29
2008
The Very Basics Of SEO And Getting Traffic For Your Blog
An article by 
Strangely enough, I get asked questions about this frequently, in spite of the fact that my blog is not that large (though it's growing rapidly), and the fact that my articles are about self development and relationships. Perhaps that's because others in my niche don't know where to look outside of it, or maybe those other sites are too intimidating, with thousands of articles, many of which are written for the benefit of people already familiar with the basics.
There are four basic elements to drawing traffic to your site, and I'll cover each one individually, but for your convenience here they are, in order of when you should deal with them: content, design, SEO (search engine optimization… making your site Google friendly), and social interaction.
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Content
We'll start off with content, or what you write… the niche, or specific area, that your articles cover doesn't really matter for the purposes of discussing the very basics. What does matter is the basics of writing… spelling, grammar, etc. If you miss the basics, you will miss out on a substantial number of readers, who will turn away before they even read the core of your article.
Once you have the basics of writing covered, there are a few things which specifically help when writing on the web. One of these is the formatting of your article… you need to have your content in easily readable "chunks".
That means limiting paragraphs to just two or three sentences, all focused on one idea. It also means breaking your article, if it's of any substantial length, into pieces, each with their own "sub-heading"… like the items in this list, for example.
Speaking of lists, lists tend to be one of the most popular forms of content, and if your article can be broken down into a list, it's probably worth doing so. Even better is if you can list specific things that the reader can do in regards to the topic of the article (see my most popular article for an example). Large lists of resources to help your reader, especially little known but useful resources, can also be very popular.
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Design
Now you have some content, but what do you do with it? Design is extremely important in building your traffic… poor design can turn people away instantly, while good design can grab their attention, leading them to actually read your material.
What is good design? Well, that's a widely debated topic, but there are a few things which are nearly universal… the most important of which is making sure that the site is easily readable (a large enough font with enough contrast to the background, etc.), followed closely by the concept of "above the fold".
"Above the fold" refers to what a visitor can see of your website without having to scroll… because a large percentage of people will not do so unless your design captures their attention enough. One mistake a lot of people make is to have the beginning of their article fall below this point… especially if your title does, too (How are they going to even know what the page is about?).
What you want to have above the fold is up to you… but it's generally good to have the title of your article, a picture (pictures grab our attention more than words) that goes with your article, and, if possible, the first paragraph of the article itself. You may also want to make sure that the most important items on your sidebar are above the fold… for instance, I have subscribe buttons there, and the header for my "Most Popular Articles" section.
Other important areas of the page are the top left corner (the most viewed part of a web page), just below the first paragraph, and at the bottom of the article (they finished reading, now what should they do?). These are all good places, especially at the bottom of the article, to put things that encourage them to read more of your content… links to other articles, links to subscribe, etc.
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SEO
SEO is short for search engine optimization, a fancy way of to describe making your website more easily understood, and therefore higher ranked, by Google, Yahoo, etc. SEO consists of two main elements, on-site SEO and off-site SEO. We'll stick to on-site SEO, other than to say that off-site generally consists of getting people to link to your article using link text (the words you actually click on) that is relevant (ie not "click here", though that still lends SOME help in ranking higher).
On-site SEO essentially consists of two pieces… having your articles link to each other in intelligent places, and making it clear what the article is about. Having your articles link to each other is easy… any time you have another article that you've written that is relevant, make sure you link to it, preferrably with words under which you would like to appear when someone searches on Google. For example, I could do something like linking to my article on how to be a good dad.
The second piece, making it clear what it's about, is in reference to search engines… but it helps to make it clear to your readers, as well. The basics work like this… you think of what you would put in Google if you were wanting to find the article you're writing. You then take that and look at the most important words in it… these are your "keywords" (a common SEO term).
Once you know what your keywords are, you'll need to write an interesting title containing them, ie "The Very Basics Of SEO And Getting Traffic For Your Blog". Keep in mind that this title is what shows up in Google (or should be if you're using any halfway decent blogging software, at any rate) for people to click… so in addition to helping Google understand better, it's also what has to convince searchers to click on it to come to your site.
