SEO Tips for Bloggers: Getting Google to find your blog

Ranking high on Google and other internet searches is extremely important if you want blog traffic. While a lot of in-depth information is available on optimizing websites for search engines, here are a few introductory  tips for optimizing your blog for a search engine

• Use keywords in the title: Make sure your blog’s title makes use of ‘keywords’—words you know your competitors use to find you/your line of business in search engines. This is very important, since each blog post actually has a URL of its own and using the keywords in the title allows it to be a part of that URL—which, by the way is scanned by search engines.

• Use heading styles: Using heading style tags for the section/sub-heads of the blog post is a great idea as this attracts search engine attention. Don’t forget to use keywords in your headings, though.

• Hyperlink: Hyperlink relevant words back to your website—this will help boost your web traffic. You could also link un-common terms to other credible sites. For example, if you are writing about search engine optimization, you can back-link some uncommon terms to a professional source where your readers can get more explanation. Plus, search engines like it when you link to credible sites. You could also start following other bloggers in your field or industry and link to their blog posts. They, in-turn, might be willing to link back to you, boosting your search engine rankings.

•  Images: Adding images to your blog-post is a great way to make it visually interesting. But, make sure you provide relevant alternative text for your images, as this increases your chance of being found on the web.

• Tags: Blogs allow you to provide ‘tags’ for your blog posts…meaning words you can associate your post with. These tags function like keywords for that particular post. You should be giving relevant tags to your posts so it becomes easier for search engines to find you.

• Share: Don’t forget to share your blog posts on social media sites such as Facebook/twitter. The greater the number of people visiting your blog and linking to it online, the better your chances of showing up in search engine results.

• Submit to Google: Just as you would submit your website to Google and other major search engines, submit your blog at least once a month.

And…finally,  remember, your blog is for people—so make sure your content is easy to understand and interesting. Because, while topping search engine results might get you visitors, at the end of the day, it is the content that helps you get loyal followers.