Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
“What are the first steps to optimizing my blog for searches?” – question submitted by @monedays using the #pbquestions hashtag on Twitter.
Much has been written on the topic of search engine optimization for bloggers – but let me give you a few basic first steps:
1. Content is King
The quality of the posts you write is the single most important factor when it comes to Search Optimization on a Blog. I suspect others will argue differently but as I look at my own blogs success in the search engines I’d say that this has been the number one factor.
Quality content that helps people will quite often draw a reader to want to share what they’ve written – of course they do this by passing on the link to your post and often they’ll do it in a way that helps your search rankings (on their own blog for example).
2. Anticipate What People Will be Searching For
Every time you write a post you should be automatically be considering what words people might be putting into search engines to find that type of information. Once you know what kinds of words they’re using you’re in a great position to position yourself for that search.
3. Titles Titles Titles
There are a number of things to keep in mind when it comes to titles. Google pays particular attention to titles – so make sure you get them right:
- first make sure that the way you set your blog up puts the title of your post in the ‘title tags’ on the back end of your blog. This is really important.
- if you’re just looking from an SEO perspective don’t include your blog name in the title tags of single posts. This dilutes your keywords. Of course if you’re looking more at branding including your blog’s name in the title tags might be worth doing.
- next – include the keywords that you identified in point #2 in your post title
- also, keep in mind that the words you use at the start of a title tend to carry more weight than words you use later in your title
4. Keywords in other parts of your post
Use the keywords you identified in point #2 within your post also. If you want Google to rank you for a term or phrase you need to use that term or phrase. Use it in sub headings in your post (use h tags where you can), use it in the content itself, use the words in the alt tags of images etc. Don’t go over the topic but do use the words where you can naturally in the post.
5. Link to Your Own Posts
Don’t over do this one but while links from other sites are a great way to increase your blog’s rankings so are links from your blog. Interlink your posts to share where readers can find more information on your topic (where relevant) but also consider linking to key posts on your blog from other places on the blog (sidebar, front page etc).
6. Links from Outside Your Blog
Links from other sites to yours are key in SEO but they can be hard to get. Start to linking to your blog from other sites that you have or are active on. Some (like on Twitter) won’t count for anything much as they have no-follow tags but they are all potential ways for people to access your site and some will help with SEO.
Don’t become obsessed with getting links – rather become obsessed about writing great content and the links will generally come in time. However if you’ve written a great post that you think will be relevant to another blog don’t be afraid to let that blogger or website owner know about it – they could just link up.
Also – take note of the type of posts that you write that do well at getting other sites to link to you. You can learn a lot about generating linkable content by doing so and might just develop a technique that will work again and again.
7. Plugins
I don’t tend to do much to the back end of my blog to alter things like meta tags – but there are some good plugins around if you’re using WordPress that can help with some of this and that may give you a small edge. Check out 9 SEO plugins that every WordPress Blog Should have for some suggestions on this.
8. Readers Beget Readers
This isn’t an SEO technique as such but it plays a part. The more readers you have the more likely your blog is to be found by other readers. There’s a certain ‘snowballing’ thing that happens on a site over time – as you get readers quite often momentum grows as those readers pass on your site to others in their network. They link to you, they bookmark you, they tweet about you, they email friends about you, they blog about you, they suggest your site in recommendation engines….
Not all of this counts with SEO but some does and the accumulation of it over time all certainly helps to grow both organic and search traffic. I guess what I’m saying is to get readers any way you can – don’t just focus upon ‘SEO’ as such. It all counts.
My Hunch with SEO
Before I share my hunch…. let me say that I’m not an SEO and this could be completely wrong…. but it’s a hunch that I’ve had for a while now.
I’ve been doing this blogging thing for almost 7 years now and from what I can see the tweaks that many bloggers do on their blogs to optimize it seem to be having less and less impact on the rankings of blogs. Don’t get me wrong – I stand by the above tips completely and would do them as a common sense bare minimum – but from where I sit Google seem to be in the business of finding the best information that they can for their users. They don’t always get it right but I think they do a pretty good job.
