The Big SEO Mistake You Absolutely Don’t Want to Make

Before optimizing your article’s SEO, consider this

Do you know why your article doesn’t make money, though it went viral on Google?

By now, you probably wonder why you’re not getting internal views, reads, or money after you correctly use all the SEO parameters and your article is at the top of the Google search page.

The answer is that SEO helps you on the internet, and all the views and reads you see in your story’s stats, are only what is called EXTERNAL VIEWS and INTERNAL READS.

The biggest mistake many writers on this platform make is to think SEO will help you increase followers, reads, and income on this site.

Those numbers reflect your article’s performance in Google, email, Facebook, Twitter, Bing, Reddit, Duckduckgo, or Yahoo search, not with paying members.

What to do to increase paying members’ views, reads, and income

If you are looking for visitors for your business website, blog, book site, or want to boost your ego, SEO will help you accomplish that.

But SEO is not the answer if you want to go viral on this platform and earn thousands of dollars. Instead, follow these steps:

1. Expand your writing skills by reading books like Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” Ray Bradbury’s “Zen in the Art of Writing,” Ernest Hemingway’s “On Writing,” or “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott.
2. You can also subscribe to a writing course specialized in this platform. There are lots of them. In my case, Zulie Rane and Sinem Günel’s advice helped me.
3. You will have a greater chance of a better-performing article if you read and follow every publication’s guidelines before submitting your work.
4. Learn what to publish, how to do it, how many articles you can submit, and the time to wait for an answer, you can check them in, “New Submission Rules — New Writers Welcome.”
5. Optimize your titles, images, tags, and format according to the publication guidelines.
6. To learn how to format your article, you can read Casey Botticello’s “The Best Medium Article Formatting Guide.”
7. Some people differ on whether you should publish in a major publication or not. The reason is that they have countless followers, but also publish many articles, so your chance of being noticed is lower.
8. Small publications will feature your article but to fewer people. However, you have to decide if you would rather take the chance to be noticed by many or assure as many readers as possible.
9. Whichever you decide, try some of your articles, and see what gets you the best results.
10. The best way to go viral here is to write a high-quality, captivating, easy-to-read article. Consider what the readers want and how you will help them solve that issue.
11. Also, remember to write a non-click-bait title and subtitle and choose an image that captures your attention. Please don’t go for the first option you find unless, after comparing it with others, you decide it is the best one, and add a caption with the link to the source.
12. Remember, no one likes copycats. Don’t steal other people’s work. Credit the author and add a link to the source if you use information from other sites.

Take Away

No one can tell you if it’s right or wrong to use SEO in your articles. In the end, only you can decide on what to do.

However, before you do it, think about what you want to achieve.

If you are looking to get more paid views, reads, followers, and income on this platform, then follow the previous twelve steps. They might take some time, but ultimately, they will work for all your future articles.

On the other hand, if you wish to promote your business website, blog, book site, or maybe boost your ego, and don’t know how to use SEO, you can read my beginner SEO guide “How to Make Your Content Go Viral,” and learn why, when, and how.

Remember, it is always up to you, but as Albert Einstein said:

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ― Albert Einstein

Disclosure

I want to explain that last month I published an article titled “What is The Best-kept Secret About SEO Google Doesn’t Want You to Know?”

Many readers told me that though it had great ideas, it was too much information and that I should divide it into four parts.

This article is the third part; the others are “How to Make Your Content Go Viral,” “Why Does Google Lies About SEO’s Ranking,” and “Why Using SEO Made My Stories Go Viral but Not the Way I Wanted.”

© Copyright Jose Luis Ontanon, 2022