I’ve been blogging for over 10 years now, and there are thousands of posts here. Generally I can still get hundreds of views through Google each day without even publicising my posts. Why? Good SEO. SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, and with a few simple steps, you can dramatically improve your Blog’s SEO. SEO can be a bit of black magic really, and no one really knows just how to top the ranks of Google. That said, there are a few things that you definitely SHOULD be doing to help boost your blog’s visibility. I can’t guarantee you’ll instantly be seen by thousands, or millions of people via Google, but it certainly won’t do any harm.
My simple tips to improve your Blog’s SEO are aimed generally at WordPress users. Some things might work on other platforms, but, in my opinion, WordPress is the place to be.
Get a Plugin to improve your Blog’s SEO
A plugin I’ve used for years across a lot of the sites I manage is Yoast SEO. It has a setup wizard that will guide you through the process. Once that’s installed and configured, you’ll be able to set a ‘Focus Keyword’ for each post. It’s a word (or words) that will be embedded in the content of your post in a manner of ways (I’ll explain them shortly). So the keyword for this post is ‘improve your Blog’s SEO’ It will then rate your writing as you type and suggest ways you can improve your post for the best SEO results. Yoast SEO is FREE, but there is only support and more features if you pay.
Another Plugin I’m actually Beta testing is Rank Math SEO, it’s got a lot more features than Yoast Free has. It’s not out for general use yet, but keep an eye on here for release details. If something like that is WAAAAY above your head, then do some Googling, or search marketing agency Click Consult offer SEO services.
Submit your Sitemap to Google
Something that Yoast, and several other plugins will do is generate a Sitemap. This is, essentially what it says on the tin, it’s a large file that maps everything on your site. Google LOVES a sitemap, and you can submit yours to Google via Webmaster Tools. The settings in Yoast will tell you the location of the Sitemap, and you just need to copy and paste the URL into Webmaster Tools.
Keywords are King
Choosing the correct Keyword is really important, think of something that someone might Google and you’d like your post to appear with their results. However, use the Keywords naturally in your post, just just chuck them around in a way that doesn’t make sense won’t work. Search Engines are smart, VERY smart, they have reading algorithms that will spot subterfuge like this a mile off. Try and write it in as organically as possible.
Keywords EVERYWHERE!!
Yeah.. I know I’ve mentioned Keywords a lot, but they are a massive way to improve your blog’s SEO. If you can, use your Keywords in the post title, the url, the bulk of your writing, in your header tags, and REALLY importantly, in your Images too. You might be wondering how you can drop a keyword into an image? Well, when you add an image, it will ask for a caption (try and use your keywords in those), and use them in the ‘Alt’ tags too. These tags aren’t seen by the end user (normally) but Google uses them for crawling through sites (and for Google Image search too!). So instead of ignoring the ‘Alt’ field, make sure it’s populated! A lot of screen readers for the blind look at Alt tags too, so it will help improve your blog’s SEO and accessibility too!
Write differently
Something I’ve had to alter over the years is how I write blog posts. You see, for good SEO your writing style has to be very particular. You need to write in short(ish) sentences, and relatively short paragraphs too. Sprawling text that goes on forever will give you a bad SEO Score. It’s really hard when you’ve been writing a certain way for years to change your style, but I promise if you stick to this SEO friendly style, you’ll dramatically improve your Blog’s SEO! If you want to know the latest SEO news then Diggity Marketing have you covered!
Don’t neglect your archive
You could install Yoast,or similar, and work hard on improving the SEO of each new post. However, it’s REALLY good to go back to old posts and fix potential SEO issues with them too. Your archive is your back catalogue, it’s the stuff that will probably get new readers to your blog. Search Engine traffic is REALLY important long term, so make sure your you’ve tweaked as much as your archive as possible. If it’s a MASSIVE task, then just start with your best work, and go from there!
There we go, a few simple tips to improve your blog’s SEO! What do you do to improve SEO for your posts? Is there anything I’ve missed? Drop a comment.
