An Introduction to SEO For Blogs
SEO is quite often something that is neglected by bloggers and left until a later time. However it can be difficult to correct mistakes later so it is a good idea to think about SEO right at the beginning.
Why is SEO Important?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and it is a great way to get traffic because it’s completely free and once the traffic begins to flow it can continue to pour in for months or even years. However it can take a while to get to this stage which is a good reason to bear it in mind from the start.
SEO is all about ranking content in the search engines so of course you need content and this is why blogs can do so well with SEO because they are full of content! However SEO is about keywords and its quite easy to write a blog post that doesn’t rank for any useful keywords and the traffic potential is never reached.
Getting On-Page SEO Correct
For your post to rank in the search engines, you need to know what keyword you want to rank for. Keyword research is another article in itself so I’ll just say that you can’t go any further without picking a phrase to rank for. However if you really don’t have a clue then don’t obsess over it as you also want to always make sure that you are writing for your readers and not just the search engines.
Having said that, some blogs that are in more specialised niches can be quite easy to pick keywords for. For example if you write some kind of photography blog and you are writing a post which reviews a particular camera then a good candidate for a keyword would be the make and model of that camera as that it what people will be looking for in the search engines. There are several places that you need to insert your keyword:
1) The title - at the very beginning if possible. This is the single most important element.
2) The post content - mention your keyword (and variations on it) throughout the post itself. Don’t go overboard though - keep it natural.
3) Tags - If your blogging platform allows you to add tags to your posts then ensure that you add one that matches your keyword.
4) The URL - make sure your post links have the keywords in them and not something cryptic. Software such as WordPress allows you to convert your post title into a permalink.
What If You Have Already Written Lots of Posts?
If you already have some earlier posts that you wrote before you learned about SEO there are still some changes you can make retrospectively. One thing that is very important is to ensure that you do not change your URL as this will cause broken links to appear in search engines.
One thing that you can change quite safely is the text within your post though. You can tweak titles, body copy and add tags to make it more keyword friendly. For example one tweak you might want to make it putting your keywords earlier in the title. For example if you wanted to rank for “make money blogging”, which of these two titles is best? :
- 10 Great Ways to Make Money Blogging Today! - Make Money Blogging - 10 Killer Ideas!
The second one is better as far as SEO goes because the target phrase comes first in the title. Have a read through your article and make sure your keyword is liberally sprinkled throughout the copy text and don’t forget to add a tag if possible.
Once you make changes it can take a while for Google to pick it up and act on it so don’t expect results overnight!
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