If you’re like me, you started a blog because you had something to say, or you had some expertise you wanted to share. You didn’t wonder, “Gosh, do I need SEO?” Instead, you sat down and wrote and hoped that others would be captivated by your words.
And kid, they just might be! But first, they’ve got to be able to find your words. That’s where SEO comes in.
What is SEO for bloggers?
SEO for bloggers is a path to getting the writing you’ve worked long and hard to create recognized by the search engines. And that means Google because, for the foreseeable future, Google is the king of all things search. We didn’t add the verb “google” to our lexicon for nothing.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. And it’s not as technical (or difficult to learn) as it sounds.
As a blogger, there are three things you need to know when it comes to SEO:
- Your potential readers have questions they want answered.
- When they search the internet for information, they’ll land on a search engine results page (SERP).
- If your blog has an article featured on page one of the search, your potential readers are likely to come to your site. (And from there, if you play your cards right, they may subscribe and become regular readers. Huzzah!)
Of course, you don’t land on page one of a Google search without some effort. So let’s dig a little deeper.
How SEO works
I’m kind of an SEO evangelist. But when I talk to people about SEO, even other writers, their eyes often glaze over. They think of SEO as marketing mumbo jumbo. Who needs it?
Any blogger who wants people to discover and read their blog needs SEO.
Newsflash: SEO is writing for humans, not algorithms.
I’m always surprised by writers who show outright contempt for SEO, and I’ve met quite a few. Recently, an accomplished journalist and media influencer said to me, with an air of disdain, “I don’t care about SEO; I write for humans, not algorithms!”
But here’s a news flash: SEO is writing for humans. The algorithm my journalist acquaintance spoke of with such venom is nothing more than a deeply sophisticated and always-learning form of artificial intelligence built to do three things:
- Receive the questions people ask when they search the internet
- Deliver web pages with content that answers those questions
- Elevate the best content to the front page so it’s easier for searchers to find
There’s a human behind every search. And the pages that rank well in search almost always have excellent answers.
SEO for bloggers is all about search intent
OK, let me simplify this a bit more because I want you to climb aboard the SEO train. (In other words, I want to help you get your writing discovered. Writers need readers.) Let me give you a real-world example of how SEO works when you have a blog.
Sam has a question: She wants to know if she can give her dog some avocado.
Sam heads to Google and types “Can dogs eat avocados.”
Of course, dogs can eat avocados; the question is whether avocados will harm them. But that’s just semantics, and Google is smart enough to know it. So it serves up an answer.
As I write this, the American Kennel Club ranks at the top of the page with something called a “featured snippet.” The snippet delivers the answer to the reader so they don’t necessarily have to click through to the page, but data shows that most people do. Featured snippets bring lots of visitors to websites.
Why did the AKC rank at the top of the page for this search?
They anticipated what people would want to know when they asked “can dogs eat avocados,” and they answered straight away.
SEO is about understanding the intent behind the search. If we have a good guess as to what information Sam is looking for when she asks Google whether she can give her dog some avocado, we have a chance to rank. That’s what the AKC did. But …
SEO is also about authority
Alas, getting noticed by Google isn’t as simple as writing great answers and putting them on the internet. Every blogger has competition. And not just a little competition.
Around seven million blog posts are published every single day. Typing the question about whether dogs can eat avocados into Google returns a staggering 4,500,000 results.
That’s a lot of dogs and avocados.
The American Kennel Club ranks number one because it not only has a good, informative answer, but it also has authority. We trust the AKC to know a thing or two about dogs.
Google ranks the AKC’s page because its algorithm can detect that people trust the answer. Google’s AI looks at things like how many other websites have linked to the AKC’s page. That’s a sign that others recognize the AKC as an authority. Google also looks at how long a reader spends on the page once they get there. If Sam spends some time reading the AKC’s answer to her question, then Google assumes she found what she was looking for.
Google also looks at the AKC’s site as a whole. It can see that, yep, the American Kennel Club happens to post a whole lot of content having to do with dogs. That’s another indicator that they’re an authority on all things canine.
Does the AKC have the best answer to the question? Maybe. And maybe not. But Google sees the answer as reliable, and that’s why it’s featured.
Why every blogger needs a basic understanding of SEO
I’m trying to sell you on the idea of SEO as a tool for getting your blog posts read. You don’t have to become an expert. You don’t necessarily have to take classes or learn about Google Search Console (although it can’t hurt if you’re into that sort of thing like me!) But a basic understanding of SEO will help you get more of the posts you work so hard to write in front of readers.