Does SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) seem like a dark art? This three-letter acronym can be confusing and conflicting - but it really matters if you want your blog to be read by your target audience.

You can dramatically increase your blog's search engine rankings by including a few simple SEO writing tips for beginners.
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And, in today's post, I'm going to show you three really easy ways to boost your site's SEO and improve your writing skills.
Here they are:

Quality or quantity? When it comes to SEO, both matter.

You need to write long posts. Google and other such search engines reward sites where browsers spend time on a page and don't click away within a few seconds. This indicates that the page contains quality content that's useful to readers.

Try to aim for posts around the 500-word range. If you're feeling particularly ambitious, write a longer post. But don't ramble on - try to hit the balance between length and engaging your readers to keep reading.
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In other words, aim for quality and quantity in every post.

OK, that last point is easier said than done.

How do you make sure your readers want to get to the end of your post?
I regularly use a copywriting technique called "bucket brigades" to help direct readers and keep them on my page. It's one of the simplest SEO writing tips out there.
Bucket brigades are short sentences, which usually end in a colon or a question mark. Here are some examples:

• Look:
• Here's the deal:
• Why?
• What's the point?
• Want to know the best/worst part?
• It gets better/worse:
• Bottom line?

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Feel free to make up your own too. It's all about driving your reader further into your post by piquing their interest in the next chunk of text.

There are plenty of ways to structure your post to draw your readers in. This post from Yoast is a great read if you want some more in-depth information on writing techniques to keep readers reading.

The APP copywriting technique is a good place to start and will help you to write better introductions to your blog post. 

Here's what it means:

Agree: show your reader that you understand their problem. Once you've got them nodding in agreement, move onto:

Promise: give your readers a peek into the solution to their problem.

Preview: finally, give them a sneak peek into what you're going to tell them.

Here's an example (that you may recognise):

Agree:

Does SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) seem like a dark art? This three-letter acronym can be confusing and conflicting - but it really matters if you want your blog to be read by your target audience.

Promise: 

You can dramatically increase your blog's search engine rankings by including a few simple SEO writing tips for beginners.

Preview:

And, in today's post, I'm going to show you three really easy ways to boost your site's SEO and improve your writing skills.

Now it's your turn.
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Try and put these simple three SEO writing tips for beginners into practice and see if your site's search engine rankings improve.

It's just the start.
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If you'd like more advice on writing SEO-focused content, send me an email: [email protected].

The European Space Agency's Schiaparelli craft will attempt to land on the Martian surface in the next few hours. It's exciting. It's also nerve-wracking stuff for the dozens of scientists and engineers hoping the probe doesn't suffer the same fate as the Beagle 2 spacecraft.

What is it?

The Schiaparelli lander is designed to monitor aspects of Martian weather. The probe is not directly looking for traces of Martian life, but it will test out a landing system for future missions looking for evidence of life, past or present.

Stephen Lewis of the Open University, who co-heads the team that will receive data from the probe’s engineering sensors during the descent, told The Guardian: “Landing on Mars has always been a perilous endeavour, not least because Mars has an active atmosphere and weather."

“Understanding the atmosphere on Mars now, and how Mars’ climate has changed, is a key part of finding out whether the planet ever had a habitable environment and supports our understanding of our own climate.”

Where is it?

Right now? Probably approaching the Martian surface. If you want live updates on Schiaparelli's progress, click here.

Who's behind this?

The Schiaparelli craft is part of the ExoMars programme, which is a joint project between ESA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. The primary goal of ExoMars is to investigate whether life has ever existed, or does currently exist on Mars.

Schiaparelli is paired with the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which is analysing the Martian atmosphere from on high to find evidence for possible biological or geological activity.

Schiaparelli and the TGO are just one part of the two-part ExoMars programme. In 2020, a European rover and a Russian surface platform will arrive on Mars' surface to search for evidence of life by investigating the planet's surface.

Why should I care?

Have you ever seen Total Recall? OK, I may be falling into the realms of science fiction here, but the Schiaparelli craft is the first baby step into our extraterrestrial future.

If Mars was once habitable, could it be habitable again? Is it harbouring life now? The ExoMars programme will address such fundamental questions and, if it can successfully land crafts on the Martian surface, it opens the door to other fascinating explorations. 

Why's it called Schiaparelli?

The the probe is called Schiaparelli after the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was one of the first to map Mars’ surface in the late 1800s. 

Schiaparelli identified "channels" on the Martian surface, but this term was mistranslated into English as "canals", which sparked the general public's imagination as to the possibility of life on Mars.

Things could come fully circle as Schiaparelli touches down on the Martian surface and we start to understand the possibilities of life on Mars.

