SEO for Idiots: The 10 Basics of Blogging Search Engine Optimization

Recently Kelci asked me over on my Facebook Page about SEO for idiots. I decided to do a full post on it (isn’t she lucky?) because it is such a cool and expansive topic.
So what exactly was her question? Here it is:

Found your blog the other day and have learned MUCH more than the previous 100 blogs I had found combined. I see that you have an article about SEO secrets below but I was wondering if you can direct me to like an “SEO for idiots” type of thing… I really need to understand the basics.

So here you go Kelci. Here are the 10 basics of blogging search engine optimization.
Oh, and this isn’t really for idiots. None of my readers are idiots. And if you are learning about SEO so you can grow your blog you are a long way from being idiotic.

A crude illustration of how SEO works

Let me start by giving you a crude example of how Google SEO works.
Google has developed automatic algorithms that rank your site. They send out what are called “spiders” to “crawl” your site and check it for over 100 indicators that determine whether your site is valuable or useless. These indicators include things like backlinks, domain age, traffic, fresh content, etc.
SEO is the art of making sure those spiders are happy with that they find. It is an extremely complex field that is constantly changing but in all that chaos there are a few constants that have remained true since the beginning. I’ll talk about those here.

The 10 basics of blogging SEO

As always guys and gals, if you have any other tips please leave me a comment and add to the fun. I absolutely love reading the huge comment-essays that you all tend to write.
1. You need your own domain and hosting
The first thing that beginners need to know is that you need your own domain and hosting. Those blogspot and wordpress ones just don’t do well on Google’s rankings.
Why is that?
Well many people speculate that if you were really serious about your website you would get your own name and host it yourself. And Google only wants to point to websites that are considered serious and trustworthy.

• The best host
  The best host for new bloggers is Blue Host. They have super cheap rates and amazing 24/7 support. Oh, and you can install your blog with one click.
• The best domain name registrar
  I have used Namecheap.com for a number of years because they are cheap and the support is always fantastic. I also find their interface really easy to navigate unlike some of the more common ones.
• How to do it all
  Check out my post on building a blog and then selling it as it shows you some general steps for getting started.

The sooner you can get on to your own domain name and hosting the better. Start building up your own asset instead of some other blogging company’s.
2. Solve problems with original content
You have to remember that Google’s whole purpose is to provide their customers with relevant and useful search results. Everything they do is built around the premise.
And, to be realistic, the most important thing you can do for your SEO is create massively useful content that solves people’s problems. If you are solving problems that people are searching for then it is likely that you are going to get shared on social media and ranked in Google.
The phrase “original content” means so much more than just blog posts nowadays. You should start expanding into:

• Photography
  Get on Flickr or Photobucket and use original images on your blog.
• Videos
  Make tutorials or do video posts with your webcam. This builds links and traffic from Youtube and does well on mobile devices.
• Podcasts
  iTunes is growing fast as people get better smart phones and spend more time plugged in.
• Tools and plugins
  If you can develop an original tool and install it on your website you can be assured of top Google rankings for a long time. Google absolutely loves tools and helpful plugins that people can use in their lives.

The idea is to build a relationship with your readers by helping them out. This will mean more sharing and faster results on the SERPS (search engine rankings positions).
3. Build relevant backlinks in a natural way
If you are just getting started with SEO you might know a little about backlinks. A backlink is when another website links back to your site from their site.
Not all backlinks are created equal though. Some things to know:

• Never buy them
  I once heard about a guy who was the head SEO guy for an investment company. He bought some cheap backlinks on a domain name with millions of dollars and got the thing banned from Google. Never buy backlinks. Google is on to them.
• The source matters
  The blog that is giving you the backlinks makes a huge difference. If it is an old domain name with excellent rankings itself then the backlink counts for more. One good link from an authority domain name (.edu and .gov ones are amazing) and your rankings change more than hundreds of little ones.
• The anchor text matters
  The anchor text is the words that are used as the link. For example, just then I used “anchor text” as the anchor text. You want this to be relevant to your targeted keywords.

