All You Need to Know about the Blog SEO: Just Keep Things Simple

When explaining SEO (search engine optimization) to a non-search person, my main rule of thumb is to make it clear that the key is in simplicity. You don’t need to browse hundreds of SEO forums and blogs to make a clean, SEO-friendly website. On the contrary, the more “weird” SEO rumors you come across and try to apply to your site, the worse things get.

So let’s just agree from the very beginning: don’t focus on SEO at all, focus on posts your publish and connections you build. SEO is just about a few basic steps you take from the very start. Then it just becomes the matter of your voice and personality.

Just a few things you need to remember about blog SEO:

• The title of each post is of crucial importance. Not only will it grab your reader’s attention and make him read further, title of the page is also the most “prominent” place to put your important keywords in. Make sure to create catchy and attention-grabbing titles AND use some post-specific details in them . Those “details” which will then help your post appear in search engines may include: the product you are reviewing, the person you are interviewing, the place you are describing, etc.
• Linking to your previously published posts is a great idea. Search bots discover and index your posts by following links. Thus, before publishing a post, make sure to drill down to your previously published articles, find relevant ones and link to them from within the new content. This will also encourage readers to browse to your older posts and motivate them to stay on your blog.
• Linking to posts on other blogs is another smart idea. Linking is the foundation of your online connections. Bloggers are always eager to know who links to them. They will most surely discover your trackbacks, go to your website, browse, comment… and also link back to you! So link generously and get discovered.
• Never link to suspicious sites. While linking in general is highly appreciated, linking to “bad neighborhoods” may get you into trouble. What is a “bad neighborhood”? Just a couple of months spent online will teach you. Those are various health- or gambling-related resources which are likely to send a spam email to your inbox. Never mess out with them, even if they offer good money for a link. Just ignore them.
• Focus on unique content only. Even if you are approached by a PR person with the “ready-made” press release or product review for you to “just copy and paste”, take a few minutes to retell the contents of the release with your own words and express your own opinion. This will make your blog voice stronger in the community, your style more recognizable by readers and your content more valuable for search bots. Remember, Google only values unique content!

OK, that’s enough for a start. We are likely to return to SEO now and then in our journey, but the above basics and rules are pretty much what you need to start right.

Post image by annia316