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10 Ways to Create Posts Without Worry About SEO and Keywords

October 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I coach lots of bloggers and writers who would like to (1) start blogging, (2) develop better blogs or (3) blog a book to make sure they get discovered by a literary agent or publisher. In each of these cases they inevitably inquire how to search engine optimize (SEO) their blog and employ keywords for their blog posts. It’s my job to say: “Don’t worry about it. Just produce great content that’s on target with your topic.”

Why? Whenever you write great content that’s targeted to your topic you naturally use keywords and phrases. Actually, your content will contain keywords that relevant to your subject matter without you considering them. When your content utilizes keywords naturally–and appropriately, your blog should have all the SEO it requires. In fact, you will discover your blog moving up in the various search engine page ranks slowly and gradually without you doing anything but composing and publishing posts.

Yahoo and Google don’t like to discover content containing overused keywords, or keywords used in an unnatural or stilted fashion just to “get noticed” by the ‘bots, crawlers, spiders and various automated programs that look for content. They are searching for content that appears to use keywords and phrases as though they fit in in the copy, not as if they have been placed there intentionally. Those programs are smart and understand game you are playing!

So, here’s what I advise you do to create a blog with great SEO and uses keywords effectively:

  1. Research what keywords relate to your topic.
  2. Write down the top 10 keywords related to your topic and put them somewhere near your computer.
  3. Forget about the list of the top 10 keywords related to your topic.
  4. Write blog posts about your topic every day; if you can’t write every day, every other day or at a minimum three times a week.
  5. Write compelling, targeted, on-topic 60 character headlines. (Use your list of keywords here if you want.)
  6. Post the links to your blog posts to many social networks.
  7. Get other people to link to your blog or blog posts.
  8. Comment on other blogs using your blog’s URL as your web address to create more links.
  9. Find other ways to create links back to your blog, such as with e-zine articles, guest posts, or bios on websites.
  10. Rinse and repeat.

If you do this every day, you won’t need to worry about SEO and keywords. They will miraculously take care of themselves. (Well, you will take care of them effectively without worrying and without doing any extra work.)

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Filed Under: Links and Linking, Uncategorized, Using Keywords and Keyword Phrases, Writing for the Internet, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , ,

Google Offers Questions to Help Create Quality Blog Content

May 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It matters little if you are blogging a book or simply blogging, content remains king when it comes to getting traffic to your site. If you are trying to figure out how to create a blog with content that will get noticed, Google has some great advice. In fact, while Google uses certain algorithms to decide on ranking, these are aimed at helping people find “high-quality” sites. That means they reduce the rankings of low-quality content and increase the rankings of high quality content.

To help you produce high-quality content, Google suggests you ask yourself the following questions:

  • Would you trust the information presented in this article?
  • Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
  • Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
  • Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
  • Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
  • Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
  • Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
  • Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
  • How much quality control is done on content?
  • Does the article describe both sides of a story?
  • Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
  • Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
  • Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
  • For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
  • Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
  • Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
  • Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
  • Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
  • Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
  • Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
  • Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
  • Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
  • Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Want to understand more about how Google looks at sites and uses these algorithms? Read this.

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Filed Under: Writing for the Internet, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , , ,

Authenticity Leads to Great Content and SEO

December 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Here’s the thing about search engine optimization (SEO): It really comes down to great content.

You can search out the best keywords for your topic and fill your content with those words, but at a certain point it becomes obvious to the search engines what you are doing. They don’t like that tactic. Yes, keywords are important, but if you are on point when writing about your topic, your copy will be keyword rich without you even trying.

By simply being authentic and writing great content, your blog posts will search engine optimization (SEO) themselves. You will write passionately about your topic and your copy will naturally include the words that attract readers and search engines.

This becomes even more true when blogging a book. Since you cover one topic for a long period of time, your posts contain many keywords. You write in an authentic manner and with an authentic voice. You do so passionately and from a place of personal (or soul) purpose. In the process you produce great content with superb SEO.

At some point while blogging your book, your book should get notice by the search engines and your ranking should increase on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

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Filed Under: Using Keywords and Keyword Phrases, Writing for the Internet, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , , ,

Are Blogs and Blogged Books Protected by Copyright Laws?

July 22, 2010 By 7 Comments

I’ve been asked the same question several times: If someone blogs a book—actually composes it in the form of blog posts they publish on the Internet—do they need to worry about a copyright for that blogged book. The question has been asked about blog copy in general as well.

Previously, I’ve offered a general answer: As the blogger, when you hit the “publish” button, you basically copyright the material by becoming its publisher and publishing it.

In fact, my answer was correct. I just didn’t offer you the background material to go with it. I’d like to do that now. Under the Copyright law of 1976, which went into affect in 1978, any work created in a fixed form is protected by copyright upon creation. That means that when a work is put into any fixed form—printed out from your home laser jet printer, published as an e-book, booklet or POD book, or sent into Cyberspace as a blog post, your written work is protected by copyright. Thus, completed and published blog post, or all the posts that comprise a blogged book, comprise written works created in fixed form and are protected by copyright.

