A blog worth writing is worth optimizing. You don’t have to be an SEO expert to make sure your blog article has what it needs to get noticed by search engines. (Although having an SEO expert around can be very helpful for full-scale online campaigns, and we can certainly refer you to one if need be.)
We suggest these 3 steps for basic blog SEO:
- Use a keyword or two: You can find popular keywords through the Google Adwords Keyword Planner. Don’t load your article with keywords–remember, eventually, you want an actual human to read and enjoy it. Just be sure the keyword appears in–well, key places. The title, the intro, the closing.
- Add categories and tags: Categories are like file folders. If you were to look for your article on a sheet of paper in a filing cabinet, where would it live? Tags are more specific. What are you mentioning in this article?
- Add meta tags and title tags (or rich snippets, depending on how your blog is set up): I know that the jury’s still out on whether Google is using title tags and meta tags, but it only takes a few minutes, so why not put them in? Check out our guide on creating meta tags and titles if you’re not sure how to do it.
Remember, you can’t do everything based on the vagaries of search engines, you’ll go crazy. And we don’t write for robots, we write for humans! Just take a few basics steps to ensure that the bots have a chance at seeing your blog, so some humans will eventually get to see it, too.