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The success of any website depends on how well you plan things before the website becomes online. In this article I'll present some of the SEO basics of how to plan a blog in order to have a good start. There are several things that you'll have to consider and each element has to be taken very seriously.

Here is the short list of basic SEO things to do (that I'll explain it in more detail further down):

Identify what you want to write about on your blog Create a list of relevant keywords to target Plan the structure of your articles Think about the list of categories for the blog Think about the list of tags for your blog Analyze the competition Plan how you're going to use the keywords on your blog

I'll try now to go further into detail with the above list but I'll also try not to create a too big article. So, if you feel you need some more info on some of these points feel free to send me a message or write me a comment. I will also put for download an Excel 2007 document to help you plan and sort your keywords (visit the article on the website for download).

Identify what you want to write about. This is the first thing you have to realize. This is the same like what kind of business to open. You have to think from general to particular. Here is what I meant by that. The idea is to think first at the niche market you are interested in. Then, you'll start to realize different aspects of this niche. Here I'm talking about what problems/needs does your niche addresses, or what kind of people are your potential clients, or how do they come to think that this niche can offer them solutions to their problems. You'll have to break the general concepts and ideas to particular ones that address particular issues. For example if you are in the business of real-estates you can answer to a need for rental houses in a certain period of the year. You have to be prepared for this kind of particular things. Every business must respond to one or more needs/problems that people encounter and you have to realize that the same th ing is with a blog.

Create a list of relevant keywords to target. Before talking a little bit about the process of selecting keywords I want to tell you about what tools to use for this research and also to offer you an Excel document to help you organize your list. So here are the tools:

- Google Keyword External Tool

- Google insights and Google Trends

- Search on Google News

- The new options for Google Search: Wonder Wheel and Related Searches

Now let's talk about how to start selecting keywords. First I like to think about single general words that would describe more like a category of keywords. Let's say, for example, that you want to build a website for an attorney specialized in divorces and domestic violence. The first words would be something like: law, divorce, violence, procedure (and maybe some more but let's stick with this). I want to say it very clear: these are not the keywords you are going to target. This is just a help to organize your keywords into related groups. You'll also use these words into the Excel document to easy filter the keywords associated with a certain group. After that I like to start with the wonder wheel. I just type one word and see what related searches Google will suggest. This way I'll find quickly what people are searching and its related to my niche (also this is a really great way to find more particular subjects to talk about). Now you'll have to decide if a keyword i t's worth the effort. Here are some factors that you'll have to take into consideration:

Number of searches per month (related to your geographic area of interest) Relevancy to your niche - understand that more general terms can deliver higher traffic but long tail keywords can deliver higher conversion Competition in the sense of the number of results on a search engine Competition in the sense of who is on the first page and why are those websites there(I'll talk more about this bellow on analyze the competition)

Each group of keywords should have a top main keyword, formed by two words. This is the competitive term. This is what you're aiming for. But before you get to the top you'll have to address all the other keywords related to the main one. These keywords are long tail and much easier to rank for.

Plan the structure of your articles. Every article has to offer a benefit. Think of a way to offer that benefit. This is where you'll have to decide if you want interesting titles or SEO titles. A good strategy would be to build the SEO titles first and after you manage to develop a strong traffic and a large number of subscriptions to move more towards interesting titles (titles that get you clicks). How you present a certain topic to the user is very important. A simple article structure would be: summary, body, conclusion, call to action. In the summary you'll make a short description of what's to come and quickly talk about this great benefit the reader will have. The body will expand with all the necessary details. The conclusion will tell the reader what he/she just read. And the call to action in the end. Every article must be written with a purpose: with a goal in mind. It can be to get comments, link bait, go viral, affiliate link, get more subscr ibers and so on. Make sure you introduce that call to action in your articles.

Think about the list of categories for the blog. The list of categories is an SEO basic (also is the list of tags) choice. The thing is that here you can also target some keywords. Don't just name categories, think of keywords.

Think about the list of tags for your blog. This is the same as in categories. The thing is that you can use tags not only to enhance the user experience and to help the reader to find what he's looking for but also to target keywords. Another reason for creating a list of tags is to keep it organized. Otherwise you'll find yourself in the situation when you place different tags that basically mean the same thing.

Analyze the competition. Here are some things to consider when you go and analyze the competition for a certain keyword:

Check the competition in numbers: how many results, how many results for targeting that keyword in title and URL (use the wonder wheel to identify long tail keywords with lower competition) Check to see what websites are on the first page. It will be difficult to over rank authority websites on competitive terms, but you could do it on long tail keywords You'll have to perform some analysis for the first page websites: see how they are using that keyword on the page they rank for (use this tool seomoz.org/term-extractor), what other pages do they have that target the same keyword (for this search on Google with this "site:domain.com keyword" or "site:domain.com intitle:keyword" or "site:domain.com inurl:keyword" or "site:domain.com inanchor:keyword" or "link:domain.com inanchor:keyword")

Plan how you're going to use the keywords on your blog. Here you have to think about two things:

Develop a strategy in how to use keywords into your website Learn how to use keywords in each page you create

The first problem is to think of a way to use keywords in your website. Here I'm talking about things like:

Your main page should target the most competitive keyword Articles should be build in a pyramid style: the top article targets the main keyword for a group and the other ones target long tail keywords; the more long tail keywords you'll target the more traffic you'll get and your rankings will improve

The second important SEO aspect is to know how to use keywords in your content:

Titles, keyword meta tag and description meta tag Subtitles h1, h2, ... In the actual text of the article The name of files embedded on the page The ALT property of images Anchor text but only if it points to a page on your own site or to another site that you own Tags associated with the article Strong or bold text

Let me know if you have more questions on this subject. I think that these SEO basic steps are absolutely necessary. If you feel that other things might also be important let me know in comments bellow. Any questions are also welcomed. Don't forget to subscribe if you liked the article.

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