SEO Works Well Because Others Are Not Doing It

SEO works so well because most sites on the web do not actively practice effective SEO.
(SEO Book, pg. 43)

It seems like most bloggers don’t do SEO on a consistent basis. They might build a link or two once in awhile but for the most part, bloggers want to blog instead of implementing an SEO strategy.

Of course, you can do whatever you want on your blog, but if you don’t do SEO on a continual basis, you’re missing out on a lot of benefits.

Reasons to Try SEO

Here are some reasons to do SEO for your blog.

• The vast majority of online traffic is sent by search engines.
• Unlike PPC and other marketing methods like blog commenting, SEO leads to recurring traffic. Once you get a first page ranking for a keyword, it doesn’t take much work to keep the ranking yet the first page ranking will send you traffic every month.
• By targeting relevant keywords, you can target the most relevant audience for the most relevant page on your blog. Relevancy leads to higher conversions and better visitor experiences.
• Other webmasters use search engines. As they find your blog through the search engines, they’ll often link to you and network with you.
• A first page ranking for a highly searched keyword improves how people perceive your brand.
• SEO helps you understand your niche better. Keyword research, a foundational SEO activity, is market research. By researching the keywords that people use to search your niche, you get a better idea of what your niche audience is looking for.
• You can use the keywords found in your research to improve the navigation and usability of your blog.

But the biggest reason in my mind to do SEO is most sites are not doing SEO. Sure, there are a few competitive niches where many of the sites have an SEO strategy, but for the large majority of niches, most sites don’t do SEO.

As I’ve dabbled in a wide variety of niches, I’ve found that the majority of bloggers have not done keyword research. I can tell this because they don’t have relevant keywords in their titles. Also, they aren’t building links. They subscribe to a “build it and they will come strategy”. However, with the large numbers of blogs on the web, it takes marketing to get people to visit your site. And search engine marketing is a great way to attract a steady stream of visitors every month.

This lack of SEO among bloggers means that it will not be difficult to achieve high rankings for relevant keywords.

SEO Doesn’t Have to be Complicated

With everything that goes into creating and maintaining a blog, it’s easy to forget about search engine traffic. However, there are many effective SEO tips that don’t have to take too much of your time and effort. Also, even if you do one SEO activity week (like building a few links or finding juicy keywords to target), you’ll be way ahead of your competitors.

Your SEO strategy doesn’t have to be complicated to outrank other blogs that are not doing SEO. Most of my work as an full-time search marketer is simple. Yet I’ve helped my company gain some great rankings. It just takes a little time and effort.

I’ll be going through SEO basics in the next couple weeks, so watch this space to increase your search engine traffic.

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How much time do you spend a week on SEO?