🧭 The Medium Article Traffic System

Think of your article as going through this pipeline:

Topic → Keyword → Title → Article → SEO → Medium distribution → External promotion → Backlinks/social → Clicks → Reading time → Engagement → More distribution

Every part can affect the outcome.

1. 🔍 Keyword research

Before writing, figure out what people are actually searching for.

For example, don’t start with:

“I want to write about database indexes.”

Instead investigate searches such as:

• how database indexes work
• why database query is slow
• mysql index not being used
• composite index mysql
• database indexing explained
• how to optimize mysql query

Then choose one primary search intent.

What you’re looking for

Ideally:

High enough search demand + relatively low competition + strong relevance to your expertise.

You can use:

• Google autocomplete
• Google “People also ask”
• Google related searches
• Google Trends
• Ahrefs
• Semrush
• Ubersuggest
• Keyword Planner
• AnswerThePublic
• Reddit
• Stack Overflow

You don’t necessarily need expensive SEO software when you’re starting.

2. 🎯 Search intent

This is one of the biggest things beginners miss.

Suppose someone searches:

mysql composite index

What do they want?

Probably an explanation/tutorial.

Someone searching:

mysql composite index vs single index

wants a comparison.

Someone searching:

mysql composite index performance benchmark

probably wants actual measurements.

Your article needs to satisfy the reason they searched.

Google explicitly recommends people-first content that provides substantial, original value rather than content produced primarily to manipulate rankings.

3. 🏷️ Title optimization

This is huge.

Your title needs to work for:

Google + Medium + humans.

Bad:

Database Indexes

Better:

How Database Indexes Actually Work

Even better for a specific search:

How MySQL Indexes Work: A Practical Guide With Real Query Examples

You want the important phrase naturally present without turning the title into keyword soup.

Medium’s own distribution guidelines also emphasize that titles and subtitles should accurately represent the story and should not be generic, misleading, sensationalistic, or clickbait.

4. 📝 Subtitle / description

Medium gives you a subtitle beneath the title.

Use it.

Think of it as another opportunity to tell:

Google + Medium reader: “Here’s exactly what you’ll get.”

For example:

Learn how B-tree indexes, composite indexes, and index selectivity affect query performance, with practical MySQL examples.

5. 🧱 Article structure

Make the article extremely easy to scan.

For technical articles, I’d generally use:

Title

Subtitle

Introduction

↓

The problem

↓

Quick answer

↓

Concept explanation

↓

Example

↓

Code/query

↓

Result

↓

Why it works

↓

Common mistakes

↓

Practical recommendations

↓

Conclusion

Use:

• H2/H3 sections
• short paragraphs
• bullet points
• numbered steps
• code blocks
• tables where useful
• screenshots/diagrams when they genuinely help

Don’t make someone fight through a 3,000-word brick of text.

6. 🔑 Use keywords naturally

Yes, keywords matter.

But keyword stuffing is not the strategy.

Instead of repeatedly writing:

MySQL indexes are important. MySQL indexes improve MySQL query performance. MySQL index optimization…

Write naturally.

Google says SEO can be useful when applied to people-first content, but warns against creating content primarily for search engines.

Think:

Topic coverage > keyword repetition.

7. 🔗 Internal linking

This is surprisingly useful.

If you publish:

How MySQL Indexes Work

and later publish:

Why Your MySQL Query Isn’t Using Your Index

link the two.

You can build a little network:

Database Optimization

│

┌─────────────┼──────────────┐

↓             ↓              ↓

Indexes          Joins          Query Plans

│                │              │

↓                ↓              ↓

Composite         JOIN types     EXPLAIN

indexes

Google uses links to discover pages and understand their relevance, and descriptive anchor text helps both users and Google understand the destination.

8. 🌐 External links

Link to authoritative sources when appropriate.

For technical writing:

• Microsoft documentation
• PostgreSQL documentation
• MySQL documentation
• RFCs
• research papers
• official GitHub repositories
• official framework documentation

This gives your article credibility.

Don’t turn it into a link farm.

9. 🔗 Backlinks

This is the classic SEO weapon.

If another website links to your Medium article, Google can discover and evaluate that page through that link ecosystem.

Potential sources:

• Reddit discussions
• Hacker News
• LinkedIn
• GitHub README
• personal website
• developer communities
• newsletters
• forums
• other articles

But there’s a critical distinction:

Share it where it is genuinely useful.

Don’t spam 47 Reddit communities with:

“CHECK OUT MY AMAZING ARTICLE 🚀”

That can backfire.

