I coach a lot of writers and authors who want to (1) begin blogging, (2) develop more effective blogs or (3) blog a book so they get discovered by an agent or publisher. In all three cases they inevitably ask me how to search engine optimize (SEO) their blog and use key words in their blog posts. I usually say the same thing: “Don’t worry about it. Just write great copy that’s on target with your topic.”
Why? When you write great copy that’s on target with your topic you naturally use keywords. In fact, your content will be filled with keywords that related to your subject without you even thinking about them. And when your content uses keywords naturally–and appropriately, your blog will have all the SEO it needs. In fact, you will find your blog moving up in the search engine page ranks little by little without you doing anything but writing and publishing posts.
The search engines don’t like to find content that has used keywords, or overused keywords in an unnatural or stilted fashion simply to “get noticed” by the ‘bots, crawlers, spiders and other automated programs that search for content. They are looking for content that seems to use keywords as if they belong in the copy, not as if they have been placed there intentionally. Those programs are smart and know what game you are playing!
So, here’s what I suggest you do to create a blog that has great SEO and uses keywords effectively:
- Research what keywords relate to your topic.
- Write down the top 10 keywords that relate to your topic and hang them somewhere near your computer.
- Forget about the list of the top 10 keywords related to your topic.
- Write blog posts about your topic every day; if you can’t write every day, write every other day or at a minimum three times a week.
- Write compelling 60 character headlines that are on topic. (Here you can use your list of keywords if you like.)
- Post the links to your blog posts to as many social networks as possible.
- Get other people to link to your blog or to your blog posts.
- Comment on other blogs using your blog’s URL as your web address; this creates more links.
- Find other ways to create links back to your blog, such as with e-zine articles, guest blog posts, or bios on websites.
- Rinse and repeat.
If you do this day in and day out, you will not need to worry about SEO and keywords. They will miraculously take care of themselves. (Well, you will be taking care of them effectively without worrying about them and without doing any extra work.)
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