How to Write Blog Content for SEO Purposes

Here are some tips for writing blog post content with SEO in mind:

1. Keyword Research: Conduct thorough keyword research to identify relevant and high-ranking keywords related to your blog post topic. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to discover popular search terms and long-tail keywords that can be incorporated into your content.

2. Target a Primary Keyword: Select a primary keyword that best represents the main focus of your blog post. This keyword should be included in your blog post's title, headings, meta description, and throughout the content in a natural and meaningful way.

3. Compelling Title Tag: Craft a compelling and keyword-rich title tag for your blog post. The title tag appears as the clickable headline in search engine results, so make it attention-grabbing and descriptive. Keep it under 60 characters to ensure it doesn't get truncated.

4. Engaging Meta Description: Write an engaging and concise meta description that accurately summarizes the content of your blog post. Although meta descriptions don't directly affect search rankings, they can influence click-through rates by enticing users to click on your link.

5. Quality and Unique Content: Create high-quality, original, and valuable content that provides relevant and insightful information to your readers. Aim for longer-form content (typically 1,500+ words) as search engines often favor comprehensive and in-depth articles.

6. Proper Heading Structure: Use clear and descriptive headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to organize your content and make it easy for both readers and search engines to understand the structure of your blog post. Include your primary keyword in at least one heading.

7. Keyword Placement: Strategically place your primary keyword and related keywords throughout your blog post. Incorporate them in the introduction, headings, subheadings, and naturally within the body paragraphs. However, avoid keyword stuffing, as it can harm your SEO efforts.

8. Readability and Formatting: Ensure your blog post is easy to read and scan. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings to break up the text. Add emphasis through bold or italicized text when appropriate. Incorporate relevant images and media to enhance visual appeal.

9. Internal and External Linking: Include internal links to other relevant blog posts or pages within your website to improve navigation and encourage readers to explore more of your content. Additionally, include a few well-placed external links to reputable sources that support your content.

10. Image Optimization: Optimize your blog post's images by using descriptive file names and adding alt tags that incorporate relevant keywords. This helps search engines understand the context of your images and improves the accessibility of your content.

11. Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensure your blog post is optimized for mobile devices. With the increasing number of mobile users, having a responsive and mobile-friendly design is crucial for SEO. Use responsive layouts, legible fonts, and ensure buttons and links are easily clickable on mobile screens.

12. Social Sharing Integration: Incorporate social sharing buttons within your blog post to encourage readers to share your content on their social media platforms. Increased social shares can enhance the visibility and reach of your blog post.

Remember, while SEO is important, it's equally essential to prioritize providing valuable and engaging content to your readers. Strive to create a balance between optimizing for search engines and delivering a great user experience.

Workplace Emails and Writing Tips

Here are some tips for writing effective and professional workplace emails:

1. Clear and Concise Subject Line: Use a clear and concise subject line that accurately summarizes the purpose or topic of your email. This helps recipients understand the importance and relevance of your message.

2. Greeting: Start your email with a polite and appropriate greeting, such as "Hello [Recipient's Name]," or "Dear [Recipient's Name]," depending on the level of formality and your relationship with the recipient.

3. Professional Tone: Maintain a professional tone throughout your email. Use proper grammar, punctuation, and avoid using slang or abbreviations. Be respectful and avoid overly casual language, even if you have a friendly relationship with the recipient.

4. Clear and Organized Structure: Organize your email with clear paragraphs and headings, if necessary. Use bullet points or numbered lists to highlight important information or action items. This makes your email easier to read and understand.

5. Be Direct and Specific: Clearly state the purpose of your email in the first few sentences. Be direct and specific about what you need or what you're addressing. Avoid unnecessary fluff or vague language.

6. Provide Relevant Context: Provide any necessary background or context to help the recipient understand the reason for your email. Include relevant details, dates, or previous conversations to avoid confusion or misinterpretation.

7. Use Proper Etiquette: Follow proper email etiquette, such as using appropriate salutations and sign-offs, avoiding excessive capitalization (which can be perceived as shouting), and refraining from using all caps or excessive exclamation marks.

