It used to be that blogging was simply an avenue for writing down your thoughts and attracting an audience of like-minded individuals that are looking for the resources that you are blogging about. Well, this is still the case, but now, a blog is not only instrumental in increasing search engine visibility, it is almost a requirement in effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices. Ah, the ever-changing SEO puzzle.

Yes, a blog is very important in creating a community that looks for the resources that your are providing them on a regular basis, but in terms of SEO, a blog can be the most powerful web marketing tool at your disposal … only if your ideal market can find it. Used as an SEO tactic, blogging can help increase your search engine visibility and ultimately generate more leads and sales for your business. So, lets talk about some simple changes that you can make to your blog to accomplish this.

Did you know that every blog post you write becomes another webpage? And every web page is another opportunity to rank well for a specific search your customers are performing. So you want to make sure that you are utilizing keyword-rich topics. Assuming that you already have your set of keywords that you are targeting, you will need to generate content ideas for your blog. I mentioned the idea of community earlier, and this is where you should start. If you have any customer questions, start turning them into “Dear Abby” style posts. Or, scour sites like Quora, Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn and any other forums where your prospects may be asking questions. If you can provide answers to these questions in the form of a blog, you are killing two birds with one stone … creating great SEO content as well as providing answers to your customer’s questions. It’s a win-win situation.

So, now lets talk about how to effectively format your blog for best practices in SEO.

Create a keyword-rich title.

By default, whatever title you give your blog post becomes the title of your web page when showing up in search queries. This is crucial because search engines give more importance (and therefore higher rankings) to your page title than just about any other variable. Stay away from vague titles and insert a focused keyword into the title to attract what phrases people are searching for. It also a good idea to lead with your keyword(s) as search engines tend to give more weight to the first few words in a title.

Work keywords into your copy early and often.

While your title is very important, it cannot stand on its own and needs to be supported by the rest of your copy. It is a good practice to include your keyword(s) or phrase(s) into the first sentence or two of your blog post. Then, make sure to repeat it several times throughout the rest of the post. Remember not to overuse your keywords because search engines can punish your for “over-optimizing” your post. There really is no magical formula for “over-optimizing,” but if you feel like you are inserting keywords just for the sake of SEO, you are probably guilty.

In today’s day and age of Siri and other semantic type of search queries, it is now okay to break up your keywords as long as the words in your phrase are close enough to each other. For example, if you wanted to rank well for “Vail ATV rentals,” you could use that phrase exactly once or twice, but also just use “Vail” and “ATV rentals” separately in another instance.

Utilize the power of social networks.

Now that you have your title and content optimized for SEO, it is time to get the word out. Typically search engines are a little aloof about how much impact social media has on search results, but there’s no question that Facebook powers Bing’s customized search and Google+ affects your Google search results. So, by sharing your post through Facebook, Google+ and other social media platforms, you will not only get other people to share your content, but you’ll drive more traffic to your site and build awareness of your post.

Don’t be discouraged if your social update doesn’t boost your overall ranking, it might introduce you to another blogger who links to your post from within his/her post and that, in turn, will ultimately carry search engine weight.

A no-brainer here, encourage sharing of your blog posts by adding all of the appropriate “share” buttons to the bottom of your blog posts, encouraging visitors to share your content.

Blogs are not sales-y by nature.

Blogs are typically more conversational than traditional website copy, so they are great resources to introduce people to your business website or e-commerce site to attract new sales or leads. Assuming that your goal is grow your business, you want to leverage your blog to do just that. By creating keyword-rich links from your blog posts to sales pages on your website, you are accomplishing this in a more subtle manner.

For example, if you were writing a blog post about ATV riding in the Colorado Mountains, you would then link to your ATV rental page where people could make a reservation. Remember, though, search engines focus on the words in the links, so instead of creating a link that says, “click here” or “learn more,” you will want to create a link that says “ATV riding in Colorado” or something to that extent.

Domain counts.

There are many popular blogging platforms out there (WordPress, Typepad, Blogger), but if you are utilizing these services, you are not doing yourself any SEO favors. When you blog to someone else’s domain, i.e., atvcolorado.wordpress.com, you are ultimately building their search engine visibility, not yours. It is extremely important that you blog on a domain that your fully control. This could be part of your current site, i.e., atvcolorado.com/blog, or it could be a separate domain entirely, i.e., atvcoloradoblog.com. But, whatever route you choose, make sure that you have control over the domain and are building SEO rank for your own website, not somebody else’s.

Recap.

Blogging is now an instrumental factor in achieving top rankings in search, but you have to do it right. Make sure to focus each blog post around a narrow, keyword-rich topic; create a title that starts with your best keywords; use keywords early and often; make your post easily shareable through social networks; link to critical pages on your website and build your blog on a domain that you own and control.

I know this is a lot of information to take in, but if you can master this simple formula, you will be well on your way to achieving those top rankings that are so coveted. It is important to note, though, that blogging alone will not shoot you to the top … it is just one piece of the ever-changing SEO puzzle.

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