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SEO is one of those things every blogger eventually hears about. But how much should the average blogger really care about it?

That is something I have been thinking about lately. I know what SEO is, I use some of the available tools, and I do pay attention to what happens with my posts in Google. But SEO is not the reason I blog. I write because I enjoy it, I like sharing ideas, I like the interaction with readers, and, hopefully, I occasionally write something that is funny, interesting or informative.

So I thought I would share what I do with SEO and, more importantly, ask what you do.

What My Blog Numbers Really Tell Me

How Important Is SEO to a Blogger?

I suspect SEO matters very differently depending on what kind of blog you have.

The vast majority of people blogging on WordPress are probably doing it because they enjoy writing and sharing their content. WordPress itself provides an ecosystem where people can find your posts, follow you, subscribe, like them and leave comments.

For that type of blogger, SEO may not be a major concern.

Then you have websites that depend heavily on Google traffic. Think about large publishing sites, sports websites, news organizations, or bloggers who have built a business around a particular niche. For them, SEO can be extremely important because search traffic can directly affect their income.

And then there are people like me.

I care about SEO a little.

I experiment with it.

I use some of the tools.

I look at the data.

But I am not going to completely change the way I write because an SEO plugin tells me that I need another 400 words.

My philosophy is pretty simple:

Write a good article first. Then make it easier for people to find.

That seems like a reasonable balance.

So What Do I Actually Do?

I use two tools that are particularly useful to me: Rank Math and Google Site Kit.

They do very different things.

Rank Math helps me look at the article itself and identify things I may have missed.

Google Site Kit helps me look at what actually happens after I publish it.

That distinction is important.

One is helping me optimize the article.

The other is giving me data.

And actual data is considerably more interesting than guessing.

Start With a Good Title

Before worrying about keywords, headings or anything else, write a title that tells people what the article is about.

A clever title is fine, but if nobody can figure out what the article is about, it may not help much.

For example:

Some Thoughts About Retirement

is pretty vague.

Compare that with:

What I Learned About Retirement After Two Years

The second one gives the reader a much better idea of what they are going to get.

A good title should do two things:

Tell the reader what the article is about and make them want to read it.

That sounds obvious, but it is probably one of the most important things you can do.

Your Opening Matters Too

The opening paragraph should tell the reader what they are about to read.

It is also a natural place to establish the main subject of the article.

If you are writing about retirement travel, for example, phrases such as:

retirement travel, traveling after retirement, retirement travel tips

might naturally appear in the opening.

The key word there is naturally.

Don’t write for Google.

Write for people.

If you make it clear to the reader what the article is about, you are also making it easier for a search engine to understand the subject.

What Exactly Is a Keyword?

This was one of the things that confused me when I first started learning about SEO.

A keyword isn’t necessarily one word.

It can be a phrase or even a question.

Basically, it is something someone might type into Google when looking for the information you are writing about.

Suppose you write an article about blogging.

Someone might search for:

• how to start a blog
• blogging tips
• how to write a blog post
• how to get traffic to a blog
• blog SEO tips

You don’t need to force all of those phrases into your article.

Instead, ask yourself a simple question:

If I wanted to find this information on Google, what would I type?

That is probably a much more useful way of thinking about keywords than looking for some magical SEO word.

Unlocking Blog Insights: Using AI as a Productivity Assistant

Use Headings to Organize Your Writing

Headings are not just there to make an article look pretty.

They help readers scan an article and understand how it is organized. They also give search engines additional information about the structure of your content.

Generally, your main title is the H1.

Major sections are H2.

Subsections can be H3.

You don’t need to use H1 through H6 simply because WordPress gives you all those choices.

Use the heading level that makes sense.

The goal is organization, not collecting SEO points.

Link to Your Own Older Articles

This is one of the easiest things a blogger can do.

When I write a new article, I can look back through my older posts and find something related.

If I am writing about retirement, I can link to another retirement article.

If I am writing about Brazil, I can link to another article about Brazil.

If I am reviewing a book, I can link to another book review.

These are called internal links, because they connect pages within your own website.

And they make sense even if you don’t care about SEO.

They give readers another article to read.

They keep people moving around your site.

And they help search engines understand how your content is related.

Instead of simply writing:

Click here to read my other article.

I can write something like:

I previously wrote about what I learned after retiring and moving to Brazil.

Then link those words to the older article.

That’s better for the reader and more useful from an SEO standpoint.

Don’t Be Afraid to Link Outside Your Site

External links can also be useful.

If I am discussing a historical fact, I might link to a reliable historical source.

If I use statistics, I can link to the organization that produced them.

If I am discussing a book, movie or historical event, I can link to an appropriate authoritative source.

Again, the purpose isn’t to collect links.

Add a link because it makes the article better.

That should be the rule.