In our next instalment in the "Blog 101" series, we look at the different blog post ideas to inspire and engage readers.

So, you're got your blog. It looks great. You've got a target audience and you're ready to start writing.

One problem. What do you write about?

​Finding blog post ideas and engaging ways to present your knowledge to your audience isn't easy. Here's a quick list of different styles and formats to keep your readers reading and you writing:

1. Write a Story

I'm no Roald Dahl, but a simple story can breathe new life into your blog.

A recent blog post of mine uses storytelling elements to criticise a gadget often lauded as the solution to get your kids to sleep (SPOILER ALERT: it didn't work for me). It was a big hit and brought in new readers to the blog. And it was really nice to break out and give readers an insight into my life as a freelance writer and mum.

This post on the art of bringing storytelling to your blog post has some great tips if you want to try this format. You don't have to pen the next War and Peace, just try writing a few hundred words to relay your real life experiences.
 
2. Interview Someone

Some of the best blogs rely on interviews to fill their posts. This format brings a new level of insight and expertise to your blog - and you may just bag an exclusive interview with an elusive expert, bringing more readers to your blog.

It's also a great way to save a little time. I recently conducted an interview for Do What You Love For Life - the post focused on my experiences as a freelance writer and was a basic transcribe of the interview, which can't have taken long to write up. It's also free marketing for the interviewee - make sure you ask them to promote their interview post to the masses to widen its reach.

You may also want to consider guest blog posts - where a third party writes a post for your blog. It's a great hack if you're struggling to come up with blog post ideas or just don't have enough time to dedicate to your blog. It’s also a win-win situation; you get a blog post, and your contributor can build up their name or brand.

​3. Review/Criticise a Current Trend

If you're writing a blog, you have to keep on top of current trends and topics in your industry. As a freelance writer, I'm actively engaged in the self employment/small business space and regularly write about the issues faced by the sector.

This blog post on Julie Deane's self-employment review received a lot of interest when it was published. Yes, the title "Why Julie Deane's self-employment review is a wasted opportunity" is a little cheeky - but it got readers clicking and commenting on the post.

One word of warning though: don't go overboard and remain objective in your approach. You don't want to be liable for libel.

4. Invest in a Competition

Give something back to your readers by running a competition. For example, you could run a month of giveaways where every day you create a new blog post and include a small gift at the end of the blog for readers who engage with the post by commenting on or sharing the post.
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Alternatively, you could host a guest blog post pitching competition where readers can pitch their idea in the comments section. The winning pitch will turn into a published blog post on your site.

If you're not technically minded, or even if you are, setting up a blog can seem like a logistical nightmare.

There are plenty of blogging platforms, such as Ghost, Medium or Wordpress, to choose from that have done the heavy lifting and can get you up and blogging as soon as possible.

It depends on your existing web presence. If you already have a website and use other social media platforms, you must integrate your blog into your online arsenal. ​If your blog is your first step into the online world, you're less restricted.

​Here is a great comparison of blogging platforms to help you decide what's best for you. Alternatively, you could enlist a professional blog builder to help you set up your blog if you want to really stand out from the crowd or have more specific requirements.

Your topic will depend on your target audience and your brand. It may seem like an obvious choice but it's important to pinpoint your core topic(s) from the outset and ensure this forms the foundation of every blog post you write.

For example, this blog focuses on two core themes: technology and writing. Why? Because as "the freelance writer who gets tech" I want to showcase my expertise in these two areas to attract potential clients. And I love writing about these topics.

This is the real secret behind any successful blog. You must demonstrate both expertise and enthusiasm in your blog to make it informative to read, and enjoyable to write.

You need to stand out from the thousands of blogs trumpeting their own work and interests. How exactly?

I'll cover that in my next post.

Happy blogging!

When three British-born scientists scooped this year's Nobel Prize for Physics, it came as something of a shock - mainly to its recipients. Prof Haldane commented: "I was very surprised and very gratified."

David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz received the prize for their work on topology, which is the core concept behind the creation of a new generation of super-materials.

The research was done in the 70s and 80s but the true implications of this work is only just being realised. It could lead to an electronics revolution where such super-materials replace the wires and parts usually found in our electronic devices to create a new generation of super-fast systems.

The Nobel Committee even commented this discovery had "opened the door on an unknown world".

Nobel prizes always start a bun fight as people argue why one discovery or body of work is more important than the other. I'm going to toss a theoretical bagel into the mix with my five favourite British universities and/or scientists that I think deserve a nod (and maybe the £727,000 prize money) from the Nobel committee:

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found a way to mix light and molecules. This isn't just about making plants look pretty - it has some serious implications for quantum technologies and manipulating the physical and chemical properties of matter to understand complex processes, such as photosynthesis.

