SEO in 7 Steps: How to Increase Your Reach
Discover the 7 key SEO principles and apply them when creating content on your path to success.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – why search engine optimization matters
SEO refers to all the actions taken to ensure that selected web pages appear in high positions in Google’s organic search results for specific search queries.
The content you create should appeal both to readers and to search engines. A well-optimized, SEO-friendly text not only improves your website or online store’s visibility in search results—it also makes your content easier to read and more engaging for users. Most importantly, such content helps you generate valuable traffic to your blog or website.
SEO is a continuous process directly influencing the reach of your blog—and therefore the reach of your affiliate tools such as affiliate links, banners, widgets, and XML feeds.
How to Make Friends with SEO?
You only need to remember a few key elements to create high-quality content that directly boosts your reach. Here they are.
Keywords and Key Phrases in SEO
You’ve probably heard this term before—and you may already know that keywords matter and that feeding Google’s algorithms with the right phrases is essential if you want your text to rank well and increase your website’s visibility. That’s why keyword strategy couldn’t be left out of this article.
You should start choosing keywords by checking which phrases are related to your topic and have a high search volume. You can perform this analysis using Google’s Keyword Planner or any other similar tool.
First, think about what a user would type into the search bar. Which phrase should trigger Google to recommend your text as the answer? Keywords that are too narrow will limit the number of people who find your content, while keywords that are too broad will have the same effect.
For example, if you’re writing about baby-care products, the word “baby” is far too general—but “baby-care products” may also be ineffective. In this case, a balanced keyword such as “baby care” would likely work best.
SEO – the ideal keyword phrase consists of 2–3 words
Once your analysis shows you which keywords to choose, plan how you’ll use them in your text. Keywords should appear in multiple places—your title, subheadings, and individual paragraphs. It’s worth planning your article structure before you start writing, including where each keyword will appear. This makes the later SEO-optimization stage far easier.
But remember: you’re writing primarily for your readers! Your goal is to increase reach by attracting more visitors—not to overwhelm them. If your keywords show up in every second sentence, the reading experience will suffer, and you’ll drive people away. Balance is essential—choose keyword placements carefully and use them only where they naturally fit.
Contrary to what you might think, Google is getting better and better at understanding synonyms. If your target keyword is “earn money online,” you can confidently include variations such as “make money online,” “online income,” or even “extra earnings.”
Similarly, if you’re targeting “summer styling,” phrases like “summer outfit,” “holiday look,” or “vacation styling” will work just as well.
Your target keywords should appear not only in the body text but also in image alt attributes within your post. Why is this so important? Because optimized images can help you capture traffic directly from Google’s image search. The alt attribute is where you tell search engine bots what’s in the image – it’s also a perfect place to naturally include relevant keywords.
For example, can you guess the main keyword for this article? It’s “increase reach.” Take a moment to notice how often it appears throughout the text and where it has been strategically placed for maximum SEO impact.
SEO – Content Is King
Before you start writing, ask yourself why someone should want to read your piece. What makes it unique compared to everything else already available? Unless you’re covering a brand-new invention, you’re likely dealing with a topic that others have written about before. This means your reader has probably already encountered similar content—and doesn’t want to read the same thing twice. Make sure your article offers a fresh angle or highlights an aspect that others haven’t explored in depth.
Focus on unique content. It’s perfectly fine to be inspired by other articles on the topic, but never copy them. Google doesn’t favor duplicated content and won’t hesitate to reduce your reach if it detects too much similarity to existing texts.
Focus on creating original content. It’s perfectly fine to draw inspiration from existing materials, but never copy them. Google is not fond of duplicated text and will readily reduce your visibility if it detects excessive similarity to other sources.
It goes without saying that linguistic correctness also matters. Carefully check your text for typos, stylistic issues, and any grammatical or spelling mistakes before publishing. This will significantly improve how your readers perceive your work.
ChatGPT – a foundational tool for creating SEO-ready content
ChatGPT is a language model based on GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) technology developed by OpenAI. It’s an AI system capable of generating text that reads naturally to humans. Thanks to advanced algorithms and training on massive datasets, ChatGPT can produce content that is coherent, grammatically sound, and tailored to specific questions or topics.
Its primary uses include answering questions, generating articles and long-form content, carrying out conversational interactions, and translating text into different languages. This makes it useful across a wide range of fields, including:
-
marketing
-
customer support
-
education
-
online content creation
-
programming
To put it simply: ChatGPT feels like talking to someone who always has an answer. You type in a question or topic, and it instantly produces relevant text. Everything runs in the cloud, so there’s nothing to install on your computer. Pretty brilliant, isn’t it?
SEO and Content Length in SEO Writing
Content length is one of the most important elements of effective SEO. It includes the total length of the article, the length of individual paragraphs, and even the length of each sentence.
Google tends to favor content that is extensive and in-depth. However—and this is crucial—the content must be unique and high quality from an SEO perspective.
Why does this matter so much?
Because of a Google algorithm known as Google Panda. Its purpose is to improve the quality of search results by reducing the visibility of pages that contain thin, low-value, or duplicate content. Aligning with this algorithm is essential if you want to increase your organic reach.