As a blogger your job should be to provide the best information that you can.
It strikes me that Google have an ever increasing way of working out if your information is good. It’s not just about what keywords you have or how many links that you get – but these days they own Feedburner (know how many people subscribe to your blog and what links people are clicking on), they own Google Reader (again giving them all kinds of great data), they own Gmail, Google Analytics, YouTube etc…..
Now they may or may not use all the data in their ranking of sites but they certainly could know a lot about your blog and the posts you write. There’s also been increasing talk over the last 6 months or so about how easy it’d be for search engines to start generating data on what content is being shared in social networks and bookmarking sites.
My hunch is that many traditional SEO methods are less important (NOT irrelevant though) and that other factors are increasingly going to come into play. I’m sure that some will work out ways to manipulate this (SEO 2.0?) but increasingly the way to get ranked high in Google will be that you just need to keep producing great content and making sure that it’s sneezed out to your network.
Help this process along by giving your readers way to share your content (and seed it to social networks) as well as to become subscribers.
This article was first published July 2, 2009 and updated September 1, 2022.
Great suggestions! I have been trying to do all of those. Building your SEO takes time.
Oh well… I’m an SEO Idiot, I have try out when I started out blogging but after sometime, I’m not sure about you, it seems it doesn’t work out really well for me.
So I have never care about SEO since the day, but I agree with the number 1 which is “content is king”
Absolutely agree – content is king. Everything else builds on it, and therefore, comes later. I can’t imagine how some people can’t agree to that!
A few other things:
– Once you start getting some traffic from search engines, closely look at the keywords people are using to come to your site. You can try and optimize better for those terms whenever appropriate.
If you are using wordpress, you can also use a plugin like “Searchterms tagging 2“.
– Apart from using keywords in heading tags, also highlight them wherever appropriate. This can be done by making them bold or italics.
– Internal linking of posts is quite vital. Have a “related posts” type of plugin, or “people who read this also liked” kind of a plugin.
(You can see a demo of both types of plugins in my posts)
I agree with your ‘hunch’. From the start of blogging I kind of never saw the point of doing all the little extra stuff that was so time consuming (for me to do as I was a beginner at SEO tactics) and only nudged your blog forward. So, I’ve never really done it. I just concentrated on good key words in my title and used familiar search-able words in my post. Now my blog has many articles on number 1 spot on a lot of searches and most posts are at least on the first page above the fold (it’s hard to beat sites like wiki).
Have heard them over and over but never get bored reading them lol
It’s good though if Google actually looks at other “hidden” things to rank your site (rather than simply looking at backlinks and keywords). Let’s hope Google gets smarter and smarter to value sites with genuinely good contents
Firs thing, when you said also, “>>>keep in mind that the words you use at the start of a title tend to carry more weight than words you use later in your title”. I didn’t know about this until now. Thanks!
Second, i think the whole post (including your hunch) can be summarized as “YOU NEED TO MAKE GOOD CONTENT and BE VALUABLE to your READERS’ which is so right. When you add value then your readers become “net promoters” for your site. Indeed a butterfly effect happens which brings amazing traffic to one’s site. Thanks for sharing again!
These tips are great, but what about photobloging?
Do you have to write tutorials? Or photo articles in order to ‘succeed’?
It’s seems, that ‘good’ photos are not enough…
I have ranked very well with Google over the past year. To be honest with you, I have never really done much other than make my post titles search worthy. I guess that tells a lot about that first tip. However, I do use Thesis which they say has a lot of good SEO stuff built into it. I don’t know what that stuff is, but it seems to work!
Thrilled to see this in a single article. I’m adding a link to it from my own blog, so even more folks will see it and learn.
Content really is king — if you want a good reputation. No one likes something of inferior quality to pop up on their search results. And titles are important, too. It may be fun to be clever, but it doesn’t tell readers what your post is about, and it doesn’t catch search engine attention.
I’m a pretty great believer in “content is King”. I’ve concentrated on my content, keeping a consistent schedule, writing a lot of evergreen content and working a niche.
