Blog Search Engine Optimization: How to Do Keyword Research to Get the Most Google Juice

When publishing articles on your business blog (or any web site) your task doesn’t end with writing your blog post, you should also concentrate on optimizing it for search engines.

Actually, to get the benefit of search engine traffic, even before starting a blog post, do some keyword research. First, compile a list of keywords (and, more importantly, keyword phrases) you think your business should rank for. Then, use the free Google Keyword tool and type in those phrases to find out how many actual searches are done per month. You would be surprised how different Google’s list may turn out from your own. Use the list Google suggest as your starting point.

You want to find keyword phrases with low competition and high search volume.

If your site or blog is promoting a business with a local focus, such as a beauty salon, or carpet cleaning, pay attention to the local search volume, rather than global.

Then, when you’ve decided on the overall keyword phrases for your site (or home page), use the same Google Keyword tool to generate ideas for sub page titles, post headlines and subheads.

Specifically, pay attention to and hand craft the following three meta tags:

• Meta title: This may be different, or a variation of the post title, and ideally not longer than 60-70 characters. If your post title is longer than 70 characters, made sure you condense it to less than that for the title meta tag.
• Meta description: If you’re using an SEO plugin for your WordPress-based blog, it will most likely be able to generate a description tag for you, but I advise against it. Instead, you should write your own description, ideally not more than 150 characters long, and making sure you use at least one keyword phrase as suggested by the Google Keyword tool. If you can also include a call to action, such as “Visit my site for more,” that would be great. Think of the description as the summary of your blog post, or page.
• 1-5 meta keyword phrases: As per this video, Google ignores meta keywords, but some search engines still read them, so it won’t hurt to add them. Add only those keywords that are actually used on the page. Resist the temptation of “keyword stuffing” as some search engines may punish your page for it.

My clients get the benefit of one-on-one instruction in the art of Search Engine Optimization. If your web site is not producing results for you, please book a complimentary meeting or toll-free call so we can find out if I would be a good fit to help you get more out of your online presence. If you’re on a limited budget, you can learn from my live workshops or self-study courses.