8. Proofread and Edit: Take the time to proofread your email for any spelling or grammar errors. Read it carefully to ensure your message is clear and coherent. Consider using tools like spell checkers or grammar checkers to help you identify and correct any mistakes.

9. Be Mindful of Tone and Tone: Emails can sometimes be misinterpreted due to the lack of visual and auditory cues. Be mindful of your tone and ensure your message comes across as intended. Avoid sounding too demanding, confrontational, or passive-aggressive. Use positive and respectful language.

10. Clear Action Items: If your email requires any action from the recipient, clearly state what you expect or request. Use action-oriented language and specify deadlines if applicable. Make it easy for the recipient to understand what is expected of them.

11. Use Professional Sign-Off: End your email with an appropriate and professional closing. Common options include "Best regards," "Sincerely," or "Thank you." Sign your email with your name, job title, and contact information if necessary.

12. Follow-Up and Timely Response: If you require a response or action from the recipient, politely follow up if you haven't received a reply within a reasonable timeframe. Similarly, be prompt in responding to emails you receive to maintain effective communication.

Remember, effective workplace emails are concise, respectful, and focused on clear communication. Tailor your tone and level of formality to the recipient and the context of the email. By following these tips, you can enhance your email communication in the workplace.

How much should a webite be charging for guest post advertising?

Well, it depends on the website and its popularity / domain authority.

Domain Authority

If we only measured by domain authority you should expect to be charging the following:

DA, Price Per Post (PPP)

90 - $200 USD per post.

80 - $150 USD per post.

70 - $120 USD per post.

60 - $100 USD per post.

50 - $80 USD per post.

40 - $60 USD per post.

30 - $40 USD per post.

20 - $30 USD per post.

10 - $20 USD per post.

0 - $15 USD per post.

Basically it all comes down to supply and demand, but also it is a matter of paying a minimum wage to a website that is just starting out and has a Domain Authority of 9 or less. A website might currently have a DA of 5 for example, but the makers of the website still expect to get paid for any advertising on their site.

Popularity

Domain Authority doesn't always equal popularity.

Eg. It is possible to have a website which is very popular, but has a low domain authority because not many websites are linking to it. It could be popular for other reasons.

As such popular websites will typically charge more for advertising because it is a seller's market.

Thus the numbers listed above which are based upon Domain Authority should be seen as a base price for a site with the corresponding Domain Authority. Popular websites could be charging a lot more depending upon the demand.

Rounding Up or Down

Chances are likely your website has an odd number for its DA. In this case we recommend rounding down, at least in the beginning. As your site becomes more popular and you get lots of advertisers then you can start rounding up if you start to feel you have too many people asking for advertising. (Yes, there is such a thing as too much advertising. It gets annoying eventually.

You will also discover your Domain Authority changes over time, especially if you are making an active effort to build links and increase your audience.

Why USD?

USD is basically industry standard for accepting payments in North America (and to a lesser extend the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand). You are free to charge a different currency, but you should be checking the exchange rate regularly to make certain you are on par with the correct amount.

Cheapskates

There are always going to be people who are too cheap to pay full price. Unless you are actually desperate for money we don't recommend giving any discounts to these jerks. They can go elsewhere. Especially the cheapskates who want free advertising and don't want to pay anything. Don't waste your time on anyone expecting free advertising.

Gambling / Casinos

Gambling websites have a lot of money to throw around. Don't be afraid to charge a casino / online gambling website 50% more, double or even triple your normal asking price.

Guest Posts vs Custom Posts

Usually the person submitting the guest post is the person writing it. If they are asking you to write it then you need to add an extra fee for a custom written post. We recommend charging $10 to $15 for each 250 words.

Thus a 500 word custom post on a DA 30 website should cost $60 to $70 USD. If you value your time and/or your site is very popular then you might be charging significantly more than that.

Remember when writing a custom post that you are rounding down the price. You could write 700 words, but only charge the person for 500 words.

What to do about people who don't pay in a timely manner?

Remove the advertising. Depending on your blog interface or website you can just revert the guest post to a draft. Then send an email notifying them that you removed the advertising pending payment. Maybe it slipped their mind. Maybe they changed their mind.

Either way you should never be giving away free advertising. You are running a business, not a charity.

