Blog Ranking SEO 101 for Beginners Part 2 of 3 Content

Blog Ranking SEO 101 for Beginners Part 1 of 3 Title

Part 2 of this very elementary beginner post series will discuss CONTENT in relation to SEO, Search Engine Optimization ranking on Google, Bing, MSN, Yahoo, and other search engines.

This is a follow up to the Rain Camp in Las Vegas where Ben Kinney presented information on this somewhat complex topic. His presentation helped me formulate a plan for this post content.

From Wikipedia:

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.”.

Another term that could be associated with SEO ranking is “google juice.”  What terms or words can be used and where to increase your “google juice” or increase your SEO ranking.

There are three important elements of your blog that can increase your rankings on the search engines:

1. Title

2. Content

3. Tags

If you follow these suggestions faithfully and consistently, you should see a jump in how high up your blog ranks on a search engine.

This post will cover Content. Think about the phrase “Content is King.”  Content is what keeps people reading or listening to your message.  In blogging, content is the only thing that will keep people coming back to read what you have to say. The quality of content in the blog is directly related to how people will respond. Ben Kinney suggested that people blog about things they are passionate about! It’s so much easier to write about things you are interested in.

My blogging journey has been a interesting as I have learned WHAT to blog about and HOW to come up with ideas.  Reading other bloggers is the best way to develop the thinking skill to create content.  WARNING: just because someone else wrote about a specific topic it does not mean you should write about it, so create a strategy before you jump in and let he keys fly.  Just learn from others and decide what works for you and will be of value to your reader.

Developing content can be exciting when you let your imagination go. Content all needs to tie back to what a consumer or your target market is interested in hearing.  Localism is very important content if you are selling real estate or promoting a business within a certain geographic area. Writing about local events, local community amenities, local businesses, schools, city council everything going on within a specific area.  If you would like to be the “go to” person within that vicinity then the content you write about should include what is happening within that area. This principle applies to any business trying to create a presence in a community.

Think about how you find information on something going on around you.  Google, Ping or yahoo might be places you type in key words to find what you are looking for.  If you want the consumer to find you by a high SEO ranking on a blog post then you need to have the content scattered with key words which the search engines will pick up in your in all three areas: title, content and key words.

Writing about a community and then writing about specific properties in a community will get your message out to the consumer.  When they are looking on the search engines for information about a specific area, your blog posts should come up and they will see you everywhere and sharing information about everything in that community.  The goal is to use your blog to generate communication via e-mail, any social media venues such as twitter, facebook, linkedin and the best yet, they simply call you.  Once the communicaition lines have been opened from your blog content then taking the relationship off line to a phone call and meeting will create the results you are looking for in blogging.  A real time appointment with someone who can use your business or service is the 21st century reason to blog.

Content

Use keywords at a density of 2-4% of the entire post. Make sure to repeat your keywords or phrase 2-3% of the time. Using the keywords or phrase too often can not only be annoying to any reader, it also doesn’t help the search engines pick you out any better.

Stick to strictly 300-500 words per post. I am guilty of violating this guideline. One of our goals with blogging is to share valuable information with people. If we’re doing that correctly, any more than 500 words is just too much information on one subject all at once. Break it up into multiple posts!

Start and end the post with your keyword phrase. Simple! Search engines like this.

Use 2-4 outgoing links, and make them useful! (Tip: don’t use “here” or “click here” when linking- use a phrase or keywords that are related to the link, and don’t only link to the home page of a site- go deeper)

Include pictures. Really this is for the reader. It enhances the whole experience for them. Video is another important aspect you should consider including to enhance your SEO.

Coming soon: Part 3 of the SEO 101 series and a new series on creating a strategy for your content.

Blog Ranking SEO 101 for Beginners Part 1 of 3 Title

Follow the simple steps for key word rich content to increase your SEO ranking.