Stressing over search engine page results

In my attempt to restore this site to it’s former glory I let myself get bogged down with marketing my blog instead of actually writing. I worried about things that could only change with time like domain page rankings and Google PageRank and how the lack of them would affect how I appeared in search engine page results (SERPS).

I read so many marketing blogs my head was spinning like the girl in the Exorcist movie.

It’s not until I stopped fussing about that stuff and just started to write about the things that I enjoy or find useful that certain thing’s started to fall into place.

The most important thing I have learned is that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is important and it works. Optimising your posts will help you rank better in search engine page results.

At the start of this project I set myself the goal of appearing on page two of Google’s search results, as I couldn’t imagine competing with the best of the best. But who are the best and why did I think that I could never have relevant content that would end up on page one?

Going through my analytics and looking at the keywords people used to get to my site, I realised that I already have content that appeared high in Google’s search results. Not only that, some of the content was old and not optimised in any way. All I did back then was write about what I loved.

So I’ve gone back to doing that and found that I ranked quite high on a couple of search terms.  Who knew that obsessing about Scandal withdrawal would get me there?

And looking at the dates of the other sites, it seems I was one of the first to talk about Ray Donovan in relation to Scandal. There’s a lesson right there: be unique or be a leader.

Writing a useful how-to blog post got me placed at number two in results.

So despite having no Google PageRank and a low domain rank my posts appear on page one. Content will always be king! So stop stressing and start blogging.

And remember search engines aren’t the only game in town. Long before Google it was important to be sociable, joining in with conversations on forums, newsgroups and other blogs. I haven’t been doing much of that outside of Pinterest and Tumblr.

There are many ways to market your blog just don’t get bogged down to the point where blogging becomes a chore and don’t forget to be sociable.

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