Target relevant keywords to write content your target clients will actually see

Before we jump in, I want to quickly reassure you that while this step relies on a little bit of SEO, you don’t need to be an SEO whiz by any means. 

Remember how I said Medium has a high domain authority (DA)? When you publish something on Medium, your post has a higher chance of appearing in Google searches than the same exact blog post on a website with lower domain authority. For context, Medium has a DA of 95. (My own website has a DA of 20.) 

Tool: You can easily get the DA of any website by installing a free Chrome extension called Moz. Moz shows you the Domain authority of every result on Google. 

This means that with a little bit of SEO effort, you can reap great rewards. That’s why it’s worth doing the tiniest bit of SEO research.

Pick a keyword to be the main subject of your post

Before you start writing, identify a keyword to try to rank for. A keyword is the main subject of your post. “Ranking” means your post will appear when people search for that keyword.

Example: I write a blog post about cat toys for bored cats. My keyword is “cat toys for bored cats.” When someone googles “best cat toys for bored cats,” my article might show up.

How can you find a keyword? Well, go back to your client’s customer’s problems from Step 4. What might they type into Google to solve that problem? 

That’s your starting point. 

To illustrate the process, I’ll pick “cheese boards” as my starting keyword. 

Next, use a tool like QuestionDB or Google Keyword Planner to see what people search for around that topic. 

This research serves two purposes. 

1. Knowing what people search for helps you write an article that people actually read, whether they find your article on Medium, Google, or any other location online. 

2. Second, optimizing for a keyword means you’re more likely to rank on Google, which means your target client is more likely to see the post. 

In the case of “cheese board,” QuestionDB suggests:

• Cheese boards and red wine.

• Places to order cheese boards grazing boards.

• Why’s slate used for cheese boards.

Google Keyword Planner suggests:

• Best cheese for charcuterie.

• Fruit charcuterie board.

• Cheese board pizza.

This gives you an idea of what you can write about. Which one looks like the most fun to you? What do you have the strongest opinion on? 

In your workbook, complete this for each of your nine problems, three for each client. And voila, you have a content roadmap.

Where to place the keyword in the article to easily rank 

Before you start writing, know where the keyword should appear in your article to stand the best chance of ranking.

Here’s your checklist:

• In the title.

• In the introduction (the first 100 words).

• In the conclusion (the last 100 words).

• In italics, bold, or quotation marks somewhere in the article.

Tip: Want more SEO juice? I recommend using Medium’s SEO tools. On Medium, you can make the “show” title anything you want and still optimize the “SEO” title so Google ranks it. You can also add it to your meta description, which is what Google scans to know what your article is about.

Recap

This is a crash course in SEO. You can go a lot deeper if you want, as this is the smallest amount of work you can do to make your article stand the best chance of ranking on Google.

The next step is a short one — you’re writing your article.