Deleted 3 old blogs today...

January 2nd 2019.

So today we deleted 3 old blogs that we haven't updated in years.

Several reasons.

1. We no longer used the blogs in question for advertising (or anything else).

2. We had already cannibalized the blogs in question for their content and repurposed that content elsewhere.

3. It is 2019 and we felt like cleaning house, throwing out old blogs / old stuff.

Blogging is valuable as a method of advertising and building an audience. However if you rarely update a blog or have quite a few (we manage about 200 different blogs) then it just sits there, unused and unappreciated.

Eventually after a blog collects dust long enough the best thing you can do is cannibalize the content, use the content elsewhere in a blog of a similar topic, and then delete the blog which is no longer of any use.

And now here we are...

Writing a blog post about deleting 3 other blogs.

A new year is a good time to do something new. Start fresh.

In our case, it is a matter of fixing old things that need fixing.

Make Do and Mend was a motto promoted during WWII in Britain, promoting the idea that people should not buy new things and should ration their supplies by focusing on repairing things.

As a concept, it isn't something people do these days in our modern capitalist consumerism society. I should know, I work in the marketing industry. Consumerism is what I promote.

However from a business perspective saving money is also of value.

Say for example you have old signage outside your store. Something which needs some repairs and a lick of paint.

Does it make sense to replace the signage entirely, just tossing out the old signage?

Or does it make more sense to repair the old sign, repaint it, and thus it can serve its purpose once more with renewed vigor?

A wise businessman (or businesswoman) would choose the 2nd option. Repair, repaint and reuse.

You know the old adage for recycling?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Except the Reuse part is kind of useless if you don't also Repair.

In blogging terms we use the word Cannibalize*. We take the old content, copy/paste it to a different location, and delete the old website that is no longer used. There is more to it than that however. First you want to set up a redirect code so that visitors to the old website are automatically redirected to the new website.

* Cannibalize is an ugly word, but it is the word used. Basically it just means we are reusing the old content elsewhere.

After a suitable amount of time has gone by and visitors to the old website are rare, the old site is then deleted.

During the process of copy/pasting the old content, you may also decide the content needs to be updated. This could be done immediately, or it can be delayed until a better time. eg. Delayed until you have time available to do the needed updates. Updating the content (repairing it?) doesn't always have to be done right away.

But if you are in a mood to repair / fix things, like we are right now, then now is as good a time as any.

So why not? Just get it done now.

Just do it now. Get it over with.

Doesn't have to be a big fix either. Sometimes a bandaid solution works just as well and is a more efficient use of your time.

Imported Old Blog Content

Today I imported some old blog content from a different blog I have decided to get rid of.

The blog in question had 16 posts pertaining to business advice, organization skills, SEO, and similar topics.

Exporting an old blog and importing it to a new blog (or a more popular blog) is a good way to build content or expand content.

It saves you time on writing content too, as you've already written it, it is done, and you probably only need to make a few editing changes after importing the old content.

Some blogs just don't become popular. In the case of that blog, I think it was a bad title which was forced on me by a client at the time. Years later there is no point keeping it or adding to it, so it makes more sense to just "cannibalize" the old blog content and add it to an existing blog which contains similar or identical topics.

In this case SEO Toronto already has posts about marketing advice, business advice and so forth so it is a good match.

Redirecting the Old Blog

Furthermore you don't need to lose any lost traffic from the old blog. Instead you redirect any visitors to the old blog to the new one.

In the case of blogspot, all you need to do is locate <head> tag in the HTML and copy/paste the following text in there:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL='http://www.yoursite.com/'" />

You then replace "http://www.yoursite.com/" with your website address, save it, and in the future your old blog will redirect to the new website every time a visitor goes there.

In my case I decided to redirect visitors specifically to the Business Advice section. That way visitors to the old blog are most likely to end up in the section they were looking for.

Is it fair to visitors to suddenly be redirected to a new blog? Not precisely. But they will find way more useful things on this website anyway, and a lot more of it. So it has pros and cons.

Some Guest Bloggers are Morons and they Annoy Me

I have written about this before.

