The BIG SEO Secret for Bloggers

This is a guest post by Adam Stetzer of Hubshout.

The BIG SEO Secret for Bloggers

I talk to bloggers just about every day. For a while last year my blogging blog was on page 1 for the Google search "blogging", though we are now on page 3. With this type of exposure comes some crazy organic traffic. In fact, over 39,000 bloggers have registered with my blog since I opened it in 2007. With each passing year I am continually amazed by just how many bloggers are convinced that there is a BIG SEO secret out there. The conversations seem to follow a familiar pattern. It goes something like this. 

Blogger: "Hi Adam, how can I get to page 1 in Google?" 

Adam: "It's a TON of hard work, very incremental, takes a long time and requires some really good content and some awesome backlinks." 

Blogger: "Thanks, I've heard all that before, so tell me REALLY how to get to page 1 now." 

They are convinced there is an SEO secret that I won't tell them. These bloggers feel that if they could just discover the piece of knowledge they don't have, they will be richly rewarded with huge rankings, traffic and money. They just know it. Since this sentiment is so prevalent, I've made it my mission to try to set the record straight with the truth about SEO. And the truth is: The big SEO secret is that there is no SEO secret. 

The BIG SEO blogging secret: There is no secret

This is the point in the blog post where I lose most readers. Due to the very phenomena described above, most readers will leave this blog post and continue their frantic search for the secret blogging SEO secret that will instantly solve their problems.

For the 5% of readers who are still with me; Congratulations! You have finally graduated from the masses of mediocrity and are ready to start your journey to success with SEO and blogging. And this was a big step. If you jump over this hurdle, you are mentally ready for the challenge ahead. And most importantly you've figured out that you are wasting valuable time searching for an answer that you probably already know. 

The second big SEO secret for bloggers: The time you waste searching for SEO tips could have you on page 1 already.

How many forums do you read? How many blog posts do you follow? Make a mental calculation of all the time you spend on "TIP searching" activities and let's do a little exercise.

For the next month, every time you feel the urge to search for blogging or SEO tips you instead actually sit down and work. If you did this, how much extra time will you have? My guess is a fair amount. If you take that time and split it 40% toward creating awesome content and 60% promoting your blog, you will be very pleased with the results.

Again, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. And feel free to argue with my percentages. Perhaps you feel it's 30% / 70% or 50% / 50% - whatever. The point is that you have moved from the unproductive place of self-doubt and answer-searching to the very productive activity of DOING. And DOING is where the success lies. 

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration

Thomas Edison said these great words more than 100 years ago. And I think they apply as much to SEO, blogging and the Internet as they did to his endeavor to invent the light bulb.

While great ideas are required once in a while to jump-start a project (such as a new blog or to find new SEO keywords to go after), the idea-generation needs to be outweighed by a ratio of 99:1 with work. Plain, simple, non-sexy, work. It's hard. It's monotonous. It doesn't sell tabloids. But hard work is still at the heart of why your website or blog is not on page 1 in Google.

And at the risk of becoming a marginalized motivational blogger, I urge you to stop reading, reflect on what you already know about SEO, and think about how you can get more done with the time you already apply to your blog. You already know about keyword selection.

You already know about title tags and keyword density. You already know about Google Adwords search volume estimates. You certainly know about backlinks, guest blog posts and building relationships. And you've had the importance of high-quality content pounded into your brain. So there you have it. The leading SEO tips for bloggers were already in your head. So get to it. 

About the Author: Dr. Adam Stetzer has a Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology, which includes the study of motivation, job satisfaction and performance at work. He has published in many nationally-recognized, peer-reviewed, journals and maintains his own personal blogging blog. He is also the president of HubShout, an seo reseller company with industry-leading SEO software. He has been active in the technology field for over 15 years working with large companies such as General Electric, Verizon, Ford, ChevronTexaco, and PepsiCola.

