SEO Blogging: Should I Blog For Search Engines or People?
Written by Angela Wills
One of the most common issues I hear people facing when starting a blog is what to write about. For me blogging is a balance of using keywords that people are searching for and writing posts that my readers really relate to.
The funny thing about blogging, or writing in general, is the more you write, the more you have to write about. So if you’re feeling stuck just start writing. Sooner or later you’ll have lots of content.
SEO Blogging
It’s important to do your keyword research. While you might consider keyword research dry and boring consider the fact that keywords are just statistics from search engines – they are the words that real people sit down and type INTO the search engines to find what you are looking for.
Blogging For People
If you already have somewhat of a blog readership these are your ‘people’. Your readers are the target market you’ve grown to know and love. As a blogger you will have a general instinct of what they will want to hear from you. If you’ve been blogging for any period of time you’ll also have your blog history to guide you towards what gets the most response.
Of course it’s best when you get a good mix of blogging for both the search engines and the audience you’ve already built. You want to keep your current readers engaged and you also want to attract new readers.
The best teacher is experience. I say just go for it. Get out there. Do it. Test. Find out what works for you. Study it. Repeat and keep on moving forward.
All the best in your blogging adventures.
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About the Author
Visit Angela Online at MarketersMojo.com
Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
John Soares says:
When I write blog posts, I write naturally for my audience, but I also keep important keywords in mind and make sure I use them in a natural manner.
Angela Wills says:
Thanks for the comment John! Sometimes the tendancy is to go to one extreme or the other and not get the benefits of both so it’s great you’ve found a good balance.
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Alice Seba says:
Hey – do either of you have a sort of loose formula you follow. ie – have the phrase appear first in the blog post title, etc?
Angela Wills says:
Yes that’s a good point. I usually try to get it in the first of the subject but it doesn’t always fit. If I have to make a choice between SEO and Readability then I’ll choose the reader.
In wordpress it’s also good because you can have a more reader friendly title and then change the words in your URL to be SEO focused.
Maybe I should have added this to the post above but I also use my keyword in:
- headings
- image titles
- bolding
- anchor text (within post and from other posts/sites)
Alice Seba says:
AWESOME! Thanks for the additional information Angela. I like that you don’t necessarily follow the exact same formula each time. You gotta be natural. Not only do people like it, but really, search engines do too.
Shannon says:
I think that really, search engines are people too. Well, not the search engines themselves, but the people who use them, so it is a fine balance.
Angela Wills says:
That’s a really good point Shannon and I completely agree. Sometimes it’s easy to forget those stats that come out of keyword research ARE words that real people typed in.
It’s also key to understand that though process someone went through when they typed in keywords. In other words you want to use the keywords to understand what the people who typed them in were thinking and then you want to give them exactly what they were looking for.