Why SEO is Important for Your Blog

(*Disclaimer-I took Sophie’s SEO course as part of Sophie’s test group. It’s a wonderful course and I wouldn’t be recommending it otherwise! I’ve not been asked to promote it in anyway).

There are lots of changes afoot at Instagram, such as Instagram trialing hiding like count (which I’m all for btw!). These changes could have a big impact on small creative businesses, influencers and bloggers. But don’t fear! Instagram shouldn’t be your only way to connect with people and grow your business. SEO and Pinterest should be a vital part of your online presence. Not only does Pinterest and SEO drive traffic to your site but they’re also brilliant ways to connect you to your right people (it’s about quality not quantity!). Let me explain why.

I think for the most part a lot of people are frightened by the concept of SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and simply put it’s different things you can do to your site (and off-site too) that will improve you chances of being found when someone searches you on Google (other search engines are available! But Google rules the Internet, for now). There are lots of benefits to working on SEO for your small business/blog such as:

SEO can increase your overall online visibility. With good SEO implementation your website will rank higher on Google search, meaning you will appear higher up in search results.

Improved SEO can help drive and increase traffic to your site, resulting in more potential customers/clients, readers and higher ad revenue. (This means you can join monetisation sites like Mediavine, for example, creating some extra income for you.)

Done right SEO will connect you with your ‘tribe’, your right people. There is absolutely no point in driving lots of traffic to your site just for the sake of it (unless it’s for ads like Mediavine, of course), you want to get attract the people who want to read you and work with you.

These are just a few examples of why you should be using SEO on your website. The online world is saturated and competitive, so you need to be using all the tools available to you to make your small business or blog a success. I’m also a BIG advocate of Pinterest. I think Pinterest is woefully underused by creatives and bloggers.

Not only does Pinterest help drive traffic to your site but it also strengthens your brand, can connect you to potential customers or new readers and can increase your chances of collaborating with brands. I have a free e-book all about using Pinterest for your small creative business which I’ll link at the end of this post along with my Pinterest Pin Pals newsletter.

SEO (& Pinterest) are important for the longevity of your business

One of the most important things to remember with SEO and Pinterest are that the both of them are marathons not sprints. You will see a difference immediately when you start making small SEO changes to your site and using Pinterest too. Both Pinterest and SEO will strengthen your traffic, visibility and brand overtime. There are no quick fixes here, no underhand tactics like follow/unfollow or bots or buying followers or whatever else people use (to the ultimate detriment of their business).

The only way (I believe in) is to take time, use solid techniques like strengthening your SEO and use Pinterest, build an authentic brand that your people will gravitate to and increase your visibility online. Instagram is still a brilliant place to connect with likeminded people but it is completely out of your control, your site should always be at the centre of your online life. You site is your hub, your home online. Neglecting to take care of it is bad for business in the long run.

If you need help with SEO my wonderful friend Sophie has a free SEO guide for beginners here or if you’re ready to go deeper and invest in your small business Sophie has created a brilliant course called Intuitive SEO: A Creative’s Guide for Growing Search Traffic*. Sophie explains what SEO is, how it works and why it is vitally important for your site in a clear and engaging way. I’ve found a lot of SEO to be very dry but Sophie’s course really helped me understand how SEO underpins everything we do online in a very user-friendly way.

PIN FOR LATER!