Blogging is becoming an extremely competitive market, and getting your blog heard above the noise is harder than ever before. Many established bloggers will attest to the changes in the blogging world in recent times. In this post we shall be taking a look at SEO for Bloggers what you need to know.
SEO for bloggers can be a complex and time-consuming process, but it’s important to understand the basics in order to optimise your blog for maximum visibility. If you run a blog and want to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to optimize it for SEO. Here are some things you need to know:
It is no longer about writing what is on your mind, especially if you create content for brands and develop working relationships. It would help if you were found via google and increase the traffic and visibility of your blog. This is where SEO for bloggers becomes even more important.
With 93% of all web traffic through search engines, getting your blog to the top of the search engine results will require some effort on your part and the culmination of different changes and actions. Sadly it is not as easy as simply using the right keywords.
SEO for Bloggers
SEO is complicated and ever-changing concerning current guidelines and changes to search engines. Hitting the top spot can take some work, and as a blogger, it can be a fine line between writing engaging content and content for SEO purposes only.
You want to retain your originality but still make sure you rank for search terms relating to your blog and your individual posts.
When it comes to the correct SEO for bloggers, there are some tips you can follow to help you get the most from your content writing and help to boost your visibility and rankings to give you an ongoing source of traffic now and in the future.
How can you make sure you implement SEO on your blog correctly?
Focus on User Experience
In the first instance, you need to focus on the user experience; part of a good SEO campaign is making sure your website is compatible with mobile devices. Almost 50% of search engine queries are made via mobile. The more mobile-friendly your site is, the more favourably the major search engines will look at it.
So before you even think about what type of keywords or content you should be writing, look at issues on your website that can detract from the user experience, such as;
- Slow loading pages
- Too many pop-ups
- Intrusive ads
- No search function or the hidden search function
- Poor navigation
- Complex internal structures
- Images not optimised for speed and mobiles devices
Speed of loading and the ability for your website to adjust other devices are both focuses of new Google updates, and performing poorly on these can be detrimental to your blog and our rankings. You can check out how well your website performs via an online tool to help you identify any major issues.
Keyword Research
Blindly assigning keywords to a post won’t do you any favours. Search engines like content that is appropriately created using relevant keywords for both the post and your blog. For bloggers, there is a wide range of topics being covered generally, and as such, it can be hard to niche down on keywords.
Before publishing your post, make sure you do keyword research to understand the volume of traffic each search term gets and how easy it is to rank for those search terms. There are many tools online and indeed plugins for WordPress you can get to assist you with this, both free and paid for.
More in-depth analysis can alert you to your competition. Allwoing you to look at their posts and see what they do to help them rank. This will enable you to create higher-performing posts.
Turning Your Blog Into a Business
If you are looking at supporting your business as a blogger or turning your blog into a business, knowing exactly what you rank for and gaining more details on search habits and performance can assist you in hitting our SEO targets.
Once you have your chosen keywords, you can look into Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords. These are keywords relating to your original keyword.
For example, if your post is on the best coffee machines, then LSI keywords will be “best home coffee machines under £50”, “best home coffee grinders”, “improve your at-home coffee experience“, and so on. This can support your keyword, and using these phases throughout your post can boost your SEO.
Be careful not to fall into the keyword stuffing trap, as this will be detrimental to your efforts.
Your Blog Title Is Important
It is vitally important for search engine rankings that your blog post has a descriptive title. A well-written blog post title makes your material more relevant to the search query that brought you to it. However, it is more essential than good content because it encourages users to actually click on your post when they see it listed in search results.
By including your focus keyword in the title of your blog post, you may make it more search engine friendly. Aside from including your main keyword, it would help if you wrote a headline that is both catchy and click-worthy.
This is since the click-through rate (CTR) is extremely crucial in search engine optimization.
To produce great headlines, there are several formulas to follow. The one that is still effective is referred to as EMV, which stands for emotional marketing value.
In this formula, it is recommended that you use strong words that elicit certain emotional responses from your audience. There are tools that can offer you insight into how well you can expect your title to perform. It is broken down for you word by word, so you can tweak to find the right title for your post.
Internal Linking Is A Must
Once you have been blogging for a while, you will have accumulated a substantial amount of content that you naturally want people to read. To direct them to the right posts, you should link them internally into the newer octet you create.
Internal linking is an excellent approach to establish a contextual tie between your new and old posts on your website. It also allows you to transmit relevant link juice to older articles that are still relevant. This is handy when you want to take your blog to the next level.
If you blog via WordPress, you can highlight the text you want to link. Then simply click the add link button and start typing in the box to bring up a list of blog posts containing or mentioning the text you enter. From here, you can select the post you wish to link to.
This shouldn’t be just carried out in newer posts. You should take some time to go back and add internal links to older posts, more applicable content. Keeping on top of changing the links or adding new ones as you produce more content.
Images and Video Content
Images are key, as is video content! Let’s be honest if you’re presented with a huge block of text and no images, chances are you will click off and not finish. Especially if it is a long blog post. When it comes to SEO for bloggers, images and multimedia content play a big part in making your blog posts easier. Making posts more appealing to read, and more SEO compatible.
When you upload an image to a blog post, you can enter your keywords into the image description if applicable. ALT tags on images allow search engines to read a description of the image. They then rank it if searching for those terms, another way to climb the search engine rankings.
Take into consideration when applying ALT tags to images that primarily they are used by people with sight issues. The ALT tags are there to allow screen readers to share with visually impaired users what the image is. While it can be useful to add keywords here, it isn’t always, especially if it makes no sense contextually.
Use Meta Descriptions
The meta description is an HTML meta tag that you can use on every page of your website. Its goal is to provide a brief description of your article to search engines and other crawlers.
Some search engine optimization specialists argue that the meta description element on a web page has become obsolete. Many others, on the other hand, might disagree.
A well-written meta description can provide a great deal of additional information about an article. When your articles are shared on social media websites such as Facebook or Twitter snippets are also displayed.
Focus On Keywords
In addition, you should make sure that your focus keyword is mentioned at least once in the meta description. This is great for search engine optimization purposes. The maximum number of characters allowed in the Meta Description is 155.
Try to keep your meta description within 155 characters, or it will be truncated after that point. Make sure that the focus keyword appears earlier in the meta description rather than later in the description.
When it comes to focusing on SEO for bloggers, it is important to remember that many different factors can influence how you rank. This includes the age of your site and the age of the specific blog post.
Along with how well your competitors are ranking and the volume of sites using the same keywords. Try not to get too hung up on SEO that you end up writing solely for SEO purposes. This will lead to you losing the heart of your blog and your voice.
How Do Bloggers Do SEO
SEO is an important tool that all bloggers should use to increase the visibility of their content. There are a number of things you can do to improve your SEO, and the most important thing is to be consistent.
Keep up with the latest trends and make sure your content is high quality and informative. Use keyword research to find the right keywords to target, and use them throughout your content. And lastly, don’t forget to link to your other content and social media profiles.
Final Thoughts On SEO For Bloggers And What You Need To Know
SEO is a critical part of blogging and something that all bloggers need to be aware of.
By understanding the basics of SEO and how it works, bloggers can ensure that their blog posts are seen by as many people as possible. Additionally, by keeping SEO in mind when creating content, bloggers can help themselves stand out in a sea of online content.
