Written by Jasmine Brown of The Brokins.
So you have a blog, dreams of using it as a source of income, and everyone keeps going on and on about something called “SEO”.
“SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization” is something that only truly matters if you care about your blog getting attention outside of your mom, Aunt Lucy, and third cousin Mabel. Bottom line? Search Engine Optimization matters to individuals who are interested in exposure via search engines. So lets go over the basic things that can be important for a blogger who wants to optimize their blog.
Write for your readers FIRST
Many bloggers fire up their blogs and get excited to fill their pages with content, content, and more content. The thing is blogging solely for content or flooding your blog with “key words” will show through. This is, in my opinion, the fastest way to turn off your readers. Striking a balance of creativity and best practice SEO is sometimes a tight rope walk and with some practice and attention it can be done.
Title is important
Create a title that A) grabs the readers attention B) communicates the content of the post and C) has the keywords that people search for in search engines. If your blog post is about DIY birdhouses, please don’t title it “Jimmy John Loves Birdies”. This title does not tell us what you are writing about specifically. If you must talk about Jimmy John, try this: “DIY Birdhouses: Jimmy John Loves Birdies”
Appropriately tag your posts, images, and links
Make sure to create appropriate tags that match your key words and be congruent and specific. The more key words, or words that describe your content, that show up in your post, title, tags, and links the more easily search engines will be able to find your blog posts and articles.
Keywords
“Keywords” are the holy grail of Search Engine Optimization. Most algorithms search for your keywords in the first 50-100 words of your content. For the best hits in SEO-world, add your keywords into an introductory sentence. Ex: “I want to show you my process of a DIY birdhouse”. Emboldened words get attention. All of that being said… the worst, WORST thing you can do is shovel a bunch of key words onto your blog for the purpose of search engine hits. Why is it the worst thing you can do? Um… because people aren’t algorithms and as fast they arrived to visit your site they will leave from lack of quality content.
My advice is to write good quality blog posts and articles FIRST and then see if there is a theme or keywords that you can identify to search engine optimize your content, titles, tag, and images. Bloggers excited to move on up in their Google (or whatever choice search engine) rankings can get over zealous and easily forget that getting people to stay, read, and subscribe to your blog is just as important as search hits. The best way to get those readers to engage and be dedicated to your blog is to establish a connection and provide your readers with good, stable, and diverse but relevant content. I am sure you’ve heard of the phrase “content is king” in the blogosphere. I would amend that phrase and say,
“content is king, but authenticity is queen (and queens have always been better rulers!)”
For valuable resources on SEO writing and Best Practice check out iBlogZone, http://www.iblogzone.com/2009/07/3-step-guide-to-simple-seo-article.html