High-quality content is text that fully covers the topic from the user’s point of view, without wasting their time with repetitive or filler material.
If you like hard numbers, here they are: The optimal length for content published on a homepage or subpage is more than 2,500 characters.
SEO – Paragraphs matter if you want to boost your reach
Google’s algorithms are strongly biased against long blocks of uninterrupted text—and so are readers. Short, concise paragraphs are far easier to digest than lengthy walls of text. As you can see in this article, it’s full of headings, subheadings, and paragraphs that separate different ideas. It’s much more comfortable to read content presented this way than if the entire article were written in one continuous block, right?
That’s why Google recommends keeping the text under each header to no more than 300 words. A format like this is considered readable and user-friendly. If it fits naturally within your text, use bullet points and bold to highlight important information.
Sentence length also matters for SEO. Google is not a fan of overly long, complex sentences. Take a look at this example:
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn extra income by recommending advertisers’ products on your website, blog, or social media channel, using tools provided by the affiliate network.
Whew, that’s a lot to digest! Now, let’s break it down into shorter sentences:
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn extra income! Recommend products from your favorite shops and earn commission on generated sales. You can promote these products on your blog, website, or social media channel. The affiliate network provides all the tools you need.
This second version is longer but far easier and more pleasant to read. This approach lets you have the best of both worlds: rich, unique content that satisfies Google’s requirements and concise, readable sentences that keep users engaged.
Internal and External Linking for SEO
Aleksandra Gościniak knows a lot about SEO and runs a platform called “Jestem interaktywna” (“I Am Interactive”). On her business blog, Ola helps women build their online businesses, create websites, and develop blogs by offering courses, webinars, and live sessions. You can also read an interview with her on our site, where she talks about these topics and shares some valuable tips.
Meanwhile, Szymon Słowik is an unquestioned authority when it comes to all things SEO. On his blog, he provides practical advice that simply and effectively helps increase website traffic. It’s worth visiting his site to expand your knowledge of all things related to organic SEO.
When talking about links, it’s also worth mentioning the URL of your article. Make sure it’s reasonably short and—if possible—includes your target keyword. This will ensure it’s another element that informs the reader about what to expect in your article.
SEO – Page Title and Description
When optimizing your text for SEO, remember to also prepare meta tags that will appear in search results. These include the page title and description.
The page title is one of the most important ranking factors, so be sure to include your target keywords. Also make it catchy and immediately clear to the user what they can expect when they click the link.
The page description, on the other hand, is important from a marketing standpoint, as its purpose is to encourage users to click on the displayed link. While including a keyword here isn’t mandatory, it doesn’t hurt to add one – the search engine will bold your keyword, indicating to users that the linked page contains the answer to their query.
Image and Graphic Descriptions in SEO Texts
The images or graphics you include in your post also affect how your text or website ranks in Google’s search results. You’ve probably found yourself searching for relevant information through images. Which ones appear first depends largely on how well they’ve been labeled.
This is especially important when the images in your text are product photos, since users often search for specific items by looking through images.
How to Properly Describe Graphics?
Start by naming your file in a way that makes it easy for Google’s bots to find and display your image. The description should be brief and ideally include your target keyword. Begin with the most important word and use hyphens to separate words. This ensures your image description will be clear to both users and search engine bots.
Another key element is the alt text (alternative text). This is crucial primarily for search engine bots, as it’s how they understand what’s shown in your image. It’s also essential for visually impaired users who rely on screen readers to browse websites. As you might guess, screen readers can’t detect what’s shown in an image, but they can easily read the alternative description. In cases of slow internet connection where the image fails to load properly, the alt text becomes helpful for users who otherwise would have seen the image. That’s why your alt text should accurately describe what’s depicted in the image, ideally in 5–15 words. It’s possible for the image name and alt text to be identical—and that’s perfectly fine.
Image captions also play a role in your image’s SEO. As you may know, the longer users stay on your page, the better your site performs in search rankings. Many users only skim headlines, bold text, or—often—image captions. This means an added caption can keep your reader’s attention longer, making it a valuable SEO trick.
Naturally, don’t forget to compress your images to reduce loading times, and always ensure they are relevant to your content—not just decorative.
SEO Tools
There are numerous SEO tools available that help you perform effective optimization and monitor performance in Google. Most of these tools are intuitive, easy to use, and budget-friendly. Whether you’re a professional or a beginner, it’s worth becoming familiar with the platforms that can enhance your SEO efforts.
In addition to purely analytical tools, there are also solutions designed to support content creation, such as tools that suggest how often to use a specific keyword or how long your text should be. Even the smallest optimization tip can significantly impact your search performance in Google, so it’s worth paying attention.
Even if you outsource SEO tasks to professionals, it’s valuable to understand the basic SEO tools—so you know which options are being used and why.
If you’d like to learn more about SEO tools, be sure to read SEO Tools – How to Rank Your Website on Google stronę w Google
Remember: even the most beautifully written article or well-advertised product won’t convert unless it reaches the right audience.
So make sure you optimize your content for SEO—and you’ll start seeing results before long!
