This challenge is all about boosting your blog and giving information so you don’t have to hunt or seek it out otherwise. In this portion of the challenge and for the next 9 days, I’ll be talking about search engine optimization (SEO).
For many people starting out, SEO is scary, overwhelming, seemingly unnecessary and generally underutilized. While some will argue that SEO has its pitfalls, it does still have a place in helping drive traffic to your blog and your website. However, what you must understand it that SEO is just another aspect of how you attract your audience; you cannot rely on it solely. You can use it to increase your exposure on search engines, increase your ranking online and boost your online presence overall. As you begin this journey with SEO with me, I want to start by sharing 10 Tips/Lessons I’ve Learned.
10 Tips/Lessons in SEO
- Use the free tools out there – there are several very awesome ones!
- Google Analytics is great, but it isn’t the end all be all when it comes to tracking your efforts.
- Simple, direct and straight-forward keywords that match well with your article will drive more traffic over time.
- Your first paragraph matters most, but don’t go overboard with keywords; be natural about it.
- Understanding the basics of SEO is a must before you attempt anything more advanced.
- When you guest blog, never forget to offer some keywords to help boost the SEO of your host blog and your post.
- The more links out there that are tracked back to you the higher ranked and more reputable your site will be considered by search engines.
- The name of your image is a factor for SEO too!
- Google is the biggest player, but don’t forget that Bing, MSN, Yahoo, and others are players too.
- In the end, if what you post or share isn’t compelling, no amount of SEO is going to help you grow.
I’ll be back tomorrow for Day 2 of SEO for Everyone. I’d like to Thank Thaleia Maher of Something 2 Offer for hosting this challenge as well as the other challenge hostesses who are helping to make this event possible. If you are interested in learning more about blogging, boosting your SEO or simply just want to say hi, please feel free to reach out to me directly.
See you tomorrow,
Martiel
I love the last point especially – no amount of SEO is going to help if your content isn’t good. That needs to be focus number 1, and then you work on the SEO! 🙂
I was familiar with a few of these tips, but had forgotten about them. I think I’ll put them on a sticky note to refer to while writing my future posts. I needed this reminder!
I hope you list some of those free tools in your future posts. I just started my blog in January. I have learned an enormous amount since then. However, I just started using WordPress’ Yoast SEO plug-in with my last post. Before that I didn’t venture into that arena. The plug-in helps once you have decided on a keyword. But what goes into choosing a keyword? I have so many questions about SEO. It appears to be one of the more complicated areas of blogging, at least for me. Thanks for tackling a series on SEO for this challenge!
What do you mean by “The name of your image”?
Tina,
When you add an image to your blog post be sure that you actually NAME your Image. Do not leave it 736349.jpg! When your blog is being scanned by bots it will not know what a 736349.jpg is BUT would know what a “Pink Cuddly Stuffed Bunny” was. Does that help make a little more sense?
Thaleia
#BB100