As mentioned, the best way to build quality backlinks is to write amazing quality content and then guest post on the best blogs in your niche.
Remember, backlinks to your OWN content is also really important. See how many links I have to my own articles in this blog post? Those count too!
4. Make sure your theme is SEO optimized
This is the topic of a whole series of posts so I’ll keep it brief.
Think of SEO as having two components: the off-site stuff like social media and backlinks and the on-site stuff like optimizing your theme.
Optimizing your theme is important because it helps give Google indicators that you are a trustworthy site. It also helps Google find your content. Some of the things you can do include:

• Cleanly coded
  Make sure your theme is coded with the latest and greatest techniques so that it is easy to get around.
• Fast loading
  A fast loading site is good for user experience and thus good for Google. Make sure your theme is pulling its weight and loading quickly. You can check out its speed here. You can use cache plugins to help speed things up.
• Original
  Some people disagree but I still reckon that my original themes do better than themes that thousands of other people are using. A newly developed and original site also comes with dozens of other benefits.
• No broken bits
  Make sure you clean up any broken links and make sure your navigation all works smoothly.

The best paid themes for SEO at the moment are those made over at Studiopress. Yep, Brian Clark again.
Having a well designed theme is also important for your brand. Separating yourself from the competition is a very important thing to do.
5. Fix your permalink structure
Permalinks are how people locate your blog and its internal posts and pages. They are made up of a root and an extension.
For example, on this post we have:
ROOT: blogtyrant.com/
EXTENSION: beginnger-blogging-seo/
Now, it is very important to have a good permalink structure. You can change this in WordPress by going SETTINGS > PERMALINKS and tweaking the options. The best option to have in there, in my opinion, is just the post name. So you should select CUSTOM STRUCTURE and then add /%postname%/
However, even better than that is to research what keywords you are trying to rank for and then shorten your URL to match those keywords. Take a look at this post and have a guess what key words I was trying to rank for.
Be warned! You don’t want to change the old permalinks because then any backlinks you have will be broken. Just new ones.
6. Install a sitemap
One of the easiest things you can do is install a Google Sitemap plugin that gives a full map of all your posts, pages and archives. The most common one that people use is this one and it seems to work quite well.
This automatically generates the sitemap for you at regular intervals and then submits it to Google, Bing, etc. on your behalf. Its literally giving them a map of your site so they can index it better.
7. Comment on other blogs
For a long time my SEO strategy consisted of just commenting on other authority blogs. Not only does it get you more traffic, exposure and new relationships, it also counts as a backlink.
Now, some blogs you can leave target anchor text because they aren’t real worried about user names. But on most blogs you need to use your real name. That’s fine.
Try and use Market Samurai to see where your competitors are getting their backlinks from. You might just find a bunch of them come from comments on well ranked blog posts.
8. Build your social media profiles big time
As I mentioned in my post on SEO secrets you want to now have a big focus on social media for SEO purposes as well as traffic building purposes.
Why?
Well because Google is now looking to social media as a signal of an article’s authority and relevance.
If thousands of people are tweeting about it then chances are you have written something pretty good. And the best way to get tweets is to build a loyal following and write killer content that they just love to promote for you.
Some things you need to start doing:

• Tweeting big players
  Get to know the big players in your niche by casually building a rapport with them on Twitter. Down the track you can hit them up for re-tweets.
• Add separate value
  Tweet and Facebook information and facts that don’t appear on your blog. Think of it as a separate resource for people to tap in to.
• Share others
  The more content you share from other bloggers the more likely they are to share your stuff. Give and then get later.

Neil Patel (one of my blogging heros) has just written a really cool list about how to use Twitter like a boss. That is a good place to start if you want to really amp up your social activities.
9. Use SEO plugins
There are lots of WordPress plugins out there that you can install to get some help with your SEO. One of the best ones to start with is the All in One SEO Pack which does so many of the nasty little things for you.
There are a lot of other good SEO plugins out there so I thought I would open this one up to the audience and see what everyone else is using. Please leave a comment and let me know.
10. Read, study and use SEOmoz
As far as I am concerned the absolute best resource for SEO related material in the world is over at SEOmoz.
And their tools are even more amazing.
Now, the content on their blog might be a little over your head to begin with but you will slowly start to absorb ideas about trends, tactics and best practices over time. Even if you only check in every couple of weeks and read one or two articles you will find that your SEO knowledge just grows and blossoms.

