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How To Make Your Blog SEO Friendly: 10 Unmissable Steps

How to make your blog SEO friendly

Are you a blogger or small business owner looking to make your blog more SEO friendly so that Google will rank it higher when people search for the same topic? This is the post for you!

In this post, I’ll cover the basics to help you get started and do some basic SEO on your blog.

What is SEO friendly?

Being SEO friendly means that you have created a blog and its content to make it easier for search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. to find your site when someone searches for the same topic or keyword phrase.

The purpose of doing this is so people who are looking for information on the subject can easily find your post related content instead of having to go through hundreds or thousands of results.

There are many ways that you can do this, and I’ll cover some basic ones for creating a blog post with SEO in mind below:

Step One. Pick your focus keywords

Picking your focus keywords is the first step in making your blog SEO friendly. Be sure to choose a handful of keywords that are relevant to the topic of your blog so that you can target these words throughout your content and link back to them in your URL. More targeted keywords will be found by more people who are searching for what you offer, and this will lead to higher rankings in Google and higher traffic for your site.

The goal is for the content on your blog post to be helpful and insightful so people will want to share it with their friends and followers through social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter.

Not sure what are your focus keywords? Check our SEO tips on keywords here.

Step Two. Optimize your on-page content with these keywords

Use all of those great keywords in headlines, subheadings, image captions, videos, descriptions, etc. Make sure you use some form of call-to-action as well and entice readers to click, subscribe or buy.

Step Three: Create XML sitemaps

I’ll assume that for most bloggers, it’s not enough to make sure Google can find your content because you want your blog to appear in Google’s search results. To do this, create an XML sitemap that will let the big G know about all of your content and where it can be found on your site.

Step Four: Generate blog categories using your keywords

As you write posts, categorize them with keywords that are relevant to the content. This will help Google find your blog and rank it higher in search results for those topics.

Step Five: Generate tags using your keywords as well

Tags work like categories, but they’re better because people who use Google’s site-specific search can find your content much more easily.

Step Six: Add social media buttons to your blog

One of the best ways to get people who are not on your site to visit and potentially share it is by adding these widgets next to each post. You can include options like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or whatever other networks you use for SEO purposes.

Step Seven: Create backlinks

Finally, go out there and create some quality backlinks from other sites to your blog. This will help Google find and rank you higher for keywords that are relevant to the content of your site.

A quality backlink is one that comes from a site with a high domain authority.

Step Eight: Create content frequently

Hopefully, you’re already doing this because it will help your blog rank better and keep people coming back for more!

Step Nine: Promote your articles on social media

Sharing your articles across all the social media platforms will help you generate traffic to your website, plus you’ll have the chance to expand your content based on the comments from your audience.

Step Ten: Monitor your blog performance

Monitoring your blog performance is essential because you want to make sure it’s running smoothly and that Google hasn’t penalized it for any reason.

Sign up for Google Search Console so you can get alerts about your blog performance.

As a forensic marketer, I am always paying attention to metrics (as you may know).  The following are trackers that your blog must-have, so you can run reports, check performance, and plan future content:

Facebook pixel. Make sure your blog has a Facebook Pixel installed, along with custom events, so you can see important metrics such as article views and clicks on your call to actions. You can even build a custom audience from your article visitors.

Google Analytics tracker. A tracker will allow you to gather information on your article visitors, the time they have spent reading, other pages they visited, and depending on your settings, you can set up goals and campaigns to find specific users’ behaviors.

UTM codes. This tool allows you to easily add campaign parameters to URLs so you can track Custom Campaigns in Google Analytics. Watch the video below to see a quick tutorial on how UTM codes work.


We’ve covered a lot of ground today. But don’t worry, if you feel like we missed something important or left anything out, just let us know! If you want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to SEO and blog posts, be sure to give our free SEO audit a shot.  We will send you a video with our findings and schedule a call where you can ask us anything.

Ready to boost your SEO? We are an Austin-based online marketing agency specialized in performance based marketing

Are you a business owner in Austin and want to take your online marketing needs to a local marketing agency? Schedule an appointment with our online marketing experts!

Empower your blog with these 10 simple steps to make you the most search engine friendly blogger on the web. No matter what kind of content you are blogging about (health tips, business hints etc.), following these 10 steps will catapult your traffic and see a major rise in ranking.

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How to Know Which Keywords Are the Best for Your Website: Advice That We Think Will Help

How to Know Which Keywords Are the Best for Your Website

When people are thinking about best keywords for their website, they often get confused with all of the conflicting advice out there. There’s a lot more to SEO than just picking the best keywords. In this blog post, we will go over how to find best keywords for your website as well as best practices on how to rank higher in Google search results!

What are keywords and why are they important for SEO?

Keywords are the words that best describe what your website is about. They will be used to help people find your site when they search for a topic related to yours on Google or other search engines (like Bing, Yahoo!, and Ask).

For example, when you are searching for “best social media marketing agency in Austin”, the keyword is only one: “best social media marketing agency in Austin”. If you, on the other hand, search “social media Austin”, that will be the keyword.

Why are keywords important for your website?

Keywords are the best way for people to find your site. They’re important because when they search Google, it will show them the best result that is most relevant to their query.

How to find keywords for SEO? What should you do first?

For best results picking keywords:

– Do some research on what potential customers might be searching for: For example, you might want to take a look at what keywords people are using on Google and other search engines for your business.

– Use Google Search Console to look at your best selling or most popular products to see if there are any keywords that they share. If your website is new and you don’t have enough data on your Google Search Console, you can still pick keywords based on a competitor analysis (no worries, keep reading, we’ll explain what this means!).

