The document provides tips for bloggers on how to improve writing and increase search engine visibility. It recommends adding a secondary subject to niche blogs to stand out more, writing long form posts of 300-500 words to gain Google's attention and increase crawling, and strategizing blog posts to potentially compile into a book. It also suggests using proper tags and categories, paying close attention to titles, and hiring an editor to take writing to the next level.

1. How to Make Your
Writing Sing
Session Two
No One Hears an Unsung
Melody
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2. What’s SERP Got to Do with It?
If you type “design blogs” into an
incognito search in Google, there are
over one-billion SERP returns. I
recommend that you add a secondary
subject to your niche to make
yourself stand out. My tag comes up
on page 2 of a “literary design” search
with over 119,000,000 results.
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3. Write to Your Audience
Your readers are your most important audience but if you
never gain Google’s attention, how will new readers find you
so that you can grow your base?
It’s called relevance.
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4. Write Well and Long for Google
I am often asked why I
write such long posts—
the point being that
people don’t have time to
read these days. I write
them so Google will
respect my content
enough to crawl my site
often and rank me highly
on the subjects I cover.
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Learn about Hummingbird, Panda and Penguin Algorithm Tweaks

5. Give Your Writing a Cohesive
World to Thrive Within
• Understand tags and categories and write informative
descriptions. Mine (above) comes up on page 2 of a search
for “fashion influences design” with over 500,000 results.
• Pay Close Attention to Titles—I come up on page 4 of a
search for a subject as significant as “Horace Walpole.”
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6. Write to Expand Your Reach
I was recently approached by “Tudor Times,” a UK-based site,
to write paid articles for them. Though it may seem far from
relevant, even design and architecture in medieval times can
bring about writing opportunities if you love the subject.
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7. Think Beyond the Blog
If you are blogging every
day, why not come out of
the effort with a book?
Strategize posts smartly and
you will have a book with
little extra effort. I did so
with my blog “The Road to
Promise,” which I wrote
post-by-post over several
years and then published
last year as “Stranded on
the Road to Promise.”
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8. Take Courses or Hire an Editor
To take your writing to the
next level, take composition
courses or hire an editor.
With a helpmate, you could
benefit from just a few
exchanges or an ongoing
relationship. I am offering
today’s attendees a page
worth of edits gratis. If you
are interested, I have cards
on the desk here with details.
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I hope you’ve benefitted from the workshop. Questions anyone?

9. TIPS and TO-DOs
• Know where you stand by doing an incognito search on Chrome, and
putting in your blog name and phrases of subjects you write about.
• A minimum of 300 words per post and 500 words is even better for
ranking on Google.
• Study the Hummingbird, Panda and Penguin tweaks on MOZ.com to
understand how to improve your relevance.
• Properly manage categories and tags so that you rank well. Add the SEO
Yoast plugin to your site to learn how.
• Pay close attention to titles to give yourself a leg-up.
• When you are strategizing your posts, think about how they might flow
into a book and come out of your efforts with a published work to show
for it; for any long piece like that, do yourself a favor and hire an editor.
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