This post was originally a guest post for my friend Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean Blog. She's a Registered Dietitian with amazing recipes, weekly ideas for Sunday Food Prep and great health tips, so make sure to check out her blog! With that said, let's dig in!
+++++++++++++++++++++
What is Search Engine Optimization? This means optimizing your posts for search engines like Google and Bing so they can better understand what the post is about and what questions it will answer for readers. A nicely optimized post will rank better and reach a wider audience. “Organic search traffic” means visitors who find your blog through typing a query into a search engine.
When you’re thinking of optimizing your posts, you should be thinking of how to help your target audience, not just how to rank better or reach more people in general. Start thinking like your audience. What do they want to know? What questions are they asking?
How to optimize your posts:
First, let me stress that shareable, engaging content is more important than keywords. However, following a few easy steps can help increase your organic traffic and reach more relevant readers.
1. Keywords: Choose a keyword phrase or two that best represents your post idea. Ex: “How to cook spaghetti squash”
a. Use Google Keyword Plannerand Google Trends to find the most popular (most searched) way to phrase your keywords. Compare multiple phrases to see which has the highest traffic (low-medium competition is best). There are tons of keyword tools out there, but these are quick, easy and free, so start here. For the example above, other search phrases might include “best way to cook spaghetti squash” and “how to bake spaghetti squash”