10. 📣 Promote immediately after publishing

Don’t just press:

Publish → disappear into the fog.

Share it.

For example:

LinkedIn

Post the interesting insight and link to the article.

Reddit

Find an existing relevant discussion and contribute something useful. Link only where appropriate.

X

Turn the article into a small thread.

GitHub

If it’s a technical tutorial, relevant repositories can sometimes point readers toward deeper documentation.

Your own website

If you eventually build one, link between your website and Medium.

11. 📰 Submit to Medium publications

This is very important on Medium itself.

A publication already has:

• followers
• readers
• reputation
• editors
• distribution

Getting accepted into a relevant publication can expose your article to an audience you don’t yet have.

Medium says publications can provide another distribution path in addition to your personal/network and recommendation distribution.

For technical writing, you’d want publications focused on things like:

• programming
• software engineering
• AI
• data
• startups
• developer productivity

The exact publications worth targeting can change, so I’d research them individually rather than blindly submitting everywhere.

12. 👥 Build your Medium profile

Don’t treat your profile as an afterthought.

Have:

• good profile photo
• clear bio
• relevant topics
• links to your website/GitHub/LinkedIn
• consistent niche

If someone reads one article and clicks your profile, you want them to immediately understand:

“This person writes about backend engineering.”

rather than:

“Apparently this person writes about SQL, anime, cryptocurrency, cooking and existential dread.”

Unless existential dread is your niche. 😄

13. 🏷️ Use Medium topics/tags correctly

Medium’s internal distribution uses topics and reader interests.

Use relevant tags.

For example:

Software Development

Programming

Database

MySQL

Backend Development

Don’t tag an article with unrelated popular topics just because they have more readers.

Medium explicitly says inappropriate topic tagging/spamming can make stories ineligible for General Distribution.

14. 👏 Engagement

Medium cares about what happens after someone clicks.

Things such as:

• reading time
• claps
• highlights
• replies

can affect earnings and engagement signals.

So don’t optimize purely for:

“How do I get the click?”

Optimize for:

“How do I make the person glad they clicked?”

That’s a much better game.

15. ⏱️ Reading time

This is particularly important for the Partner Program.

A reader who:

clicks → reads 12 seconds → leaves

isn’t nearly as valuable as:

clicks → reads 7 minutes → highlights something → claps → follows you.

Medium’s current earnings system explicitly incorporates member reading/listening time and engagement.

So:

• strong opening
• useful examples
• screenshots
• diagrams
• code
• logical progression
• no unnecessary filler

all matter.

16. 🖼️ Cover image

Your cover isn’t primarily an SEO tactic.

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It’s a click-through tactic.

People see:

Title + subtitle + image

and decide whether to click.

Medium’s current Boost guidelines specifically consider whether the title, subtitle and cover image accurately communicate what the story is about.

For technical articles, I’d generally favor:

clean + relevant + distinctive

over:

random stock photo of a guy staring at a laptop.

17. 📱 Make it readable on mobile

A huge portion of Medium consumption happens through phones.

So check:

• paragraph length
• heading spacing
• code block readability
• image size
• tables
• lists

A paragraph that looks perfectly reasonable on your 27-inch monitor can become a textual brick on a phone.

18. 🔎 Medium SEO settings

This is the part you’re specifically asking about.

Yes, Medium has SEO settings.

Medium provides SEO-related controls, and it also allows canonical URLs when content exists elsewhere.

So when publishing, you should pay attention to:

• SEO title
• SEO description
• canonical URL if applicable
• article title
• subtitle
• relevant tags/topics

19. 🧠 Build topical authority

This is where things get really interesting.

Instead of publishing:

SQL

Python

React

Fitness

Movies

AI

Travel

Finance

Cooking

build a cluster.

For example:

Backend Engineering

Database Indexes

↓

MySQL Query Optimization

↓

EXPLAIN in MySQL

↓

Composite Indexes

↓

Database Transactions

↓

Connection Pooling

↓

Dapper Performance

↓

Caching

↓

Background Jobs

↓

Message Queues

Now your Medium profile starts developing a recognizable identity.

And you have opportunities to link your articles together.

20. 🧪 Study what already ranks

Before writing an article, search Google.

Suppose you want:

how nsq works

Look at the first 10 results.

Ask:

• What topics do they cover?
• How long are they?
• What questions do they answer?
• What do they not explain?
• Are there outdated articles?
• Are there confusing explanations?
• Are there missing examples?
• Can you demonstrate something they merely describe?

