Where do you even start with SEO?

Well my writing friend, you start with the hero. And who is the hero of your writing when it comes to SEO? The focus keyword. 

I once wrote an article about my experience failing the workout system P90x. If you want to read that article you can do so here, but the gist of it is that P90x was the hero (and the focus keyword) of my article. I wrote about how that program isn’t made for everyone, how I found that out the hard way, and why you need to find the workout system that works best for YOU. The link for my Action Army readers is that I’ve found this lesson is also true in business.

When I originally wrote that P90x article in early 2015, I hadn’t spent a minute thinking about SEO. However, I really enjoyed the message in that article, and my audience seemed to enjoy it as well. I decided it was time to revisit it in August of 2016.

In August of 2016, I remember searching “P90x” in Google and clicking through pages upon pages of results. After about the 9th page of results (who goes that far?!), I finally found my article. However, I noticed something: my headline and description result in Google sucked.

My previous title was: Learn From Failing P90x Too*

My previous description that Google pulled in was: I completely failed at trying to do P90x. But in that failure, I learned some valuable lessons.

*Because of how my blog posts were set up in a previous version of my WordPress website, the title was broken between two separate H1 tags, which is a big SEO no-no. The other H1 tag on my site said “I Want To Help You…”, and Google pulled the second half to come up with this crappy and incoherent headline.

The only saving grace for both the title and the description was that they both had the main keyword in them (by accident, obviously). I started with clearly identifying the article keyword and related keyword…

The Keyword (and hero of your writing piece): P90x (duhhh)

The article was about my experience with P90x, so P90x, naturally, was the keyword. If you’re struggling to identify THE keyword in your own articles, here are a few questions to ask yourself that might help: When reading your article back, what’s the one idea or thought that stands out? Is there one WORD that the article is really about, like the hero of the story? What’s the hero’s name? That’s your keyword.

The Related Keyword/Phrase: P90x schedule

I found the related keyword by using SEMrush.com (I use the free version of SEMrush, by the way). After creating a free account, you can search your original keyword and find other keywords or phrases that are similar and relate to the content you’re writing about. For my article, the phrase “P90x schedule” made sense, and the volume of searches was high enough to be worth trying to squeeze the phrase into my article.

Feel free to read my P90x article (and watch the bonus video in this module) to see how often I include the keyword and related keyword throughout: https://jasondoesstuff.com/p90x/

Use headings (H1, H2, H3, etc) to your SEO advantage

Without having your article read like a repeating-parrot wrote it, you want to include your keyword or related keyword/phrase within all the headings (H1, H2, H3, H4) and important text (bold, italics, etc).

If your website articles aren’t currently set up with the heading structure I share here, you may need to revisit the styling of your articles and how your headings are being used. Google cares about the use of H1, H2, and H3 tags specifically, so get your article foundation set up correctly!

If we go back to my P90x article example, here’s how I shoe-horned the keyword into the various headings:

H1 (title)

I Failed *P90x* and Here’s What You Can Learn From My Experience

(Important note: You should only use ONE H1 tag per page. If you’re currently using an H1 more than one time in an article or page, you could be getting penalized by Google.)

H2 (first paragraph)

I completely failed doing *P90x*. But in that failure, I learned some valuable lessons about life and business.

H3

When I popped the first DVD in, starting my *P90x workout schedule*, I expected to start at P1X: Day one.

H4

Just because another business or person can do something the *P90x* way doesn’t mean that’s the only way it can be done.

Bolded text

So I stuck with Tony and his *P90x workout schedule*. For 33 grueling days, I shoved DVD after DVD into the black box on my TV stand, and I did my “best” and tried my hardest to “forget the rest.”

(The asterisks are there just to show you the keywords. They don’t actually exist in the headings or text.)

Reading these headings without the context of the article seems very repetitive, but that’s a good thing when placed around my experiences and stories in the article. It reaffirms the importance and relevance of the keywords and phrases as you read.

Write a compelling headline, but also one that’s search-friendly

I genuinely enjoy the challenge of writing a compelling headline for my articles. However, I know that most people don’t. Enter: CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer tool. I love how simple this tool is: just pop in your headline, and it gives you the score based on some fancy algorithm. The color-coded scoring is really helpful when looking at a list of 10+ headlines (as you’ll see below) to see what ends up being green. (And green is good!)



As you can see above, I wrote out 10 different headlines for an article I wrote about SEO (so meta!). The one I ended up using (Everything You Need To Know From My Experience With SEO) was the highest ranked (score of 77). However, if I’m using a headline analyzer tool, I do so with a grain of salt. I’ve picked headlines that get scores in the high 50s or low 60s, because I liked those headlines the best.

Like all tools, CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer isn’t perfect—it may weigh headline scores based on headlines you don’t actually want to have on your site. But it is free (just sign up for an account), and it is super helpful if you have a hard time writing headlines for articles. Use your discretion to pick headlines that score well with these tools, but that also feel like something you’d write (and that your audience would resonate with).

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These three topics are a great start when it comes to the land of SEO. If you want to dive deeper, you can read an entire article I wrote on SEO here.

And a final point to remember: When all else fails, just focus on writing the best and most unique-to-you content you can.

Your (simple) SEO practical assignment:

Go back over the article you wrote in modules 1-4. What is your focus keyword? Your related keyword? Your best performing headline (using Headline Analyzer)? You’re on your way to winning at SEO!