The posts at my blog that do best in terms of hits seem to be about the smaller, off-the-beaten-track attractions in my region. The regional food company, a local historic attraction…things that aren’t covered by every travelblogger out there.
SEO matters, but great content matters more! My focus is great content. Some people get too obsessed with the SEO thing – they’re Freaks! But you, Darren, present a fine balance between the two. Thanks!
I agree with Miranda about titles, too. Cute and catchy may work with print (where I wrote for years), but titles that more accurately communicate what a post is about seem to do well for me, too.
Great post. I’m new to this and struggling to soak up all of the sound advice I keep finding as well as writing my daily blog. I know Rome wasn’t built in a day so I’ll have to just keep persevering.
I agree with most of the article. While you should have your blog well seo-optimized, after that, the real point is to improve your content quality. So, since SEO is nice, it’s just one of the multiple factors that have something to do with a successful blog.
I sure hope so, because content is what I do best!
Hi Darren
Awesome post I got much help from this.But I do not understand about keywords and where to place them.Can u help
Regards
Salman
http://www.tips4blogging.co.cc
When I glanced over this post, I thought “Oh no, not yet another content is king” advice.
However, when I saw your views regarding traditional SEO wisdom being less effective, you instantly gained respect.
I experienced it myself in the course of last two years of blogging – when spending more time learning all about SEO and writing less, I got a lot less traffic. After promising myself to just keep writing more and more, I’m getting visible increase in traffic from search engines.
Let’s face it, search engines are getting smarter, and it is a lot better spending your time writing than trying to find the biggest SEO tip (more often ends up being wasted time).
is it i’m still must to put the other post link
but at the same time
I already use plugin related post
so, how????
My SEO philosophy is pretty simple: don’t obsess over it, but be sure to work with (not against) search engines.
Natural links, exactly.. If you have great content, people will save your site and hopefully share it..
There you go… Multiple links to your site on your post and should be relevant to start with.
Titles (think of a newspaper)
when I read the newspaper (yes I still do) I look at the Titles first, if I like it I read it. Same thing for all my RSS Feeds (Online Newspaper) this makes your Title the most important aspect of your posts
Sorry for the 2 posts…but, I though I should mention. You spoke about plugins so I thought this was relevant.
In wordpress be sure to use Pretty Permalinks and select Custom Structure put this in
/%postname%/Comments like “I’m not an SEO” are always annoying. What exactly qualifys anyone as being an expert? No one outside of Google knows the algorithms at play and there is no “magic formula” other than “make a good sight that people will like”.
You don’t need to be an academic expert to work this out. The rules for optimising are well publicised all over the net and Google happily tells people in their webmaster’s guide.
I totally agree with the final point. People should worry less about writing for search engines and concentrate on building sites that people actually like. If you get the last part right you win whatever happens next.
Thanks for the info. I have recently launched yet another blog (Northern Camping), and it is always interesting to see the different ways in which my blogs have each grown over the last couple years.
I hope that I have similar luck with my newest blog but only time will tell.
Nothing can replace good ole fashioned inbound links though…
Great article, I definitely agree with everything you said. By the way, I have a new blog directory and you might want to submit your blog site. It’s a free blog submissions.
Here’s the link: http://www.blogbal.com/
Great post Darren. I agree that social media will eventually be a large component for google rankings, specifically for bloggers.
Because blogging is about new, quality content. theoretically if you adhere to those standards people will want to share your posts with friends. This all goes back to a better experience for google’s users.
I’ll certainly be spending more time growing my 2.0 relationships.
Great post. Any suggestions for blogger plugins? I agree that content is king and developing a relationship with your followers.
Great post. A good read even for those non-beginners
I think the best way to get page rank is to have a great product. I know that is easier said then done but the better your product is, the more buzz your site will get, the more backlinks , and so on. SEO is important but make sure your product is unique in the marketplace. Rome wasn’t built in a day… give it time.
I have found very small visitor from search engine. It will be helpful for me.
“It’s not just about what keywords you have or how many links that you get”
You can’t be serious with this line. The reason your posts rank so high in search engines is because your loyal readers link to your posts with author text. Its funny how you suppose to be helping your readers yet you keep them in a position were they stay wondering if they are doing the right thing. I am also sick of reading “content is king”. I have seen some really bad content rank number 1 because of the amount of backlinks with author text it had.
