Blogging has become a popular way for people to express their thoughts and opinions related to different topics. In the previous years, blogging was simply an online journal that had no real significance in creating value. Blogger was one of the first blog creation platforms made available to online users back in August of 1999. A lot has changed since those early days. Today, bloggers have not only learned how to become exceptional - well-crafted writers, they have also learned how to make a full-time income from the comforts of their own homes. This brings to the attention that blogging is by far one of the most powerful ways to drive organic search traffic to any website. If you’re serious about earning money through your blog, then consider implementing these strategies:
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The idea behind SEO is to construct a website and its content to be “search-friendly”, in a format that it can easily be found by all major search engines. From an ROI (return on investment) point-of-view, this means generating the highest number of traffic from search engines without having to spend any money on paid keyword phrases (SEM/PPC). How does a good SEO strategy affect a company’s bottom line? It’s quite simple. When a company can reduce it’s expenses, but yet is still able to drive high-qualified traffic to a site and maintain or increase their current conversion rate, the result will be additional profit.
Why is it important?
Without a good SEO strategy in place, it would be extremely difficult for searchers to find your content. You might have the greatest idea or the most innovative product on earth, but if people aren’t aware that you or your company exists, then chances are you will be forced to close down much sooner than you expect. Your time and effort in creating an awareness of your brand won’t mean much if your online presence is invisible. SEO bridges the gap between the consumer and a company.
How to Optimize the Structure of Your Blog
Begin by performing keyword research on the primary keyword you feel is the most relevant to your blog. Assuming that the chosen name of your website is: http://www.giftbasketsforall.com, then you could name the blog: http://www.giftbasketsforall.com/blog. You want to make sure that searchers can identify that this is indeed the link to your blog. Avoiding any confusion at this point is absolutely crucial in establishing credibility and building brand awareness. When creating blog posts, use the primary keyword in the title and incorporate the secondary keywords in the body.
Unique content that is useful to the reader is more important than fancy graphics or jargon. Rather than making your blog sound like an ongoing sales page, begin to write from the reader’s point-of-view. Your goal is to gain their trust and solidify in their minds that ‘you’ are an industry expert. Furthermore, you should use Wordpress.org social media plug-ins such as AddThis.com to make it easy for people to spread your content across the Internet.
Create a blog roll. The purpose of a blog roll is to sharing links to other authoritative blogs who offer similar content to their readers. This doesn’t mean sharing links with direct competitors, as this would create a conflict of interest and possibly hurt your overall search engine rankings. It’s a great way to build your network and at the same time bring more traffic to your site.
How to Optimize the Text Content of Your Blog
Generally, you’ll want to write at least 250 words for every blog post you create. There’s no need to get into precise detail about the message you are trying to convey. Instead, keep it as brief as possible, while at the same time still being informative. Writing any more that 250 words in a single blog entry makes it more difficult for search engines to crawl the site. This may prevent your post from being indexed due to excessive an excessive word count. Within the body of your post, you should place anchor text to the appropriate internal links of the site that you feel would ultimately benefit the reader. Try and use an anchor text that appears in the title of your post.
· Example Title: Edible Gift Baskets this Holiday Season
· Example Body: Experience the joy of giving this Christmas by selecting from one of our edible gift baskets.
This helps indicate to search engines that this page is about “edible gift baskets”. When a searcher types in this exact phrase, there is a possibility for the page to appear in the search engine results page.
Optimization through Rich-Media Content
Now that you’re on track to creating a memorable experience for your searchers, the next plan of action you should consider is optimizing the images and videos on your blog. Always keep SEO in the back of your mind before uploading your latest content. The same principles apply to these rich-media formats as they do with standard plain text. Your title should immediately capture your audience’s attention. Tag all your videos and images with long-tail keyword phrases. Remember, broad keywords are generally harder to rank for. Long-tail keywords are best used for improving conversion rates.
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