SEO.
If you’re a new blogger, I’m sure you’ve heard this term before.
It stands for Search Engine Optimization.
In simplest terms, your blog posts can be the #1 search result on Google (or on another search engine platform) when someone searches for a specific keyword or general term.
For example, here’s the result for Pinterest groups for moms.
Note: any Google searches were done incognito, making the search not related to my browser behavior or history.
My post is #1 for that search term. The search term – Pinterest groups for moms – is specific.
Let’s search for a more general term – blog tips for moms.
So, you can see, you can rank as #1 or even on page 1 with a specific keyword or a general keyword.
Pro tip: the best keyword to rank for is the shortest type of keyword. Blog tips vs. blogging tips for stay at home moms. As you can see, the base keyword is extremely general but highly searched. But, because it’s general, the traffic may not be targeted and is something to consider in your blog growth strategy. These terms are harder to rank for, but still possible for new bloggers (depending on your niche).
For most new bloggers, however, the way to start ranking on Google is to rank for long tail keywords. These are longer phrases like grow blog traffic for mom bloggers.
If your blog post has this phrase as well as related words, it has the potential to start ranking.
But, keywords are only one type of metric to SEO.
In my course, Ready Set Blog for Traffic, I teach you the REAL SEO that you need to understand. This is the foundation you need to build your blog on and will help you start ranking once everything is in place.
Google has stated that they favor two factors for ranking:
But, for this post, let’s talk about what you – new blogger – can do RIGHT NOW to start the SEO game.
1. Hack for Creating Long-Form Content
Blog traffic in 2018 comes down to creating valuable and long-form content.
Google is looking for the best answer to someone’s search question. If your post is long, it usually means it’s filled with valuable content.
But, as a mom blogger, we are busy! There is no time to pump out a 4k-word blog post. I don’t write 4k-word blog posts every time I post on Twins Mommy. But, I occasionally do, and you should aim for that!
One way is to do a round-up post. These take a long time to write up, but well worth it in the long run. Right now, I’m creating a massive round-up of 100+ mom blogs for Imperfectly Perfect Mama.
This post will be thousands of words long, have links to other blogs and hopefully boost up the shares on Pinterest and Facebook. While most of the posts on Imperfectly Perfect Mama are around 1k words, this long-form blog post will help with growing a readership and showing Google that this blog does have valuable blog posts.
Google is also looking at the other side of the picture – will others link to that mom blogger list on Imperfectly Perfect Mama? If others link to that post as a resource link, then Google will get those signals, and in time this post has the potential to rank in Google (i.e. show up in the search results when someone searches for successful mom blogs or something like that).
Okay, but what if you REALLY ARE SUPER BUSY and can’t spend 10+ hours writing a massive round-up post?
No problem!
Here’s a hack!!
Boost your comments on any of your blog posts.
Are bloggers commenting on your blog?
If yes, then you can create long-form content and boost your comments by:
- Replying to ALL comments
- By writing more than one sentence when you comment
With each comment and response, you can add 50-100 words. And when people see you take the time to reply to comments, they will comment too!
2. Hack for Creating More Keywords
Okay.
Here’s the thing –
For the longest time, I didn’t pay attention to keywords. I wrote blog posts and filled them with keywords naturally. Since I’m a freelance writer, I guess I write in that vein.
For example, when thinking of a headline, I think of something like this:
How to Relieve Pain from Breastfeeding
instead of:
My Story of Breastfeeding My Little Boy
Do you see the difference?
The first headline is optimized for keywords – pain from breastfeeding, relieve pain from breastfeeding – while the second headline has no keywords.
So, when I tell my students and bloggers in my Facebook group that I don’t use keywords (i.e. search for keywords and have a strategy around keywords), I really don’t, but I do have a knack for incorporating keywords in my blog posts 🙂
And this last year I’ve looked more at incorporating better keywords to optimize my blog post even more.
But, here’s what new bloggers can do –
You can start creating more keywords in your blog posts with your comments.
Yes, I’m focussing on your comments because this is a rich resource for creating new content, long-form content and keyword content.
So, you do this by incorporating keywords in your responses to blog comments.
Sometimes, the person leaving the comment will have keywords in it too!
Next time you reply to one of your blog comments, see how you can fit a keyword or two into your response. It can go a long way down the road for ranking in Google.
Don’t Be Fooled
From this post, it seems like if you do these two things, you’ll start ranking. This isn’t the case, especially for new bloggers.
SEO starts working about a year into blogging. If you start your blog, create consistent and valuable blog posts, link to good resources and others link to your blog posts, Google will start getting signals that your blog is valuable.
So, you can add these two little hacks into your overall SEO strategy to help you later when Google starts to pay attention to your blog.
Ready Set Blog for Traffic gives you that foundation for the best practices with SEO and any future updates I add to the course will build on that foundation so that all new bloggers have the best outcome to ranking on Google!
Over to you – tell me how long you’ve been blogging and your plan for SEO (if you want to share it!).
Super helpful information! Thanks so much for writing clear tips that don’t overwhelm me!
Hi Meghan,
You’re welcome. Glad you found some tips for SEO as a beginner!
I have heard so much about not worrying about SEO at first, but these are all very reasonable things that I can think about and add to my blog posts! Your podcasts and posts are so helpful to me as I embark on my blogging journey!
Hey Mandy,
I agree – as a new blogger, you don’t need to buy keyword tools or try to SEO each post with keywords. Instead write valuable blog posts and they can very well rank. But, these little hacks can help you push those valuable posts up the Google search results!
These are great tips! Thank you for sharing! I haven’t dived into researching SEO yet, but this was a great start for me.