– Use Google’s Keyword Tool and other tools like it to find best keywords related to the information on your website. These will be words that best describe what your site is about and most importantly, the questions that your future buyers are asking.

– Look at the keywords that are already ranking highly on Google for content similar to yours: This will give you a good idea of how competitive it is, but also show you which words might be best associated with your website.

What should I do next?  Best practices for optimizing keyword usage.

Once you know about 10-20 fundamental keywords that will take your future buyers to find your site, you’ll use those keywords and variations to create your content.

– Use best keywords in titles, headlines, and content: Titles are the first thing searchers see on Google’s search results page. Putting your best keyword at the beginning of the title will help you rank higher. It also helps to use it in a headline and throughout your long form content as well when relevant!

– Try using your main keywords in your URL:

Example: If you are creating a page for your fitness coaching services, your URL will have www.websitename/fitness-coaching-city.

– Use keywords throughout the content of your website, not just at the beginning or end and make sure they are naturally part of what you’re saying: It’s important to use them where it makes sense to, not just where it’s best for SEO.

– Use keywords in your meta description: This is the short piece of text that pops up when you do a Google search about your topic and it will also show up on other sites like Facebook or Twitter. The best way to optimize them is by picking one or two best keywords from your best content and using them in your meta description.

– Use keywords when posting on social media:

Content you post to Facebook, Twitter, or other sites like these will often show up on Google’s page as well for people searching the same topics that they’re interested in. If possible use best keywords followed by a short sentence about what you’re posting about, for best results.

– Add keywords to your backlinks: One way that people sometimes try to hack the system and rank higher in Google is by getting their link on another site where they show up highly ranked already (like a best website directory). These are called “backlinks”. It’s important not only to add best keywords, but to do so naturally and not make it look like you’re trying too hard.

– Make sure best keywords are in the title tags: If your website uses HTML code that’s visible on a web page then best keyword should be at the beginning of each relevant line, before any other text is displayed. This will help your best keywords show up on the top of your page.

Read next: Local SEO Made Simple: Strategies That Work in 2021

How many keywords do you need for SEO?

The number of keywords will depend on the content that you are trying to ranking for. The more competitive the topic, the more keywords and keyword variations you’ll need.

You can have a high converting page with a handful of keywords. The number of keywords doesn’t matter. What matters is that the website page fulfills the user intent.

For this reason, we recommend taking a page by page approach.

SEO Competitor Analysis

SEO competitor analysis is an important step to SEO. It will help you choose what keywords to focus on and which ones to ignore.

What’s in a competitor analysis?

– The best keyword rankings for your competitors: This will give you a good idea of how competitive the topic is, and which words are best associated with it so far.

– Best pages to compete against using best keywords: Once you know what’s ranking well on Google in terms of content similar to yours, you can decide which best keywords to use and target.

– Best pages that rank well with best keyword variations:  This is really important if you’re targeting a competitive term like “best marketing agency”. The best way to do this would be by using best SEO tools or best social media marketing agencies in Austin as your best keywords.

– Best keyword searches:  If you’re targeting a specific best word it might be helpful to know what people are searching for when they enter the term in Google. This list will show that information as well and help give you an idea of how many keywords or variations there are on your topic.

It’s important to take these SEO recommendations into account on a page-by-page basis.

Take Your Online Presence To The Next Level

If you’re looking to take your site to the next level, it may be time for a full SEO audit. You can definitely do some self-auditing with tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush, but they are far from foolproof. The best way we know of is by tapping into an expert who knows how search engines work. We have been in the online marketing business since 2008 and pride ourselves on being the go-to experts when it comes to website optimization. Schedule a visit today so that one of our team members can review your site during a free consultation session – no strings attached!

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Relationships on Social Media: 50 Ways to Make it Right

Gone are the days of cold calling and hard selling. In fact, 98% of sales professionals believe that building relationships is the most important part of selling. I agree.

Social media should facilitate the process of building relationships, but it turns into a distraction very often. You get bombarded by advertising. You feel spammed by your “friends”. You even get added to groups and communities without your permission. Yikes! Something needs to change.

Let’s talk about the basics of relationship building

Relationship building requires a two-way conversation. With social media, if all you do is sharing, sharing, and more sharing, you are missing the entire point.

Social media is not about you. It’s about them. Your target. Some experts call them “your ideal buyer profile”. Others call them “your future buyer persona”.  For the most part, I find that business owners have a clear understanding of who they want to target. The most common mistake is that they don’t know how to attract their attention. Therefore, they feel like they are talking to ghosts and they can’t see the ROI.

Shift your social media approach by adopting this principle: It’s not about me. It’s about them. In fact, my book, The 6 Golden Rules of Social Media, has this as one of the Golden Rules. Perhaps you already have my book but just in case, you can grab a copy here.

Consumers usage of social media

Continue reading “Relationships on Social Media: 50 Ways to Make it Right”

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3 Social Media Secrets to Hack Visibility

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3 Social Media Secrets to Hack Visibility

One of the most essential purposes of social media is to be SEEN. This is the reason why visibility is such a big deal in the social media industry. Being seen not only allows new people to discover you but it also allows you to discover new people as well, for prospective connections. Whether or not you realize it, there is a whole community of people that are in need and searching for the exact set of services, skills, products and/or knowledge that you offer.

Your goal with social media is to make you and your business visible enough for that community to find you.  

The Marketing for Greatness team always has your best interests at heart and we are always excited to share with you our trade secrets so that you can apply the law of duplication to create your own success. Many of you who are familiar with me, will notice that in most of my communication to you, they always end in “To your Success.” Continue reading “3 Social Media Secrets to Hack Visibility”