The search engines have the potential to drive more traffic than any other source, and the blogs that manage to rank well in the search results are the most likely to succeed.
Pulling this off, however, requires some understanding of how to produce and distribute SEO content.
We’ll touch on how that works in a moment, but first, a few basics.
How Google Ranks Content
The search engines of the ’90s were terrible, almost useless by today’s standards. This is because they relied on the content of the page itself in order to determine what the page was about.
Needless to say, algorithms aren’t human, and the best they could do was tally up the number of times a keyword was used.
Spammers quickly capitalized on this by stuffing their pages with keywords, and this quickly ruined the web.
Google’s breakthrough was to rely on information from other sites. Namely, links.
As a result, the most important ranking factor is the links to your site.
The more links you get from related sites that have established trust and authority, the easier it is for people to find your content in the search engines.
Creating SEO Content
A piece of SEO content, whether it’s meant to go on your own site or a different one, looks essentially the same.
It should be written for a human being who will actually get some value out of it, if for no other reason than that your site could one day come up for manual review.
It should contain your target keyword in the title, and the keyword should also be used naturally throughout the article.
If it makes sense to use the keyword, or something related, in a subtitle, do so.
Do not get carried away with the keywords. Just use them naturally and don’t get too concerned about meeting a specific “keyword density.”
Using SEO Content for Links
The true power of your content comes from the links that it can generate. There are two ways to use content to generate links: linkbaiting and guest posting.
1. Linkbait
Linkbait is content that begs to be shared. It’s written and tailored for influential people who have their own blogs and would like to share the information with their readers by linking to it.
Linkbaiting is extremely difficult to pull off but if you can, it’s the most powerful method you can use.
Successfully using linkbait typically requires having some prior relationships with a few bloggers in your industry, especially those who have a fair amount of reach.
2. Guest posts
Beginners should typically start with guest posts. The ideal guest post is just as high in quality as something that you would post to your own site.
This is because it will be difficult to get the post published on a reputable blog any other way, and a link from a reputable blog can be worth hundreds or even thousands of links from easier sources.
Finding a blog to guest post to will take some work. Do a Google search for other bloggers or browse social networks and start up a conversation with a blogger in your niche.
Do some networking and offer value before you offer your guest post, most of them understand that you will be using it to link back to your site and you don’t need to say this explicitly.
3. A quick word on the link itself
Try to use the keyword in the text of your link, but again avoid overdoing it. Too many links with the exact same text pointing toward pages on your site tells Google that something fishy is going on.
What kind of seo methods you use to increase your blog traffic? Any of the above mentioned?
Let us know in the comments …
Of course, if the SEO is critical to search engine visit.
I agree with you – SEO is something we shouldn’t avoid.