This all starts with sitting back and figuring out who really reads your blog.

For these purposes, let’s consider two basic categories of user: existing and new.

>>> Existing Users

These are the guys who visit your blog regularly, have subscribed to your RSS and are, well, fans.  They are the keystones of any successful blog and make it all worthwhile.

Keep in mind that the real building blocks of keeping your existing audience are:

1) Interest – there’s a LOT to read out there.  What sets your content apart and continues the overall theme of your blog.  If you don’t get this right, go back to square one.

2) Snappiness – without meaning to repeat myself, there’s a lot to read out there! Even the best content must have a snap to it; be easily digestible and quickly digestible.

3) Keyword (or just ‘concept’ relevance) – many, many people scan content for what they’re looking for.  It’s human nature, partly. What we’re NOT talking about here is SEO – that’s a whole different topic covered below and elsewhere on ClubBlogger.  We’re talking about the hooks of interest that appeal to human readers, not just those spiders out there indexing pages.

By getting some of this right, or all of it, time and time again you will build up and keep a loyal following of readers and really deliver value for them.

>>> New Users – the Google effect

We cover search engine optimization elsewhere. In depth.  But for these purposes we’re focusing on the title of your post.

Your writing alone, no matter how great and no matter how much your existing readers love it, just won’t cut it with the search engines.

The quick list of SEO title success:

1) Optimize your TITLE (the title tag).  When your first post, it will probably match the title of your post. But you can optimize it to appeal to the engines by using the right keywords in the right way.

2) Add keywords to the title of your post.  You know, or really should know, what keywords you’re looking to develop and use. Whilst interesting titles may work for existing readers or people who have already landed on your blog via an in-bound link, for example, the engines love keywords.  Don’t stray from it.

3) Don’t confuse changing your post title with changing your permalinks.  You neglect your permalinks at your peril. It’s a whole topic in itself, but learn more about it and we’ll post more on the topic soon.

4) Don’t optimize wording to the extent that it makes the substance of the wording ridiculous!  Technically this spans both pieces of advice, here: human readers like titles that make sense. But you know what, so do robots (because they’re ultimately based on keywords which are ultimately typed by humans!) Think about it and be sensible.

Work on these elements, and more we cover elsewhere, to build the worth of your blog, its popularity and ultimately its traffic.

Good luck.

CB