Make your blog posts personal. Stories are the most powerful tools you can have in your writing. For those of you who have read my columns over the years, you know a lot about me, and you know about my son, now 16 and still a professional actor. I speak of him a lot and others in my family or from my life's experiences. Why do stories work? Because we can more easily relate to someone's story. Maybe we have similar stories or characters in our lives, making the point of the story (which there always should be) more identifiable.

Also, stories go a long way to helping strangers get to know, like and trust you over time. Writing your blog posts to be read is all about making your message understandable, approachable and relatable. But we're only half way to successfully blogging.

Write to be found

Besides writing your blog posts to be read, you have to write so your blog posts can be found. That's where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play, along with keywords and meta tags.

When you complete a search in Google, the results are formatted in such a way that you have the "SEO title," the link to the article or page and the "meta description" which is limited generally to 156 characters. Although this is what you're presented with, the Google algorithm actually searches other places to evaluate and determine the value of the piece of information.

The subject matter and the way you write your copy can determine how easily your post will be found online and where it will appear in the search results. As an example, the focus keywords I used for this article are "writing," "blog," and "read." When this article is published online, repetition of these words will validate for Google that the article is really about this topic.

My website—RGGCommunications.com—is a WordPress site and I use a plugin called SEO by Yoast. It's a great tool in that it guides me to make changes in the copy to position each post for the best SEO results. In the Admin Tool I can make small changes, click on "refresh" and check the updated analysis to see how I'm doing in terms of if and how often my keywords are in the:

• Article heading
• Page title
• Page URL
• Content
• Meta description.

There are many SEO tools and plug-ins from which to choose. I would recommend finding one that's easy for you to use and implement it. I generally write my column first, not thinking much about SEO, and go back as part of my editing process to make sure I've selected the right keywords and used them throughout the copy, headlines, and so on. 

As you look back at some of your blog posts, check them against the SEO filter that Google and other search engines use and see what small word changes you could have made that would have enhanced their search rankings.

Then think about the post from your readers' perspective. Who were you writing this post for and did they get it? Did they relate to the stories? Did they understand your message and, most of all, did they get to know, like and trust you just a bit more? If the answers to those questions are yes, then keep doing what you're doing. If they're no, then consider making some adjustments. Remember, writing your blog posts to be found can be the most powerful content you will produce and effective at getting your messages across.

Rick Gilman, APR, CMP, is executive director of the Personal Lines Growth Alliance, a virtual association dedicated to improving the competitiveness of the independent agency distribution channel within the personal lines market. He also is president of RGG Communications, a communications and public relations consulting business specializing in mobile and emarketing solutions. Contact him at [email protected].