Over the past four months, I have been working hard to implement a more robust and aggressive SEO strategy for Blogging4Jobs.  As a Human Resource Blog and HR blogger, the concept of SEO, is relatively new for our HR Blogger community which for me is a very, very good thing.  You see, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is just giving the public what they want.  How many times have you searched on Google with what you thought was a perfectly logical group or phrase of words, only to find a bunch of nothing?

Yup, me too.

A solid SEO strategy focuses on commonly searched for groups or combinations of words that don’t offer the searcher a solid option of websites, articles, or links to choose from.  In short, that’s SEO.  Take for example, the title “HR Blogger.”  These two words in combination have an estimated 3,600 searches each month and little competition.  So it makes since that if I include these keywords in combination within my title, in my meta tagging, and throughout this blog post (HR Blogger), it’s’ likely that I will land on the first three pages of the Google search results.  Hopefully, the first page if I’m lucky.

Google commands 65% of the search market share and accounts for 11 billion searches with Yahoo following up a not-so-close second place with 16% and 2.7 billion searches.  SEO is important for a lot of reasons and companies hire SEO experts like my friend, Tatyana Gann who specializes in search engine optimized PR or  Patrick Allmond a local SEO specialist in Oklahoma City.

SEO Strategy Tips

So with my keyword list in hand, I find myself squarely in HR Blogger Hell.  It’s a warm and lonely place as I work harder to develop solid HR and Recruiting articles in my writing style happily and without regulation until now.  You see, the challenge with using keywords is that you actually have to write about and include the keywords within your article.  I can’t just casually include tags or use black hat SEO techniques.  The content must be compelling, interesting, relevant, and useful to my audience.

• Don’t Cheat. Google especially doesn’t like cheaters especially since they rule the internet and most of the free world.   Ask JC Penney’s and they’ll be the first to tell you.  Their black hat strategies recently have placed them squarely in the public eye for their link baiting and scheming practices.  Goodbye first page search results.

• Leverage Experts. But be weary.  For every legitimate SEO expert, there are five that are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Use referrals or research a SEO Strategist but reviewing their own blog content, testimonials, and LinkedIn profiles.

• Read up on SEO. SEO for Dummies or Search Engine Optimization Bible are two good resources to get you started.  These are two solid resources that I keep in my own office library.

• Link with Others. SEO involves linking yourself to articles or websites that are authorities on the topic you are discussing.  Provide good content and leverage relationships with other websites to allow for link backs.  This is when websites link back to your blog, article, or site as a resource.  More relevant links and linkbacks can increase your page rank and authority level within the search engines.  And we like that.

For HR Bloggers, blogs, websites, and others SEO takes time.  There is no simple and ethical solution.  Building content, reputation, and relevance that truly elevates your blog’s website is hard work.  Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to get back to Blogging4Jobs, HR Blogger Hell and SEO Strategy Tips.