These days, blogging is where it’s at if you want to compete online for your share of the pie for your target market.
The truth is that if you’re not blogging on a regular basis, at least once or twice a week, and your competition is, they will win online and you won’t. It’s really that simple.
For some, however, blogging for business may seem like an overwhelming task to take on even though they know they need to be doing it if they want to stay in the game.
As a prolific blogger, not only do you have to come up with a never ending stream of interesting topics and blog posts that will entice your readers, you also need to incorporate a basic understanding of blog post optimization (SEO) into the mix, so that people can actually find your posts in the index.
What Matters
Obviously, you want Google, Bing and the other major search engines to favorably position your posts in the SERPS. And in order for that to happen, you need to let them know what your posts are about in a language they understand.
That is where blog post optimization (SEO) comes in. Some folks get very and I mean very intimidated at the mere mention of SEO, but in all honesty, there’s really nothing to it once you get the hang of it.
Optimization becomes a rote, technical thing you do after you’ve given birth to your amazing post (now that’s where your expertise and savvy comes into play) written in the most favorable light.
Blog post optimization is not rocket science, not at all, and something you should not even concern yourself with until you’ve flushed out a well written and informative post. Because in the end, quality content is what really matters most.
Write for People, Not Search Engines
As a professional blogger, I recommend that you write for people first, then go back in and optimize for search engines – always in that order. I don’t know about you, but I can tell immediately when the focus is on SEO because the content will invariably reek of SEO stupid stuff and have little if any substance.
If you think it through, what good does it really do you if you’re on page one of Google and your site visitors don’t like your content once they find you? You have accomplished nothing for your efforts, and in my humble opinion, there’s more than enough search engine fodder littering the Internet highway out there as it is.
People don’t like to read SEO fluff and its actually kind of insulting when site visitors realize they’ve been duped by a false promise of quality content because of good search engine placement. Good placement raises the bar of expectation, so you better deliver the goods. Hence the reason why SEO fodder doesn’t convert.
Adding the Layer of Optimization
You’ll want to keep the following steps in mind after you’ve written a blog post and are ready to optimize it:
- Give your post a descriptive heading 1 title that won’t leave search engines guessing what the main topic is about
- Customize the URL and/or permalink (give the search engines specific info to index your topic accordingly; remove noise words like a, an, to, of, the, etc.)
- Incorporate a few relevant keywords or keyword phrases that support the main topic (2 -3 terms used a couple times for a 500 – 700 word post)
- Geo-target your keywords and keyword phrases if you are going after a specific geo-targeted market; also add embedded Google maps
- Create sub-headings within the post that support the main title and topic (also used to visually break up blocks of content)
- Build up your topic authority and a powerful internal linking structure by linking to other relevant posts or pages within your site as much as possible
- Add a call-to-action signature that links to other relevant pages within your site and that includes: contact phone number, link to contact form, email address, etc. (copy and past it into every post)
- Tag your posts succinctly – always “choose from the most used tags” first to avoid redundant tags which will build up your tag topic authority
Blog post optimization (SEO) is definitely something you’ll want to consider so that search engines can index your posts properly and people can find the topics you write about with ease.
That being said, always write your post first, then go back in and add the layer of optimization needed to get found, utilizing the steps above. This will ensure that your content remains fresh and informative once your site visitors get there.
Business blogging success is all about conversion and that comes with quality content that’s worth reading, not just getting visitors to find you with SEO.
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