So you’ve got your blog set up and looking nice, and everything seems great, right?

Wrong.

If no one can find all of your hard work, other than your mom and your sister, you are basically talking to yourself. For certain people, anonymity is just fine. Some people write blogs more as online journals than to attract outside readers. But, if you want other people to find your blog, you need to start looking at search engines and search engine optimization.

As much as you read about search engine optimization, (SEO), it’s really not that difficult, and with some basic knowledge and tools, you will be surprised at how quickly your site rankings can and will change. That being said, if you are not careful, doing the wrong thing can also get your site dropped, instantly, into an SEO black hole, so it’s important to know what to do and what NOT to do. If you are interested in attracting more readers, here is my SEO game plan, get some paper and a pen or have a Word document open for notes:

1.) The first thing you need to do, before you start your SEO project, is to stop and think about who you want to find your site. Who is going to be your reader? Who will want to come back?  In other words, marketing 101, who is your customer? Blogging to attract and keep readers involves knowing who you are trying to attract. Is it moms? Is it young moms? Is it dog lovers, car lovers, gardeners? Take some time to make notes or a mental picture about who you want to find your blog, leave comments, and come back again.

2.) Go to Google and do a search for your blog. (Now, I need to make a disclaimer. Of course there are many, many search engines. But we all know Google is the Holy Grail, so for all intents and purposes, assume we are talking about improving your search engine rankings in Google.)

• Do a search for your blog name (the actual URL as well as the name without the http or .com). Is it there? If your blog is not showing up in Google at all, there is much work ahead but don’t despair.
• If your blog is showing up in Google, cut, paste and copy into a Word document of some type, or write down, what is showing up. What is the exact wording of the link appearing, and what text is showing up under the link. Copy it all down, funky characters and all.

3.) Get some paper if you don’t have some already or go back to your Word document. At this point you need to start thinking about keywords.

What are keywords exactly?

Keywords are really two things. First of all, keywords are what people searching the web-you, me, total stranger-type into a search engine when we are looking for something online. Second, they are what search engines use as part of their formulas to rank sites. Let’s look at both.

• As a web user, let’s say I am looking for a new car. I go to Google, and I could possibly type in many, many things:
  • new car, new cars, new truck, Chevy trucks, Chevy trucks in Houston, trucks….
• Or, for mom blogs, I could type in: homeschool blogs, mom blogs, mommy blogs, mommy blog, craft blogs, working mom blog, working mom blogs, mom blog, parenting tips, mom advice.
• For search engines, keywords are what tell Google, “hey, this site has some relevancy to XYZ term.” Now of course Google uses a secret formula with other things involved, but keywords are critical. If I am writing a site on growing tomatoes, but I rarely use the word “tomatoes” on my site, outside of the title or a post here or there, search engines are far less likely to find the site relevantto that topic. If I want “mom bloggers” to find my site, I need to be sure I strategically use both of those words at throughout my site and posts so that search engines will understand that my site is relevant to this topic.

Get the idea? As an individual using the Internet, the possibility of words that I could use to find a product or site are endless.

What you want to consider at this point are two critical things:

• What are the possible keywords people will use to find me?
• What combinations of words will they use (i.e. “mom blogs” vs “mom blog sites”?)

Here is where it’s important to understand keywords and web surfers and how they relate to each other, which ultimately can decide whether your site sinks or swims in search engines.

Search engines look at keywords in various ways, depending on the particular search engine. In most cases, the term “mom blogS” will usually bring about different results than the term “mom blog.” The only difference in between those two terms is the plural S in the first search. It’s important that as you determine what your own site keywords are, that you start to use them in both singular and plural forms throughout your site.

Hopefully, you see the link between the keywords that your audience will use to find you, and how search engines need to “see” those words throughout your site at various spots (I’ll explain where to place them specifically later) in order to increase your rankings. While you can blog away on any topic, if you want the site to be found, you need to know your keywords and be sure to use them periodically as you write.

Go back to your own site, think about your keywords, and either do a “search/find” on the home page or through your posts. Are your keywords there? If not, start adding them right away.

At this point, I suggest you stop and use either some scratch paper or word processor, and start making a list of all the possible key words and key word combinations people are likely to use when looking for whatever it is you are blogging about.

If you are stuck, here are some tips:

• Think about your blog, pretend you don’t know it exists, and go to a search engine and think of what you would type in as a search. Try all sorts of terms.
• Wordtracker.com: this is a great resource that has a free 7 day trial. I’ve used Wordtracker with my blog, and I used it to run my Internet business 10 years ago. Wordtracker allows you to type in a search term (i.e. Mom Blogs) and it will tell you combinations of that term AND how many people are searching for that term. This will be important later as we move on through the SEO process.

One last note about choosing keywords. There is a fine line in between the benefit of using general versus specific terms, and this is something to consider as your write your blog.

For example, there are many, probably millions, of searches for:

“mom blogs”

My chances of getting listed high on that particular term are going to be low because it’s such a general term, Google better think my site is pretty darn relevant to “mom blogs” to place me near the top. There are so many sites wanting that spot, it’s going to be difficult to get ranked well on that keyword choice.

Now, how about if we narrow it down some to:

“homeschool mom blogs” or “working mom blogs” or “stay at home mom blogs.”

Now, we’ve give Google the ability to narrow our focus down some and the chances of better rankings go up.

I could continue to narrow my keywords as much as I want:

“homeschool mom blogs in Texas” or “mom blogs on teenagers”

You can narrow as much as you want.

The thing to remember is, the more you narrow it down, the fewer people there are probably typing in that specific term.

So you want to find the line in between terms that are not so general that there are 40 million other sites and you are listed on page 50 of Google, but that are not so specific that only 10 other sites on the same topics and you are in the top 5 listings, but only 2 people a month look for your subject matter. Find a happy medium. Play with Google on your own, try out various search terms.

Ready to move on? Click here!