Your Blog Data – What Does It Say

Make the Article Easy to Read

This is another area where good writing and SEO overlap.

Nobody wants to open an article and see a giant wall of text.

Use:

• Shorter paragraphs
• Headings
• Lists when appropriate
• Images
• Bold text when it helps
• Plenty of white space

People scan articles before deciding whether they want to read them.

Make it easy for them to figure out what they are going to get.

And this is where I think some SEO advice gets things backward.

If you make an article easier for a human being to read, you are probably doing a lot of things right from an SEO perspective too.

Use Images Properly

Images make a blog more interesting, but there are a couple of simple things you can do to make them more useful.

Instead of uploading an image called:

IMG_4837.jpg

give it a descriptive name such as:

retirement-travel-brazil.jpg

And use descriptive alt text.

The alt text should describe what is actually in the image.

Don’t turn it into a pile of keywords.

Again, the rule is pretty simple:

Describe the image for people first.

Rank Math: Useful Tool or SEO Religion?

I use Rank Math.

It gives me an SEO score and checks an article against a number of recommendations.

That’s useful.

But I have learned not to worship the number.

If Rank Math gives me a 50, I may look at what it is telling me.

If it gives me a 90, I may look at what it is telling me.

But if I have a well-written article that makes sense to a human being and Rank Math says it is a 75, I am not going to spend an hour trying to turn it into a 100 just because the number is staring at me.

Rank Math is a guide and a checklist. It is not Google handing out report cards.

A higher Rank Math score does not mean Google has decided your article is better than an article with a lower score.

The important question isn’t:

Did I get 100?

It is:

Did I write something worth reading?

If the answer is yes, I’m pretty happy.

Google Site Kit Is Where It Gets Interesting

Rank Math tells me things about the article.

Google Site Kit can help tell me what happened after I published it.

Site Kit can connect WordPress with several Google services, including Search Console and Google Analytics.

For someone interested in SEO, I think Search Console and Analytics are particularly useful.

Search Console can show things such as:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Click-through rate
• Average search position
• Search queries

And this is where SEO becomes less about guessing and more about looking at actual information.

What Do Impressions and Clicks Actually Mean?

Suppose Google shows your article in search results 1,000 times.

That’s 1,000 impressions.

If 50 people click on it, you have:

50 clicks.

Your click-through rate, or CTR, is:

50 ÷ 1,000 = 5%

So, very simply:

Impressions = how many times your result appeared in search.

Clicks = how many times someone clicked it.

CTR = the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click.

That information can tell you something.

Suppose an article gets:

10,000 impressions

but only:

100 clicks

That’s a 1% CTR.

That doesn’t automatically mean the article is bad.

Maybe the title isn’t compelling.

Maybe the description isn’t making people want to click.

Maybe the article is appearing for searches that aren’t really what you intended.

The data gives you something to investigate.

Average Position Can Also Tell You Something

Search Console also reports an average search position.

Imagine you have an article that is getting impressions and averaging around position 12 for relevant searches.

That’s very different from an article averaging position 80.

An article already getting reasonable visibility may be worth improving.

You might look at:

• The title
• The opening paragraph
• Headings
• Internal links
• Missing information
• External sources
• The meta description
• Whether the article actually answers the searcher’s question

Sometimes the answer isn’t to write another article.

Sometimes the answer is to make an existing article better.

Don’t Forget Your Older Posts

This may be one of the biggest opportunities for anyone who has been blogging for a while.

You probably have older articles that were written before you knew much about SEO.

Maybe they have:

• Weak titles
• Few internal links
• Poor headings
• Weak introductions
• Old information
• Weak descriptions
• No links to newer related articles

But some of those old articles may still be getting impressions and clicks from Google.

That makes them interesting.

Instead of constantly asking:

What should I write next?

you can sometimes ask:

What have I already written that has potential?

That is a very different question.

Use Your SEO Data as a Report Card

Rather than simply looking at your WordPress dashboard and saying, “I got more visitors this month,” look at the actual search data.

Ask:

Which posts get the most impressions?

Which posts get the most clicks?

Which posts have lots of impressions but relatively few clicks?

What search terms are people actually using to find my articles?

Which articles are already appearing reasonably well in search?

Which older articles are still getting search traffic?

Those questions can reveal opportunities you might never see simply by looking at your website.

This Is Where AI Can Actually Be Useful

I think this is one of the more interesting uses of AI for a blogger.

You can export your Search Console data and give it to an AI tool such as ChatGPT or Gemini.

But don’t just say:

“Analyze this report.”

Give it a job.

For example:

Analyze this Google Search Console report for my blog.

Identify older posts receiving significant impressions but relatively few clicks.

Identify posts with reasonable average search positions that may be candidates for improvement.

Identify the search queries people are actually using to find my articles.

