HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG POSTS BODY FOR SEARCH ENGINES?

How to optimize your Blog posts body for search engines? - This post will guide you through the steps that will help you in optimizing your blog post body (content) for search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and etc. This post will show you practical, effective, potent but simple ways that can be adopted or followed easily which will lead to each of your blog posts being optimized for the search engines. This will eventually let your optimized blog posts rank higher in different major search engine result pages and help you increase traffic to your blog significantly.

Search engine optimization of your blog posts are very important as this will give you more search engine traffic which is of course free and well targeted - this is very important if you are aiming at monetizing your blog. This is because a visitor that comes from search engines to your blog has come through searching for some information with the help of some keywords - this means he is in need of information on that topic - so he is a targeted visitor and this will help in selling relevant affiliate products to him or he may also generate some revenue to you through some contextual ads (adsense, bidvertiser) that you may have placed on your blog. A targeted visitor from search engines is also more likely to subscribe to your blog if he likes its content - so also more permanent visitors.

Search engine traffic is also free unlike traffic through paid advertising programmes which needs a lot of money. So why not do a little bit of work on our part (optimizing our blog) and increase traffic to our blog without drilling our pockets.

As I have already said before that you need to follow very simple things to optimize your post body (content) so let me show you the simple ways. Some of you may already know some or all of the steps that I mention to optimize your blog post body but most may not be applying it in their blog - this post is specially for those of you. I will also the purpose for each step so that you get concrete reasons to start optimizing your blog posts for search engines. Continue reading so that your memory gets refreshed and start applying the tips and techniques from now onwards. Here are the steps :-

1. Know The Keywords - I hope you have already researched the keywords for which you are going to optimize your post - if not then go to Google AdWords Keywords Tool and put some relevant keywords on the topic on which you are going to write the post in the box provided in the page and press enter. You will be given the search volume of different combinations and the synonyms of the keywords you have mentioned. Look for ones with neither too low or too high search volume because this is a single post and just try to aim at search terms with moderate search volume - even a few hundred will do well.

Now that you have known the search volume for the general search terms and chosen some from them to target with this post - next you would have to know the search volume of the exact terms that are searched with. For this you need to choose the "Exact" option from the drop down menu present on the upper right hand top corner of the keywords result table. Note down the relevant ones with their search volume that you would like to target. Its better to target only one exact phrase with each post as you can always write another post with the other exact search phrases later. Moreover targeting one Exact phrase at a time will let you place the exact phrase in the title of your post - giving it maximum SEO value . You must have noticed when you search for a particular phrase say for example "How to make money online blogging?" then normally the pages with this exact phrase as their page title are placed at the topmost position in the search result pages and then the other combinations later.

2. Use The Chosen Keywords Wisely - Use the exact keyword phrase and the relevant keywords for which you want to optimize your post wisely. I am saying wisely because I have seen many just stuffing their posts with keywords which does not have any meaning and will eventually lead to being penalised by the search engines for keyword spamming because search engines have evolved a lot and can detect these manipulation tricks very easily.

Do not worry about keyword density because keyword density has become less relevant for search engines now (as this has been misused extensively by many) and only occasional mention is enough. Remember not to use keywords in your post body unnecessarily without making any sense as because primarily you are writing for human beings who are your ultimate aim to please. Say you get traffic but the visitors do not find value in your site then will they return anymore? On the contrary meaningful content will make visitors return again and again once they find your blog useful and may be you will get some referred visitors from these satisfied visitors too.

3. Sprinkle Keywords Evenly - As I have already mentioned that keywords density have become less relevant so just sprinkle the keywords here and there a bit - but where? - which positions are important?

Mention the keywords and their combinations once or twice in the first paragraph in a way that it makes sense to your visitors. Mention the exact phrase (that you have chosen to optimize this post for) at least once in the first or second sentence of the first paragraph. This will make your post look more keyword relevant for that search phrase in the eyes of the search engines and you will be given high position in the SERPs (remember also to mention this exact search phrase in the title of your post).

Go on mentioning the keywords as and when required in the consequent paragraphs to optimize your post totally. The search engines seem to give most importance to the first 1000 words. So if your post is shorter than 1000 words then you need to mention the keywords in all the paragraphs - at least in the first and last paragraph. Mention the exact phrase once or twice in the whole body.

If your post is longer than 1000 words than mention the keywords in different combinations and also the exact phrase in the first 1000 words (approximately). After the first 1000 words do not stop using the keywords totally specially in the last two paragraphs as note I have said "the search engines "seems" to give most importance to the first 1000 words" so it is just an observation with practical experience because nobody knows what the search engines are doing - so you will be on the safe side. Moreover the search engines keep changing their search algorithm. But for the moment I think I am on the right track - at least for Google and Yahoo.

4. Bold Keywords - Bold letters are given more importance compared to regular ones because it tells the search engine more about the topic of the post as normally people bold letters to give special importance to relevant words (moreover search algorithms are programmed by human beings so they must be knowing this).

So bold the relevant keywords a few times here and there but not more than twice for each word. Also make the exact phrase (that you have mentioned in the first sentence) bold.

5. Images - Use one or two images in the post preferably in the beginning, middle and end of the post. Use "alt" tags with these images and mention the keywords within these alt tags. Keywords within alt tags are also given importance by search engines to know about the topic of the post. So these are also of significant SEO value and will help in optimizing your post for the search engines. Note - Mention the exact phrase once within the alt tag either in the image at the beginning or the middle of the post.

6. Anchor Text Of Outbound Links - Use the keywords as anchor text in the outbound links. This will increase the keyword relevance of your post and also tell the search engines that this page is an important junction linking to other pages of relevant information on the web. This will give much SEO mileage to your posts and help your post in being placed higher in SERPs for searches of relevant keywords thus giving you search engine traffic.

7. Anchor Text Of Inbound Links - Use the chosen keywords as anchor text of links to this post from other posts in your blog. Also use these keywords in anchor text of links pointing to this post that you plant in forums, blog comments, your other blogs or articles that you submit to article directories etc. These links as you know have large SEO value and will make your post much more potent for SERPs for those keywords.

For the anchor text that other bloggers use to link to your post - you can approach them and ask them politely to consider linking to your post with the keywords of your choice. Of course this depends upon the wisdom of the blogger but I have seen responses are often positive. If negative, then too you have the link which though with irrelevant anchor text but also has optimization value - an inbound link always matter.


OVER TO YOU - These are all the simple steps that most serious bloggers and me too use to optimize the blog posts for search engines. I know - "It is easier to preach than to practice" but you must also know - "Practice makes a man perfect". So may be you will find implementing some of these steps a bit uneasy but let me tell you that without these few and simple steps you will fail miserably in terms of optimizing your blog posts and your blog as a whole. So arise, awake and set to work.