Learning SEO Blogging the Hard Way: What Finally Made It Click

The Reluctant Blogger

When I was told I needed to blog for SEO, my first thought was, "Ooh, OK — maybe I’ll enjoy a bit of creative writing." Learning SEO blogging, however, turned out to be a very different beast. Turns out what I was actually supposed to write were things like "How to Repurpose Your Makeup Bag into a Versatile Emergency Kit." Riveting stuff. Just the kind of edge-of-your-seat topic that gets your average crafter’s heart racing — if you’re the sort of person who thrills at the idea of labelling cables and reorganising your spice rack by colour.

I didn’t get it. I rewrote every sentence five times, convinced the fate of the universe hinged on whether I used "bag" or "pouch" — as if Google might spontaneously combust if I picked the wrong one. I tried to rein in my fairytale brain — the one that wanted to give zips tragic childhoods and notebooks secret lives — and instead ended up with something that read like the terms and conditions from a microwave warranty. Dry, robotic, and somehow still completely useless for SEO blogging.

Learning the Hard Way

I was told (repeatedly, with increasing levels of polite exasperation) that I had to write about things people were actually searching for — not just ramblings about fabric choices and the philosophical angst of stationery. Blogging for SEO meant learning how to structure posts properly, naturally weave in keywords, and understand how internal linking helps search engines find and connect my content. But my arty-farty brain was far more interested in pondering whether a cushion might be secretly resenting the sofa for getting all the attention, or if a notebook was sulking because no one ever writes past page ten. Keywords?? Meta descriptions? alt text? It all sounded like one of those adulting tasks you put off indefinitely — somewhere between sorting your tax receipts and descaling the kettle.

I wasn’t deliberately rebelling — there were no dramatic standoffs or defiant gestures like uninstalling Shopify while humming Land of Hope and Glory — I just couldn’t shift my airy-fairy mindset. Some people can’t see the wood for the trees? Well, I’m virtually blinded by rainbow mist. I fiddled, I faffed, I got very invested in reorganising my desk and wondering if my scissors needed a designated tray. Anything but admit that the problem wasn’t the advice — it was me not following it.

Eventually, reality gave me a nudge — the money I’d taken early from my pension pot was running out, and no amount of rewording blog titles was going to magic up a miracle. I even wrote a whole post on selling handmade crafts online, just to prove I’d finally started paying attention to what people actually search for. It was time to stop dithering and bloody well do what I’d been told to do in the first place!

A New Perspective

Turns out blogging really isn’t about sharing my soul with the internet. It’s about creating content that supports what I actually sell — whether that’s handmade tote bags or makeup bags made from rescued fabrics. It's about feeding Google a well-balanced diet of search terms, clarity, and structure. SEO blog writing is less about poetic flair and more about being useful, relevant, and actually answering what people are searching for.

Now that I’ve stopped second-guessing every title like it’s about to be marked by an angry English teacher, it’s become so much quicker and far less agonising. And since I’ve clocked up about 150 SEO blog posts — most of which, regrettably, contain no talking hedgehogs, mysteriously missing buttons, or tote bags that whisper secrets when the moon is full — though heaven knows I’ve tried to sneak them in — I occasionally treat my creative soul to a post with a bit more of me in it — personality, quirks, and the freedom to write without counting keywords.

The Rainbow Mist Lifts

It took nearly two years for the rainbow mist to finally lift. At first, I had a checklist for everything — keywords, meta descriptions, internal links, image alt text — and I clung to it like a life raft. Learning SEO blogging felt like learning a foreign language, and I triple-checked every paragraph, terrified I’d mess up the format. Can you learn SEO on your own? Maybe. But I didn’t. I desperately wanted to understand it, and I really struggled — for a long time. Eventually, with the right kind of support and a lot of persistence, it started to click — and I owe a lot to the right kind of help at the right time.

Now it’s like I can finally ride the SEO bike without stabilisers. I understand how to structure blog content properly, include relevant keywords naturally, and write in a way that helps both humans and search engines. I don’t dread meta descriptions anymore — I just ask ChatGPT to write them like a normal person.

Apparently SEO is forever changing, so I’m under no illusion that I’ve cracked it. But at least I’ve got a solid SEO blog workflow now, and I’m no longer trying to rewrite the internet using glitter and metaphors.

What You Can Learn from This

• SEO blogging isn’t about writing perfectly — it’s about answering real questions.
• You don’t have to figure it all out on your own, but you do need to stick with it.
• Keywords, structure, and consistency matter — and once it clicks, it really clicks.

Humans Behind the Products

Posts like this one probably don’t impress Google much, but they do help me stay sane and remind anyone reading that there's a real person behind the products — muddling through, getting better, and praying that Google won't punish her for a post like this and drop her back to page 10!