Christmas is so close you can almost touch it – it won’t be long before you’re in a mince pie coma luxuriating in the new cashmere socks you received from Aunt Gertrude 😉 But with Christmas comes the inevitability of January and a hive of resolutions and productivity and for bloggers that often means SEO. But I promise it doesn’t have to be as dry or daunting as you may think it is.
I am by no means an SEO expert (I’m always learning!) but as an oldie when it comes to blogging – nearly 10 years – here are my top tips for bloggers when it comes to SEO:
Make a Plan
I suppose this stems from my PR/Marketing days when it was drummed into us that without a plan even the best ideas in the industry were doomed to fail. What is exactly what you want to get out of SEO? What searches do you want to appear on page 1 of Google for? Don’t put all your time and effort into ranking highly for the best prams on the market when you’re a big advocate for babywearing. Do your research, become an expert in understanding your target audience and what they want and what they’re searching. Google Analytics is great for gaining a deeper understanding of behaviour and trends.
Networking
I promise I’m not a dodgy used car salesman with this one – but networking is still king in business no matter how you approach it. Without getting too technical, Google adds more ‘weight’ to sites that are linked to by established sites (this can also work in the same vain but negatively if you’re linked to by less than desirable sites, so something to bear in mind.) One way to achieve this is to take part in guest posts, it’s a natural – and often fun – way to broaden your blogging circle while working on the SEO for your site.
Consult The Professionals
I like to class SEO in the same bracket as a good blow-dry – it takes skill and one that I can do but I’m not brilliant at; this tip is as much for me as it is for you, after all these years I’m finally understanding the benefits of outsourcing aspects of my job that I’m not great at. SEO and online visibility are part and parcel of blogging and something you need to get right to see real growth. Consultancy services offered by click.co.uk are great for bloggers who often think that they’re not big enough to benefit from SEO marketing but that’s such a misunderstanding. Here’s my saying that 2019 is the year that I will finally outsource – will let you know how I get on.
Evaluation is Key
I’m hoping this one is pretty self-explanatory but if you followed step one (listen to me sounding like an SEO guru haha!) then it’s important that you periodically stop to take stock; to see what’s working and what isn’t. This doesn’t have to take the form of a dry as cardboard all afternoon meeting – gosh how I don’t miss those! I find it best to track progress in the forms of input vs output taking into consideration time/effort/budget spent when I do my month end paperwork and track it using a simple spreadsheet set up – with a treat of a blow-dry if it’s been a good month!
There you have it, a realistic SEO hit list for the new year – it is by no means going to make you the next Zuckerberg but is a handy starting point and will hopefully have you feeling in control
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.
