Experienced in Content, Editing, and SEO
This is a portfolio of Rodney Harrier, a Christian Content and SEO writer. He has experience coding with HTML, and designing websites and a blog with WordPress. He creates content, edits, and applies the best search engine optimization (SEO) to articles (see screenshot).
He was a Word-Weavers member for two years. This involved writing, editing, and critiquing each other’s work for content and grammar. Compositions were formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style. He also attended writer’s conferences to improve his craft.
Most Recent Articles: What Does Scripture Say about Revival? featured at christianity.com
Why Does the Day of Atonement Matter Today? featured at biblestudytools.com
Articles on Depression and Hope
SEO discussion with a friend (getting him back to the first page in a search engine results page, SERP)
Edited excerpts from several SEO text discussions with a friend, December 2024—January 2025
In mid-December 2024, while sitting in the waiting room to have my vehicle serviced, I met a good friend and began talking about Search Engine Optimization.
[My friend] Rod, I’ve been having trouble with the visibility of my website. I’m well-known and a respected authority in my field, but I’m no longer on page 1. It’s hard to get noticed if you’re not on page 1.
[Rod]. I know what you mean! The competition is high, yet there are certain things you can do to be seen. Search Engine Optimization is a hobby of mine, along with writing and editing. I have learned a lot, and I could share some tips with you, if you’re interested.
[My friend] That would be wonderful!
[December 17 text to friend]. It was nice to connect with you about the Search Engine Optimization of your website while waiting to get our vehicles serviced. I would be glad to help.
Then I shared with him
9 simple strategic things he could do to help move up his rankings on a SERP for his professional training.
- Make sure visitors can find your website. Speed is essential and relevance is necessary.
- Make sure your website is helpful. It’s not about you; it’s about them and how well you understand them and how to provide a solution to their problem(s).
- Are there any events they might find helpful? Why not provide them weblinks for more information?
- Short video clips of your best teachings on vital topics may whet their appetite for more. Be sure to add tags (keywords and phrases) and link the video back to your site.
- Pictures of people and videos help search rankings. Use alt text to describe them.
- Current websites get more attention than static sites.
- Long texts are hard to read, and many times, you will lose your audience.
- You must provide helpful content, not fluff, and not just a bunch of keywords.
- You need a call to action on every page for conversion.
[My friend] Wow! Thanks for the very good advice, Rod.
[Rod] Maybe the Lord brought us together for a reason. Perhaps I can help you raise your rankings this winter. Let me know if you’re interested.
[My friend] That will be wonderful. Thank you. 🙏
On the next day, I texted him and gave him additional advice:
Here are 5 steps to raise your rankings in a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
[Step 1: Listen and Research]
[me:] Connecting with your industry is important. If you can give me any non-technical or just a little sampling of some technical articles to read to familiarize myself with your industry, I would appreciate it. Your market differs greatly from my market. I want to understand it. Then we can talk later, and I can make sure that I understand what you’re trying to accomplish. We need to use the same lingo on the website that’s used in your industry to reach your target market.
I would like to understand what stresses or challenges your industry has and how you’re offering to help them with their problems. I’ll need a lot of term definitions and procedure explanations, enough to know what we’re talking about with intelligence. Then we can talk about how all that could be presented in a good winnable format using story branding.
[My friend during a Zoom call] I took your advice and did something helpful. I am very excited about a valuable directory of references I put together for my colleagues and clients. Now they will have access to helpful articles through links on my site. To further promote their involvement with my site, I made it possible for them to share links of their best, most authoritative articles.
That’s so cool. You are knocking it out of the park! That looks very helpful. And, it helps establish more of your authority in the field.
[Step 2: Establishing your Authority as a Trusted Site]
I don’t have to say much about this, since you have thousands of followers on LinkedIn®. But, if you’re not doing this now, I would suggest you join and take part in a board or forum that answers people’s questions about the service or products you provide. That will establish more authority, and people will want to know what you have to say and what you offer. This creates backlinks from their sites to yours and enhances your authority in your field. That means they will be using your site more and get the attention of search engines as an authoritative site. These types of sites bring up rankings.
Links in appropriate well-trafficked directories are also helpful, even if you have to pay a little bit of money to be seen.
[Step 3: Identify your goal and target market. Then tell a story that will cause them to want more information and help.]
[text meeting the next week]
Identifying the Target Market
Before we get the cart before the horse, it would be good to identify, and maybe you already know, who is your target market? Who are you going to reach? The story brand comes afterward.
