every time you say anything and I bet my granny can do keyword research.Now this is not to attack people who think otherwise, but I am merely looking at the other side of the coin. I have written articles on various blogs that did not have any keyword research done on them and people still discovered them. So I accidentally did the perfect keyword research?
What if I become popular before I learn what keyword research is (like many blogs and vlogs I know), do keywords matter then?
However, keyword research can be a simple thing. Google has a keyword planner that allows you to find keywords based on your original keyword or a website link. People usually take the link of the website they are trying to outrank and find it's keywords and see if they can target better lower competition keywords. There are many ways to approach this, as long as you find keywords with words that people are looking for. There is almost always someone looking for a keyword when they search on google. There are many factors involved, sometimes a keyword may be highly searched, but there may also be many people that are writing articles based on that keyword and that will qualify the keyword as a high competition keyword.
Ideally you are looking for a keyword with a lot of searches and few people that have written based on that keyword. This may give you an edge, but it will not necessarily make your website popular.
Content
Content is king, and that is true, this is where you really get your website noticed. You can look at it in a simple way. If many cars are driving on the highway and there are billboards and posters they get to see as they drive, and there is one poster that is being shown repeatedly on that road, they will end up noticing it. The point here is that you need to write, write and keep writing and sharing your content. This way you will be able to build up a list of interested readers.People will tell you how long each blog post should be and how it should be written, but you do not want to give yourself headaches over this. First get the content out there, and lots of it, then you can start playing and tweaking.
People will tell you to write one blog post a day or every two days and so on, but the truth its life cannot be predicted and you may write more sometimes and write less sometimes. Do not get headaches over this stuff, just write for as long as you can write.
It is useless to tweak, research, and so on when they is no abundance of content to tweak. If you are waiting for that magical day when you can pay for hosting, because you do not have any money, please do not waste your time. Start a free blog somewhere, maybe on blogger or weebly... even wix.
Link Building or Back Links
Every time I hear this word I can't help but get agitated a little bit. Why find a complex. difficult to understand word when all you want to say is "link sharing". What this really means is, share you link. Now there will be people who will tell you they can give you a list of websites where you can "submit" your link.I wish it was as easy as that, but the truth is it is not. Yes you can spam your links everywhere and hope someone spots it and maybe even get a bad reputation or you can just create and build meaning profiles in places that matter; places like social media. It does not matter what fancy word there is to describe the place where a lot of people are and are waiting to pay attention to what you have to say. Just be where people are online and hangout with them. Be a useful person in some capacity and these people will remember you, it is as simple as that.
Then they will click on the link you have presented to them on that platform. A person can have one social media account, and one link there and do so well that they outrank someone with links everywhere. That is why I cringe every time I see someone claiming to sell back-links. Just be honest, you are selling advertising space, which brings me to the next topic; paid traffic.
Paid Traffic
Now I have learnt the hard way that you can write, write and write while you have money to invest and make your life easier and not use it. There courses out there on paid traffic and what paid traffic really means is buying ad space in a place where you know real people hang out, and get a chance ton be noticed. So, you are just buying time to be on stage. All you need to do is just make sure that you are in right venue on the right stage where people actually are interested in what you have to say.The first blog post I wrote does go into greater detail on how you deal with paid traffic or any traffic for that matter. In short it is by using it to build a mailing list. If you want to build a giant mailing list, you best start paying for it through paid traffic. Otherwise you can slowly and painful build.
Your Mailing list
This is what SEO is. I can stop writing here.SEO (Search Engine Optimization) just means search engines look for popular people. If you have a giant mailing list and your list is always interested in reading what you have to say, then you are forever popular. In fact, even if for some strange reason google does not rank you you are still getting visitors, offline referrals and so on. You are still making money from your blog, so why crack your skull worrying about keyword research when you can do this?
The most practical way is to learn the art of paid advertising online and build a list, then you might not even have to blog. Blog because you love doing it, not because you want it to pay you, when it pays you let that be a bonus. Paid traffic gets you there much quicker.
Final words
Now there might be those who disagree, but after spending so much time being lost this is the conclusion I have come to: it all boils down to consistency and the willing to learn. Once you, the reader, have put yourself through the learning process and have done the time, you will also realize that the things written in this blog post are not so far from the truth. Success is so simple, yet we are so ready to convince ourselves that is extremely difficult because of self doubt. We think everything is difficult and we are incapable, when all we should do is follow our instincts, we confuse our fear with our instincts sometimes too.So, just go out and start your blog if you have not. It is the first step.
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