Look for articles where the search queries don’t appear to match the current title.

Identify opportunities for internal links between related articles.

Give me a prioritized list of posts worth reviewing and explain what I should consider changing.

Do not rewrite the articles. I want recommendations for improving my existing content while preserving my original writing style and voice.

Now you aren’t asking AI to write your blog.

You are asking it to analyze your data and help you decide where your time might be best spent.

I think that’s a much more useful application of AI.

You Can Even Analyze an Individual Article

Suppose your Search Console report tells you that a three-year-old article has:

15,000 impressions

300 clicks

2% CTR

and an average position around 10.

That article deserves a closer look.

You can give AI the article and its search data and ask it to identify opportunities involving the title, introduction, headings, internal links and missing information.

The important part is that you aren’t asking AI to replace your writing.

You are asking it to help you understand what the data is telling you.

Now you have something much more useful than generic SEO advice.

You have real search data connected to your actual article.

But Don’t Chase Every Number

This is important.

Data needs context.

A low CTR doesn’t automatically mean an article needs to be rewritten.

A search result sitting at position 50 may not be worth spending three hours fixing.

And a high number of impressions doesn’t automatically mean an article is successful.

Look for patterns.

For example:

High impressions + reasonable position + low CTR

might suggest looking at the title or search-result description.

Low impressions + poor position

might mean the article needs more substantial work, or that the subject simply doesn’t have much search demand.

Good clicks + good engagement

might mean the article is already doing its job.

The point isn’t to chase every number.

The point is to find opportunities.

How Long Should a Blog Post Be?

This is another question that comes up constantly in SEO.

How many words should a blog post have?

My answer is:

As many as the article needs, and no more.

I don’t believe you should turn a 600-word article into a 2,000-word article simply because you think Google has a magic word-count requirement.

If you can completely answer a question in 600 words, stop at 600 words.

If a subject requires 2,000 words to explain properly, write 2,000 words.

A personal story might work perfectly at 700 words.

A book review might need 1,500.

A detailed how-to guide might need 2,000 or more.

A history article might need considerably more.

The subject should determine the length.

Don’t add fluff.

If you’ve said everything you need to say, stop writing.

Readers can tell when an article has been padded.

And longer does not automatically mean better.

I’d much rather read a well-written 800-word article that answers my question than a 2,500-word article that takes 1,700 words to get to the point.

And with a personal blog like BeingKevin, there is another consideration.

Sometimes the story determines the length.

If I have a story to tell, I’m going to tell the story.

I’m not going to count words and stop in the middle because I hit some imaginary SEO limit.

My Simple SEO Process

If I had to reduce everything I’ve learned into a simple process, it would look something like this:

Before publishing

• Write a clear and interesting title
• Know what the article is about
• Think about the words someone might search for
• Write a strong opening
• Use logical headings
• Add relevant internal links
• Add useful external links when appropriate
• Use a good image
• Write descriptive alt text
• Write a useful excerpt or meta description
• Use Rank Math as a checklist

After publishing

• Look at Search Console
• Watch impressions
• Watch clicks
• Watch CTR
• Look at average position
• Look at the actual search queries
• See which older posts continue to receive search traffic

Every so often

• Review older posts
• Find articles with lots of impressions but weak CTR
• Find articles with reasonable positions that might be improved
• Add internal links between related articles
• Update outdated information
• Use your data to decide which articles deserve your attention
• Use AI to analyze the data rather than replace your voice

The Bottom Line

For me, SEO is a tool.

It isn’t the reason I blog.

I don’t want an SEO plugin determining what I write, how long I write it or when I should stop.

I want to write something interesting.

Something funny.

Something informative.

Sometimes all three.

Then I want to give that article the best chance of being found.

That’s where SEO makes sense to me.

Use keywords naturally.

Write good titles.

Use headings.

Link to related articles.

Use useful external sources.

Make your articles easy to read.

Use images properly.

Use Rank Math to catch things you may have missed.

Use Site Kit and Search Console to see what is actually happening.

And every once in a while, go back and look at the articles you have already written.

You may discover that one of them is getting thousands of impressions.

You may discover people are finding an article using a search phrase you never considered.

You may discover that an article sitting around position 10 could potentially be improved.

Or you may discover that nobody is searching for something you thought was incredibly important.

That’s useful information too.

But I think the biggest mistake is allowing SEO to become more important than the reason you started blogging in the first place.

Write something worth reading.

Make it easy to understand.

Make it easy to find.

Then look at the data and learn from it.

SEO should help people find your writing.

It shouldn’t determine how you write it.

So now I’m curious:

What are your strategies for SEO?

Do you pay close attention to keywords, rankings and Search Console?

Do you use plugins like Rank Math?

Or do you pretty much write what you want and let Google figure it out?

I’d really like to know what other bloggers are doing.