Your mission statement is concise, but it seems broad in scope. I think you need to narrow the focus to the person you are targeting who needs your service. It is a person who will use your services. He needs to be the focus of your website. Yes, you must establish authority, but you will probably need to talk about how your product or service will benefit him. Put it in a story format: what things could be like for him if he uses it, and what might result if he chooses not to do anything.
Aesthetic Improvements
This is just my opinion, but I would like to see you change the order of things on your homepage. Make the page about what they can experience by taking your training. Keep significant awards, badges, or memberships discreetly put on the home page, but put a link to all your credentials to land at the bottom of the page or link to a separate page (usually an about page).
Now, highlight your training pictures. You need happy pictures of those who have completed your training and show their certificates. These kinds of things belong right after your purpose statement to reinforce it and to make an excellent impression.
[My friend] I had a picture like that up, and I’ll be sure to put it back on the front page
Now, what story are you going to tell your target audience to show how you can help them with their needs? Do you want to do webinars with them? What is essential for them to learn and why? Do you have some other service or product that you want to give them? You need to have a compelling reason for them to come to your website and know that you’re going to help them with some problem they have. You’re going to provide the solution, and you’re going to reveal it in a brief summary on the first third of your webpage.
Story Branding
How is your brand identified? Once you have successfully identified target and brand, it will guide the rest of your SEO. I would recommend you listen to the podcast about Simple Marketing and Story Branding. After that, tell me in a sentence or two who your target market is and what kind of story you’re going to tell to motivate them to take some desired action.
I read your mission and purpose statements. Somehow, you need to put all that into a short sentence or two so you have laser-focus on your ideal target market. Then, identify how you’re going to help them solve their problems.
You only have a couple of seconds to interest your audience. Make a statement that will grab their attention and then tell your story of how you’re going to meet their needs.
[I showed my friend a couple top ranking websites and why they were ranked as high as they were]
Think of your favorite website and look at it. You are immediately attracted to some graphic, and the opening statement connected with you right away. Immediately, the visitors see the article’s purpose and site relevance. Perhaps, it was also authoritative and easy to navigate.
You can use your favorite websites in your industry as a guide. You can’t copy them, but you can get ideas from what your competitors are doing.
You want to make your subscribers heroes; if they do the things you suggest. They become heroes in their organization when profits zoom and risks of loss are diminished.
If you use SemRush® or Ahrefs® or you don’t have either, at the bottom of a SERP you can see what questions your target audience is asking. Then answer those on your website. Tell them how you’re going to help them find the answers or meet their needs. Of course, you’ll need to keep up with the changes in the questions and at least answer the major questions.
[Step 4: Indexing the Site]
The URL (web address).
I found this article from Lamar University on SEO page rankings. I thought it would be good for you to understand how SEO works.
Looking at some site domain names immediately tells me why some websites aren’t getting the traffic they want. They come up with cute or crafty names, but are potential visitors looking for those things? No.
If I were their SEO manager, I would tell them they would get a better ranking if they were to buy a domain name that was directed at what the visitor is looking for instead of the name of their firm. Then I would use a 301 redirect so they can redirect the new URL to their website. The goal is not to lose the visitors that they have, but to appeal to the ideal visitors they want.
For instance, when I started writing chronological Bible studies, I called them The Master’s Touch Bible studies (mtbiblestudies.com). That did not resonate with what I wanted to accomplish. It’s true, I have a few different Bible studies, but the address was too broad and not focused on my major service, providing free online, one-year daily chronological Bible studies.
I found the URL, chronologicalbiblestudies.com, was available for a nominal price per year. I bought the domain name chronologicalbiblestudies.com and did a 301 redirect of the mtbiblestudies.com to go to chronologicalbiblestudies.com. In that way, those who were already going to mtbiblestudies.com would not be lost. Instead, they would be redirected to the new URL, and those who were looking for chronological Bible studies would find it easier to go to the site. My site for Chronological Bible Studies ranks first after the sponsored ads.
My friend paid for a URL directly related to what a person in his industry would be looking for.
[mid-January after he returned from vacation]
I have a question. It looked like some of your competitors were ranking on a search page when I typed in your service. Do you aspire to be on that search page?
[My Friend: Of course]
Then, I think it could be as simple as just buying a URL domain with those search words or something similar if they are available for a decent price. Then, do another 301 redirect. You can do as many as you want as long as the content supports it. If you know of commonly misspelled words, you could also buy a domain with the misspelled word there and take them to your site with a 301. As long as you talk about that in your articles in some prominent places, that would work. Buying domain names and using a 301 redirection to your site can be 1,000 times cheaper than purchasing advertising. However, if somebody bought up a bunch of domains and is charging premium prices to sell them to you, perhaps choosing a synonym for the keywords or a slight alteration in the URL could get you around that.
