So, you’ve started your blog and you have poured your heart out in writing your first few posts. But – 1 problem. No one is reading your posts because no one knows that your blog exists (say what?!). Strategies to drive traffic to your blog can get complicated and overwhelming, especially for beginners. That’s why I have put together this 7 Stupid Simple SEO Tips for Bloggers: Beginner’s Guide to get you started.
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WHAT IS SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of optimizing your website to get free, organic traffic from search engine results.
There are a few search engines in the World, but Google is by far the most commonly used. Other search engines include Bing, Yahoo!, Baidu and a few others.
A Quick Note on SEO Tips for Bloggers
Search engine algorithm changes frequently, so it’s impossible to catch on every single update they make in this post. However, some best, time-proven strategies have remained consistent overtime.
As a blogger, it’s wise to learn some basic SEO right from the start so you can set your blog up for success in the long run. (And, avoid the need to re-do a lot of your content later.)
Therefore, below, I want to share with you 7 Simple SEO Tips for Bloggers: Beginner’s Guide.
7 SIMPLE SEO TIPS FOR BLOGGERS
SEO Tip For Bloggers #1:
Download Yoast SEO Plugin
SEO can seem overwhelming. Fortunately, you don’t have to carry all the loads on your shoulders. There are great tools out there that can make your life infinitely easier (say Amen!).
Download the Yoast SEO Plugin.
This plugin is Godsent! When I first discovered this tool, it was like light parted from the sky and angels started to sing.
Trust me, if you are using WordPress you NEED to install Yoast SEO like yesterday (but today is good too!).
This plugin can make a world of difference to get organic (free!) traffic to your blog. The best part? This plugin is FREE (yay!).
Simply download and activate the Yoast SEO plugin in your WordPress. And follow the alerts and instructions each time you write a piece of content. It is that simple!
Pro Tip: There are also tons of valuable info on Yoast SEO’s website. So if you are interested in SEO, you can take a deeper dive there.
Related Read: Blogging Resources (check out my list of amazing blogging resources)
SEO Tip For Bloggers #2:
Narrow Your BLOG Niche
I know you may want to blog about every thing that’s happening in your life. But let’s be honest, unless you are a celebrity, most people won’t be interested to know about your every move.
If you are serious about building your blog and growing it be a profitable business, you must narrow your niche.
AN EXAMPLE
Let me give you an example.
Susan has a blog. In her blog, she talks about Homemade Italian Food. Her blog posts are centered around homemade Italian pasta, homemade Italian salad and the best homemade Italian recipes.
On the other hand, Daisy also has a blog. In her blog, she talks about her dog, save money, homemade Italian pasta and travel to Thailand.
Given both of them are not celebrities and have similar writing style, which blog do you think readers are likely to stick around and read the content longer?
Most likely Susan’s blog, right?
Being focused on a particular blog niche can help you to build authority and have better readers’ engagement. Therefore, ultimately helps you rank higher on search engine and attract more visitors to your site over time.
Related Read: How To Find Your Perfect Blog Niche? (Step-by-Step Guide for Purpose-Driven Bloggers)
SEO Tip For Bloggers #3:
Write High Quality & Scannable Content
Search engines reward content that gives the best user’s experience.
Therefore, you should always, always make sure to bring your best possible content to your readers and make your content easy to read.
Write content that engages your readers. Make every post epic.
Pour your heart and soul into helping your readers, which I’m sure you already do (*wink)!
Quality Over Quantity
Create your content with your target audience in mind. Write original and helpful blog posts or add new perspectives to existing content.
Focus on quality rather than quantity.
Generally, you want to write blog posts that are at least 300 words. However, great quality in-depth posts that are more than 1,500 words tend to be shared more often.
Make It Scannable
Moreover, make sure your content is scannable and easy to read.
People are busy these days, so it’s likely they will just skim through your content instead of consuming it word by word.
Here are a few tips to make your content scannable:
- Choose fonts that are easy to read
- Use proper H1, H2, H3 headers
- Use bold, underline, italic for your text
- Have enough white space on your blog, so that people can rest their eyes
- Add relevant images and infographics to break up your text (plus, help explain your content to your readers)
- Use shorter sentences whenever possible
- Have shorter paragraphs (maximum 5 – 6 sentences)
- Use bullet points (like this!)
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SEO Tip For Bloggers #4:
Use Keywords
You need to use relevant keywords if you want to be found on Google and other search engines.
Keywords are the words that best describe the content of your post. Ideally it should be words that people would actually search for in search engines.
A Quick Note On Keyword
When we say “keyword”, we are often referring to a bunch of words strung together into a “keyword phrase” (also known as “long-tail keyword”).
It’s not a single word. One-word keywords are essentially useless because they are way too broad and competitive.