In fact it is basically a pet peeve for me when someone contacts me asking to do a guest post on one of my 200+ websites, but they want to do it for free and they don't want to pay anything for posting advertising on my website.

They also don't want to pay anything for my time and effort in posting it for them, which includes formatting it, adding images, editing content for quality (spelling, grammar, making sure it is family friendly, etc).

So like this morning I got an email from a "Stella Evans" - probably not even her real name, insisting that I should give her a free guest post because:

I am already investing lots of money in Content Research and Promoting in Social Media Platform.

It's going to bring traffic to your website too.

Let me know if you are still interested.

Thanks,

-Stella

To which I responded:

Hey Stella!

My website is already SUPER popular. Anything you can offer me social media wise is a drop in the bucket compared to what I already have.

Google tracks incoming and outgoing links - and reciprocal links (which is frowned upon). Incoming links boosts the Google ranking a tiny bit, outgoing links lowers it. However reciprocal links damages it more so.

Unless you are paying for the link, it is not worth my time or the damage to my Google ranking. The number of links you can promise is not worth the damage of the outgoing link unless you are willing to pay for it.

Worse, social media links are rel=nofollow. That means they are useless for boosting Google rankings. Twitter, Facebook, etc all useless. Might get a tiny trickle of people the day of any postings, but it immediately dwindles because so few people click on those things. It would be meaningless compared to the 1000 to 2000 visitors my website gets every day.

And then I ranted for a bit...

Before saying the following:

If you are going to do link building - especially when trying to link build on popular websites - the smart money says you need to pay for it.

Do you honestly think you are the first person to contact me asking for a free link? I get these requests every day. Multiple requests per day. Right now I have 5 other people in my email queue asking for links, but the big difference is that 3 of them are offering money.

Why should I spend time talking to you when other people are paying me for my time?

And now I am posting it here.

Because this is what happens when I get annoyed about something SEO related. I rant, I post it on here, and all my effort ranting has at least been useful and educational.

Worse, less than three hours later there was another two people asking for a guest post on my website. Not sure yet if they are willing to pay. One of the first questions I always ask these people is:

"How much are you offering per guest post?"

Because if they are not paying then they are just wasting my time.

Like this girl who emailed me at 12:53 PM today:

I’m Lori, a new reader of your site, awesome articles and blog section by the way.
On my blog [company name removed].org I write about showers and bathroom related topics.

I’m writing to you because I’d love to contribute a guest post on [name of website removed]

I've been brainstorming some ideas and guest post titled something like these would be a good fit for your site:

- Why is it recommended to use massage shower after workout?
- Reasons Why You Need to Take Cold Showers More Often
- Immune System Benefits of an Infrared Sauna
 
Do you agree? How about I write one of these for you?

Here are some of our previous guest posts:

[list of three website links removed]

Best regards,
Lori L

 Or this girl who emailed me at 1:15 PM today:

Hey there,

My name is Rachel and I am the outreach manager at [name of company removed].

I wanted to see if you would be interested in adding a paid sponsored post to your blog that we would provide.

If this is something you might be interested in let me know and I'd be happy to give you more details.

Thank you,
Rachel W

So which of these two emails do you think I will pay more attention to? It is obviously Rachel. Right in the first email she said the magic words:

"paid sponsored post"

Right away, Rachel has the respect. And today I am feeling generous. I am going to let her know that $30 is the minimum fee. She might have been willing to go higher, but frankly I like her style. Rachel is awesome.

And working with her will make me a happy blogger and SEO expert.


Update at 1:39 PM

Stella Evans just sent me the following:

$5 I can provide a publishing fee.

Which is only one sixth of what my MINIMUM fee is.

Remember how I always ask "How much are you offering per guest post?" ...?

Well I ask that because sometimes people offer $40 to $100 per post. Really depends on what they are advertising I find. So I find it is handy to wave some bait there and see how much they offer.

$5?

$5 is less than half the minimum hourly wage in Ontario. Less than half! Meanwhile my hourly wage for SEO work is $40 per hour. I am not cheap, but I am well worth it.

Basically I am literally swimming in offers from guest bloggers and the fact that some of them like Stella Evans just don't seem to "get it" annoys me. Why should I waste any time on cheapskate morons not willing to pay money for a service when other people are contacting me every day asking for the same thing, but are willing to pay for it???