This information comes straight from a copyright attorney. I asked another literary attorney as well, who advised that writers always print out their work. That means, as a precaution, simply print out your blog posts before actually posting them on the Internet.

The so-called “Poor-man’s Copyright,” putting your work in an envelope and mailing it to yourself, only serves to prove when you wrote something not that you wrote it.  However, it can be a handy piece of evidence should you need it, I’m told by the copyright attorney.  As he said, it’s useful but not terribly essential.

And actually filing our work with the copyright office can be a royal pain in the rear if you produce a lot of writing, such as daily blog posts. If you want to sue someone for infringement and collect damages, if you worry about being infringed, or if you ever want to bring a lawsuit against someone for infringement and want to collect money, having a document that says you own the copyright to your work certainly can be a useful.

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Filed Under: Writing for the Internet Tagged With: , , ,

Increasing Traffic by Commenting on Blogs

June 12, 2010 By 3 Comments

Another way to publicize your blogged book or blog involves commenting on other bloggers’ posts. You know how you love it when readers leave comments on your blog posts, now it’s time to do the same.

Go out and read other blogs that have related content. These are the blogs you identified as complementary or competing blogs. If you found books that were competing or complementary books, see if the authors of those books also have blogs. Read their posts on a consistent basis and leave comments.

Do not spam these bloggers, however. By this I mean, don’t simply leave links to your blog in the comment box. Actually say something worthwhile. Leave useful information. Tell the blogger what great information they have provided, and then piggy back on their information with superb information of your own.  The link to your blogged book will appear automatically if you opt to have your name linked back to your blogged book.

Don’t ever opt for an anonymous comment. Always opt to have your website or blog address used in conjunction with your name. Then when your name appears with your comment, readers can click on your name and be taken directly to your blog.

Not only do all these links increase traffic to your blog, they also increase your Google ranking. The more often you leave comments, the more chances you have of getting blog readers from other popular blogs to come check out what you are writing and the higher up your SERPs.

I know reading other blogs and commenting can be time consuming. One way to handle this in a time-effective manner involves using Google Alerts. You can also subscribe to the blogs you find most relevant to your subject.

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Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Links and Linking, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: , , ,

How to Reply to Blog Comments

May 24, 2010 By 3 Comments

When you publish a post of particular interest to your readers you will know immediately—or almost immediately. Typically they will let you know what they think about what you have written. This tends especially to be true if you write about something they strongly disagree with or agree with.

I have another blog called As the Spirit Moves Me. It has its home here on my other website. However, many of my posts are also published at VibrantNation.com. The other day I published a post in both places that generated quite a few comments at VibrantNation.com. Here’s one that generated a few at As the Spirit Moves Me.

Many blog programs allow you to decide if anyone can post a comment or if you will moderate all comments. (In WordPress this is in under Settings-Discussions.) This means you decide if the comment will appear on your blog. There are also plugins that help get rid of spam comments, such as Akismet. It’s a good idea to monitor the comments on your blog–another reason to stay on top of what’s going on even if you are scheduling posts.

It’s also a good idea to reply to comments if you can. This lets your readers know that you appreciate them and the time they have taken not only to read your blog but to tell you what they think of your posts. It also allows you to dialogue with them. Notice that I did reply to those people comment on those blog posts.

You reply to comments in much the same way you would to comments on any other blog, only you do so from within your blogging program.

In some cases, you can even begin asking commenter’s questions about your blog and its subject matter and getting even better or more targeted feedback in this manner.

If you aren’t getting comments, you might not have many readers yet or you might not be striking a chord with the readers you have. Sometimes readers are just shy. It takes a few people commenting before others speak up. At VibrantNation.com, readers comment often. On As the Spirit Moves Me, I get much fewer comments. I have another blog, though, My Son Can Dance, where I get quite a number of comments simply because of the nature of the blog and the readers.

In my next post we’ll begin talking about ways to drive more traffic—readers—to your blog. That will, as I said, increase the number of comments you receive.

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Filed Under: Replying to Comments, Writing for the Internet Tagged With: , ,

Writing for the Internet: Increase Ranking and Readers with Links

May 12, 2010 By 4 Comments

As you write your blog posts, you will want to consider providing links to resources you might find on the Internet. This also helps your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Actually, everything you do that involves linking into or out of your blog helps SEO your blog.

For this reason, you’ll want to try and network with other bloggers who write about the same subject. See if they will agree to reciprocal linking. If so, add them to your “blog roll,” which is under “Links” on WordPress blogs (and most blogs), and then they add you to theirs. A blog roll is a listing of links to your favorite blogs—or to blogs you feel will help your readers in some way. On this blog, my blog roll contains blogs about blogging and related subjects. It also contains a few of my other blogs in case someone is interested in reading my other work.

