There may be affiliate links or adverts within this post. This means that by purchasing a product through this link, I will earn a very small commission. This is of no extra cost to you, and you are under no obligation to buy. All opinions about any products are my own and I only recommend products I am passionate about. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. For more information please visit our 'Disclaimer' page.
Blogging is a great creative outlet. It can also be a full-time career as long as you do everything you can to get your content seen. One way to do this is with SEO, and I’m going to give you some Essential SEO tips for bloggers to make sure that you get eyes on the valuable content that you are writing.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. When we SEO our blog posts and our sites, we are making sure that they are as visible as possible to Google and other search engines. Why? Because this is how the search engine realises that your blog post relates to the query that someone has typed into the search bar.
Having a self-hosted WordPress site is an absolute must if you want to be able to grow your blog.
Still, need to do that? Then I have the perfect resource for you! This is a FREE step-by-step tutorial guiding you through each stage of becoming self-hosted. There is also an exclusive bonus included in the guide to help you import your existing wordpress.com site seamlessly and effortlessly. Click below to grab your free Ultimate guide on How to Self-host.
10 Essential SEO Tips for Bloggers.
Yoast
This is the first plugin you should download. It is the best and only plugin you need on your self-hosted blog. Yoast allows you to easily keyword your blog posts (more on that later), tells Google EXACTLY what your page is about, and tells you how easy it is for your readers to read your content. There is way more to this plugin. I honestly can’t explain how important this is
Submit your sitemap to Google + have analytics
Now, Yoast will do this for you. I recommend switching that setting off and submitting it yourself. That way you know that Google has the most up-to-date version, and you can also see and fix any errors that may be present.
Google Analytics is also a must. This means you can track how many visitors you have each day. How does is this an SEO tip for bloggers? You can look at what pages are performing well and what ones aren’t and may need a few SEO tweaks.
Use your keyword in the ALT text of your images
This is important because it is the only way that Google knows what your image is about, and importantly. It will link to your blog post. It’s the same as it is for Pinterest (if you need help with Pinterest SEO click here). Also if you need a Pinterest scheduler, then I highly recommend Tailwind it has saved me so much time, which means that I can spend that time on things like improving my SEO rating.
Related: Why Tailwind is Made for Bloggers.
Use Uber suggest for keywords + site audit
Neil Patel, the SEO guru has this incredible tool, and it’s FREE! Honestly, this is a tool that you would expect to pay for because of its value when it comes to the SEO health of your site. I also use his keyword finder as it gives you loads of different variants as well as telling you how many times a month that it is searched for. This tool is invaluable!
Include your keyword naturally within your text + in headings
One of the best SEO tips for bloggers that I have heard is to make sure you include your keywords NATURALLY. Your content should flow easily so that your readers don’t even realise you have keyworded the crap outta your post. An easier way of including your keyword is in your headings. Make sure you have an H1 heading, as this is what Google looks for.
Try to aim for a minimum of 500 words per post
500 words are the bare minimum that you should post. Anything less than this Google can look at as spam as well as content that isn’t valuable to the reader. So guess what? you won’t appear in search results until the 80th page. We are aiming for the first page (this is not an instant thing, it takes time). Most of the content that appears on page 1 of Google has approximately 2000 words.
Related: How to Change Http to Https. The Easy Way.
Install and activate your SSL certificate
When I first started blogging I had no idea what this meant. Basically, it makes your site more secure and lets your readers know that their information is safe. It changes your URL from Http to Https. I have also heard that Google favours these URL’s because it indicates a secure website and not spam. Some hosting providers charge extra for the SSL certificate. Bluehost includes it within its prices, it also makes it really easy to install.
Related: Have your OWN Self-hosted WordPress Site.
Compress your images to save space and loading time
This is something I found out later in the game than I would have liked. For months, I battled with seriously slow loading times. I had no idea what to do?! Then someone told me that it was probably my images in my blog posts that were slowing it up. Downloading an image compressing plugin will rectify this and save you on average about 70% on the original image size without compromising on the quality. Google wants fast loading pages!
Related: 20+ Essential Plugins you NEED for your New Blog.
Increase your site speed- cache, w optimise, image compression
Similar to the previous point except this is to do with your site as a whole rather than just the images. WP-Optimize is a great plugin that cleans up your databases to run at peak performance and get rid of anything that you don’t actually need.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of ways to make sure your SEO is on point. This is a starting point, you will realise things along the way as well as improve your ‘backend’ blogging skills as you go and read other bloggers content. There are hundreds of SEO tips for bloggers out there and generally, you can find everything you need for free, and if you’re really stuck, just email a fellow and blogger and they can more than likely help you out!
What SEO tips are you going to implement first? Tell me!