Once you have your title, it should show up at the top of your article in large print, using what's called a header tag (H1, H2, H3, etc… the smaller the number the larger the font is, with H1 being the largest). In addition to that, if you include an image (and you should), you should use it again, or a reworded form, as the "alt" tag, which is a text description of the picture. If you can find a way to use the keywords again in bold (or another header tag, such as the "sub-titles" mentioned above), that helps also.
Besides these intentional placements of your keywords, it is also important to make sure you use them a few times naturally in the text… but that should happen anyway, since you're writing an article that can be described by the title that contains them.
This is, as the title states, the very basics of SEO… there are far more advanced techniques available, if you want to get into them, but I'll leave it to sites who specialize in it to cover them.
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Social Interaction
The final piece of getting traffic is the social aspect. You already have good content, a decent design, and are including little hints for Google as to what your articles are about… but none of that gets you too far without some sort of social interaction.
The social interaction that I'm referring to here, the kind that gets you traffic, breaks down into three pieces: other bloggers, forums, and social media… all of which can interact with each other. Let's cover each piece separately.
- Bloggers
When you want social interaction with other bloggers, the best way to begin is usually by becoming a regular commenter on their site. This doesn't mean "Great post" kind of comments, it means comments that contribute to the conversation. If you do this regularly, the blogger will begin to be familiar with your name, and if you link to articles that you have written that are relevant, they may become aware of your site, too, which can lead to them linking to you in their actual articles, or an opportunity to write a guest post… which is a fantastic way to get your writing, and your name, in front of an audience that isn't familiar with you. - Forums
Forums are a great way to get more exposure, too, if you can find one where your articles are relevant. The approach is essentially the same as for bloggers… you write comments that contribute to the conversation in relevant threads, and people start to become familiar with your name. If you can link to your own articles that are relevant, a few people will likely click through and become familiar with your writing, as well… which (hopefully) will turn them into regular readers. - Social Media
Social media, in this case, refers to sites where users vote on pages from other sites that they like. This can be things like StumbleUpon, which is my favorite (here is my profile), Digg, Reddit, or del.icio.us (where bookmarking a site counts as a "vote"). All of these sites have different "personalities", where their general user population has different interests, but they all, in the long run, have the same effect: when people vote for an article, particularly when a lot of people vote in a short time, they send more people to read it. That, essentially, is their main purpose… to help their users find interesting content on the web.
You can't really rate any one of these as being "better" than the others… while social media will, generally, drive more traffic directly, traffic from bloggers and forums is generally better quality traffic, meaning that they are more likely to add to the conversation on your own blog, and more likely to come back or even subscribe. Being mentioned on a high-profile blogger's site can also cause people to transfer some of the authority/respect that they give that blogger to you… a guest article on their site even more so.
The different types of social interaction also often intertwine… readers of forums may be bloggers, or a mention on a blogger's site can get people to submit your article to a social media site, which in turn can drive bloggers and forum members to talk about it.
The greatest difference between the three types may be in the difficulty of starting out… forums are very easy, right from the beginning: you find a thread that interests you, you write a response, and people will read it. Bloggers are the next step up in difficulty, at least if you're trying to get the attention of any of the bigger ones… you may have to be a regular commenter for weeks before they really become familiar with who you are enough for the interaction to move beyond just comments. Social media sites, in general, are the most difficult… it can take some serious effort over months to build your social profile up to the point where you are influential.
- Bloggers
There is a fair amount of material here, but if you learn it and use it, it should be enough information to get you started on the road to getting more traffic, including from the search engines. If you want to know more, there are a lot of good sources across the web… a few of my favorites are ProBlogger, CopyBlogger, and SEOMoz.
What do you think? Did I leave anything important out, or give too much attention to something that is not of that much importance? Let me know… I love to learn.
About the Author: Jason Ivers
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