As a writer, one of the most unfortunate experiences I have dealt with is, feeling like you have written pure gold, but not having an audience to appreciate it. It can become frustrating when you have poured your heart, soul, research and knowledge, into a project without receiving any feedback or social shares. It might leave you questioning, Why aren’t people reading my blog? Let’s take a further look below:
Have You Optimized for Organic SEO and Done Your Keyword Research?
What is SEO? Do you want an internet regurgitation of the meaning? If so, Google it. To put it simply, SEO helps to rank you in the search engines. In fact, it’s main goal is to get you on the front page of Google. This is important, as most people searching online, don’t scroll past the first three links on the first page. Meaning, being on page 147 of 1,000,000, is irrelevant. How do you get your blog to show up on the front page?
One of the most important parts of Organic SEO, is using keyword research. Using the right keyword tags, will allow for Google and other search engines, to locate your content on the web and tag for those searching for it. One of the best ways to create a list of keywords to research their search volumes, competition and keyword index, is by asking friends and family, how they might Google something. For example, when writing content about blue widgets, what are they typing in the search engine bar to get to a site that sells blue widgets? You would be surprised what you might think should be relevant, that is not and vice versa.
Are You Sharing Your Content on Social Media?
Sharing content on social media venues is a necessity. There are several different platforms available to do so. If you are a business, it is important that you have a Twitter feed and Facebook page. In addition, you might find Pinterest and LinkedIn to be beneficial to your social media marketing plan. After your blog publishes, engage readers and followers by posting it on all of your social media outlets. It might take some time, but eventually, you will begin to see your content get retweeted, repinned and liked.
Organic search results, do not happen overnight. It is crucial that you understand that it could be three months up the road, before some of your older content begins to engage it’s audience and receive social shares. Patience is part of organic search results. Be aware of implementing shady blackhat SEO practices. Avoid keyword stuffing and irrelevant back links. You might get away with that for awhile, but Google will find and penalize you for it. Don’t pay for Twitter followers or blog spammers. Plant the seed (your content), water it (social shares) and watch it grow (time)!