33 SEO Tips for New Bloggers

A good friend of mine recently started a fashion blog and asked me for SEO tips. I had so much to say that I have decided to spin my response into this blog post. Here is what I had to say:

Rule #1: Never Blog for Google Traffic or SEO

My first piece of advice is NEVER blog for Google-sake or SEO.This statement might surprise you but given the direction of the SEO industry as a whole, my advice would be to:

1. Understand your target audience and write content targeted to your audience
2. Check your web analytics on regular basis to understand the sort of content that works
3. Work with influencer bloggers – ask/pay/beg/interview subject-matter experts and authority bloggers to write for you – so that their audience can take notice of your platform
4. Collaborate with other blogs on a Frenemy basis (feature their content and ask them to feature yours)
5. NEVER and I’ll repeat: NEVER allow Google account for over 50% of traffic – diversify traffic sources
6. Subscribe and read other blogs to be in the know
7. Set up Google Alerts for keywords related to your industry

Keyword Research for Possible Blog Post Titles

8. For keyword research, use the Google Keyword Planner Tool (it is available to AdWords users)
9. Use Google Trends to pick up on trends and news
10. User the Uber Suggest Tool to discover blog titles (works with the Google search suggest)
11. Finally with regards keyword research, this article is gold

Technical SEO Tips:

12. Set every writer up on Google+ and add their Google+ Authorship to all posts they contribute
13. Set up the Google rel=publisher tag for your entire blog
14. Read this guide for On Page SEO Ranking Factors
15. Set up your blog on Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools account
16. Create a Google+ Community for your audience and readers
17. Join loads of Google+ Communities that would find your content useful and relevant
18. Build an authoritative Google+ Business Page for your Blog (do the same for you Facebook and Twitter)
19. Build a personal Google+ page and work it
20. To take control of how your content renders on Social media platforms, make use of Social Snippets: Twitter Cards, Facebook Open Graph embed, Google+ Snippets and Pinterest Rich Pins

Some More Content Tips:

21. Be visual
22. Share the heck a lot of your content
23. Collaborate with Influencers on the background to promote your content on Social Media
24. You may need to guest blog on other platforms to slowly build your audience
25. Create an Editorial Calendar / Schedule
26. Check your Facebook Insights to pick up content that has been of interest to your existing audience.

Blogs About Copywriting, Social Media and Blogging:

27. Copy Blogger
28. Social Media Examiner – for Social Media
29. Read Pro Blogger
30. Without being a victim of information overload, check this list of 42 Content Marketing Blogs!
31. Read the Content Marketing Institute Blog
32. Check this Infographic out: 30 Ways to Promote a Blog Post [Infographic]
33. Follow Our Business Blogging Pinterest Board

Bonus Tips:

• Read: 20+ Essential Tools and Applications for Bloggers via Hongkiat.com
• Read: 16 Tips from Blogging Experts to Beginners via Buffer

My final piece of advice – blog regularly, you will keep improving and never know which post is going to be a huge hit.

I do hope this helps.

Photo credits: Roshan via Flickr

About the author: Kunle Campbell

An ecommerce advisor to ambitious, agile online retailers and funded ecommerce startups seeking exponentially sales growth through scalable customer acquisition, retention, conversion optimisation, product/market fit optimisation and customer referrals.

Follow @https://twitter.com/kunletcampbell