SEO. You’ve heard about it before but need to know the details. Or you know that its something to do with getting free traffic from Google. Here is where I come in. In this blog post, I will cover everything I know about SEO, specifically for blogging.
Topics Covered
- What is SEO?
- Crawling and indexing?
- Why I am writing about SEO
- Targeting Keywords
- Google Search Console
- Writing unique & helpful content
- SEO takes time
What is SEO? And Why is it important for Blogging?
As a blogger, you should know about SEO. It is the only way you can get free traffic from search engines.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. You might have heard that SEO has something to do with getting free traffic from Google. The truth is SEO is more than Google.
Simply put, SEO is the process of improving your web pages and blog posts so that real people can find your content via the medium of search engines. These search engines are not just limited to Google; there is also Bing, Yandex and plenty more.
Google is strongly associated with SEO because it is the search engine with the largest market share.
As a blogger, you should know about SEO. It is the only way you can get free traffic from search engines.
What is Search Engine Crawling and indexing?
As a blogger, you’ll want to make sure that all the blog posts you publish can be crawled and indexed by search engines.
As a blogger, you must understand how search engines analyse your blog. That’s where search engine crawling and indexing come into play.
Crawling: This is the process of the search engines go through to download images, videos, text, found on the internet. They use crawlers to download this information unto their database.
Indexing: This is the process that search engine uses to analyse then store the images, videos, text they have downloaded /crawled.
For example,
The Google index is similar to an index in a library, which lists information about all the books the library has available.
Google Support
As a blogger, you’ll want to make sure that all the blog posts you publish can be crawled and indexed by search engines.
Why I am writing about SEO
I want to share all the things I have learned about SEO and help bloggers really get the best from their promotional efforts.
I have been working in SEO for over twelve years. I have helped many brands improve their SEO for e-commerce and B2B, but I especially enjoy improving SEO for long-form content, including blogging.
With blogging, I know first hand that you have a fighting chance to rank for targeted keywords because we get to cover topics thoroughly. In addition, being a blogger myself, I enjoy using SEO tactics and seeing the resulting search traffic referrals to my blog.
This blog post has been a long time coming. I originally started writing this in October 2022, but it got stuck in my drafts for one reason or another. I want to share everything I have learned about SEO and help bloggers get the best from their promotional efforts.
How to target the right keywords for your blog posts
Let’s say you want to write a blog post about ‘how to become a short story writer’, and you want to make sure you are targeting the right keywords. The first thing you should do is list out the topics you want to cover. Then the next thing to do is ensure the topics you cover are the kind of things people search for when exploring the main topic.
Covering the right topics
- Use some free tools to do SEO keyword research around your chosen topic.
- Do your research and check examples of bloggers who have covered this topic. You can do this by asking yourself, are there any recurring themes and topics mentioned in all these blog posts? If yes, note them down and then find a way to write about it from a different angle.
- Use Google search to find what people who search for also look for when searching this particular search.
Set Up a Google Search Console Account
Google Search Console is a great tool you can use to increase your blog’s search engine presence.
Once you have set up your website and started blogging. You’ll also want to have a way of reviewing how much SEO traffic you are getting. Google Search Console is a great tool you can use to increase your blog’s search engine presence. In addition to Google Analytics, Google search Console will ensure that you inform Google about new pages on your blog posts.
With Google search console, you can:
- Get alerted if your website/blog is not search-engine friendly.
- Check that your pages are mobile-friendly.
- Understand how Google sees your pages.
- Understand what keywords are driving clicks to your blog.
- Submit your blog sitemap to Google. Google then crawls your site and indexes your new blog posts quickly.
Focus on writing unique & helpful content
In all you do as a blogger, you should be writing unique content that is helpful for your readers. It’s so vital that you don’t lose this as you optimise your blog posts for SEO.
- Even as you include keywords in your content ensure that it still makes sense and the content flows in a readable manner.
- Do not spam your content with keywords just for the chance to rank for the keyword on search engines.
- Make sure you are adding value by including these keywords and covering the topic in a wholesome manner.
- Remember that you are blogging for real people to read your blogs, not search engines. Real people will be searching for your blog posts on search engines.
With SEO it takes some time to start seeing results
So you have done everything I have listed here and more but are waiting for meaningful results. One thing you should know about SEO is it’s a long game. It takes months to see results, especially if you are starting. Remember, you are competing against websites that have been around for a while. So, give yourself time and keep learning about SEO and improving your efforts. In time you will see lasting results.
Closing thoughts
This blog post is for bloggers who have been trying to get their blog free traffic from search engines but need help figuring out where to start.
SEO takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it. Getting free traffic to your blog from search engines takes a while, but with the proper techniques, you can certainly have some success.
If you are still unsure about where to start with your SEO efforts for your blog, feel free to contact me – I am always happy to share some pointers.