Branded Content is King

Have you ever heard of the saying 'content is king'?

Well it is partially correct. "Branded Content" is the real king. By branded I mean its unique, Google recognizes it as your original content because you were the first to post it, and anybody else who copies you is just ripping it off word for word and Google can recognize when other sites do that and bans/devalues them.

So in order to make sure your website isn't devalued you MUST make sure that your website includes quality and unique content. Never copy content from another website and paste it onto your own. For one you do not own the copyright to that content and two search engines like Google will know that the content on your website is a direct duplicate of that on another site and as such they will devalue your website.

No Duplicate Content, create your own Branded Content

Always write your own Branded Content for your website. We hear all the time "but I don't know how to write content". You may not be able to write a story book but this is your website and as such you are writing about a subject that you are meant to be an expert or professional in. All that knowledge you have in your head, just sit at a PC and type it all out. Don't worry about mistakes and grammar at this stage. You can always proof read your content after and use SpellCheck / GrammarCheck.

If for any reason you just do not want to write the content for your website then take on the services of an experienced copywriter. This is a person that writes website content for a living.

It is also important that new fresh original content is added to your website on a regular basis. No matter if you do it once a day, week or even month the fact is you need to be adding new pages to your website filled with fresh unique branded content. You also need to make sure that the content you are writing is informative and is of a nature that people will actually want to read it. Add a couple of images to the new pages which relate to the subject you are writing about.

Although adding regular Branded Content to your website is good for your search engine reputation but it also increases the number of people looking at your website with every article you write. Why? Simply because people are looking for information on a daily basis and as long as you write about a subject which people want to read then each and every article will be found on the internet somewhere.

The search engines, especially Google, want to see websites growing with good solid information that is original.

Building great original content on your website should be the first step before you even discuss promoting your website.

Writing Good Copy, Why Good Content Drives SEO

By Toronto Copywriter

Writing good copy is about using language that is concise and to the point. You want to grab your readers' attention within the first paragraph. Choosing your words carefully is the key to success.Engaging content serves to sell you as an idea, a brand or a commodity.Your piece must include words like professional, business,service and so on.

One of the main reasons why good content drives SEO is that people tend to search for exactly what they need. So say they're looking for a house cleaning business, they will put in words like cleaning, home cleaning etc... It's these key words will draw your readers in and help lead them directly to your business or website.

People enjoy reading articles that are of interest to them or that they can relate to. Writing with your reader in mind is important when it comes to good content and optimizing your search engine.

See Also
Personality Sells, Toronto Copywriter
Writing Compelling Copy
Toronto Business Writing

Big Business Blogging, The Toronto Way

At Intel’s first Social Media Conference in Portland this week, 100+ Intel social media practitioners from all over the world came together with about 20 industry subject matter experts to share and engage social media best practices.

One of those speakers was Lionel Menchaca, the Chief Blogger at Dell and a real pioneer in the world of blogging and social media for the enterprise. Lionel told the story of Dell’s initial blogging efforts that turned the tide of Dell Hell as well as other practical insights.

Here is what we've garnered from his wisdom and applied it to Toronto SEO.

1. Write about topics that matter to your customers (in our case, Toronto customers), especially the tough ones. Dell has a social media command center to track topics and inspire ideas, issues to deal with.

2. Provide context for a range of customers / Torontonians and people living in the GTA. Be thoughtful about the interests for specific segments of customers. Find a balance that allows you to appeal content to a range of customers. To do that effectively, you must listen online and understand the convergence of issues that you can address with content though the blog.

3. Write to educate and serve. If you’re doing your job correctly you’re doing both. Informing customers about more than products, including Toronto-based industry news and trends as it relates to your customer’s perspective builds trust and makes your corporate blog a source of information that’s meaningful towards what customers care about.

4. Be authentic, be human, be a nice Torontonian (they're hard to find, but they exist). If you can look back and see what established a blogger as a personality that audiences engage with, that’s what’s important. Write from a personal perspective, not from a “brand messaging” perspective.

