This Storytelling Line Amplifies Your SEO Fast

If you write content that only has SEO in mind, it can be very dry. What you really want is content that's engaging so people are excited to read it.

The best way to do this is to tell stories. In this article, I'll share my one of the best techniques I've tested: In Medias Res - start in the middle. Here's how this works and why it's so effective.

Painting a Visual

Business stories allow people to see a picture in their minds and feel an experience. The best stories start with hooks that captivate the audience so they want to know more.

When you use stories to drive your content marketing and then add on-page SEO elements like embedding keywords in the title, headings, body text, and image alt tags, your content not only becomes SEO friendly but it is also a delight to read.

In Medias Res Storytelling

In Medias Res is one of my favorite business storytelling techniques. It's Latin for "in the middle of things." You start the story in the middle instead of the chronological beginning.

For example, if you are a cybersecurity consultant, you might start a story like this:

The CEO received a text in the middle of the night that read, "all systems are down, we’re under attack."

When you read this (or hear it as an opening to a video or presentation), what's your first reaction?

For most, it's "what happened, and what's next?"

This opening creates Intrigue.

The hook captures attention and begs for more.

The interesting thing about starting with this line is that it begins in the middle of the story, allowing you to go back and explain how this all came about, what the cybersecurity risks are, and how the hackers got in.

Then, you can move forward to show how the resolution came to be and what you, as the service provider or product developer, did to resolve the situation.

Starting in the middle of the story, right at the point of climax or pain, is a beautiful way to captivate your audience very quickly with just one line.

It creates excitement, making people want to know what happened. They’ll be curious about how the situation got to that point and what you did to fix it.

Add In SEO

Once you have written your story, you can massage the text to incorporate your target keywords.

In the cybersecurity example, your keyword might be "cybersecurity services in Phoenix". Modifying the story becomes easy. For example, as you pull the reader back to the origin of the incident, you can talk about it like this:

The company had thought about getting cybersecurity services in Phoenix, but hadn't moved on it yet.

And then as you move the reader through the storyline, you can repeat this keyword:

With Phoenix cybersecurity services in place, they're now sleeping better at night. No more wake up calls about the sky falling.

Notice that this use of the keyword phrase is a variation on the target keyword, but has the same meaning. Google can detect the intent of your word choice. Using variations like this make your article feel more natural and not written for SEO purposes.

This is a quick (and I'd even say fun) way to enhance your content so that it addresses the checkboxes of being engaging while being SEO-friendly.

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