I hear from a lot of bloggers who worry about SEO. Many times they ask me what they should do to improve their SEO and what I do to improve mine.
Here's the deal: I hardly spend any time on SEO.
It's true. Sure, I try to do the basics (click here to see my SEO tips), but that mostly consists of simple habits I can incorporate into my regular blogging rituals that don't eat up a lot of extra time (or money).
I've always been a proponent of good content first. But what do I know, right? Admittedly not a whole lot.
But maybe Matt Cutts from Google might know a few things. Take it from him. He's the guy in the know. I hope this video alleviates some of your fears:
Can't see the video? Watch it here.
Bottom line?
Is SEO real? Yes. Is good SEO helpful? Sure (again, here are my tips if you need 'em). But if you're like me and you've got limited time to devote to blogging, stress less about SEO.
Write good stuff! Write helpful stuff! Get involved in community. Be authentic. Build relationships and let your great content work for itself. Then, when you're making the big bucks and can hire someone to do it for you, maybe you'll consider investing some time and/or money into improving your SEO. Or, just take small steps a little at a time.
Really, blogging is such a small part of my life. I've got so much on my plate. If I wanted, I could easily spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week fine-tuning my blog to give it an "edge" (perceived anyway).
But life is too short! I have a husband and small people who depend on me. I've only got so many hours in the day. Life's all about tradeoffs. At this point in my life and "blogging career," I don't want to trade my relationships for top-notch SEO.
I'll invest what little blogging time I have in great content instead.
Here at BloggingWithAmy you'll find tips, tools & tutorials about blogging and websites. In plain English. Want to 
This is encouraging! Considering I know NEXT TO NOTHING about SEO, and what I do know, I haven't learned how to properly implement, I feel like a failure when I read on the subject.
Sooooo…. it's nice to know that someone who actually knows how to do it, doesn't put a great deal of effort into it. Like you said, there are only so many hours a day, and I have other people depending on me! 
Amen! I "hired" Jesus as my SEO manager long ago and He is doing a really good job. ha ha! Seriously-I don't give it much thought and things are working out just fine. Little people are much more important so I just trust the growth and reach of my blogs to God. For years I didn't even know what SEO stood for!
Love it, Carisa.
Carisa, this is why I love you!
It's great to hear a blogger say blogging is a small part of her life. More people need "permission" to put blogging in it's place. Love the message behind this post, Amy.
Thanks, Michelle. Yep, I love blogging but I'm constantly trying to keep everything in balance. Not easy!
Some of my highest SERP posts are as a result of not doing anything with SEO. It baffles some of the SEO experts I know!
I've always been about quality content over quantity and in the deal space that's rare I think but it's proven to be effective for me. I am more about quality of life than just discounting SEO in general (or any other time suckers at that).
I don't think SEO should be completely discounted though, even if you aren't making big bucks. You should do the basics as you suggested. However, depending on the niche, it would definitely be valuable for someone to look at things strategically rather than just keywords because they are very different.
Oh, and Google isn't the only search engine. It just one of the most popular ones. As any good SEO expert will tell you find under-optimized keywords and go after that. The search engines can be a very interesting place to focus efforts as well.
I'm right there with ya on highly-trafficked posts from search that I didn't SEO-optimize at all. Funny how that happens. But I'll take it! To me it's another indication that there are lots of factors involved in successful posts (or successful blogs).
I certainly don't want to come across as discounting SEO completely. Not at all. I'm mainly writing in response to those I hear from (mostly new bloggers) who are totally overwhelmed by the subject and wonder if their neglect of SEO is going to automatically doom their blog to fail. I'm also addressing the need for every blogger to figure out a rhythm that works for them.
Personally for me, SEO is one thing that has gotten pushed down further on my to-do list in favor of other things (both online and offline). Actually, there's a whole lot that gets pushed down my to-do list in favor of other things, lol! (This site needs a major overhaul in lots of ways.) I'll get to it someday.
Thanks for your input, Andrea!
This is fine for those that are just doing blogging as a hobby. But for those that want to be serious, and actually grow their blogs as a business or supplement to their business, SEO shouldn't be discounted lightly.
While others struggle in the middle of summer to keep traffic going, those that optimize for just a few key terms make it through just fine.
In a market that is constantly flooded with new blogs every single day, and where companies like Facebook continue to change so that pages are no longer seen, SEO is one of the main ways professional blogs will survive the next five years. Mark my words.
Content is King, but SEO is Queen. And Kings survives longer if the Queen is still on the board.
I definitely don't want to give the impression that I'm discounting SEO, just looking at it from a different angle perhaps (see response to Andrea above).
