Search Terms, Blog Posts and SEO

[Scott]

Unless you just completely luck out on your post you need to know a
few things to maximize your chances of the search engine rank and the
fact that there are actually people searching for the information in
your post.

First off, do your research first! You may have a great idea for a
post or article but if you don't research your idea first you are
rolling the dice and betting on luck.

For SEO to work you need key phrases or search terms (same thing just
different names). So start with them.

How do I start you ask?

You already have the idea of what you want your post to be about. Now,
think of how you would search for your post or article on the net.
What phrases will best describe your post? (do not use single words
because they are not targeted enough and most have way to much
competition to be able to rank with them in search engines)
Make a list of those best phrases so you do not forget them and can
rewrite or rearrange them as you research them.

Ok, now to research them.

First, just use your favorite search engine and do a search on each
one. (real pros will use every search engine they are going to use)
but there is no need to get that picky yet! Now remember a basic
search will bring up hits on each word in the search. For instance a
search for Luckies Dog Food will show pages that list "Luckies" as
search terms or "Dog" or 'Food" or any string with those words in it.
To target that search to "that" search term (Luckies Dog Food) put
them in the search box like this "Luckies Dog Food" you will get
search results showing every instance of Luckies Dog Food the search
engine can find on the web. That is your competition for that search
phrase. Write it down beside the search phrase. For easiest search
engine first page ranking you will want less than 1 Million
competitors.

Now you may want to rethink your search terms (or search phrases) I
think I will call them search terms from now on. Getting friends
involved at this point can be helpful because they will see a
different perspective. You won't need a lot of search terms, but make
the few you come up with good ones, this is where your free traffic
will come from and you want people that show up on your page to find
what they want. If they don't find what they are looking for they will
leave. Simple as that. To keep people on your page and to ever have a
chance of selling them something, First you have to give them the
information they were looking for. This is why search terms are so
very important!

OK, your friends helped and the crew came up with some "rockin" search
terms with low competition!

Now What?

Now check your "rockin" terms to see if anyone searches for them!
I use the keyword tools supplied by Google Adwords at
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal You need at
least a Google account .... maybe even an Adwords account, Neither
will cost you anything unless you set up a Google Adwords ad campaign.
This baby gives you both the competition and the amount searched.

A top search term will be a low competition one with average to high
traffic. Hard to find but they change everyday so there is always a
chance.
Don't be discouraged if you can't use the Google tool or only find low
search volume terms that have low enough competition. If you did a
good enough job of picking super targeted terms as explained in the
first part of this article a few searches a week will be fine because
this is just a start. Every post in your blog can have different
highly targeted search terms that pick up a few more hits each week
(still staying with the same basic direction of your blog). Pretty
soon you will have a steady stream of highly targeted visitors,
looking for the things you offer from these search terms.

I know this sounds like a lot of work.
The beauty of this blogging method is every post ads to your online
database of information which draws more search engine traffic. If you
interested people with your first posts and they come back because
they liked your info, writing or whatever, it will turn viral!
These people will refer others and so on..... and so on...!

By following this simple method of researching search terms for every
post or article you write you will
1. Find it easy to be writing top rated posts every week.
2. Soon have a very search able database of information search engines
and customers will love!
3. Have people commenting on your posts regularly. (search engines
love these conversations)
4. Find other methods and techniques used to generate website traffic
easier and much more effective.
5. Soon have lots of other sites wanting to link to yours! (This tells
the search engines you are the site to watch!)

Its not as hard as it sounds!
After a few posts it will take you no time at all!
With the long term benefits so great You can't afford not to spend
that little extra time for search term research.