If you’re serious about blogging then you need to ensure that your blog is visible to the audience you want to target. Otherwise people who may be actively searching for the content you’re producing, may never find you.

There’s a huge number of bloggers consistently creating great content, but many are sitting there scratching their heads over why their sites just aren’t driving any traffic. Nine times out of ten, the reason is going to be a poor grasp of SEO.

SEO is complicated, technical and ever-changing. But understanding the basics can have a huge effect on your online presence, helping you stand out in the crowd to ensure your content is found by the people who want to read it.

The big picture

The most important factor to consider with SEO is the quality , relevance , and consistency of your content. If what you’re offering isn’t up-to-scratch, then you need to have a serious think about what you’re trying to achieve.

Conduct your own keyword research and focus on a few key phrases or topics that are critical to your brand. Try to imagine what other users would search for when looking for content and which sites come up first in Google when searching these potential search queries. Are the sites relevant? If not, it’s likely your own blog post will rank highly with these specific search queries.

People are increasingly using long tail search terms to find the content they need and, as a result, searches have become much more detailed and specific to certain topics. This is great for blogs, as their purpose is generally to provide information and answer questions around specific topics.

Monitor your traffic growth and aim for a steady increase in organic search traffic, as this indicates strong SEO. Be sure to investigate any sharp spikes or dips in traffic as they may be indicators of well performing articles, or on the flip side, issues with your content or the site itself.

Standing out in the crowd

It’s not only humans who read your content – Google is just as interested in what you have to offer, and as such, your content must be constructed so that Google can read it and place it in its rightful position in the search results.

Here’s how to ensure Google sees your content:

• The post URL should display the post title and relevant keywords separated by dashes
• The post title (H1 tag) should default to the post meta title tag
• The post title should be unique and relevant to the content. Include keywords, preferably at the beginning of the title
• The meta description tag should be unique, compelling and employ keywords intelligently. Between 150-160 characters is optimum, as search engines generally truncate anything over 160 characters. They have little SEO value, but should be written in a compelling way to seduce potential readers
• Avoid keyword stuffing as it can make your results look spammy to both Google and the user

Content is king

Long gone are the days when writing for SEO meant meticulously filling your article with keywords. These days, Google has advanced to a level which allows bloggers to write for human readers and let the quality of their content do the talking.

However, it’s important to remember that your priority is to write relevant and authoritative content as that’s what Google is looking for. Here’s what to remember when doing so:

• Don’t overuse keywords in the main text of your post. Write naturally and always have someone else proofread your post
• When including keywords, consider that keywords in subheadings, italics, bold, or within lists are most effective
• Ensure your content is original – duplicate content is frowned upon by Google
• Regularly review analytics to identify popular and new short and long tail keywords
• Monitor your word count to ensure a general consistency between posts, and remember, longer posts rank better than shorter posts

Remember, you are an author

‘If you aren’t on Google+, you really are missing a trick!’ probably isn’t something you’re used to hearing or paying much attention to. From now on, that needs to change. Google+ is a valuable tool in every bloggers SEO armoury. The rise of Google+ has brought with it a fairly new program that associates content with its author, the program.  Here’s how to use it effectively:

• Write original, useful and keyword rich content on your Google+ posts
• Link your Google+ profile to all blogs and sites you write for using rel=”author”
• Whenever possible, link your guest authors’ Google+ profiles to your blog
• Use a Google+ avatar that depicts you, as it will show up in Google search results

With Google Authorship come many advantages for SEO:

• Search results with pictures – these are more eye-catching and have a higher tendency of being clicked
• Attaching your name and face to content provides readers with a higher level of trust and confidence in your work, which increases engagement between authors and readers
• More credible links get more readers hence more click through rates. Google Authorship can increase CTRs by 30%-150%
• Content claimed by an author is viewed as more credible than unclaimed content

Don’t underestimate the power of imagery and video

When optimised properly, image and video search options on Google can attract a huge amount of traffic, so it’s good practise that you include both where you can in your posts. Not only that, but it also helps to break up a text heavy post. Here’s how to optimise your images and videos:

• Use relevant keywords in image file names
• Write descriptive alt text images in plain sentence form
• Be sure to caption your images to give the reader context
• Ensure videos have a catchy title
• Ensure that video descriptions are keyword and keyphrase rich
• A full transcription of the video in the description will also benefit SEO

SEO doesn’t stop at your blog

Acquiring links from high quality, relevant sites tells Google your blog content is interesting, useful and authoritative. Therefore, building a strong link profile is extremely important as part of your SEO efforts. Here are a few different ways to acquire the kind of links you need to your blog:

• Write extraordinary, outstanding content which will automatically entice shares and links
• Guest post on other relevant and authoritative blogs to build inbound links
• Invite other bloggers to guest post on your blog, but be very picky with the bloggers you choose
• Avoid directory links unless you are sure of their credibility, as they’re generally not an effective route to inbound links
• Share your content across social media platforms and encourage your readers to do the same
• Avoid unnatural links at all costs – these can include:
  • Paid text links using exact match anchor text
  • Comment spam
  • Guest posts on questionable sites
  • Links from dangerous sites

In reality, this only just scratches the surface of the world of SEO, but if you try your best to stick to these guidelines, you’ll be in good stead to seeing your blog fight its way through the rabble and secure its rightful place at the top of Google! 

If you want to learn more about how you can boost your blog, then visit the Content Creation Collective . If you’re looking for a  London based digital Content Marketing agency  to help with your marketing needs, then why not  get in touch  with Quad!

Matt is the Social Media Manager at Quad and can be found on .