Rand does a Friday Whiteboard session which, perhaps, is the most valuable video series I have ever watched. And he is a super cool guy. 

Top 25 SEO Blogs

I thought that someone would replicate it for the SEO sphere. But no one did, so here we go again.
This list was made using pretty much the same algorithm (only small modifications were made, mainly due to the fact that SEO blogs are more popular). Once again the list should be useful because it is based on objective factors. There are many “Top SEO Blogs” lists around the web, but most of them are based on the preferences of the author.
The Top 25 SEO Blogs list, instead, ranks the blogs according to their Google Pagerank, Alexa rank, number of Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority. Each factor has a score from 0 to 10, and the maximum score for each blog is 40. Details about the algorithm can be found below the table.

#1	Search Engine Land	7	10	9	10	36
#2	SEOBook	6	10	10	10	36
#3	SEO Moz	5	10	10	10	35
#4	Matt Cutts	7	10	8	10	35
#5	Search Engine Watch	7	10	10	7	34
#6	Search Engine Roundtable	7	10	8	8	33
#7	Search Engine Journal	7	8	9	8	32
#8	Online Marketing Blog	6	7	7	10	30
#9	Pronet Advertising	7	7	5	10	29
#10	Marketing Pilgrim	7	8	6	8	29
#11	SEO Chat	6	10	4	6	26
#12	Search Engine Guide	7	8	4	6	25
#13	SEO Blackhat	6	8	6	5	25
#14	Stuntdubl	6	6	6	6	24
#15	Graywolf’s SEO	6	7	4	7	24
#16	SEO by the SEA	6	4	5	5	20
#17	Link Building Blog	5	5	5	4	19
#18	Jim Boykin	5	6	4	4	19
#19	SEOpedia	6	5	4	4	19
#20	DaveN	6	5	4	4	19
#21	Bruce Clay	5	7	3	3	18
#22	Blue Hat SEO	4	6	3	4	17
#23	Tropical SEO	5	5	3	4	17
#24	SEO Refugee	5	6	1	3	15
#25	Small Business SEM	5	4	3	3	15

Blogs considered: the list considers only blogs that have a high percentage of SEO-related content. Topics might range from SEO news coverage to general SEO discussion and link building.
Google Pagerank (0 to 10): the actual Pagerank was used on the algorithm.

Alexa Rank (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on the Alexa Rank (i.e., 100k and up, 80k-100k, 60k-80k, 40k-60k) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Bloglines Subscribers (0 to 10): Subscriber ranges were determined (i.e., 1-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-300) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Technorati Authority (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on Technorati’s Authority rank (i.e., 1-125, 125-250, 500-750,750-1000) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Top 12 Inbound Marketing & SEO Blogs of April 2013

Each and every day there are thousands of Marketing related blog posts that get published on the internet. It can be overwhelming to keep on top of all the new content while juggling your daily task list. For that reason exactly, I have cut through the clutter and pulled the best Inbound Marketing blogs I've found over the last 30 days. Enjoy, I hope they help!

P.S. These are not all from April, I tried to pick the best ones from the last 30 days. I figured if it was good, why not include it.

• Seven Ways Writers Can Build Online Authority with Google+
  [via Copyblogger by Demian Farnworth]
  
• Why Building an Inspiring Brand Is Critical to Your Success 
  [via Savvy Panda ]
  
• 6 Ways Social Media Helps People Help People
  [via Hootsuite]
  
• Lean Content Marketing
  [via Virally by Liam Gooding]
  
• Your Guide to Social Signals for SEO
  [via SEOmoz by Jayson DeMers]
  
• Use These 5 Design Elements to Create the Optimum Blog User Experience
  [via ProBlogger by Mark Acsay III]
  
• How to Deliver Presentations That Are Awe-Inspiring, Not Yawn-Inducing
  [via HubSpot by Corey Eridon]
  
• Small Agency Agile: 5 Tips to Run a High-Impact Retrospective
  [via Marketing Agency Insider by Jack Skeels]
  
• Master Inbound Plans to Rock the Inbound Marketing Industry
  [via Savvy Panda]
  
• SlideShare: How to Market Your Business With This Growing Platform|
  [via Social Media Examiner by Michael Stelzner]
  
• Gary Vaynerchuck on Building Customer Loyalty
  [via StartupThreads] - (yes I know this is older, but it's good)
  
• How to Ensure You're Hiring a Trustworthy Marketing Agency
  [via HubSpot by Corey Eridon]

Boost Your Blog's SEO Mojo with These 6 Simple, Actionable Steps

Your blog is a powerful tool. Publishing blog content on a regular basis can provide an organization with a number of distinct benefits, which include:

• Brand building and awareness.
• Positioning yourself as a thought leader.
• Demonstrating your (or your organization's) expertise.
• Developing relationships within your niche.
• Fostering an engaged and active community.
• Generating leads.

Blogging is also powerful from an SEO standpoint as well. Strategic and active blogging can help you:

• Incite more crawling – the more you publish, the more your site gets crawled.
• Penetrate more keyword verticals.
• Attract links – provided you're promoting your content; passive link acquisition is difficult if not impossible for most sites.
• Generate social signals.
• Drive more organic traffic.

Despite the inherent "SEO value" of blogging, many blogs just aren't properly optimized for search, or aren't optimized to their fullest potential. As such, these blogs aren't working as hard as they could be for an organization from an SEO standpoint.
Many of the fixes and improvements you can make are really quite simple. Let's take a look at six steps every organization can take today to improve their blog's SEO.

1. Practice Good Pagination

Pagination on a blog is a system for enumerating pages so you can organize and archive content. Pagination is particularly helpful for usability because housing all your blog posts on a single page that scrolls endlessly isn't a practical or user-friendly approach. A single page with hundreds of blog entries would undoubtedly hurt load times too.
When it comes to SEO, pagination implemented correctly maximizes "crawl depth" and makes your content easier for engines to access by reducing the number of clicks needed to reach deeper, archived pages. In addition, proper pagination is a scalable way to flow more (or a larger percentage) of PageRank to your archived content.

Here are some solid examples of SEO-friendly pagination (multiple, numbered hyperlinks means fewer clicks to reach older content).

It isn't just blogs. Search engines practice good pagination practices as well, so take a page (or a post, if you will) out of Google's playbook.

If that's good pagination, then what's bad pagination?
Examples of poor pagination (or complete lack of) are pretty rampant across the Web. Some of the biggest offenders are free, off-the-shelf WordPress templates where you get a either a single hyperlink to access archived content "older entries," or two links "older entries" and "newer entries."

So why is the above example bad?
Having a single link means it can take exponentially more clicks to reach older content, which can make it harder for bots to find. Also, a single link means each subsequent archived index page (and the posts linked from it) is getting a smaller percent of a percent of PageRank. By the time you've gone five clicks deep into your archive, those pages and posts are starved for link equity.
Some of my favorite pagination plugins are:

• WP-Paginate
• Simple Pagination

2. Add Related Posts

As mentioned in the above section on pagination, it's critical that you make your blog content easy to find (both for bots and users). If your content is buried a dozen clicks deep or if it's orphaned entirely, that content can drop out of the index or won't have enough link equity to outrank competitor documents, rendering those pages useless from a SEO perspective.
So another way to improve the findability of your content is to add a list of related articles at the end of each of all your blog posts. Not only does this elicit more page views with readers, but this practice also helps flow link equity to deeper content and improves the circulation of PageRank across your blog. Finally, given there are keywords in the anchor text, related posts are an internal linking mechanism that reinforce the semantic relevance of a document they're linking to.
If you're running on WordPress, adding related posts is relatively easy, and there are a range of some very good related post plugins:

• 12 Related Post Plugins For The WordPress Beginners
• 3 "Must-Have" WordPress Related Posts Plugins

3. Add Previous and Next Posts

Similar to implementing a related posts feature on your blog, you can increase findability with "previous" and "next" post links, which can appear at the top or at the bottom of an article on your blog.

Much like adding related posts, "previous" and "next" article links effectively surfaces your content and improves link equity distribution. In addition, these types of navigational links can help increase time on site, and boost overall user-engagement and satisfaction signals via the "long click," a behavior metric Google is potentially measuring.

4. Proper Use of Categories

Categories are another component on your blog you can leverage to boost your organic search efforts. Besides making archived content easier to find (a common thread here), categories help classify and silo your content into topically themed pages, which creates additional opportunities to rank in search results.
Some category best practices are:

• Limit the number of categories you have. Categories are often misused or abused with contributors creating a new category every time they write a new post, which can lead to really thin pages of content (pages with a single post snippet). For small- to medium-sized blogs, 10 to 15 categories are really all you need.
• Select only one category per post. Contributors often abuse the category select feature and click on multiple categories before posting, which can risk duplicate content issues.
• Add original content to your categories to help make them unique. This plugin works well for adding introductory content to category pages

5. Vary Title Tags vs. Article Titles

Keywords are the foundation for your SEO efforts. Most bloggers understand this and often include keywords and keyword variations in their copy. But where many authors drop the ball is by not varying the title of the blog post and the title tag element.
Often this is due to inexperience, time constraints, or the option doesn't exist in their dashboard (which is easily remedied with the proper plugin). As such, the CMS or publishing platform duplicates the post title and the title tag with copy and paste.
Will this negatively impact SEO? No. But given the title tag is still the most important piece of content on your site (from an SEO perspective), not varying title and title tag is really more of a missed opportunity.
By varying your title and title tag and working in alternative keywords, stems, modifiers or synonyms, you make your content work even hard for you in the SERPs. And the more keyword variations in your content, the more opportunities your content has to rank in more searches.
There are a number of SEO plugins that allow you to vary post title and title tag, but my favorites are:

• WordPress SEO Plugin
• Headspace2

6. Add Sharing Buttons

Adding social buttons prompts sharing, which improves the distribution or your content across social platforms. Sharing can also help expose your content to new audiences.
From an SEO perspective, getting your content shared increases the likelihood of mentions and links. Also sharing helps your content get discovered faster; and the quicker it's found, the sooner it shows up in the index.
What's more, Google is gathering social data and this data impacts rankings. To what extent those social signals influence rankings is debatable, but Google clearly places some degree of value on social, and so should you.
To help increase distribution of your content across social channels, you need to implement frictionless sharing. Make your share buttons obvious, but not disruptive or distracting.
Sharebar is my favorite social sharing plugin for WordPress. It doesn't support Google+, but this quick snippet of code solves that.

Sharebar is good for two reasons. It shadows the reader as they move down the page, and it contains "share counts," which can help convey further trust, authority and popularity of an article for an audience.

Six Types of Content for your Marketing Strategy

Last month, Stephanie Chang wrote a great article on The Moz Blog about how to build a content marketing strategy. One section that was particularly informative explained the six different types of content. Each type is appropriate for targeting your audience at different stages of the sales cycle. The six different types of content are:
Awareness – This content is meant to draw your audience in and create a ‘first impression’ toward your brand or company. Your goal here is to get exposure. It can be as easy as retweeting something interesting and relevant to your industry or original content that is easily shareable. This is where you will get your soft metrics such as shares, likes and retweets to get your brand name in front of people.

A great example of ‘awareness’ content would be Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches YouTube video.
Trigger – Still at the beginning of the sales cycle, this content should trigger an action from your audience. A good way to do this would be to research a current trend or business problem in your industry, work through the problem and offer a solution. The solution should, of course, link back to your product page to get some click-throughs and get your product in front of people.
Here is an example from Salesforce about social media listening. The end goal here was to get potential Radian6 clients to download an ebook.
Search: This content is meant to answer questions when your audience has decided to begin researching a product or service more in-depth. A great strategy to have is to think of questions that your potential customers might ask and make that the headline of a blog post. That way, when potential customers go to a search engine page and type in questions surrounding your product, your content will come up with that exact question already answered.
Consideration: This is important content because it is at the most crucial point of the sales cycle; it is when your audience has decided that they need the service that you offer but haven’t decided which brand they would like to use. This is where you need to establish industry value. Your audience has decided they need a product, but why do they need YOUR product?
Buy: You have prospects that have already decided to buy your product and want to learn more about new product offerings, partnerships, etc. with this content. This will be more ‘old school’ because you should be describing your product and services. Just be wary of “product dumping” and try to keep it informative and relevant!
Here is a good example of ‘buy’ content from Cision’s recent partnership.
Stay: Your content here should be focused on the retention of your clients. It can be things such as ongoing webinars that offer training on your product or using social media for customer service.