The researchers trapped the light by constructed tiny cavities, which were only one nanometre across. They used the tiny gap between a gold nanoparticle and a mirror, and placed a coloured dye molecule inside.

“It’s like a hall of mirrors for a molecule, only spaced a hundred thousand times thinner than a human hair,” said Professor Jeremy Baumberg of the NanoPhotonics Centre at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, who led the research.

It's cutting-edge stuff and the implications are not yet fully understood - but it's a fascinating topic which has the potential to light up a range of scientific discoveries. 

​And, no, I'm not apologising for that pun.

All data degrades. Whether you're using a state-of-the-art computer or resort to pen and paper, it's impossible to store information forever.

Or is it?

Researchers from the University of Southampton unveiled a method earlier this year that could store data indefinitely. Nano-structured glass is used to record and retrieve 360TB of data on a piece of glass, which is about the size of a 10p coin. At room temperature, the data could exist roughly 13.8 billion years - which is the estimated age of the universe.

Professor Peter Kazansky, from the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) , says: “It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations. This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”

A team at the University of Oxford produced a quantum logic gate this year with record-breaking 99.9% precision, reaching the benchmark required to build a quantum computer.

Dr Chris Ballance, a research fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford and lead author of the paper, said: "The development of a “quantum computer” is one of the outstanding technological challenges of the 21st century. A quantum computer is a machine that processes information according to the rules of quantum physics, which govern the behaviour of microscopic particles at the scale of atoms and smaller."
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"An important point is that it is not merely a different technology for computing in the same way our everyday computers work; it is at a very fundamental level a different way of processing information. It turns out that this quantum-mechanical way of manipulating information gives quantum computers the ability to solve certain problems far more efficiently than any conceivable conventional computer. One such problem is related to breaking secure codes, while another is searching large data sets. Quantum computers are naturally well-suited to simulating other quantum systems, which may help, for example, our understanding of complex molecules relevant to chemistry and biology."

Black holes were assumed to be gravitational sinkholes, which pull in matter and never allow it to escape. However, Professor Stephen Hawking's theory from 1974 disputes this theory and claimed that black holes actually emit tiny particles, allowing energy to escape.

This means that black holes could evaporate completely - which has profound implications for our understanding of the universe.

Hawking has not received a Nobel prize as yet because of the lack of experimental evidence to prove his theory.

But, in April 2016,  new research from Israel’s Technion University recreated the conditions of a black hole in a lab using sound waves in order to study how subatomic particles behave on the edge of a black hole, known as an event horizon. 

Helium was cooled to a fraction above absolute zero by the team and moved around so quickly that a sound barrier was created – much like the light barrier of a black hole's event horizon.

Phonons, the energy that makes up sound waves, escaped from the sound black hole, much like in Hawking’s theory. However, other scientists remain sceptical and believe there may be an alternative explanation for this leak.

Watch this space.

I couldn't write an article about the Nobel Physics prize without a nod to, arguably, the most important scientific discovery of 2016: the detection of gravitational waves. 

Gravitational waves are tiny ripples is space-time that travel at the speed of light. Einstein's general theory of relativity predicted their existence more than a century ago but, until now, they had remained elusive.

Physicists predicted specific and extreme events, such as the collision of two massive black holes, could release enough gravitational energy to detect these tiny ripples on Earth. On 14 September 2015, the gravitational waves from such a collision were picked up by a pair of detectors known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO).

The discovery ties together so many core physics principles, it led many to predict Nobel success for the LIGO team.

​The role of British scientists in this discovery is prominent, and important, but whether a UK scientist would make the cut and be one of the three scientists eligible for the award seems a little unlikely.

What is important, is to look at the author list on the paper announcing this discovery.

There are 1,004 co-authors.

This discovery, like so many monumental moments in science, transcends a scientist's country of birth or university address. It took hundreds of brilliant minds to bring about this scientific success.

It's a shame that we have to brandish science with the tabloid-esque tripe of which country "wins" at science.

​As the LIGO discovery so aptly demonstrates: if we pull together, we could all "win" at science.

In the first of a new series on writing blogs called "Blog 101", I'll share a few basic tips on how to write a blog post.

You may want to (or wonder how to) write a blog. It's a valuable online tool whether you're building a personal brand or if you own an established business, but where do you start?

It's not easy. You need to write regularly, on topic, in an entertaining way, bear in mind some basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) tricks and showcase your knowledge. 

​Here are 9 quick tips covering all of this, and more, to help you understand how to write a blog post: