For the sake of clarity, the term “creative writer” in this article refers to anyone who considers their writing a gift of art long before it serves a function of marketing.
Do you ever wonder why the people who are good at getting found on the web are often the ones who can’t write very well?
It’s true, look around you. The web continues to serve up and reward bad writing.
Bad writing drives people like us—who care about the quality and integrity of our writing—to the brink of disgust, and, let’s face it—the fear of obscurity.
Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
The Problem Creative Writers Have with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
A lot of the time we like to imagine our content as being so awesome that people will find it no matter what.
So when it comes to the snarling beast of SEO, we encounter fear and excuses:
- It makes no sense
- It contaminates the purity of my writing
- I can’t afford to hire someone to do it
- I don’t like following rules
- I don’t have time for it
- I’m not a marketer
- I do social media, so I don’t need it
SEO excuses aren’t totally unreasonable, but they will ensure you hopeless obscurity for a long and frustrating time. I speak from experience.
The truth is that good writers like you need SEO just as much if not more than bad writers, especially if you’re starting from scratch. Building a base of loyal readers requires visibility beyond the walls of your website and the surrounding villages of your social media.
Often, a good result on the search engine results page (SERP) is all it takes to hook a new loyal fan.
Social Media is Not Everything
As I mentioned in my review of the Thesis WordPress theme, social media is only half of a writer’s self-promotion strategy — SEO is the other. Social media is fun and great for outreaching to readers, but it doesn’t account for how readers can outreach to you.
SEO is social media’s counterpart. It connects people with your content without them having to know who you are first. Readers don’t always have the patience or desire to socialize. A quick search can get them want they want in a matter of seconds.
As for Twitter search: the 140 character limit has obvious limitations, not to mention you’ll look uncool if all you talk about is yourself and your content.
SEO Can Be Easy
I won’t deny it — SEO is a complex and ever-shifting discipline.
I spent hundred of dollars on Aaron Wall’s SEOBook and SEOMoz Pro Membership, only to find out I have no taste for exhaustive keyword lists, backlink analysis tools and crawl tests. I’m a writer, dammit!
But the truth is you don’t need to buy into those programs to get search engine visibility. They’re expensive and overly comprehensive, designed for people who want to compete for attention in crowded niches.
SEO is much easier to deal with when you’ve got something entirely unique—something personal and artful—to contribute. Something cool and quirky and offbeat and long-tail.
Your content, I assume, goes something like that.
My next post in this 3-part SEO series covers some easy SEO tips for creative writers.
I have really been enjoying your blog, ideas and advice! Looking forward to the next post!
wow…..I had a good time reading your article and liked every word what you wrote here. Especially, the way you presented the importance of SEO. Thank you.
Devany and Vijay — I appreciate your comments and can’t wait to publish more posts for you to read.
Charles
It is true, we need SEO along with the SM tools to get noticed. Searches are growing daily and to get read you need to be found. Authority takes time to build as does a consistent reader base. Content has to be good but the content has to match keywords which have to match search terms.
Look forward to follow-up posts.
@SuzanneVara
I’ve got a problem adopting SEO into my writing. It’s hard to force keywords that go against my style. But I believe that uniqueness will play an important part, though it may take time. 🙂
Walter — I know exactly how you feel. SEO is very unnatural, especially for people like us who practice writing as a craft and not just a marketing tool. My next post will try and address this. Thanks for commenting!
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