Blogging for SEO is one of the most important things you can do for your web presence – which is to say it’s also one of the most important things you can do for your business! So if you’ve been haphazardly tossing up boring posts just for the heck of it (or putting off blogging entirely), it’s time to have a talk.

The Importance of SEO Blogging

Regular content going up on your site means more opportunities to get found in search results. The more pages = more chances. Get it?!

But what’s better than more pages is more relevant pages. And how does Google know what’s relevant to a search query? By scanning all the words on a webpage, which means you need content that’s relevant to the people you’re looking to market to and the types of things they search for. That’s where keywords come in.

The Right Keywords

Try not to think of keywords as these magical phrases that somehow attract site visitors like gnats to a bug zapper. If you sell shoes, you should write blogs about shoes that your potential visitors will be interested in, and your keywords will come about naturally. Maybe write a post on “how to keep shoes from scuffing” – BAM! That’s a keyword phrase.

You can also use keyword search data (like on Google AdWords tools) for blog content ideas. Find keywords in your field a lot of people are searching for, and write a post that gets in on that high-demand topic.

Keyword Placement

Never overstuff a blog with keywords! A few times per post will do. Just use it in the title, URL, at least one subheader, and a couple times throughout the post if it’s 4-500+ words, fewer for shorter posts. Don’t sweat it too much, and make sure you’re making the post about the idea of the keyword, not about the keyword itself. That’s when things sound spammy.

Image SEO

Always, ALWAYS include at least one unique image for a post (custom images and royalty free images, ideally).

And remember that keyword you’re using in the post? Make sure you use it as the image title and tag keyword.

Post Length

Keep in mind people have short attention spans. If you write a post that’s 2000 words long, people are going to look at it, feel overwhelmed, and then scoot, which increases your Bounce Rate, which decreases your clout with Google’s search rankings. That’s not good. Aim for 300-700 words, depending on the type of blog, and always break it up into smaller sub-sections so it seems more manageable to the reader.

Hyperlink to Other Site Pages

Another interesting little factor in SEO is Time on Site. If you give people interesting, relevant pages to check out from that blog post they came in on – y’know, like other fabulous blog posts – you increase your TOS rating, which Google likes to see. (Appeasing Google is a theme here, in case you didn’t notice.)

WordPress SEO

This should probably be a post all its own, but remember to fill out all your tags, descriptions, metas, etc. on your WordPress post (the All-in-One SEO pack makes this SUPER simple).

Go Social

I wouldn’t be a social media marketing guru if I didn’t talk about social media, now would I??!!

Always promote your posts on social media. This increases traffic AND gives you more social clout, which Google is more and more interested in all the time (especially G+).

Got more SEO tips for blogging?? Shout ’em out in the comments!