Is SEO Writing Selling Out?
There's a tendency among journalists and literary writers to cringe at search engine optimization (SEO). After spending so many years in college learning how to research and tell beautiful stories, SEO is a dirty word.
When I first started to take on content marketing projects, I felt like a sellout. Instead of waxing poetic about my personal observations of the world, I was writing SEO content about industrial robots, electromagnetic interference, and drone gimbals. Now, three years into freelancing, I'm reconciling my writer's guilt with the knowledge that SEO has helped my articles reach hundreds of thousands of readers. Plus, instead of becoming the starving artist that I envisioned in my twenties, I'm actually getting paid quite well because the content I write brings value to both my readers and my clients.
While there are plenty of examples of egregious keyword stuffing online, it's also possible to tell great stories while ensuring that the content is optimized so that search engines can find them. Plus, as Inkwell Editorial points out, Google prefers websites that frequently publish in-depth content.
By researching the right keywords and following best practices for keyword placement, you can help more people discover your articles. If you write awesome content, your readers will share the article with their followers, which amplifies your message and puts your words in front of more eyes. Best case scenario, your articles will inspire readers to create their own content.
Last week I got an email from a high school student who read an article I wrote about geomagnetic reversal. He told me that the article was one of the inspirations for a video he made and submitted for the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
To be honest, this article is not my best work. It's not filled with the most beautiful phrasing and I didn't share any exciting new insights on geomagnetic reversal.
It's an SEO-optimized article that gives a clear overview of a complicated scientific concept. When you Google "geomagnetic reversal," it's the third or fourth organic search engine result, depending on Google's ranking fluctuations. When a teenager in Nevada was researching this topic, he found my article, learned something, and put his own spin on geomagnetic reversal with a video.
Now that I've embraced SEO writing, I'm getting paid to learn about cutting-edge research and emerging technology. I get to interview talented scientists and share their work with an audience of curious, smart, business-savvy readers. I enjoy the challenge of strategically placing targeted keywords where they naturally fit, like pieces of a puzzle. If that's selling out, sign me up.
