Many bloggers fail to take advantage of search engines. Whether you’re a beginner or a veteran, these SEO tips for bloggers will come in handy and help your posts rank.
SEO is like every blogger’s nightmare. We know we need it but we dread the execution for every post we write. It’s time intensive but it helps us to grow our blogs.
If you’re new to this blogging thing and still trying to get the hang of SEO, let me give you a bit of a rundown.
What is SEO?
SEO is search engine optimization. In other words, it’s how people search for topics on Google and find posts from your blog that are ranking. For example, say you write a killer post about the new Sprouts Grocery Store in your area and use the keyword ‘Sprouts Winter Park‘. Your post will rank on page one of Google’s search engine if it has relevant terms and words within the post.
Why do we as bloggers care about SEO?
SEO is so important for bloggers for many reasons. Mainly it’s because ranking on Google can help bring traffic to your blog. Having organic traffic on your blog is major. Your goal should be to have at least 60% of organic traffic from search engines as a rule of thumb.
The blogging industry is super saturated and ranking on Google can set you apart from others in your niche. It can allow new readers and brands to discover your blog.
Great SEO Leads to Better Collaborations
If you’re a blogger who’s wanting to work with brands, SEO is something you need to invest your time in. A blog with high ranking posts is something that will attract the brands you want to work with. High ranking posts will give you something to leverage when brands reach out. You can use those posts to provide the brands your value.
Most of the brands that I’ve worked with have found me through a quick Google search.
My Top SEO Tips for Bloggers
1. Have a self hosted blog
A self hosted will give you more control over your blog and how it’s setup for SEO. If you’re wanting to start a blog or transition your blog to a self hosted platform, WordPress.org is the best place to start.
2. Make sure your site is secured
Recently Google announced that sites/blogs who had secure URLs would rank higher in their search engine. Consider transitioning your URL from http to https with your site host in order to rank.
3. Create a good site structure
One of the things that I noticed helps my posts rank very well is to link to other posts within a post. Internal linking helps readers click through to similar posts and helps Google to understand the structure of your blog. It also helps readers stay on your site longer. The right internal linking strategy can boost your SEO.
4. Get backlinks from trusted sites
Backlinks can help boost your SEO tremendously. They reassure Google that your blog is a trusted site and one worth ranking in the search results. A good way to secure backlinks from other sites is to simply reach out. Consider doing guest posts on other blogs, writing freelance articles for major sites, or even doing interviews for major publications.
5. Educate yourself
Tackling SEO without actually knowing what you’re doing is a really bad idea. Before you dive in to the beast of optimizing your site, do your research. Take a few courses or read a few books on SEO to try and understand what you’re actually doing. This will help you out in the long run. In the beginning, I simply just started “winging it” with SEO and it’s something I regret now. Once I learned the “right way” of doing SEO, I had to go back and fix all of my old posts. It was time intensive and it’s something I’m still working on making better.
Take the time to research keywords for each post before you begin writing. The right keywords will help you to rank.
6. Place keywords throughout your post
Once you’ve found the right keyword for your post, place it strategically in the body. Also use supporting words that will help Google understand what your post is about. For example, if you’re writing a post about how to have “good hair days” you’ll want to include supporting words like shampoo, conditioner, brush in your post.
If you’re writing a travel article about things to do in Sarasota with kids, you’ll want to mention the Ringling Museum, Lido Beach, and other key places in the area.
7. Choose an SEO friendly blog theme
When choosing your blog theme or layout, you’ll want to make sure that the them is SEO friendly. You will want your theme to be professional and responsive. Keep the theme minimalistic with coding so that your site speed is fast. Having a slow site speed will impact your ranking.
8. Permalink structure is important
Some of you probably don’t even know what a permalink structure is but that’s ok. It took me a while to figure it out too because I never realized how important it was. A permalink is the full URL people see when they go to a blog post. They are permanent no matter how many times you change or update the post.
Some things to remember when creating your permalink for each post is to include your keyword or keyphrase. Using the keyword in your URL can improve your site’s visibility but typically don’t have a huge impact on the ranking.
If at some point you decide to change your permalink, it will affect your SEO.
5 Favorite Resources for SEO
- SEMRush – a paid service to help find keywords, create a site structure, and SEO writing templates for blog posts. Costs $99/month
- Yoast SEO – WordPress plugin
- Google Trends – a free service provided by Google
- Google Keywords – a free service provided by Google
- Keysearch – a paid service for keyword research
I hope this helps you in your journey to creating a better site structure and SEO friendly posts. Good luck!
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