When it comes to SEO, arguably there is nothing more important than blogging. In order for content to rank well, there has to be content in the first place and multiple industry leaders have shown that companies that blog regularly – therefore giving their audiences fresh content at regular intervals, do better than companies that don’t.
HubSpot’s blogging frequency benchmark data shows that when small companies with 1-10 employees publish more than 11 posts each month, their sites get three times as much traffic as companies of the same size that publish only one post per month. What’s more, sites with 11 posts each month earn twice as much traffic as companies that publish between 2-5 posts each month.
For slightly larger companies, the results are comparable: companies with between 26-200 employees that publish more than 11 posts per month get twice as much traffic than companies who only publish one post each month.
It’s obvious that blogging frequency really does matter and that, in order to boost traffic and improve SEO, you need to produce relevant, useful content on a regular basis.
One of the main reasons for this is that old blog posts stick around long after they’ve been published. In fact, when HubSpot conducted a study of their own blogging traffic, they found that 90% of the leads their blog produced actually came from old posts. That said, it’s possible to generate, in equal parts, traffic from both old and new content, as long as you know how to create content that is genuinely interesting and valuable.
1. You need your own domain and hosting
The first thing that beginners need to know is that you need your own domain and hosting. If you are setting up a blog, free blog set ups do not do any favours for your SEO efforts.
Why?
Well, put simply, if you want people to consider that that you are really serious about your website you would get your own name and host it yourself. And Google only wants to point to websites that are considered serious and trustworthy.
2. Solve problems with original content
Remember, Google’s whole purpose (and premise of success) is to provide their customers with relevant and useful search results. Everything they do is built around this.
And, to be realistic, the most important thing you can do for your SEO is create massively useful content that solves people’s problems. If you are solving problems that people are searching for then it is likely that you are going to get shared on social media and ranked in Google.
The phrase “original content” means so much more than just blog posts nowadays. You should start expanding into:
- Photography
You need original images and photos – at the very least, change image names to match the subject and always utilise the ALT tag. - Videos
Make tutorials or do video posts with your webcam. This builds links and traffic from Youtube and does well on mobile devices. - Podcasts
iTunes is growing fast as people get better smart phones and spend more time plugged in. You can check out my podcast right here. - Tools and plugins
If you can develop an original tool and install it on your website you can be assured of top Google rankings for a long time. Google absolutely loves tools and helpful plugins that people can use in their lives.
The idea is to build a relationship with your readers by helping them out. This will mean more sharing and faster results on the SERPS (search engine rankings positions).
3. Build relevant backlinks in a natural way
If you are just getting started with SEO you might know a little about backlinks. A backlink is when another website links back to your site from their site.
Not all backlinks are created equal though. Some things to know:
- Never buy them
I once heard about the head SEO guy for an investment company. He bought some cheap backlinks on a domain name with millions of dollars and got the thing banned from Google. Never buy backlinks. Google is on to them. - The source matters
The blog that is giving you the backlinks makes a huge difference. If it is an old domain name with excellent rankings itself then the backlink counts for more. One good link from an authority domain name (.edu and .gov ones are amazing) and your rankings change more than hundreds of little ones. - The anchor text matters
The anchor text is the words that are used as the link. You want this to be relevant to your targeted keywords.
As mentioned, the best way to build quality backlinks is to write amazing quality content and then guest post on the best blogs in your niche.
Remember, backlinks to your OWN content is also really important. Those count too!
4. Make sure your theme/design is SEO optimised
Think of SEO as having two components: the off-site stuff like social media and backlinks and the on-site stuff like optimising your theme.
Optimising your theme is important because it helps give Google indicators that you are a trustworthy site. It also helps Google find your content. Some of the things you can do include:
- Cleanly coded
Make sure your theme is coded with the latest and greatest techniques so that it is easy to get around. - Fast loading
A fast loading site is good for user experience and thus good for Google. Make sure your theme is pulling its weight and loading quickly. You can check out its speed here. You can use cache plugins to help speed things up. - No broken bits
Make sure you clean up any broken links and make sure your navigation all works smoothly.
5. Fix your permalink structure
Permalinks are how people locate your blog and its internal posts and pages. They are made up of a root and an extension.
Now, it is very important to have a good permalink structure. You can change this in WordPress by going SETTINGS > PERMALINKS and tweaking the options. The best option to have in there, in my opinion, is just the post name. So you should select CUSTOM STRUCTURE and then add /%postname%/
However, even better than that is to research what keywords you are trying to rank for and then shorten your URL to match those keywords.
Be careful! You don’t want to change the old permalinks because then any backlinks you have will be broken. Just new ones.
6. Install a sitemap
One of the easiest things you can do is install a Google Sitemap plugin that gives a full map of all your posts, pages and archives. At InstaHost’s InstaBlog we automatically install a sitemap for you!
This automatically generates the sitemap for you at regular intervals and then submits it to Google, Bing, etc. on your behalf. Its literally giving them a map of your site so they can index it better – this needs regularly updating – which is why InstaHost’s Instablog does this automatically for you!
7. Build your social media profiles
You want to now have a big focus on social media for SEO purposes as well as traffic building purposes.
Why?
Well because Google is now looking to social media as a signal of an article’s authority and relevance.
If thousands of people are tweeting about it then chances are you have written something pretty good. And the best way to get tweets is to build a loyal following and write killer content that they just love to promote for you.
Some things you need to start doing:
- Tweeting established names
Get to know the established names in your niche by casually building a rapport with them on Twitter. Down the track you can hit them up for re-tweets. - Add separate value
Tweet and Facebook information and facts that don’t appear on your blog. Think of it as a separate resource for people to tap into. - Share others
The more content you share from other bloggers the more likely they are to share your stuff. Give to receive.
8. Use SEO plugins
There are lots of WordPress plugins out there that you can install to get some help with your SEO. At InstaHost’s InstaBlog we automatically install the most effective SEO plugin and giver you support to use it effectively!
9. Add content regularly
Adding actual and functional information to your website will give Google the idea that your website is alive. If it’s not an active website, Google will crawl it less often and it might become less appealing to Google to include the page in the search results.
10: Use Google Plus!!
Find your Niche related communities in Google plus. Solve their problems, help them and Dont treat them like subscribers and engage with them as friends. More people you add, the more traffic will come. Don’t worry Even if they don’t visit your blog regularly, they can still see your Google Plus links in Google Page 1.
11: Use long tail keywords
Long tail keywords are and have always been a big traffic factor for bloggers. Take Search Engine Journal, for example, who noted a huge 78% jump in traffic after optimising their content for long-tail keywords. In order to optimize content for long tail keywords, it’s important to create extensively researched, lengthy, valuable content that utilizes your long-tail keywords in a natural way.
Since long tail keywords show you what your users are looking to do, there’s a high probability that content optimised for them will produce far better conversions than content that is not. Additionally, longtail keywords can help you understand how to better structure content in order to solve a searcher’s problems or provide value for their needs.
12: Remember who you are writing for
Despite all the SEO advice talking about Google – remember the audience who you want to read your blog is human!
