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Five Blogging Secrets for SEO, Community, and Visibility

Five Blogging Secrets for SEO, Community, and Visibility

If you haven’t already started a blog about your business, idea, or community then you should probably get started. The trade magazine, like many other printed publications, have taken a turn towards the internet and getting on board is as easy as logging on to WordPress. You’ve built a website for your product, hopefully installed analytics to see how your traffic is finding your content, and you have an idea.

Starting and maintaining your blog will take commitment, consistency, and also help you learn new things while building your community at the same time. Whether you’ve been posting weekly blogs for the past four years or are just looking to start something new: Here’re five tips for optimizing your blog’s search visibility and user engagement.

5. There Aren’t Any Real Shortcuts for SEO

Search Engine Optimization has a certain mystique to it. The idea of an industry dedicated to fooling Google into directing people to content seems Merlin-esque, but it’s mostly based on facts. When people search for something and you pop up, Google checks to see if they click another link. If they don’t hate the content you provide for them, you usually stay higher on the list. You can’t buy your way into good SEO — you need the content and product to back up your traffic.

4. An Engaged Audience Will Take Your Content Viral

Blogging isn’t about your company. It’s about how people react to your company and something that newspapers call a ‘human interest piece.’ Human interest means something worth knowing because it makes us feel something. When the local news interviews a spelling bee champion they’re not doing it to cover the next big thing in the spelling bee world. They’re talking to the champ because people like to be reminded of their Elementary School spelling bees. Tailor your blog posts to an audience of people, not sponsors.

3. Work with the Stats to Tailor Your Posts

An amazingly useful function of Google Analytics is the ability to see what search terms people use to find your website. I got into the bad habit of referring to an organization I was working with by their acronym and found that I was losing traffic to similar sites that spelled our name out completely. Make a weekly habit out of checking to see if you’re missing traffic because of specific wordings and switch up your content accordingly.

2. Have Fun

You’ll have posts that hit and posts that don’t. One of the most satisfying parts about running a blog is that the ball is truly in your court. Feel free to make some weird connections, have a controversial opinion, or even open up a book of knock-knock jokes and relate them to your topic. Writing is a muscle and getting a chance working it daily is just one of the benefits of starting a blog.

1. Bring in Guests

Guest bloggers and interviews will bring two new forms of traffic to your page. Readers of your guest blogger will be more than happy to read and comment on their voice. Also, their name will be on your website. Search terms like ‘john smith article’ will mean your hat will be in the SEO race for any article that John Smith ends up writing in the future. Read blogs that are similar to yours, find a voice that you think would fit your message, and let them be heard.

Thinking of starting a blog?

Feel free to ask us questions in the comments section.

Follow Adam on Twitter: @thebizguy

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