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Comments

[Trevor Cross]

your right, we know it all, we just look for an easier way, It's just procrastination. However there is outsourcing!?

[Cheryl Pickett]

Thanks for the motivational part of this post Adam and I agree with much of what you said. However, I also disagree that I know it all already and just need to go do it. I think a lot of people are in my shoes. We don't really understand even though we've read lots and lots of advice as you mentioned. Maybe I/we just haven't found the right resource.

What I mean by know vs understand:

1. Plenty of people talk about the keyword tool, I know it's a good tool, but I don't understand which words to go after of the 100 it gives me. And if they're all "high" competition, should I bother?

2. I know I need to put keywords in the spaces the All in One SEO pack provides for me, but I don't understand which to put where.

3. I know about tags and categories but not necessarily how to use them correctly, how not to over or under use them.

I know SEO is beneficial, that it is not the be all end all, but I feel I could understand it much better. Yes, this is partly semantics, but I think there are a lot of people who are still looking for actionable answers even though we know a lot already.

Again, thanks for the reminder and encouragement.

[LiyzaBirth]

Great post thanks for sharing information..

[Elizabeth Cottrell]

What a relief to hear this from the expert. One more "bright shiny thing" we can stop searching for "out there somewhere" and just concentrate on what we do best. Thanks!

[Adam Stetzer, Ph.D.]

Excellent questions. Perhaps I was a little hyperbolic in my statement... It was only meant to help people get "un-stuck". You know, "too much analysis leads to paralysis" kinda stuff... :-)

1) My best SEO advice on keyword selection is actually to use PPC from Google Adwords. I know, it sounds odd. But PPC will get you traffic on a specific keyword in one afternoon. You may spend months or years trying to get that organic ranking. Why not pilot test the keywords you THINK might be good for you with a small budget in Adwords. The trick here is to use EXTREMELY CAREFUL measurement to know if they are "working." Once you do this with a list of 100 keywords in Adwords, you will know which 10 are the best for you. Then SEO those 10 words.

2) It's not that complicated. The Google spiders are not as advanced as people think. They see the words on your page and discern what your page is about. So, put the keywords in appropriate places around your page - BUT DON'T do anything unnatural. The All-In-One pack will help you with this. But don't spend too much time here. Just get some words in the page and move on.

3) Again - You are over thinking this. Matt Cutts has told us that shallow sites are easier for Google to read than deep sites. Don't make too many levels or think too much about advanced hierarchies. Matt also says to give the spiders at least 3 paths to every page. On a blog, for me, that means a tag, category and calendar (or archive) link. There you have it. Again - Don't overthink this.

[MaAnna Stephenson]

One of the things that has really helped me is to realize that it's a lot easier to get a page on my site to #1 than it is to get my whole site ranked for specific keywords. To do that, I hit hot news topics in my niche quickly and max on-page SEO. The posts where I do this get to the front page of Google the next day and remain some of the top search-engine traffic generators on my site for months afterward. For those posts, I already know the phrases folks are going to be using for search and have to do very little keyword research. One recent example is "new in WordPress 3.3." However, it's a lot tougher to rank my site for 'WordPress training" which is a goal, but has much stiffer competition. I'll take the 10k hits from that one page, thank you, and call it a good day for my site.

[Marilyn]

I agree! It's time to get to work!

[Search Engine Optimization Seattle]

I am really impressed about your ideas and knowledge about blog engine. Looking forward to see more of your post. Good Luck! :)

[Baadier Sydow]

Couldnt agree with you more Adam. It takes time and patience. Many of the bloggers I have spoken to post a ton of comments and directory submissions and then expect to move up in the rankings the next day. I think one of the causes of this is unscrupulous seo consultants that spread these magic seo myths,

[Search Engine Optimization Seattle]

I am really impressed with your post. Found this interesting to read, plus it contains a huge information that i haven't been found ever since before. I really appreciate your time, effort and knowledge in sharing this kind of informative post. Lots of thank you! :)