Blogger Toolbelt

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If you decide to create a blog and hope to get a following (and make some money), you should understand it is going to take some work. But like most work, if you want to do the job well, there are tools to help make it easier to do your best. Blogging is no different.

Why SEO Matters

So what is SEO exactly? SEO stands for “search engine optimization”. In layman’s terms, it means optimizing or improving your website or blog in a way that the site ends up in the search results for popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Baidu. If your writing shows up in more search engine results, more people will end up on your site and read what you’ve written.

So how do you optimize your site so that it shows up in search results? Well, the question is so complex that an entire SEO industry exists to attempt to improve SEO for their clients. Search engines like Google have very complex algorithms that determine where a page should appear for search results. The complexities of search result algorithms are proprietary and not truly clear, but some aspects stand the test of time to improve your chances of showing up in search results. You can search “Getting Canned” and I should show up on the first page.

The SEO and Grammar Relationship

One is to consider that you should use proper grammar in your writing. If your posts are sloppy and have poor grammar, it’s unlikely that search engines will see your site as a quality site worthy of a high ranking in search results.

So how do you make sure your grammar passes the test? One tool that I’ve found to be very useful is the grammar checker Grammarly. There is a free version of this tool and a paid version.

I discovered Grammarly after submitting my first guest post to the blog Fly to FI. Despite my efforts to manually check my work, I made several grammar mistakes. Blog owner Cody, caught the errors and kindly let me know he made some corrections and let me know how useful Grammarly is as a tool for bloggers. I installed it the same day.

I was so impressed with the free version that I realized at some point, if I’m serious about writing, I should get the paid version. I invested in the pro version to check my work just before I submitted my guest post to 1500days.com.

The free version of Grammarly provides critical grammar and spelling checks at no cost to you. Try Grammarly free and if you decide to upgrade to the PRO version you’ll also get the following:

PRO FEATURES

Advanced checks for punctuation, grammar, context, and sentence structure

Vocabulary enhancement suggestions

Genre-specific writing style checks

Plagiarism detector that checks more than 16 billion web pages

OTHER FEATURES:

• Check your writing across the web
• Access your personal editor via Grammarly.com
• Access your documents on multiple devices
• Integrate with Microsoft® Office (Windows only)
• Use native desktop apps (Windows and macOS)
• See definitions and synonyms via double clicks
• Catch contextual spelling and grammar mistakes
• Add words to your personal dictionary
• See explanations of grammar rules
• Get performance stats via email

If you are interested in writing that will look professional and be free from grammar mistakes consider install the free Grammarly extension by clicking on Grammarly links or banner below.