SEO Should Be A Habit Not A Headache

I think it’s fair to say that many bloggers don’t bother so much about SEO. I don’t blame people for not wanting to learn this ever changing and pretty complicated subject. I mean, why would you want ongoing targeted traffic that’s much more likely to bring paying customers?

Yes, SEO at the sharp end is technical and complicated but you really don’t need to understand it all. The fact is, the vast majority of your SEO scoring points come from simple common sense things. What’s more, you don’t need to learn or do much more that you are already doing.

There are a few simple habits that can really enhance the work that you are already doing. These can build long term, sustainable traffic with just a few minor tweaks to your existing activities.

Don’t Try To be Number One, Just Try

You don’t need to go to great lengths to SEO every page and post on your blog. If you put in place a few simple habits, you will score in the search results with some of your articles. Each time you do, you get a little bit of ongoing traffic. Sometime you get a lot. All of these traffic trickles start to build a flow. Over time the flow becomes a torrent.

This is targeted traffic that keeps coming for months, or even years. If you score on the right keywords, it’s better than most traffic that you get from blogging and social. It brings more paying customers. If you stop writing posts or commenting on social and blogs, your search traffic still keeps coming.

Ten Minutes Work For Ongoing Traffic

I don’t SEO every post and page I write. You should always write for your readers first. The only thing that you need to do differently is look for opportunities. If you are writing a post and there’s potential to promote a product or draw some valuable traffic, just take a step back and do a little research. If it’s a potential winner, just write your post and tweak it for the search engines.

Don’t make it hard work. There are plugins like WordPress SEO by Yoast that make light work of on page SEO. There are tools like Traffic Travis that make keyword and competition research, child’s play. Ten minutes tweaking what you are already writing can bring many thousands of extra visitors over time.

Get Into SEO Habits And Gain Lots For Little

I couldn’t possibly explain even the basics of SEO in this short post but I can share the most simple yet very powerful thing that I do as habbit, so here goes.

• When you have an idea for a post, look for an angle. This might be a way to promote a product through it or capitalise on some keywords that are beneficial to your own business. Probably something that you already do to some degree. Just take it a step further and look for an SEO angle too.
• Spend just a little time doing some keyword research before you start writing. Don’t go mad. Just open Google adwords keyword tool and have a quick look. You would be surprised at the number of unexpected opportunities that this can throw up.
• Don’t build thousands of backlinks. Surprised I said that? Well I think that’s why a lot of people are put off SEO. You don’t need to do this. Fewer but better constructed links in the right places will bring more value. They will also bring social signals and more links. As usual, don’t work hard, work smart.
• Learn how to do some simple research. Tools like Traffic Travis make this a five minute job.  Traffic Travis comes in free and paid versions. The free version is packed with features and just fine for the average blogger.
• Learn about LSI keywords. These are powerful and will make it easier to score on your main keyword. Use them correctly and you will score on a wide range of other related keywords too. These are especially important since the penguin update.

Like I said in the title, don’t make SEO a headache, make it a habit. Before long you will be doing it in your sleep. You don’t need to be an expert. A few solid white hat principles will make a real difference. I promise, you will be glad you did it in six months to a years time.

I don’t know about you but I’m all for keeping things simple. Do you have little tricks and tweaks that you do when you write your posts? Have you got a nice little SEO or traffic trick up your sleeve? Why not tell us about them in the comments.

Author Bio: Steve Hippel became involved in Internet marketing in 2008 and founded Sussex SEO in 2011. Steve provides WordPress / SEO help and training for small businesses.

About Steve Hippel