With the rising popularity of content creation, it’s time to hone in your craft and be the best you can possibly be. Whether it be today’s OOTD or yesterday's organic meatball recipe, all of your content should be enticing to the reader, but also benefit your blog as well. You don’t have to be an SEO expert to understand how to optimize your content to garner more page views, a higher SERP (search engine result page) ranking, and even an increase in your blog traffic. Check out some of these tips to help get you started:

Label, label, label

After you finish writing an article, take the time to look for all the ways you can label your content. This is easier than you think! Start with the meta description.This is the snippet under your url that appears in the SERPs. Using keywords in the meta description is crucial if you want to see your content rank in Google’s search results. For example, if you’re writing about your spring wardrobe picks, the words “spring fashion” or “my spring wardrobe” would be excellent keywords to include in your short meta description.

Another place you can label to your advantage is the slug of the page you’re writing or editing. This is the part of the url that is specific to the actual page. For example, if your article is about Beyonce (as it should be) and her new music, the slug should be edited to look like this: “sarahsdiary.com/beyonce-new-music” instead of “sarahsdiary.com/post7865%”. Not only does this appear straight to the point with your readers but the slug acts as a keyword, boosting the visibility of your content.

Do your research

Internet Live Stats estimates that there are over 2 trillion Google searches per day in 2019. That’s a lot of searching, a lot of reading, and a lot of keywords. Using SEO tools like Ahrefs and Moz will give you the golden tickets to the keyword world (say that ten times fast). Find the search volume for the keywords you’re looking for and decide what words you’re going to include in your piece of content. But, be aware of keywords with a high search volume. If you’re trying to rank on page one, you will have to beat out several other established online publishers to get there...which is hard to do. Sometimes sticking with long tail keywords (three and four specific keyword phrases) and a niche market is where your content will truly shine and actually be noticed.

Once you have your keywords solidified, it’s time to link back to your own blog content. If you write an article about your baby where you also mention your favorite clothes to buy for him or her, insert a link to any previous pieces you’ve written about baby clothes. This drives traffic back to your site, increases your page views, and introduces your audience to more content that might be relevant to them.

Incorporate social media

Every writer and blogger has social media, but are you using it to your advantage? Integrating social media with your online content is the best way to expand your audience and hopefully encourage yourself to keep creating. Add your Instagram feed to the sidebar of your blog for your readers to browse while they are already on your site. Create your own footer at the end of each of your blog posts leading your audience back to some (or all) of your social media accounts. Try to post your original content across all your social platforms in a timely manner so your readers get a sense of your content schedule, consistency, etc. Social media management tools like Hootsuite, Trello, and MeetEdgar organize all of your social media content to make your life a little less stressful. Utilize the story option on Instagram to pull in more profile views and engagement to your account. Tag brands, people, publishers, etc. on Twitter and Instagram for a chance to be retweeted, mentioned, or even followed.

Set aside some time each week to interact with your audience. Whether it be through Instagram DM or responding to comments on a blog post keeping your readers entertained and engaged is key. Social media is FREE, so take advantage of it!

Abbey currently works at a digital marketing company while also maintaining her music blog (blondieandthebeat.com) of six years. Throughout her time as a freelance writer for a women’s magazine she’s learned to share every story and empower as many women as possible. You can usually find her writing in bed binging Sex and the City (for the 10th time) or at the gym sweating out her anxiety on the stairclimber.