One more thought: Once you get the hang of SEO, it takes very little time. I spend a few minutes a day on it and I've been seeing tremendous rewards (ie. #1 on Google, Bing and Yahoo for certain terms).
You're my hero.
I've been focusing very hard on SEO lately, but it's nice to know that on days/weeks that I don't get the time to do it, that it won't be detrimental.
Thanks Amy!
I've recently started "working" on SEO… mainly being mindful of using keywords in my titles, writing keyword rich intro paragraphs, and naming photos with keywords. Also, I have an SEO plugin I use to tell the search engines what I want them to share for each post. In total, I *might* add an extra 5 minutes to each post I write. It's definitely not something to stress over!
P.S. I have a number of posts that I have done NO SEO work on, and they get lots of great hits. Just be sure to optimize these posts well!
thank you thank you thank you for posting this. thank you. i have been struggling and discouraged the past few days. thank you!!!!!
THANK YOU! I just cancelled a pricey account with a SEO firm. Just didn't feel right: not real relationship building. I fretted over it a bunch though, so this post came a just the perfect time! Thanks!
Yeah Amy!! I agree with you..
Blogging is something where you need readership not viewership. Even if you get good traffic on your blog using proper SEO techniques, still you require quality content to convert those traffic into readers or most commonly known as subscribers.
I have more recently been working on SEO. But it is an extra step that I don't *feel* like doing, especially as I get more and more on my plate! Thanks Amy!
The content is for enticing the readers but SEO is for bringing them to read it in the first place! But there is nothing to worry – With time, blogs/websites organically get popular if the content is great.
Great advice. It's amazing how you can get sucked into the computer and posting comments on other blogs. Before you know it the day and evening is over and you've spent little time if any with your family. Although difficult to do at times, I'm learning to put my priorities in order. After all family is most important.
As you mentioned Amy, if you have good content that's half the battle – not that mine is always great but it shows when it's at it's best.
Nice, Amy. Shared on FB. I think all of us bloggers (especially the mommy bloggers) need this.
Thanks, Adrienne!
I have no idea what your talking about, which show I spend NO time on stuff like this…but I'm totally with you!
You are crackin' me up. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is making doing things to make your posts more readable for the search engines in the hopes that you'll land close to the top of search results for specific keywords. Here's more I've written if you're interested.
Does this Matt guy from Google actually READ people's blogs to see how they should rank in the searches?? Does he have people doing this? (Am I really this dumb and admitting it here?)
All I know is that the handful of folks who read my blog really like it. They are mostly people who know and like me and/or my work, not folks just roaming cyberspace looking for a blog by a rural California artist.
Should I learn more about this SEO stuff so I can become the Pioneer Woman of the artworld? Nah. I'm busy making art.
Nope, you're not dumb (no one is dumb around here). Good question. It all has to do with fancy formulas (called algorithms) that is all done by computers.
I definitely enjoyed this post, but I also really need some good, easy tips on improving my SEO. Like, how do I change the url of my pages so it says something like http://www.mysite.com/coolstuff here instead of http://www.mysite.com/pg.500, which is what I've got going now. Anybody know?
I have definitely focused on building good content and relationships, but I do get frustrated when I do a Google search and see that some random skeleton of a site that hasn't been updated in Two Years is coming up before mine. I just know everyone would love me, if only they could find me!
I've actually considered purchasing a premium theme, mainly because I've heard they come with better SEO out of the box. If anyone has experienced this, I'd love to know.
Btw, if you're wondering how well your site comes up in searches, make sure you turn on private browsing. If you're searching for your own site with your history on, it's probably returning it way higher than it's actually ranking for others. I think I learned that from Crystal's site.
Thanks again for all the food for thought, Amy!
PS
I hope my comments didn't come off as negative.
I definitely agree with you on prioritizing. In fact, good content first has been my mantra since the start, thanks in no small part to you! And I also have small people who need me more than the blogosphere!
So, I'm replying to myself here, but I found an article at Crystal's site and figured out how to change the titles (I guess permalinks is the right word).
Anyway, if anyone else is wondering, go to settings and change permalinks. Mine was defaulting to a number option, which I'm sure did nothing for my SEO!
I also forgot to mention that one of my mistakes starting out was giving my site a too clever title. I'm not changing it Now, but if I was doing it all over, I think I would have thought more about what potential readers would be searching for when I named my space from the get-go. I did learn not to be so clever with my titles. I love a good pun, but again, my humorous pun tittles did nothing for the bots trying to figure out my content!