Next time you think about speaking on SEO, tell your readers the “TRUTH!”
I just went through this list and did several of them on my site. I even followed your link over to the 9 WordPress Plugins that will enhance our SEO and I installed several of them on my site. Thanks for the great advice. But in the end, I think that your hunch is probably right. Great content will bring in the traffic from Google and not just the right keywords and meta data. As always, thanks!
Nicholas Z. Cardot
http://www.sitesketch101.com
Thanks great
my blog about blogging and money
http://www.teratips.com
Some people are always looking for the easy fix.
In the long term, writing good content and having the essential SEO plugs will be more successful primarily because it is the Right Way to do business.
It is all about cooperation, quality relationships and the overall experience: not numbers.
I remember the craze for SEO a few years ago amongst bloggers. We were so obsessed about PageRank and link-love that almost everyday, I get requests for link-exchanges.
Those were good times back then.
For the short time that I’ve been blogging I’ve come to think that many of these “techniques” that you’ve identified are not SEO oriented exclusively but they are good site design techniques above all.
My reasoning is that setting title posts to be used as title tags is a one time coding job that is worth your time to do just for the simplicity of the matter. Beyond that your points 1,3, and 5 all deal with on site navigation just as much if not more than SEO. If you interlink you keep readers engaged longer… especially if you are offering good content.
Point 8 is self-fulfilling. If you have good content and keep people on the site then they are likely to come back and refer others. This is not SEO but smart site design.
I agree that the tricks beyond what you’ve mentioned are probably not worth the time any more however for the time being I am still submitting articles to Carnivals for the incoming links and networking opportunities. After all; I am still operating a two month old blog.
Thanks for the post!
This is a very informative article, especially for me whose just starting to understand what SEO is all about.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Awesome–this is such great advice that anyone can implement quickly. I’m off right now to download some SEO plugins and change the title tags on my pages/posts.
Gonna get me some SEO love. :) But not be too obsessed with it either. ;)
Thanks, Darren.
seo is important, but don’t forget facebook’s own power for links as well, since google can’t see them.
agree with you. COntent is king. Without content, our blog is nothing. Nothing with visitor or traffic.
Great post! It confirms what I’ve read from other sources. There are lots of very smart folks at Google working hard to deliver the most relevant content for any given search string. Sure, you should do your keyword research and factor SEO into your writing, but above all, provide the prized content that Google is refining its algorithms to deliver.
Excellent advice Darren. One thing that you mentioned that is extremely crucial is how important your post titles are.
I had a post about a certain topic and I did some searching around. I tweaked the title a bit and by the next day, my post made it to the first page on Google when you search for that particular term. Not the first result, but it’s still something specially with a fairly new blog with very low readership.
Great article!! In regards to point 2 I found the wordtracker tool for bloggers to be a great help to optimise single blog posts around related search terms – http://www.bit.ly/WZl7a
Darren,
This is a good post. One thing I think many people overlook is the value of analytics.
Knowing which words people use to get to your posts can help shape not only your keyword strategy, but your content strategy.
You can learn what interests people and focus your posts on those topics.
-Josh
Great post, you have given me more idea about how SEO works.
I totally agree that the content of a particular post is the number one factor for it to be successful.
You should further explain things about how key words affect a post for beginners like me.
tnx..
Nice tips for all the start up bloggers. I believe one should start thinking about search engine optimization only after building a niche content. Otherwise, we will be just wasting time on SEO with little valuable content, which is almost of no use.
Great post Darren, You are such a good mentor. Thanks for this post. I will do my best to follow your steps above about SEO… God Bless and good luck to all your blogging efforts…
Sincerely,
Felix Albutra – SighNetDollars
Its a solid tips for making a website search engines friendly. By this blog I came to know the important of good and relevant content in the site, and how its play very significant role in the online arena.
I think the point 3 in pretty important.
Conent and title are kings!
these points are very handy for a person who is a beginner blogger
thanks