Tips for Choosing Keywords that Will Get Your Blog Noticed

You may be a fantastic writer and your blog may have a lot of useful and interesting content, but if no one can find your blog, no one will read it. The key to getting readers is to get your blog noticed by search engines and to rank higher in search results. The key to getting noticed by search engines is to use the proper keywords.

You have to find out what people are talking about, and write about it in the same terms that they are talking about it. Selecting and using the right keywords is partly Arts and partly Science.

Tips in Choosing Keywords

Here's how you can choose keywords that will get your blog noticed and improve your search ranking to drive traffic to your site:

Brainstorm Relevant Terms

Start by making a list of possible search terms related to your blog. For example, if your blog is about health and fitness tips for women, your list of possible terms can include "weight loss," "running for women," or "pregnancy workouts." Make an extensive list of general terms, then find ways to narrow the focus. For example, "weight loss" could be narrowed to "how to lose weight quickly" or "how to lose 10 pounds this week." Have a number of both general and specific search terms and phrases with which to begin your research.

Use Plain Language

Resist the urge to be artistic or witty with your language use and instead choose common terms that people are more likely to use in their search. For example, a search phrase like "how to write blog posts that sell" would get more hits than the same post with the title "the way of the millionaire." Be wary of using jargon, unless your blog is highly specialized for a target audience. Choose search terms like "how to write a compelling introduction" instead of "penning a winning lede." Potential readers are more likely to use common language in their searches, so your page should use the same language to be ranked higher for those searches.

Research Terms

Once you have a good idea of terms you might like to use that are specific, relevant to your blog, and use plain language, you should research the popularity of those terms by using a keyword research tool. There are several tools you can use, including the Google keyword tool, Word Stream, Word Tracker, and SEM Rush. Some of these tools are free, and others require a fee. Enter your terms to get information about how many searches are conducted each month for these terms and the competition for them. You will also be given ideas for other terms related to those you enter.

Selecting keywords that will be successful is about more than considering the words with the most searches. While a term like "Lady Gaga" might have millions of searches each month, there are also millions of other Web sites using that term. When someone searches for "Lady Gaga," there will be so many search results that your Web site will be buried in the list. It is better to choose terms that have less competition even if they have fewer searches per month. If you can rank higher for those terms than other sites, you will increase your chances of converting those visitors to ad clicks.

Use Keywords Effectively

Once you have chosen your keywords, you must learn how to use them properly to get noticed by search engines. You must use your keywords in your blog post or title, in your opening paragraph, and several times throughout your post. Using bold or italicized font for your keywords will help further highlight them for search engines. However, you must be careful not to use your keywords too often or else you risk writing content that sounds stilted and promotional, and you risk your site being flagged as spam by the search engines. There is no hard and fast rule for how much is the "right" number of times to use keywords in a post, but some general guidelines have suggested that keywords should not make up more than 2 percent of an article.

Selecting the right keywords to get your blog noticed may seem confusing at first, but with a little brainstorming and a little research, it is quite easy. Once you have mastered this skill, you will help improve your blog's search-engine ranking and drive more visitors to your site, greatly improving the potential to monetize your site.

About the Author:
Heather Green is a freelance writer for several regional magazines in North Carolina as well as a resident blogger for onlinenursingdegrees.org. Her writing experience includes fashion, business, health, agriculture and a wide range of other topics. Heather has just completed research on nursing programs online and nursing schools online.