So, just know that you should always be thinking of keyword phrases when we talk about keywords.
WHERE TO USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR POSTS
You should use them multiple times throughout your blog’s content. For example:
- Title
- Beginning of your post
- Blog’s body text
- Meta description (this is the short info displayed under your blog’s title in search results)
- Your post’s URL
- Alt-text of your post’s images (simply click on the image within your post editor to add alternative text to your image)
- Headers (use keywords in your headers only if they make sense and sound natural. NEVER try to stuff your keywords in just for SEO’s sake)
A Word Of Caution
While you do want to use your keywords often in your blog’s content, you want to be mindful that, first and foremost, you are writing your content for your readers.
Include keywords organically into your blog’s content. Your content should sound natural.
Never sacrifice readers’ experience by stuffing in keywords.
Sound complicated? Don’t worry! The FREE Yoast SEO Plugin I mentioned earlier will guide you along the process. So don’t forget to install it!
SEO Tip for Bloggers #5:
Include Internal Links
Linking to your older posts is crucial.
Why?
First, that allows more people to find and read your posts. This also helps them to become more engaged with your content and stay on your site longer. (That’s another one of those things that tells Google, Hey, people love my content. Gotta boost up my rank now! *wink)
Second, Google can’t find content on your site if it’s not linked to anything. So, adding internal links can increase the chance of your posts getting found by Google. And thus, possibly ranking higher with SEO.
SEO Tip For Blogger #6:
Improve Your Site Speed
Imagine you have your blog beautifully done…
BUT, each time your reader clicks on a link, it takes a long time for the page to come up. Guess what, you will lose your readers!
People are impatient these days and in many cases, they will simply click back and visit some other blogs if you make them wait too long!
SIMPLE WAYS TO CHECK YOUR SITE SPEED
To check how quickly your site loads, you can use free websites such as GTmetrix, Pingdom, or Google Pagespeed Insights. Personally, I like using GT Metrix the most.
Simply put in your website URL on the above websites. They will analyze your site speed and provide a detailed report.
Aim for under 3 seconds.
If your site runs slowly, what should you do?
Great question!
A FEW QUICK WAYS TO IMPROVE SITE SPEED
Site speed improvements can get pretty techie. But below are a few quick fixes:
- Remove unnecessary plugins. Plugins can add functionalities to your site. However, having too many plugins can slow down your site.
- Reduce image size. Optimize the images in your blog. For my site, I’m using ShortPixel Image Optimizer plugin to help automatically reduce my image size without affecting quality.
- Get rid of spam comments. Spam comments are super annoying and they slow down your site. There are many plugins on the market that can help you monitor and get rid of spam comments. The one I’m using is CleanTalk. It is the most affordable (only US$8/year) and effective one I can find on the market.
- Choose the right web hosting. Not all web hosts are created equal (#truth). I know because I’ve found out the hard way. The web hosting I now recommend to my friends is SiteGround. SiteGround goes out of its way to build the best technology for the fastest site speed.
HIRE HELP
What if you don’t want to deal with any of these techie stuffs or you need further help?
I totally get it. This site speed stuff is overwhelming for me too.
If so, consider hiring help. It’s well worth your money!
If you are a beginner and don’t have much of a budget, I recommend you to work with Tasha.
Tasha’s packages start at only US$15 and she will help you to optimize your site speed.
I have worked with her before and she sorted out my site speed issues quickly. She was really helpful and professional, and responded to all my questions quickly too. I highly recommend Tasha!
Related Read: 5 Things I Wish I knew When I Started Blogging
SEO Tip For Blogger #7:
Create a SiteMap
Just because your site is live doesn’t mean search engines can find it.
Therefore, you want to create a sitemap for your site so that it can be found.
Here’s the good news! If you are using Yoast SEO, it can easily create a Sitemap for you (Amen!).
Simply go to your Dashboard, select “SEO”. Inside the Yoast SEO plugin, under “Features” make sure that XML Sitemaps are turned on. You’re good to go!
SUMMARY
To summarize – 7 effective SEO tips for bloggers:
- Download Yoast SEO Plugin
- Narrow your blog niche
- Write high quality & scannable content
- Use keywords
- Include internal links
- Improve your site speed
- Create a sitemap
Wonderful!
PS – If you are really new to blogging and have yet to set up a blog, I sincerely invite you to check out my How To Start a Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide For Blogging with Purpose. It’s a comprehensive guide that takes you through step-by-step and get your blog setup in 20 minutes.
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- How To Make Money Blogging: Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
- How To Find Your Perfect Blog Niche? (Step-by-Step Guide for Purpose-Driven Bloggers)
- How To Write a Compelling About Me Page for Your Blog
- 21 Simple Ways To Generate Blog Post Ideas
