How Bloggers Can Save Time On SEO & Keywords

I am very fortunate that my day job and personal business and blog have some serious overlap. Things I learn as a blogger and strategist can help me in my day job and vice versa. I am constantly submerged in branding, SEO and copywriting which is amazing!
I know not everyone is as fortunate as I am. I know some of you go to jobs that feel more like a paycheck than a career in fields that you just fell into and have no passion for.
If you are a blogger chances are you started your blog for passion or purpose. You had a passion you wanted to feed or you had a purpose you wanted to share with the world. One recent thing I’ve been learning is how important SEO and keywords are.
Platforms like WordPress have made it easier really to optimize your posts using keywords and SEO tactics.
Keywords tell Google what your post is about and help get it in front of the people looking for what you are writing about.

How to Discover What Keyword to Use

This might seem cut and dry but it really isn’t. Say you want to write a blog post about the best way to lose weight after you have a baby. You may automatically assume that, “Post- baby workouts” is the way to go but what if it’s not? How can you be sure?

4 Ways to Research Your Keywords

Google Keyword Planner
You will need to have a Google AdWords account (it’s free). This tooL is normally used for planning Google Adwords campaign but is a great source for keyword research.
Hop into Google’s Keyword planner and search the term you have come up with.

You can fill in the rest of the information but it’s not necessary and might be difficult since you don’t want to make the post live before you do this.
On the next page, you will see what searches are popular in relation to this term. Then you can pick one with a high search volume to use as your keyword.

I also recommend making a note of different popular keywords with a high search volume and try to actually use them in the posts content.
Don’t be spammy, “I lost 20 pounds with this post-baby workout, some of the best exercises after baby are very similar to this workout that I recommended after giving birth.” Is that how people talk? No, and Google will recognize it and possibly punish you for it.
Searching Google Like a Reader.
Go to google and start typing your proposed keyword. Google’s predictive text will start population what is commonly searched.

You could also search in the form of a question, to see what people are searching for specifically because we all talk to Google like it’s our mom, “How do I lose weight now that I’ve had the baby, ~~Mom~~ Google?”

This also helps us realize what terms to avoid that could be sending the wrong people to your post.

BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is one of my favorite places to do keyword research because it doesn’t just tell you what people are looking for but what other posts are out there on your topic.
This is a paid service if you want to see all the search results but you can still see a decent amount of them without an account.

Grab My SEO and Keyword Worksheet to make sure all your blog posts are optimized!

Google Trends
Google Trends is exactly what it sounds like. It lets you know what people are searching for.
It shows you how popular the keyword has been over time, what regions it’s popular and related queries (or search terms) it also lets you compare it against keywords you may have been considering.

Popularity Over Time
Popular Regions Related Queries Comparison of Search Terms

Places to make sure you are using your keywords:

In the copy
In the meta description
In the headline
In the tags
In social media posts

[bctt tweet=”Get a handle on your blog’s SEO with Keyword. Get the easy tips here. ” username=”Diadoll”]

I know often when I come up with a post idea words just flow out and I make a quick note in a Google Doc and come back to it later. Doing keyword research, outlining your post and creating your SEO information is a great way to make sure what you are writing is truly optimized for SEO and will be seen.
I’m sharing my own personal SEO formatting pre-writing worksheet to make sure your content is on point. Get it here!
SEO doesn’t have to take up a lot of time or be overly complicated. A little preparation and organization can be great for building your website and getting it found.
Also if you haven’t signed up to attend my live webinar with Angela Ford, Cut the Crap, this Tuesday at 7:30 pm CST you can do so here!

How do you prep your posts for SEO and keywords? Tell me in the comments.

42 comments

Michelle Rogers

Thank you SO much for this — it is very helpful!! I’ll share on Twitter.

Madeline Casey

Wow, this is such good information to have! Thank you so much for sharing! I should start thinking about this more for sure.

candy

The magic of using key words. You always explain everything in normal language so I can understand.

Jen

Why have I never thought to use Google to test out potential keywords? So simple but so genius.

Emily

I needed this!!! Thank you for making it all sound so clear! Pinning for later 🙂

Liz Mays

I try to use several keyword variations in my posts, but you’re right. You still need to be as natural as possible.

sydney

I feel very new to all of this still so this is really helpful for me!

Latasha | Arts & Budgets

HI Dia! 🙂

Awesome post. I am totally pinning it to save for later. Thank for sharing.

Valerie

I need to spend more time on keywords. Great resource. Thanks.

Christine Anne

Great post! There’s so much to learn about SEO. I’m going to have to check Google Adwords outs.

Sam

Oh my goodness…this is SO helpful! I’ve been struggling with this so much. This is a very comprehensive guide on how to tackle this tricky part of blogging:)

Joseyphina

Finding the right keywords for your site can be hectic but the info you’ve provided sounds really resourceful. Thanks for sharing

Kaley

WOW! I’ll need to start implementing this NOW!

KP

SEO is not my strong suit, but it’s so important for success in blogging. I try to spend a fair amount of time on Google Keyword Planner before finishing a post. Buzzsumo sounds like it could be VERY helpful!