For those of you that follow my blog on a daily basis, you know that SEO (search engine optimization) isn’t my main focus. I’m a firm believer in writing quality posts for people, not for search engines. In light of this fact, it would be foolish to completely ignore SEO. Content should be first, with SEO second. Below are 5 easy tips to you shouldn’t overlook when writing quality posts.
- One Click Wonder – it amazes me how many times I come across an article that has a ton of valuable content but lacks basic SEO. The most obvious blunder I see is not having Permalinks enabled on your blog. Permalinks will allow the title of your blog post to flow through to the URL for that post. As an example, look at your address bar and the title of this post…./5-easy-blog-seo-tips. Without permalinks enacted it would look something like this…./post#9999. Search engines do place weigh this in the url of the blog post.
- Tip Top Titles – If you’re anything like me, you can spend up to a couple of hours writing and perfecting a blog post. Don’t let all of that hard work go to waste by skimping on the title. Put a little thought into the title of your posts. Not only will the article look more appealing to readers, but if you do a little keyword research and placement you can give your article a nice search engine boost.
- Don’t Hibernate – Search engines love fresh content. Taking a 2 week hiatus from your blog typically isn’t a good thing for both content value and SEO. I know it can be easier said than done, but staying consistent and posting frequently will bring your blog more credibility and offer another boost to your rankings. If you’re having trouble coming up new topics, take a look these tips for blog writers block.
- Keep It Focused – when writing a blog post I try to keep each article focused on a specific topic or point. The main reason I do this is that I find it easier to write and easier for my site visitors to read. Trying to implement numerous things at once is never a good thing, be it in life or blogging. Search Engines tend to think this way as well.
- Plug-In Some SEO - I use a simple plug-in for my blogs that allows for fast and easy keyword entry, title optimization, and description insertion. The plug-in is called All-in-one-seo-pack. There’s probably other plug-ins available, however I’ve used this one since beginning my blogging career and found it very beneficial thus far.
At the sake of sounding redundant, don’t lose sight of why you blog. In my opinion you should always write with your readers in mind and never strictly for search engines. These 5 tips alone won’t bring you to the top page of the search engines, but they will help bring you one step closer.
If you have any SEO tips you’d like to share, please let us know in the Comment below. We’d love to hear them!