5. Let your passion and personality show through. There will be points that the brand wants to make, but it’s important that the blogger’s personality show through. When tapping Subject Matter Experts for contributed blog posts, coach them on writing from a personal perspective vs. just providing the facts. [This reminds me of the Facts Tell, Stories Tell adage.]

6. Provide an inside look. Content should complement, but also offer a different view than corporate website content, press releases, and other brand communications. Examples: Video interviews with internal subject matter experts about product features and what they personally like about them.

7. Don’t be afraid to disagree, if you can back it up. Dell uses Radian6 as a listening tool to monitor for discussions. Techmeme is also a useful site for tracking stories that drive discussion in the tech space. Show that you’re there to be part of the conversation when you find dissent, vs. trying to steamroll it.

While blogging within Toronto businesses has been around for a very long time, I think a it’s important for Toronto companies to take a second look at how their communicating through blogging platforms. Far too many Toronto business blogs are lacking in reach, readership and engagement because of approaching business blogging solely as a distribution channel vs. a platform for engagement. It’s by finding that right mix of personality and brand representation.

Search Engine Optimization Basics

When it comes to SEO, there are two primary search engine optimization areas: Onsite & Offsite.

Typical Onsite Optimization:

* Meta tags – title & description tags – yes, they are still very important – it’s normally what you see when your viewing results in any search engine. If your site’s been submitted to DMOZ (see below) then add a NO ODP tag so Google doesn’t end up showing some title that an overzealous DMOZ editor decided to edit.

* Content – creating unique, useful content for your visitors and search engines. Don’t be lazy and scrape content from other sites no matter how big your site is and how much work you have to do. If you can’t write it from scratch, modify it to make it unique – make sure to inject keywords and links to your other pages as well. Don’t duplicate pages for any reason – fix your directory structure instead.

* Internal linking structure – use links within your copy to other pages on your site. It helps to tell search engines more about your site – plus they tend to ignore main navigation(s) as they are repeated on every page (looks like duplicate content).

* Directory structure, file names and navigation – keep things clean, if dynamic URLs are used, create mod-re-writes to produce clean search engine friendly URLs. Be sure to 301 redirect the old pages if the site’s been around for awhile and the old pages are in the Google index. Page names should be optimized based on the topic of the page – keep it logical and user friendly. Use bread crumb trails when possible.

* Code bloat – stay away from MS based server environments and web products. They are notoriously bad at keeping code clean and error free. Use Linux based server environments – they’re faster and free. Run your templates through a HTML error checker and make sure there aren’t any major malfunctions – small errors are usually fine, but try to keep it to the absolute minimum.

* Table & Cell Usage – try to keep the website design/layout simple, don’t nest tables within tables within tables – use CSS to keep the overall design clean from a code perspective – it makes it easier for search engines to crawl your content.

Typical Offsite Optimization:

* Link building – Simply put linking is the core of how Google’s search algorithm works. It’s like a giant popularity contest. They call it PageRank, but really what it means is that the more sites you get to link to your site, the more popular Google will think your site is which will produce better rankings. The text used in links is called Anchor Text – and it’s vital that the anchor text be keyword driven. Don’t get someone to link to your site using www.yourtorontosite.com, get them to link using your most important keywords. Read more about linking on our link building page. How do you get links? Well that’s a closely guarded secret – but for the most part, companies that have the dollars buy them. It’s the only way to really control things. Yes you can try requesting links, link exchanges, directory submissions, and other techniques from 8 years ago, but you’ll soon realize that to nail competitive terms you have to buy links, simple as that.

* Social Marketing – well the jury is still out on this one, but we do it more because it’s what you should be doing versus there being a direct coloration to social marketing helping your search rankings. It’s also a little tricky to even get your corporate Facebook or Twitter account pages ranking for your brand name. Do a few searches for some well known big brands and you’ll quickly get the picture. Bottom line is Social can’t hurt your rankings, and these days it is a great way to connect and communicate with your customers – so do it – just don’t look to it to increase your search rankings.

* Article Submissions/Press Releases – provided this isn’t going to take away resources from content writing and other SEO efforts, article submissions and press releases can help with traffic and search rankings – but in terms of priorities – I’d recommend this be kept low, or better yet contracted out so it doesn’t require or divert any attention away from the real drivers.

