SEO for Blogger

Google’s free online blogging tool Blogger may have fallen out of favor recently, but the platform isn’t gone forever. In fact, Blogger is making a comeback. It all started when a handful of online marketers figured out what they could make unlimited amounts of money using a special formula that consisted of Blogger content, search engine optimization and good old fashioned hard work. Since Blogger is already owned by Google and thus automatically gets it ranked prominently in the search engines, these blogging professionals figured out what they could recreate blog after blog, fill those blogs with interesting content and then they could rake in the bucks using Adsense and affiliate marketing. That is until Google razed the mighty ban hammer with the Panda and Penguin algorithm changes. Google caught onto the Blogger scam and quickly shut the entire operation down. These days it is a little tougher to make money using Blogger and SEO, but it’s not impossible. As long as you follow a few best processes, you will fly under Google’s radar so that you can present your goods and services to your awaiting audience, and all by using everyone’s favorite – and completely free – blogging platform, Blogger.

SEO for Blogger is easier than it would be for, say, a WordPress blog. That is because Blogger is inherently search engine optimized. Everything is already in place to rank prominently for your audience. All you need to provide is the content and Google will take care of the rest.

This doesn’t mean that your work is completely done as far as SEO is concerned, it’s just that you won’t have to do as much, and thus you can focus on providing your audience with quality content instead of attempting to appease the search engines at every turn.

Blogger Customization

Much like the aforementioned WordPress blogging platform, Blogger is fully customizable. You can add your own header images, your own custom URL, you can completely alter the blog’s layout, font styles and colors to your liking; and you can alter the page or post navigation structure as you see fit.

When writing posts, you can include media, such as photos, videos and sound files, and you have many options at your fingertips for altering the formatting to fit your blog’s overall look and style. Play around with different looks and, as time goes on, get feedback from your audience so that you can find just the right look and style that stands out and gets noticed by those that matter most.

Quality Content that Converts

Strive to provide quality content over quantity and focus on crafting content that your audience can use. Create titles that cause your audience to turn their heads and take notice, and write your blogs in such a way as to keep your audience riveted until the very end.

Study your audience’s motivations, primary problems, frustrations and fears and then seek to solve those issues with your Blogger posts.

For SEO purposes, stick to a low keyword density; which can best be achieved by placing your primary keyword in your title, once in your first and final paragraphs and then a couple times throughout. Never make it apparent to your audience that you are engaging in any search engine optimization efforts. Focus on providing your average reader with content that he or she can use and use your keywords only if they can be used intelligently within the content.

Google+

Blogger makes it easy to connect your content with your Google+ account. This way, any content you produce will show up in Google’s search results with your name and photo next to each listing. This tells potential readers of your Blogger blog that you wrote the content and that you have plenty more where that came from; as each Google+ listing comes with a link where readers of your content can click-through to see your entire library of SEO titles.

This helps to establish authority over your audience, and search listings with names and photos accompanying them always get more attention than bare listings with only a title and description. This Google+ feature is on the left hand side of your dashboard menu. Use it if you want enhanced search engine optimization.

Comments

When comments come in, respond to them in kind and try to get a conversation going. The more people you can get to comment, the more social your blog will appear. You want to build a Blogger community that revolves around your blog posts, and responding to every comment that arrives in a professional and prompt manner is a good first step to doing just that.

Your readers are the ones you’re doing this entire thing for, after all. Listen to them when they comment and talk to them, even if they only have bad things to say. Sometimes a personal touch is all it takes to turn a bad comment around, and Blogger blogs, as well as all other blogs, allow the writer and reader to connect in a manner that isn’t possible via any other medium. Use this to your advantage whenever you can.

Regular Content That is Tested for Conversions

Determine the overall goal of your blog and then watch your Blogger analytics to make sure your search engine optimization and reader-service efforts are paying off. You can’t know if you are hitting your mark with your SEO content unless you regularly watch the analytics data.

Blogger makes it easy to connect your site to Google Analytics. You simply put your Analytics ID number right into the specified box. You can track the number of visitors, their physical locations and their devices and browsers. Use this data to craft better titles if you notice that some headlines are pulling more traffic than others. Use the data to craft better opening paragraphs, middle paragraphs and calls-to-action. The key to being successful with Blogger, even if you’re a master at SEO, is to watch the numbers, test your content and evolve accordingly.

As you can see, SEO for Blogger isn’t difficult; in fact, it’s easier than it would be on any other platform. Now you just have to provide the content; and keep it coming. Provide valuable and regular content, keep up with the comments, share your SEO content on Google+ and your readers will come, read and spend, guaranteed.