Blogs are a great way to optimize for search engines, but how do you start one from scratch?
If you’re interested in search engine optimization (SEO), onsite content is an absolute must. Content will help you increase your domain authority, add more pages to your site, and even more importantly, help you optimize for target keywords and phrases relevant to your brand.
But if you’ve never started a blog before, you might be confused about how to start. What steps are necessary to get a blog for SEO in place?
The Foundation
First, you should have a website with a built-in blog that’s easy to manage. Most free website builders already offer an easy way to publish new posts, so this shouldn’t be a problem. Even if you’re working with a custom design, you should have access to a back-end CMS system that allows you to customize your blog.
Establish Categories and Tags
Next, you’ll need to build out categories and tags, which you’ll use to assign meta values to the work you’re about to produce. Think forward, and flesh out as many of these as are relevant to your brand; when naming them, try to optimize them for target keywords and phrases you’re about to include in your SEO strategy. This will be helpful later.
Create an Editorial Calendar
Next, you’ll start brainstorming topic ideas, creating an editorial calendar. Take a look at the blogs of your competitors, and other blogs in your industry. Learn from the topics here, and modify them based on your SEO keyword research. Try to get a diversity of different topics in store for your blog, and if possible, plan multiple months into the future.
Build a Backlog
It’s a good idea to launch a blog with multiple backdated posts. This way, readers can spend more time on your blog—and they won’t think you’re an amateur or a newcomer just because your blog only has one post. Somewhere between 10-30 posts should do the job.
If you’re interested in starting a blog of your own, or if you need help with your current content marketing strategy, contact Quez Media today!