When developing your content marketing strategy, it’s always a good idea to have an editorial calendar to plan what content you are going to produce (you are, after all, a publisher). Plan your content so that you have a good mix of the six types of content, so you can hit every stage of the sales funnel.

Brands Take Note! Rising Social Networks & Tools

With 62 percent of men and 71 percent of women Internet users using social networking sites and 18- to 29-year-olds ruling the ranks with 83 percent using social networks, it’s no wonder new networks are created at a rapid pace.
As communicators and marketers, it’s important we understand not only the most widely used sites – like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Pinterest – but also the up-and-coming ones. Below we’ve outlined some social networks that are new to the scene, and explain what they offer to our very social world.
Snapchat - This app allows users to send pictures that disappear moments after the recipient opens it. With 150 million images sent on the app daily, brands have been trying to find ways to reach the app’s young demographic, and some have used it to send coupons or other exclusive materials.
Quixplore – Follow friends & organizations to see and join activities and events. There is only a web version and a waitlist to join, but Quixplore makes it easy to share events across multiple platforms and link accounts. For instance, if your Facebook page is linked, events you accept there will show up on Quixplore. You also can filter and find events by type of activity or location.

Thumb – Available in web or app form on iPhone & Android, this network offers “Instant opinions.” Created for those who need a second opinion while shopping, people use it to give and get feedback on music, artwork, hairstyles, relationships, food and movies. Perhaps a way to get quick, unscientific market research.
Chirpify – Perfect for those in the retail space, Chirpify allows members to sell in-stream on social media. “People purchase instantly by replying and commenting ‘buy.’ No linking off social media, no shopping carts or checkout process. Instant sales,” the Chirpify site says. The feature is available on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
While it’s impossible to maintain a presence on every social network, it is important to be present on those that your audience is on. Often times the best approach is to create a placeholder account and listen. See what the audience is saying and who the average user is, and then decide whether it’s worth it to devote time there.

Have you joined any of these networks?

4 things to think about before launching a content marketing campaign

While the term “content marketing” has gotten a ton of airtime over the last year in the PR and marketing space, we’ve found that many of our clients have yet to get started and those who have are struggling to get their campaigns off the ground. If your brand is in the same boat, it can seem overwhelming to continually create relevant content for your audience. But how do you make sure you’re reaching them in the right places and engaging them with useful information?

The new mantra at Edelman is that the paid ought to support the earned and owned content, to make it work harder and more intelligently than a classic media buy that stands on its own. According to Richard Edelman, publishing sites like Time and Associated Press are going to start supporting even more sponsored content on their sites. So now more than ever seems to be the time to start planning your strategy.
Here are a few things that we think you should consider prior to any content marketing campaign:
1. How is my brand different?
What sets your brand apart from its competitors? According to Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi, marketing professionals from so many small and large businesses get so fixated on channels such as blogs, Facebook or Pinterest that they honestly have no clue of the underlying content strategy. He suggests creating a content marketing mission statement.
2. What knowledge can I offer my customers that no one else can?
Who is your audience and what are they interested in? If you can find a topic that isn’t quickly depleted, is unique to your brand and ignites a passion with your audience, that is the ultimate goal.  The subject matter can evolve over time and should be constantly evaluated based on the results of previous campaigns, but it should always be uniquely yours. Think about – What content is resonating with my audience? What content receives the most shares, likes and clicks? How do I recreate a successful piece of content for a different article?
3. Who is going to create the content?
Do you have one person or a team of people that has time to dedicate to content creation or do you have to pool resources from different departments? Will you have to outsource the copywriting altogether?  Where will you pull content ideas from? Who will edit the copy once it’s created?
4. What channels are appropriate for my audience/content?
Where are you currently engaging with your brand’s followers? Is your audience on Facebook or Twitter? Do they share your images on Pinterest or are they solely on LinkedIn? Have you established a large subscription base to your email newsletter or  online newsroom? Wherever you audience is, your content must resonate there.

What tips would you offer to someone who is just getting started?