When applying for a vacancy as a content writer, thoughts passed through my head of writing lots of articles and general content for websites. Little did I know that I was about to be thrust headfirst into the enthralling world of SEO.
If you’d have asked me a month ago what SEO meant and what it entailed, you would have received a blank expression showing little signs of any knowledge. Although I don’t profess to be an expert in it now, I have however grasped the basics and can start to see how a good quality SEO campaign can really make a difference for an online business.
I have grown up with computers and unfortunately spend much of my free time surfing the internet looking at the latest celeb gossip or having a nose at what my friends have been doing on Facebook. However I never really thought about the process of what goes on behind a website.
Keywords
Much like SEO, keywords were another foreign phrase to me a month ago. They have however become part of my everyday vocabulary now. These are the nuts and bolts that can help a business get to page 1 of Google.
Deciding on what keywords a company should optimise for isn’t about picking the obvious; I’ve learnt that you need to step into the shoes of your customer. When they are sitting at their computer searching for the latest trends in dancewear what words are they going to type into Google to find relevant companies. The obvious words like “dance”, “clothes” and “dancewear” are always going to be winners. However it’s always worth broadening your horizons and thinking about the not so obvious words, the specialist and niche words that people will search, like “tutu” or “ballet slippers”. This will increase traffic to a website because you will be opening it up to a bigger customer base by optimising for more keywords.
Content
Having dreamt of being a writer for many years, dabbling in the idea of writing a novel a few times only to start a chapter then leave it a few years before returning, it was certainly a nice feeling getting that call to say my application had been successful for the vacancy of a content writer. I’ve had the chance to finally use my creativity, to write fresh and unique content for a variety of different businesses in a wide selection of industries.
Some companies are definitely easier to write for than others, but that’s all part of the fun of using creative writing and thinking outside of the box. It’s definitely opened my eyes to a new world and it’s interesting to learn how content can help an SEO campaign with the use of things like keywords.
Now I’ve completed the first stage in my journey I’m keen to learn more in the hope that one day I’ll be a shining whizz-kid in the world of SEO.
