Free download, updated for 2025

When I started my first blog back in 2014, I had no idea what I was doing. I simply thought it would be fun to write and share some musings on life. I found a free platform, chose a theme, and wrote sporadically, whenever I felt like it.

Back then there was very little online support to learn about blogging. So, I taught myself, picked up what I could from other bloggers and devoured SEO (search engine optimisation) articles. Then, in 2022, I decided it was time to invest in a course that would teach me all things SEO.

I started right at the beginning in 2014 but things have changed an awful lot since then. I now run a business writing blog posts for other people. I also have two websites of my own that I write regular blog posts for. In 2024, my outdoor website had a 532% growth on the previous year, receiving over 100,000 visits.

I’m often asked how to get people to see your website, so put together my Guide to SEO Blogging to share a few of the things I’ve learned along the way.

The guide is perfect for anyone writing blog posts for themselves, their business, or their charity. Whether you’re just starting out, or have been blogging for years, you’ll find lots of tips in the guide to help you get the most out of your blog in 2025.

I’ve also shared a little of my own blogging history below, along with a quick checklist of how to start a blog.

My blogging background

My first blog was just for fun, so I wanted a price tag of £0. The free options back in the day were pretty much a choice between WordPress (.com not .org there’s a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org) and Blogger (owned by Google).

To cut a long story short, I chose WordPress.

I have no idea how many people read the posts back then, but if you delve far enough into the archives on this website, you may come across a few. That’s because I used the site to add a few business pages when I decided to go self employed.

Eventually, I moved to a paid-for platform but, instead of building from scratch, I migrated everything over. In other words, the site you’re looking at today is a version of that very first site back in 2014.

Knowing what I know now, I’d have done things differently - but that’s the legacy I’m working with. If you do stumble across some of those early words, feel free to read, enjoy, and see how much my writing style has evolved.

But, if you’re thinking of asking me to help write your content, please take those very old posts with a pinch of salt and check the recent ones!

Growing my outdoor blog

In late 2014, I set up a second blogging site to share my outdoor adventures. By then, I could navigate easily around the WordPress.com dashboard so it was the natural choice.

It was a great way to get started, but comes with a word of caution 👇

As I developed my blog and learned more about tips and techniques, I wanted to add more features. Things like a customised domain name (ie. xyzsite.com instead of xyzsite.wordpress.com) and web analytics.

Moving up the price tier became very expensive. I had a go at migrating everything over to WordPress.org but my techie skills failed me (twice).

Cutting another very long story short, both my websites are now on the Squarespace platform, which I love using. And, unlike my very first blog, I have analytics information dating back years for my outdoor blog.

2014: 18 visitors
2019: 6,500 visitors
2023: 17,076 visits
2024: 108,793 visits

I migrated everything over to Squarespace in 2020 (yep, a lockdown project) so can share a graph below of how the site has grown since giving it a little TLC.

Graph showing increase in website visitors between 2020 and 2024 for Outdoor-Girl.com website — *Outdoor-Girl.com* *website analytics*

Writing blog posts is the easy part

One of the big things I’ve learned is that writing is the easy part of blogging. Of course, it depends on the goals for your site - if you’re simply writing for yourself and maybe sending a link to friends/family members, all the other ‘stuff’ is less important.

But, for anyone wanting to grow their blog, there’s a lot to get your head around. And, if you’re wondering why you might want to grow it, here are just seven reasons off the top of my head (there are many more):

Driving more traffic to your business website
Creating brand awareness
Showing your expertise
Creating a connection with customers
Earning an income via monetising your blog
Improving your website’s SEO
Making a difference via content (eg. debt help, environmental issues)

As my blog grew, I realised the importance of sharing and promoting posts, learned about reach, got my head around analytics, and began understanding SEO.

New terminology became my norm. Things like meta tags, URL’s, search engine optimisation, keywords, and more. Navigating my way around all the tech behind the blog became a new skill, and I loved it.

Seriously, I uncovered my inner SEO Geek!

I soaked up information, attended workshops, read online articles, searched forums, went to Google Digital Garage sessions, and chatted with other bloggers in my network. After completing a couple of free online courses, I went big and invested in the Recipe for SEO Success.

So how do you start your own blog?

Ok, first thing to say is that this is a very quick overview. To give you a definitive ‘here’s what to do’ list, it needs to be a whole other blog post. In fact, maybe it could be a future topic, let me know if that sounds helpful.

But in summary, these are the steps to start a new blog:

Decide on a niche
Come up with a name
Set up a domain
Choose web hosting
Select a theme or web building software
Come up with a blog template and brand
Decide on content topics
Share on social media / via email marketing
Understand analytics tools

There’s a whole lot more around writing the content itself, which is what my Guide to SEO Blogging covers.

How my Guide to SEO Blogging helps

Blogging and SEO is changing rapidly. The rise in popularity of ChatGPT meant that anyone could write blog posts. Google caught on and changed the search algorithms, penalising thin content (web pages and blog posts with little or no value, low-quality, poorly written, or copied from other sources).

I wrote my first guide to blogging a few years ago, so have now updated it for 2025 to reflect the changing climate of generative search, AI Overviews, and more. It talks about strategy and consistency, through to EEAT, keywords, and top tips for writing blog posts.

Sign up for a free copy by completing the form above. Note: You’ll be added to my email newsletter list too which I hope you’ll find interesting and helpful. I’d love for you to stick around but you can, of course, unsubscribe at any time.

What if it’s all a bit too much?

That’s where my content writing services can help.

It’s there for those of you who want to write more regular content but have no idea what to write about, no time to write, hate writing, or simply have no interest in learning about SEO.