Search Engine Optimization Basics For Blogging
It’s kind of a big deal. Blogging for business generates 55% more traffic to your company’s website. We also know that generating more traffic generates more leads. In fact, blogging has shown to increase leads by as much as 77%. The trick to generating more traffic is to use search engine optimization basics for blogging to maximize your traffic. This will help your blog get seen by more readers and more customers. If you are new to blogging, or just want to get more traffic out of every blog post, here are the basics you need to know about search engine optimization as it relates to blogging.
Keyword
A Keyword is an informative word used in an information retrieval system to indicate the content of a document. Your keyword is very important to your search engine optimization strategy because this word tells the search engines what your blog post is about. Over time you can increase the keywords your blog covers because each post should cover another keyword.
Only focus on one primary keyword per post. This will help you focus on your main goal for that post and make it easier to get your message across to your readers. In Addition, try to find the appropriate keywords for your customer persona or target market. Find out what your customers are searching for and create your blog around these keywords.
Title
A great title, The 5 Best Cats Videos On The Internet, could generate a lot of buzz on social media, but might not rank well in search because there is tons of content about cat videos. When you begin to blog for your business, make sure that you have your keyword in the title to tell the search engine exactly what you are blogging about. So if your keyword is Best Cat Videos, then you are on the right track (I just hope your customer base finds it as entertaining as you do).
Meta Description
A meta description is an HTML and XHTML element that describes your page to search engines. This is the description that you see under the title of each search result. Make sure to include your keyword in the meta description to tell the search engine exactly what your blog post is about.
Content
Okay, now onto the actual post. Make sure to use your keyword here too. There have been updates to search algorithms that are looking for articles that are “stuffing” their articles with keywords to increase rankings. So, use your keyword around 5 times and you will be fine. Just don’t overdo it. Remember, we are writing for human beings, not robots. So try to sneak your keyword into your content a couple times.
Image Alt Text
This is one of the items I believe many bloggers miss. The Alt text (alternative text) is a word or phrase that can be inserted as an attribute in an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document to tell Web site viewers the nature or content of an image. Basically, you are telling the reader or search engine what the picture is (example: Best cat videos, watch cat get scared by tiny puppy). So make sure to use your keyword in here too. I have found that using variations of the keyword for the alt tag help increase rankings.
WordPress Plug In To Save The Day – Yoast
Okay, I know this might be a little overwhelming, but I want you to get the very most out of your blog. You are spending tons of time on it and you deserve every web hit. If you are using WordPress for blogging, then I highly recommend installing Yoast. Yoast gives you a nice checklist to make sure you are getting your keywords in all the right places on your blog post. It makes search engine optimization easy.
Search Engine Optimization Basics For Blogging
There you have it, search engine optimizations basics for blogging. Search engine optimization is a starting point for any great inbound marketing strategy and a great marketing strategy to drive results. Just remember, your blog should be for your customers, not you or the search engines. So keep adding value and answer their questions. Give yourself the best chance to get found.
Questions: Is your blog adding value to your target customer? If not, why? Leave a comment below to join the conversation.
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