That’s SEO in a nutshell. For more details see the SEO Checklist.

How to Optimize your Blog Post

SEO Advice - If you’re writing and publishing blog posts, but not putting in the few extra steps to optimize and align them with an overall keyword strategy, then you’re not leveraging the full potential of that content and you’re not making your website pages visible and highlighted for the search engines.

Blog Optimizing: Back to the Basics

Content is a form of online currency that is crucial to any business' online marketing. With consumers relying on search engines for product research and reviews, content is key for ranking among those search results because search engines largely determine the quality and relevancy of the Internet’s countless web pages by looking at the text on those pages.

Just having content, even great content, on your company's website isn't enough to grab the attention of search engines. Businesses must leverage this content using search engine optimization (SEO) tactics. Maintaining a corporate blog is a good SEO tactic that allows for rapid content creation without the constraints of website architecture and web development teams.

Here’s how you can optimize your blog post in eight steps.

1. Find a Compelling Subject

One method for differentiating your content from all the other writing available across the web is to offer a fresh perspective and a unique angle on a given subject matter. If you haven’t spent time working through this step, don’t bother with the rest of the optimization process.

2. Conduct Keyword Research

This step is the perfect litmus test for determining whether your blog post topic is aligned with what people are looking for. When developing your focused keyword list around the blog post topic, make sure to do a sanity check and confirm that consumers are actually using these keywords to search for your product/service.

Save yourself time in the long run and filter out visitors who are unlikely to buy your product by ensuring your keywords align with the purchasing intent of your target audience.

3. Select Keywords

In order to rank high for a given keyword phrase, it’s important that you only designate up to two to three keywords per website page. Limit your blog post to one primary keyword, as well as two or three variations of that keyword (e.g. optimize blog post, optimize blog, blog post optimize, blog optimize).

4. Track Keyword Ranking Trends

Make sure your focus keyword is worth optimizing for. If there are only 10 searches for a given keyword per month, it might not be worth your while.

Look at how your target keyword phrase is trending, in terms of global monthly searches, how competitive the search term is, and whether any of your competitors or one of your pages are already ranking for it.

5. Optimize the Page

Page optimization is crucial for boosting the visibility of your blog post for the search engines. After you create the content, insert your keyword phrase throughout the blog post in specific locations where the search engines will be looking for information about your page (i.e. URL, title tag, H1, H2, emphasized text in the body of the post, alt tags on images).

From here on out, every time you mention this specific keyword phrase on your website, use an internal link to its corresponding blog page. There are also available SEO plugins for certain blog platforms, like WordPress’ popular “All in One SEO Pack,” to help you control these SEO elements.

6. Syndicate via Social Channels

Syndicate your blog post externally by sharing it across your social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Additionally, post comments with your blog post link on relevant, external articles to attract clicks through to your site.

Make sure to use the blog post’s target keywords in your syndication via tweets and Facebook status updates. Help your audience share your content as quickly and easily as possible by including social sharing buttons on your blog post pages like the tweet, Facebook Like, LinkedIn Share, and AddThis buttons.

Consider adding Facebook's new comments plugin to drive engagement and sharing. Also, make your content available via RSS feed, so subscribers can regularly view your latest content on their news reader of choice.

7. Find Top Links

Inbound links are essential for boosting the search engine rank of a website page. A handful of relevant links will help you better rank. Use a link suggestion tool to help identify and track high-quality, relevant websites that you can reach out to with your blog post and request a link back to your page.

8. Track Keyword Performance

Monitor your blog post on a regular basis, in terms of rank, visits, and leads from its given keyword phrase over time. By checking back on your progress, you can understand what about your content is resonating with your audience and what to improve upon. Evaluate what worked and what didn’t, then repeat the successful tactics with your next piece of content.

Summary

SEO is a gradual process, but by just setting aside an hour a week, you can make a lot of progress over time.

While many view paid search as a quick and easy way to drive traffic without a large time investment, once you switch it off, you lose that traffic. SEO, on the other hand, when done well, can have a long-lasting, sustainable impact for your website.