Then create something better, not merely longer.

Google’s guidance specifically emphasizes original information, substantial value, insightful analysis, and satisfying the user’s goal.

21. 🕸️ Create a distribution network

This is probably the biggest strategic point.

Don’t think:

Article → Google

Think:

Google

↑

│

LinkedIn ←────── ARTICLE ──────→ Medium

│

↓

Reddit

│

↓

GitHub

│

↓

Your Website

Every legitimate discovery channel can feed the article.

And Medium specifically gives higher earning weight to member reads coming from external sources and search engines.

22. 📊 Track performance

After publishing, don’t just stare at the view count like a slot machine.

Look at:

Views

↓

Reads

↓

Read ratio / reading time

↓

Engagement

↓

Followers

↓

External traffic

↓

Search traffic

↓

Earnings

Then figure out what’s working.

If an article gets:

20,000 impressions → 300 clicks

your title/topic may be the problem.

If it gets:

300 clicks → 280 people leave immediately

your article may be the problem.

If it gets:

300 readers → 150 minutes of reading + lots of engagement

you may have found a very good topic.

23. Update successful articles

Don’t assume publishing is the end.

If an article starts getting search traffic:

improve it.

Add:

• new examples
• updated screenshots
• corrections
• new information
• better explanation
• links to newer articles

But don’t manipulate publication dates merely to make content look fresh. Google explicitly warns against that.

24. Don’t buy traffic

This is important.

Don’t think:

“I’ll buy 10,000 visitors and make Medium money.”

Medium currently says purchased external traffic isn’t recommended and that low-quality traffic can hurt a publication’s standing on Medium and in search.

You want real humans with actual intent.

25. Don’t mass-produce AI articles

This is especially important in 2026.

Medium currently says stories where the majority of the content is AI-generated with little/no human editing, fact-checking or original contribution aren’t eligible for its paywall. AI assistance for things like outlining, grammar and fact verification is allowed.

So if you’re using AI, the valuable workflow is:

You → experience/idea → AI assistance → research → testing → your examples → your conclusions → editing

rather than:

“Write 100 Medium articles about programming.”

The latter is basically content porridge.

🎯 If I were doing this from scratch

I’d use this exact workflow:

Before writing

1. Find a problem

↓

2. Find search queries around that problem

↓

3. Examine Google’s first page

↓

4. Find a gap

↓

5. Choose one primary search intent

↓

6. Create a strong title

↓

7. Outline the article

↓

While writing

8. Give the answer early

↓

9. Add original experience/examples

↓

10. Use relevant keywords naturally

↓

11. Use descriptive headings

↓

12. Add screenshots/code/diagrams

↓

13. Link to authoritative sources

↓

14. Link to your other relevant articles

↓

Publishing

15. Optimize Medium title/subtitle

↓

16. Configure SEO settings

↓

17. Choose relevant topics

↓

18. Create a good cover

↓

19. Make it eligible for the Partner Program

↓

20. Submit to a relevant publication

↓

After publishing

21. Share on LinkedIn

↓

22. Share where genuinely relevant on Reddit

↓

23. Share on X

↓

24. Link from relevant GitHub/website content

↓

25. Respond to comments

↓

26. Track performance

↓

27. Update winners

And there’s one particularly interesting strategy for you

Given that you’re interested in small web projects that can generate passive income, I wouldn’t treat Medium as an isolated income stream.

I’d build a little ecosystem:

Micro-tool → SEO article → Medium article → Google traffic → tool traffic → backlinks → more articles

For example:

Build an online JSON formatter.

Then write:

“I Built a JSON Formatter From Scratch: Here’s What I Learned About JSON Parsing”

Then:

Build an online JWT decoder.

Write:

“JWT Explained by Building a JWT Decoder From Scratch”

Then:

Build an online Cron expression generator.

Write:

“Cron Expressions Explained: I Built a Generator to Understand Them”

Now you’re not just farming Medium articles.

You’re creating actual assets, and each project can produce:

• a website
• an SEO landing page
• a Medium article
• a GitHub repository
• LinkedIn content
• Reddit discussion
• backlinks
• potentially advertising/tool revenue
• potentially Medium Partner Program revenue

That’s a much more interesting flywheel than “write articles and hope Medium pays me.”

And yes, SEO is one of the major pieces of that flywheel. Medium itself says search-engine-discovered member reads receive higher earning treatment, so optimizing for Google isn’t merely about vanity traffic.