How to Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines

Producing content for your blog and connecting with your community on social media sites doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll rank well in search engines.

This article will explore some of the easy (and most rewarding) actions you can take to optimize your blog for search engines.

Set the Correct URL Structure

By default, many blogging platforms use a query string as the URL. Query strings are hard to read for search engine spiders and will result in lower rankings. Configure the URL structure in your blog’s backend and set them to show the main keywords of your post. Create hard links for your posts.

Install Necessary Plugins

Most blogging platforms allow you to install additional plugins or turn on options that will increase your search engine optimization. Whichever platform you use, look at other bloggers who use the same one as you to see what they do in terms of SEO. Configure options within your blog to automatically include keywords and give you the option to configure on-page SEO factors such as the title, description and URL.

Keep Your Keywords in Mind

Try your best to create content that’s specific to a single topic and keyword. Highly focused content equals search engine friendly content. Place your keyword in the title, body, links and description of your content prior to publishing. You can further improve your traffic and keyword ranking by discovering the exact keywords people search for by using online tools like the Google Keyword Tool.

Focus on Creating Engaging Content

You may think it rather counter-productive from an SEO perspective to write for your readers rather than search engines, but you’d be wrong.

The easiest way to optimize your blog for search engines is to forget about all the hard, technical details of SEO and produce the best possible content you can. Powerful content will be found by others and will be more likely to be naturally linked to.

Each new natural link you build to your posts will have greater value than those you create on your own either within your blog or from directory websites. Produce great content and people will come to your site (along with the search engine rankings).

Interlink Your Blog Posts

Interlink on your blog to older posts that are relevant to the subject you’re currently writing about. Interlinking allows search engines to crawl deeper within your website and index more of your content. Additionally, interlinking within your blog adds value to your readers which is what search engines look for; if you provide great value to your readers then you’re rewarded with higher rankings.

Encourage Social Media Sharing

Many search engines have now begun to make the switch to real time indexing which calls upon social media services like Twitter and Facebook to show relevant content to their users. Give your readers options to share your content across the web by placing social media buttons at the beginning and end of your blog posts. The wider you’re able to spread your post the more likely you’ll build backlinks from people finding your content.

Build Links Back to Your Posts

Treat your blog post like as if you’ve released a new product by building backlinks to increase your search engine ranking. Backlinks can be built through blog commenting, social network participation, social bookmarking and guest posting. Each new backlink increases the overall likelihood that your content will be found and rank well within search engines.

Publish Content Regularly

The more frequently you publish new blog content, the more reason search engines will have to index your posts. Although you don’t have to publish every day, it’s important to keep a consistent schedule. Not only will you send new visitors to your blog but because search engines will already be indexing your blog, they are more likely to honor you with higher search engine rankings (and quicker search engine placement).

For more tips on how to optimize your blog for search engines, check out these SEO copywriting strategies.