SEO 101 for Creators: 5 Essential Steps to Boost Your Online Presence

Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO) was a term that straight up terrified me for a long time. Don’t worry, it’s really not as scary as you think! SEO is meant to help you grow your business and it’s something that we definitely don’t want to shy away from.

My goal with this blog post is to touch on the verrry basics of SEO. I’ll cover the following topics to serve as a mere introduction:

1. Using Keywords
2. Creating High-Quality Content
3. On-Page SEO
4. The Importance of Backlinks
5. Technical SEO

Using Keywords

Keywords are the most basic idea to start with. Keywords are terms that are related to your business: what you do, what you create, how you serve people, etc. 

As a creator, you might have hundreds of keywords that relate to what you do. For example, if someone has a company where they provide spiritual coaching, their long list of keywords could include anything from prayer, meditation, and verses, to healing, wellness, and balance 💆🏻‍♀️

Ideally, you want to choose only a few keywords to focus on and attempt to rank for. A dog trainer might focus on keywords like dog trainer, obedience training, leash training, and puppy school.

You can also consider combining different keywords to further specify your content. Some examples are “prayer groups in Orange County,” or “puppy school for dachshunds”.

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Creating High-Quality Content

Whenever you’re creating content for your business, it is incredibly important that the content is high-quality. I’m not necessarily talking about video or image quality - I’m more concerned with the actual words you are using to communicate 📣

Your content should answer questions, define terms, solve problems, and even entertain your users. In turn, you will become a reliable source related to your topics not only from the standpoint of your followers, but also in the eyes of search engines. 

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On-Page SEO

If you have a website, each page should include on-page SEO efforts. This will ensure that search engines can properly assess what kind of content is on each page and rank your website accordingly.

On-page SEO includes using titles, title tags, and meta descriptions for each page. Headers on pages and blog posts should use the proper HTML heading tags. Images should have alt text assigned. Ideally, these things should become part of your content creation practices. If your website was created properly, each of these tasks will be a breeze and easy to check off your to-do list.

Another way to improve your on-page SEO is to frequently use your keywords on each page. Make sure to do so naturally, otherwise it could be considered “keyword stuffing” where keywords are added onto the page simply to improve SEO. Keyword stuffing will affect your SEO negatively because search engines can tell when you’re doing it…and they don’t like it. 😳

Internal linking is another way to improve SEO. This is when you create multiple pieces of content that all relate to each other, and you link to each of those pieces of content within each other. For instance, if you are writing a blog post that mentions topics you’ve already written other posts on, you can link those other posts within the post you are currently writing. Search engines understand that content you’ve linked together internally are related. The internal links help search engines define and organize your content, and in turn improve your ranking.

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The Importance of Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. The more backlinks your website has greatly improves your SEO ranking. This is because search engines understand that the more times your content is shared, the more valuable people think it is, and therefore give it a higher ranking 🙌🏻

Ok, so how the heck do we get more backlinks? Great question.

Backlinking strategy begins with creating share-worthy content. Content that is high quality, relevant to your niche, and either educational or entertaining, is more likely to be shared.

One way to strategically create backlinks to your website or your content is to form collaborations with other creators or businesses. You can create content (alone or together) for their website or platform, and ask them to link to your website or your other relevant content, and then do the same for them 🤝

An example of this is if two influencers who had adjacent niches talked on a podcast together. Let’s say one influencer is in the running niche, and the other is in the nutrition niche. Both niches fall under a more broad health/wellness niche, so the partnership is natural! On the podcast episode, each creator shares valuable insight that could be helpful for the audiences of either niche. Any relevant backlinks can be added to the episode notes.

BAM! Backlinks acquired! Not to mention a few new friends and followers 🫶

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Technical SEO

Technical SEO is all about how well your website actually functions. Is the connection secure? Is your design optimized for mobile view? How fast is your site performing? Essentially, how good is the experience of using your website?

This is the stuff I nerd-out about. You’ll want to make sure that your images are properly sized, the design is optimized for a variety of screen sizes, your URLs are properly structured, your site structure is logical and easily navigated, and really so, so much more…too much to include in this introductory post!

Ready to take the next steps in creating a website? I’ve created a checklist that walks you through everything you need to get in order beforehand. After completing the checklist, you will be ready to either start working with a web designer or begin designing your own website.

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If designing your own website is something you’d like to pass off to a specialist, I would love to be one of the designers you consider! Check out my portfolio and packages to see if we’d be a match 🤩

Interested in learning more about what it takes to create a high-converting website? Check out these posts:

Why a Website is Essential for Controlling Your Brand as a Course Creator

Why Every Course Creator Needs a Website: Your Ultimate Content Hub

10 Lucrative Ways Course & Content Creators Can Monetize Their Audience with Their Website in 2025