Hi Jessica,
You’re welcome! So happy you found these tips helpful. SEO starts with that valuable blog content so make sure to create that so other people find it just as hopeful!
Awesome post, I am still trying to figure out SEO, have been for the past 5 years. I can never seem to get the hang of it. BTW what plugin are you using for related post? I am using Jetpack but the images are cut off and I cannot get them to show up full like yours.
Hi Michelle,
Yes, SEO is a big topic to uncover! As for my related plugin, I share that in this post: https://twinsmommy.com/look-like-a-pro-blogger/
Thanks Elna, so glad this wasn’t just another post about the usual strategies that I hear about everywhere! Using comments to boost SEO ranking in this manner had never occurred to me, I’ll be locking this little nugget of info away for future use! 🙂
Hey Lauren,
I know what you mean! I see the same posts about SEO tips and I’m totally board with them also. I see SEO in such a different way and I’m hopefully helping others see it that way too!
Love to read more about seo.
I have a blog and no comments.
What can i do to improve this?
Hi Annemie!
I have two other posts about SEO/ranking: https://twinsmommy.com/rank-for-pinterest-and-google/ and https://twinsmommy.com/blog-post-got-featured-snippet-google-ranked-no-1/ Hopefully you can glean more insights into SEO from these posts!
SEO in comments is genius! Thanks, Elna!
Hey Niki!
Thanks so much mama! Yes, having keywords in blog comments is a nice little hack for sure!
Hi Elna! This is a new information for me, comments can be optimized with keywords! I was about to turn off my comment section because of spammers.
Do you have recommendations on how to find long tail keywords?
Hi Shem,
That’s awesome you found some tips to optimize your comments for keywords. Yes, I get a lot of spam comments too but I use Akismet and that seems to filter over 95% of spam! As for finding long tail keywords, I know that for May 2018 AppSumo has Serpstat for only $40 for LIFETIME access! Worth scooping up. http://www.99signals.com/appsumo-deals-may-2018/
Hey Elna!
You’ve always got really precious hacks & tips to share with us. The last time you shared about creating & marketing content upgrades, it was an awesome blogging lesson for me! Well, I have created 2 content upgrades so far my 5-month old blog & the result was quite good.
Thanks for letting us know that blog comments, too, can be perceived in terms of harnessing keywords.
Love you for all the awesome work!
Hi Ashvini!
Thank you so much for your wonderful words! I’m so happy to hear that your content upgrades are converting 🙂 Glad you found this post helpful and you can start growing your traffic using some SEO tips!
Great post! Great tips! But what do you do when people don’t comment even if you tell them to in the post. I know you talk about call to action…
Hey Karima,
I do have a post on getting more comments to your blog: https://twinsmommy.com/blogging-basics-write-blog-post/ Try following some of those tips. Having a good hook in your headline will get people to click to your post and then having a valuable and informational post that’s formatted for online reading will get the people to stay on your blog and if you have a CTA then hopefully they will comment. Mostly having an authentic voice and being true to yourself when you blog will attract the RIGHT audience! Good luck!
Awesome! Thanks so much! Going to read that post now!
Another great post Elna, thank you!! I never thought about how comments would affect your google ranking 🤦🏻♀️ it makes perfect sense! Going to share this in my Fb group 💕 You rock!
Hey Victoria!
Yay and thanks so much! So glad you found this tip helpful. Keywords (wherever they are) will affect your Google ranking, so having them in the comments is just ONE way 🙂
Elna, your blogging tips are GOLD! I just finished Ready Set Blog for Traffic and I’m super excited to implement everything I learned. I love these easy SEO tips. I have never heard them anywhere else!
Hey Laura!
Thank you so much! So happy you enjoyed RSBT. I’m planning for a BIG SEO update on that course this year!! Hopefully it will be ready summer/fall after the move and I get my butt in gear!! Please email me your success with the RSBT tactics!
Hi Elna – such clever ideas! I had no idea that comments helped increase the length of your post or helped with SEO. These are excellent tips. I’m almost done Ready Set Blog for Traffic and it’s great so far. Thanks for all of your helpful pointers.
Hey Nicole!
Yes!! You know one day, I was searching on Google for my freelance writing blog and I noticed that Goggle showed as the META description a BLOG COMMENT for one of MY top ranking posts! I was like whoa! That’s awesome. They felt that that blog comment represented what the post was about. And it dawned on me that it was optimized for keywords. BAM!
I love these tips –they seem so simple and easy to implement! And I especially love how honest you are. Blogging is a long-term game, not a get-rich-quick scheme like so many blog posts make it seem. It’s really frustrating, as a new blogger, to feel like I’m do everything I should be, but totally failing because I have zero organic traffic. So thanks for your wise suggestions!
Amy!
Your welcome! And don’t beat yourself up. You won’t get Google love if your blog is less than 6 months old. And even then it can take up to a year. Smart Mom Ideas is over a year and gets barely any organic traffic yet. The topics on SMI are very competitive and I have to leverage Pinterest to rank on Google https://twinsmommy.com/rank-for-pinterest-and-google/
I know commenting helps SEO but I never thought of it in terms of keywords. Interesting post. I’m planning on doing my own round-up post soon. Did you ever write a post about that?
Hey Michelle,
I know right? It like dawned on my one day when I was commenting on my most popular posts and I realized I could optimize my comments for SEO!! BOOM!! I haven’t written a post about doing a round-up as this is something I talk about in my paid traffic course, but I do have a post on what types of posts you should have (very meta I know!) https://twinsmommy.com/best-types-of-posts-your-new-blog/