Have a blog and want to express your thoughts to the world?

Just like in the traditional publishing space there are logical reasons why SEO experts, copywriters, keyword tools and editors exist. Original, relevant and unique content are the keys to the kingdom when it comes to SERP rankings.

While its possible to buy links, trade links, purchase a great domain name or use social media to boost awareness of your blog no greater long term tool can trump original relevant content.

It is a known fact of human nature that we all get topic ideas from other sources (very few people have such brilliant minds they can create one topic after another without ever reading somebody else’s work) but how do you prove to the search engines your content is really unique and avoid getting penalized for duplicate content?

Blogging is a LOT of work and the more popular your blog becomes the more work is involved. In fact, it seems impossible to imagine how much work really goes into a successful blog before you begin. Every day becomes more demanding with writing articles, creating topics, learning about monetization, managing subscriptions, coding etc. Some would call us superheroes, others call us nerds but whatever the title is bloggers spend much more time at the computer working than simply playing video games.

(I do not expect your spouse to think you have a real job but its ok – others bloggers will)

The following TIPS are MUST-Do’s before you publish any article online if you want a real attempt at breaking into Google’s highly coveted first page.

1)Research Keywords

Think about the title of your next article and research keywords using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Make sure there is some exact search for the main topic article. It’s not necessary to go after the big words like car insurance right away since the competition is extremely tough but at least try to find a term with some kind of exact match and incorporate an article around that keyword.

2) Google Your Topic

Once you have a topic chosen do a Google search and take a look at the SERP results. If the fist page of results contains nothing but super premium brand names it might be worth considering alternative keywords with less competition. Think about the odds of a new blog outranking CNN and the Wall Street Journal right away.

3) Write your Article

While its acceptable to take ideas from another article it is never ok to copy and paste an article and simply add a few lines. You need to focus on originality here and find your own words to explain a topic. There are 100’s of lists around topics such as cheap car insurance or how to save money but it’s still possible to tell people how to find deals in your own words. It may take time at first but eventually you will get a rhythm going.

4) CopyScape Everything

CopyScape is the most popular online plagiarism tool which can quickly tell you whether or not your article contains duplicate content already on the web. This is highly important and you have to remember:

“Duplicate content is NOT original content”

While certain words will always be included from one similar topic to another its important your article as a whole is unique. CopyScape is smart enough to (a) tell you how much of your content matches existing content on the web and (b) who you possibly stole it from. You can also create a private index which is very useful for running articles through your own published content for a duplication check. Not all pages are indexed right away and having a private index can help you triple check your work.

After these 4 steps you now have a pretty original article ready to go but what about the SEObenefit? Imagine writing an original book at this stage. Would you simply hand the book over to a publisher and expect them to publish it as is?

5) Apply and Learn about on page SEO

This is where relevant image choosing, tags and SEO comes in. If you are using a content management system like Joomla or WordPress then look at plug-ins like ScribeSEO where you can get automatic feedback about your SEO score within your CMS control panel in just a few seconds.

It is also a really good idea at this stage to try and get a grip on SEO as if you keep blogging I promise one day you will come back and redo all the pages with SEO information you only wish you knew back then.

We all want to be millionaires blogging from home but the days of just putting up content and hoping people will come are gone. Every article you post must be treated as a contribution to the world of original relevant content we live and search engines are building.