Maximize Your Reach: 5 SEO-Friendly Blogging Tips
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is absolutely, incredibly, fundamentally important to your website’s success. How often do you go beyond the first page of Google results? Exactly. You don’t want to be stuck in the minors, way over there on page 2. You want to get that call up to the big leagues, earn a seat at the high stakes table, and become… some other sports analogy. You want, nay, need that page 1 hit.
So, how do you get your blog noticed?
First, check out our SEO blog http://www.sly-fox.ca/seo-what-is-it/#more-722 and learn what makes this tool so amazingly vital to your blog’s success. Then try these five tips the next time you plan out your posts. You’ll be raking in the traffic in no time.
Stay Active: Keep updating your blog. It’s easy to get lazy about it, to put off writing another post – if there’s anything writers know, it’s the art of procrastination – but you have to stay alert. Search engines are always giving special treatment to those who keep their content fresh. In SEO-speak, it’s called “Query Deserves Freshness”, and search engine algorithms use it to preferentially treat those who’ve recently written about a hot topic. Be in the know on keywords that are relevant to your area of expertise, know when something new becomes popular, and write about it ASAP. Think of your website’s blog as legs, and you don’t ever, ever want to be that person who skips leg day.
Know What’s Trending: Do people in the real world think your job or hobby is just a niche? The Internet knows that’s not true. You’re always a member of a vast community that shares your interests, and this community has wants and needs just like any other. So be in tune with it. Use popular keywords in headings, URLs, and image titles. Keywords are everything to search engines.
Be warned, though: using too many keywords too often can get your blog flagged for keyword stuffing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyword_stuffing, a popular technique spammers use to get noticed. This could temporarily hurt your search result standings or, worse, get you permanently left behind.
Be Original: Not only include as much relevant, up-to-date information about your topic as you can, but try and make this relevant information unique to you. This includes original photos, videos, and, most importantly, text. You not only avoid the embarrassing step of having to deal with a plagiarism lawsuit, but you stay away from duplicate content https://moz.com/learn/seo/duplicate-content, where the exact same thing appears in more than one place. Search engines hate having to try and sort out which site is more important, and if you’ve simply pulled something from a well-regarded source, you’ll be the one paying the price. 
Get to know SEO Copywriting: Writing on the Internet isn’t just crafting a grammatically correct sentence anymore (just ask your uncle on Facebook). It’s about pulling people in and making sure they stay. It’ll take some time to craft blogs that attract a regular following, as good writing is a skill like any other, but it’s a good skill to have. Here http://writtent.com/blog/35-seo-copywriting-tips-rocking-content/ are some great rules you can follow.
Become One with the Community: Social media is no longer closed off from the rest of the Internet; it’s becoming the entirety of the Internet. Getting your blog posts out on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn is very important. Search engines now take into account social media sharing as a sign of quality content, and getting them to see your content as quality is vital.
But it’s not just important to know who’s reading – it’s important to know what they’re reading besides you. Link to other places and promote other blogs you know to be reputable. And don’t be afraid to share your posts on social media with hashtags and keywords. Make sure it gets out there! Know the community you serve, know who else belongs there, and maximize your viral potential. The Internet is a wild, wild place, and you can’t hope that your blog will get noticed just because it’s well written. Make sure the heavy hitters see your stuff, and see you as a heavy hitter, too.
So go for it. Write well, write with authority, and write often. Blogging is a great way to show people you know the business, and with these five guidelines, you’ll increase the chances of showing as many people as possible.
