Top 3 Blog SEO Tips: The Do's and Dont's

I'm convinced that absolutely everyone and their mother's dog should have their own blog - it really doesn't matter what you do, in this age of technology and Internet, some of the most valuable real estate you can own is the content on your website (well I suppose you can rule that out if you're a monk or something). I could ramble on and on for hours and prove to you how just about every person's career can be twice as effective by simply adding a blog to their tool set, but I won't.

This article is about blog SEO, and I'll get straight to the point.

1. Content (surprise): If you've done any research whatsoever you'll have come across the phrase "Content is king", and guess what - in 2013 this concept is still true. And why shouldn't it be? The entire purpose of search engines is to lead people to relevant, quality content. So give it to them!
2. Diversify: When I say diversify, I'm talking about the variety of your strategy. This is a very general statement to give you the heads up, but essential nonetheless. Google is constantly changing their algorithms in their quest for holy-grail search engine perfection, and if your bread and butter is say, link-building, and Google figures out that links from crappy sites shouldn't help you but should rather hurt you, then your blog just may eat it hard. Be careful with your strategy - the only focus that should ever outweigh the others is Tip#1: quality content. You can never go wrong with that.
3. Crawlability: This is a made up word (I didn't make it up) and I like it. Google's web spider crawls the Internet in a never ending search for high quality content, and assigns ranks to each of you blog's articles. Unfortunately for some of us, our content looks great to human eyes, but not so much to the Google spider. One way to create a crawlable web is to link your blog posts together (Like this post? read more here). Don't click that link unless you're a freelance writer by the way. You kill two birds when you do this because these links both enhance your SEO and makes your blog sticky, that is, your audience is more likely to get stuck in your web of links as you lead them from relevant post to relevant post.

Yes, there's more to it than just that, but if I wrote everything in one post, I'd be breaking Tip#2. And I don't think my attention span is quite up to the task...

On to do's and don'ts!

Do:

Create high quality, rich in strong keywords. Google and other search engines are looking for quality, and I don't know exactly how they're web crawlers filter out low quality, but they do. So keep your content readable and professional, and fill it with popular and relevant key words (use Google's keyword tool).

Don't:
Avoid duplicate content. It's hard to say whether you'll be penalized for say, an article on your blog that you posted to hubpages with a clear backlink to your site. Most experts seem to think this is okay, but I haven't tested that out yet, so I avoid even that.

Do:

Update your blog regularly - daily is best! Google loves fresh content.

Don't:
Put all your SEO strategy eggs in one basket.

Do:

Enhance your blog's crawlability by weaving a web of links and indexing your blog well so the Google spider can crawl it. Happy Google spider = happy blog ranking.

Don't:

Expect your blog to blossom over night. SEO takes time, especially if you're just starting out. It's best to treat your blog like a plant, watering and fertilizing it regularly, and watching it grow.

Do:

Watch your blog grow by taking advantage of Google Analytics, where you can analyze your blog's health through a wealth of website analyzing tools. It's free, and one of the best tools you can utilize to verify the success of your SEO strategy.

Don't:

Hire someone to work on your SEO unless you trust them completely. I've seen too many people watch their fledgling blog crash and die after they let some self-professed SEO guru tinker with black hat tactics.

So there it is! There's a lot more information that is just as vital, but hopefully this will get you started down the right path - My last thought is this: I mentioned black hat SEO and shady SEO gurus - My last personal piece of advice is to stick to white hat tactics, quality content being at the top of the list. Like I said earlier, you simply can't go wrong with great content, and it's well worth your time researching exactly what quality content is, from a human reader perspective, and Google's.

I hope this article has given you some good insight into blog SEO, and if you're looking for more, stick around - I'll write more soon!

Keep at your blog and don't give up, before you know it you'll be ranking high and as happy as this little guy. (and there goes my photo relevance... I couldn't resist - look at that face!)