If you feel a blog really contains helpful information or the author’s writing just shouldn’t be missed, but that blogger won’t reciprocate with a link, you can list their link on your blog roll anyway. It’s still a link and a helpful service to your readers.

Another way to add links to your blog involves commenting on other people’s blogs. This entails going out and reading what other bloggers are writing on your topic and leaving comments. The comment box almost always offers you a way to provide a link back to your blog. Additionally, this drives readers to your blog, which, in my mind, is as important as SERPs—or at least they go hand in hand.

Anyway that you can link in and out of your blog will help your ranking and bring in readers. So, link, link, link.

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Filed Under: Links and Linking, Writing for the Internet, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , , , ,

Writing for the Internet: Compare Keywords

May 11, 2010 By 5 Comments

I am by no means an expert in search engine optimization (SEO). I know very little about SEO, and evaluating competitive keywords. I do know a little. Maybe I know more than you. So, let me tell you what little I know.

One of the best free places to go to compare key words remains Google’s own tool. You can access it here. Simply plug in your word or phrase and it will tell you how it ranks. The higher the ranking or number, the more people searching for that word or phrase.

You can also gain access to paid keyword tools. Plus, I know Google has a tool called Keyword Wonder Wheel, but I can’t seem to find it. (If anyone knows how, please share the information.)

Don’t get too excited if your keywords come up as the most polar ones. You actually may not want to rely on the most-searched phrases. Those probably already have sites or blogs dominating them. Instead you might want to dominate less-used keywords and keyword phrases. You’ll stand a better chance of working your way up to a top ten ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs)

You can find out who dominates the SERPs with your keywords by simply doing a search with those terms. For a more accurate search, put the term in quotation marks. Then, with the search up on the Google or Yahoo screen, find how many sites are in line ahead of you for top ranking. To do this, type in allinanchor: and insert your keyword after the colon. (For a more detailed explanation about all of this from a real expert, click here.)

Now that I have gotten in way over my head, I’m turning back to safe ground. Next, we’ll discuss how to schedule your blog posts so you don’t necessarily have to write every day. (This post, by the way, was scheduled to publish all by itself. Find out how next time.)

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Filed Under: Comparing Keywords/Website Ranking, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Writing for the Internet: Use Keywords in Your Posts

May 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

One of the most important things to do when you write copy for the Internet involves using keywords. Keywords and keyword phrases are the words on your site that match search terms. Search terms are the words and phrases that people type into the search forms of search engines, like Google or Yahoo.

It’s a great idea to think about all the keywords you might use while writing about your book. What words or phrases, for instance, relate to your topic? These are the keyword and keyword phrases that you will use over and over again.

As you do, they populate your blog and your website. They are then found spiders, bots, and crawlers, which are the programs that harvest information for search engines. The more keywords and keyword phrases on your pages, the higher your blog or website climbs in the search engine results page (SERPs). Also, the more often you post new content to your site, the more likely that these visitors will show up to indexed what is there. This also means that if you are posting often and using lots of great keywords and keyword phrases, you will move up in the SERPs. Thus, you gain the coveted top ten Google ranking, which means when you search for your keyword or keyword phrase using Google’s search engine, your blog shows up on the first page.

There is a lot more to search engine optimization (SEO) than this, but using keywords and keyword phrases well provides a start.

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Filed Under: Using Keywords and Keyword Phrases, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Writing for the Internet: Be Conversational

May 8, 2010 By 1 Comment

Okay! Let’s start writing that book!

Writing a blog tends to be a bit different than writing a “formal” book exactly because blogging lends itself to informality.  When blogging you can write as if composing an email to a friend.

Blogs began as live journals, and many people considered them streams of consciousness—simply unedited thoughts thrown together and published. You don’t want to go to that extreme. You will want to carefully choose your words and edit your copy. You want to put your best words forward.

Even if you are blogging on a technical subject or on a scholarly topic, you can approach writing your blogged nonfiction book in a conversational manner. I suggest you try this, since most people who read blogs expect the author to talk to be chatty and relaxed.

However, if you feel you must maintain a professional tone, then, by all means, choose that as the writing style of your blog. Only you know best what writing style will best communicate your message.

Well…your readers know best as well. You can ask them what they think or what they like. Try polling them. (You can add a poll to your blog easily.) If you aren’t blogging savvy enough to add a poll, simply ask them to give you feedback. At the end of a post ask: “Would you prefer that this blog be written in a more conversational and less formal tone?” See what types of comments you get back.

If you aren’t getting readers—which means you have no one to poll or to ask for comments, you can change your style and see what happens.

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Filed Under: Be Conversational, Writing for the Internet, Writing Posts/Chapters Tagged With: , , ,