Whatever you think is best with the most common keywords. You wanted your site to rank higher. I thought if a SERP asked questions with keywords related to your content, it would be good to appear on that page.
[My friend] I have four redirects now but could add another one.
[Step 4: Crawling and the Use of Sitemaps]
You have 12 pages now on your site. It would probably be a good idea to provide the search engines with a sitemap XML file and html sitemap for your visitors. You want to make it easy and fast for the search engine to show the results of the visitor queries. The easier the content of the site and pages are described, the easier the search engines can find, crawl, and index it.
[My friend] I need to work on that
Navigation shouldn’t be a problem with your site; it’s organized, but it can be so much better if you use good subheadings to describe the subject. That’s where Semrush® can help you find keywords for your subheadings.
In your headings and subheadings, don’t forget to include words and phrases that people are typing into a search engine looking for a site like yours. A properly structured site of headings and subheadings with keywords helps Google search. You can include it in your content, too, just not too much. You can and should use synonyms.
What kind of website-building service are you using? I use WordPress and it has the Yoast plug-in to check on my SEO and what I can do to improve it. I am also sending you a video about a robots.txt file. Use this with caution. Do it right, and it will help your rankings.
If you don’t want to take the time to work on your search engine results personally, then I would suggest you search for a good SEO company or individual to do this for you. Competition is high. It’s difficult to stay on the first page of a search. The better that you answer people’s inquiries using the words they would use, sympathizing with their struggles, and giving them solutions, the better your results will probably be. Google ranks websites that are the most relevant and authoritative.
After you’ve finished optimizing the searchability of your website, you might create a YouTube video. This will illustrate your service and challenge your clients to sign up for a class. Be sure to ask for likes and social media shares, and link the video to your website.
Congratulations! You’re doing a fine job. Let me know as soon as you get on the first page of the Google search. Keep in mind that when you change your website, it may not affect it for at least two weeks. It might be three months before anything significant in rankings is improved. Try to cache your site automatically or often manually to bring the latest changes for the benefit of your potential customers. Remember, you’ll have to go incognito or you won’t get a true reading. I think it’ll be sooner than later because of the changes that you’ve made.
Screenshot of Rod’s Success with SEO
In 2024, Google Analytics overview recorded 31,100 visitors and 3,000 were new. Many visitors from all over the world come and visit, and they are all welcome. Rodney is continually improving these Bible studies, and adding audio versions as he is able. In 2024 most of the book of Genesis and all the book of Job were complete. Here are a couple of screenshots showing success in creating organic monthly traffic, organic keywords, and backlinks. Many more conversions will follow when money is spent on advertising by this not-for-profit organization. Chronologicalbiblestudies.com ranks #1 after paid advertising, and Rodney could help your organization rank higher than it currently stands.
Articles on Depression and Hope
Here are some articles on depression and hope that show the style and quality of Rodney’s writing.
Depression stems from various causes. To help those affected by this emotional trama, Rodney included a personal story about his family’s experiences.
Reactions to Adverse Circumstances
In the first Bible study from the life of Job, he loses his business, family, and reputation within a week. How did he react? His response is unique. As his friends, how should we react? Please read it on his website.
Responding to those who Suffer
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. (Proverbs 25:11, ESV)
Words can be healing or harmful. The second Bible study in this series is speaking appropriate words to those who are suffering.
The Reality of Suffering Depression
Most of the rest of Job talks about all he suffered in graphic detail, both his mental and physical suffering. Added to his pain were the insensitive, know-it-all comments of his friends. Frequently, there’s no immediate fix, and the pain continues for some time. How can we endure it? How can we be loyal friends to those who suffer? You will find these dialogues on Days 7-15, beginning here.
Rewards for Perseverance
In the end, God straightens out Job’s thinking and rewards him for his perseverance through this severe trial. He is never told why he had to go through that. Maybe you or someone you know feels that way, too. Is there any answer? Look on Days 16-17
Depression is No Respecter of Persons
Another character who had depression was King Solomon. He had everything, but even the rich could suffer this illness. This brief series begins here, with the topic, Some Causes and Cures for Depression, Day 158. Hope for the Depressed and Those Who Care for Them.
Do you have a WordPress site that you need to create, maintain, or improve? Do you need creative, engaging, and persuasive content for a website, blog, newletter, or book? Do you need content editing and strategy? Do you want your site on the first page of a SERP? Perhaps, I can work for you and give you the excellent results you desire. Contact me: rodney.harrier@gmail.com