Yes, permalinks are the issue. I wrote about them here. You've gotta be careful doing this though once your blog is established because if you have a lot of backlink (i.e. if others have linked to your posts, those links will have changed and therefore will be dead if anyone clicks on them). There are plugins to correct them (although the effectiveness of them is not completely guaranteed). I haven't used it myself, but I'd try Change Permalink Helper (search via your Dashboard –> Plugins –> Add New).
Oh, gosh! Thanks so much! I'll try that.
I guess it wasn't quite as easy as I thought (darn!)
I rarely worry about SEO, as you said just the basics. We have had huge success and it's not been through google's help.
It's far too time consuming, difficult and Google always change their rules. i'd rather focus my energies on areas, like good content and social media,, that have far better return on my time investment
I try to do the basics..guess where I learned em..Yep right here! I LOVE that you said that you have whole other life. Sometimes I think all everyone does is Blog and I'm the only one trying to have a life and Blog..Of course this is not true, but time is limited and we do need to decide what is most important
Thank you Amy for giving permission to have a life HA! Let's see I think I should write an ebook.."Everything I learned from Amy and More"…LOL JK
Blessings Amy
Amy, this is off the subject slightly, but would you mind telling me which plugin you use in WP to link your social accounts (FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) to your website? RRS Graffiti? Networked Blogs? I am currently using Networked Blogs but noticed other sites are using something different and I would like to know whay you recommend.
Thank you very much! Love your site!
It's called Sharebar (searchable via your WordPress Dashboard).
Thank you so much!
I spend a little time on SEO but not much. Most of it is pretty intuitive.
If I'm writing a post, I try to use headlines and title tags that people will search for. It's not really about changing my content but phrasing it in such a way that I'm using the language that people use when they search.
I think it's actually a very useful, long-term investment. You may not notice an immediate boost. In fact, you almost surely won't. But good practices over time will begin to pay off more and more. Go ahead and get the good practices now of good title tags and descriptions – then when you get the backlinks, you'll be good to go.
Thanks! I have tried to read up on it more, but haven't figured out much. Lots of times I get people coming to my site for random stuff that I would have never thought of. Love how blogging is gentle to learners. Each day or month I figure out more
gr8…..thanks..
I've heard that writing good guest posts will create a better return on time invested than SEO, but maybe guest posts are included under the SEO umbrella? I'm a little green.
I decided to focus this week on improving my site's appearance before promoting it any more. I switched from a free theme to a paid theme. I had to scale back on my promotion efforts while I spent time on design and technical tweaks–with my rusty skills in these areas. I have no money at the moment to hire a designer. But I plan to hire one eventually.
Should I have outsourced the design, and worked on SEO? I don't know. The thing is, I used to be a web designer – BUT there's a reason I am not one anymore. Since I have more experience in HTML and CSS than SEO, I took a chance spending my time on the design in the short-term. I feel my site at least looks respectable even if it doesn't blow me away. Time will tell if the gamble pays off.
I have noticed a drop-off in traffic this week, and I am not sure if traffic drop-off is due to my scaled back SEO efforts or something else. I have been consistently writing. I just tell myself to keep on writing.
I think your site looks Fantastic! I'm also a baby name addict!
Do you read the babynamewizard blog? Lots of smart, name loving moms over there.
One thing: I don't see any way to contact you. That could be important.
You also might want to think about a way to engage your readers-could you have a poll section or a forum (of course then you'd have to moderate it). People Love to get and give opinions on baby names, so that's what I'd think about.
I'm no expert-your space looks way fancier than I mine, but I've spent really waaay too much time on baby name sites, so I thought I'd throw those thoughts out to you. I think you're on to something with what folks are looking for. Good Luck!
Thank you so much for the kind words and great suggestions. I used to have my email in the widget area, and it sort of got lost when I redesigned and I forgot to add it back – ooops. Eventually I want to add a contact form once I decide the best way to do it.
The poll is a great idea. Maybe I can add a poll to my "spotlight name" posts to get people's opinion on the featured names.
I have an idea for an e-book down the line. I also plan to add an "about" page.
I sometimes read the babynamewizard blog – it is one of the blogs featured on my Name Tips & Tolls page.
Thanks again for the encouragement! And your site looks great!
Amy, This is a great post! I am just getting started and stuggle with SEO verses content, as in which to work on in the little time I have for my blog. I think you are setting a wonderful example by showing that you place your famiy before your "career" if you will. Money and fame aren't all they're made out to be and your children will only be yours for a short time. Merry Christmas!
Well, I'm definitely not the picture of work/life balance but I try.
Let me tell you, I have (sadly and regretfully) put my work before my family on many occasions but I am committed to getting a good rhythm worked out. Merry Christmas to you and yours as well!