I talk to a lot of writers and bloggers. Good writing is probably one of the most valuable skill sets anyone with online marketing objectives can have. So how do you take your good writing, and supercharge it for search engine optimization?
Now is the perfect time to review some SEO best practices, so you can come out swinging in 2016.
Back in July I presented at WordCamp Asheville, a regional WordPress conference aimed at providing education, connection, and inspiration to all levels of WordPress users (it’s super fun, and if you live in the Southeast I highly recommend it!).
My topic: Essential SEO for Bloggers and Content Producers
My objective: To offer simple and tangible methods to ensure your blog is properly optimized for search engines, and to offer insight into how blogs function from an SEO perspective. I also share quite a few examples of how JB Media and some other online marketing savvy folks utilize their blogs to boost SEO.
You can View Presentation Slides or watch the whole presentation here (it’s pretty lengthy, so I’ll offer a summary and highlights below).
How to Approach your Writing for SEO in 2016
When confronted will all the options for how to best optimize a blog post it’s easy to get overwhelmed and end up looking at a blank page for hours. There are many things to consider, and it’s easy to get stuck trying to do all the things at once. Instead I recommend 3 simple steps for approaching a blog post that help you focus on each task.
Step 1 – Write for your audience
This one is easy. This is what good writers do. I give you full permission to not think about SEO at all. Just do what you do best.
Step 2 – Optimize your post
Once you’ve created your unique, useful, highly informative piece, only then should you think about SEO and how to best optimize the content.
Step 3 – Interlink your post
On your third and final read through it’s time to consider the context of your blog post online. Are you writing a blog post for a site that has more detailed information about some aspect of your post elsewhere? Create a link to that page. Do you mention a service or product that exists elsewhere on the site? Link to it. Are there resources on other websites that are useful to the readers of your post? Link to it.
WordPress Plugins for SEO
If you are a blogger using WordPress there are some exceptional plugins that make optimizing your post super easy.
Both plugins allow you to easily customize your meta title and meta description so that you can include important keyword phrases in key places throughout your post. That’s just the tip of the iceberg really. If you would like to see screen grabs from the backend of WordPress that show you exactly how to use the Yoast plugin, view my presentation slides.
Additional Blog Optimization Tips
The video presentation is long, but super instructional. Additional topics covered include:
- Google updates that impact you
- Tips for integrating keywords into your blog posts
- How to optimize for a topic rather than a keyword
- How blogs drive traffic to your website
If you decide to watch, please leave a comment and let me know what you think! If you want to learn more SEO blogging tips, check out my other post about blogging with no direction. And good luck developing your 2016 blogging strategy.
