What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
How can SEO help you?
How to apply 10 SEO Strategies to your blog today
Welcome to Blogging and learning the world of Search Engines! We’ve seen some Search Engines struggle (Ask & AOL) and some have great success (Google).
What is the difference between the two? Technology & Algorithms!
Assume for a minute that you are searching on Google for “How to fly with your Toddler” and “Sleep Advice for Mothers” appeared. Although you would be inclined to get some extra sleep in the day, it isn’t the purpose of your search! Would you keep using Google?
Imagine when you do find the “How to fly with your Toddler” post and the page was not mobile friendly (having to zoom into read text) or extremely slow to load. Would that be a good user experience? This Mommy doesn’t have time for that!
Enter the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how we as bloggers can help identify our site as relevant to the searches. This is constantly evolving however a few things have remained in place for quite some time.
SEO has both on page and off page tactics however for the purposes of this post we will focus on the top 10 ways you can start applying SEO to your website today!
How can SEO help you?
Free traffic! Before you assume that applying these tactics will ensure you show up on the first page of Google think again. This is a long term strategy – almost like going to the gym. You first must sign up for membership before you can even start buying your new gym attire!
Although this won’t get you traffic tomorrow this can help your relevance for keywords while you are marketing your post links on social sites. This is not how I got to 21k page views in 30 days, but it will help double that in the future!
Have you identified your keywords? Do you know if they are currently being searched for? Have you used Google Keyword Planner yet? Do you need help? Sign up for Pro Mom Bloggers Tribe and mention SEO and I will provide you with 5 relevant keywords to your Niche and a 30-minute SEO consult.
10 Things you can do today to help you grow your Organic rankings on search engines.
On your website:
- Site Title is present and your Tag Line includes a SEO keyword or phrase
- Include your keywords on your about me page
- Link each of your social media sites to your website
Tip: While you are setting up your social media profiles be sure to include your keywords as well
- Make sure that each of the pictures you upload to your site and link to your blog have ALT Tags and are Saved as your relevant keywords. This includes your logo, header images and icons!
Tip: This also applies to pictures you upload to social media.
Tip: How do you check this? Go-to any picture on your website and right click to save as… Review the suggested name and that is the keyword search engines can read.
- Install YOAST SEO plug in – after reviewing multiple plug ins when I got started blogging I decided this was the best because it provides suggestions for your Readability and SEO scoring. Its like having an expert at your fingertips.
Your blog posts:
- Identify a minimum of 1 keyword PRIOR to writing and 1 post you will be linking to within your site.
- Content should contain between 500-800 words. Most SEO writers will encourage 1000+ and although this does help you, in the world of blogging your bounce rate will increase as most readers don’t have the attention span past 800.
Tip: Think about creating a comprehensive blog post or ebook with a few posts if you are concerned that you do not have the needed content for SEO
- Permalinks: Otherwise known as the URL for your blog post. There are multiple options available and search engines like fresh relevant content. I suggest using the permalink for the title of the post. Now before you go and change anything as I did when I realized this after 20 posts. STOP!!!!!
- if you are a new blogger – change it now. When you do this, all of your pins will no longer link to the post. That being said, its better now than never.
- if you have great content and traffic and lots of posts – hang tight, I believe I found a plug in for redirects… if not consider it one day if you start a new site J and continue to update your posts… sigh….
- Utilize your keyword phrases in your H1 and H2 tags!
- All Media for the page either needs links or keywords. Don’t get stuck having to go back and review posts for missed opportunities.
Are you still worried about blog traffic? Okay here is how I did it in less than 45 days.
21k Page Views in 45 days
Hi Darcy and David,
Great tips for optimizing our blogs. I totally agree with you about SEO being a long-term game.
I’ve actually just started getting more organic traffic from Google and my blog is almost a year old. So it definitely does take time.
The great thing is that once you write the blog posts and they are optimized properly, your blog posts will start to rank in Google.
I love writing blog posts based on long tail keywords. These seem to drive traffic a lot quicker because there is less competition.
Oh and I love Yoast SEO. I’ve just started using the Premium version because of the ability to interlink a lot easier. Plus it also has a built-in redirect instead of using a separate plugin.
Thanks for sharing these tips have a great day:)
Susan
Dang, I haven’t thought about SEO at all. I may have to go back through my posts at some point. These are some great tips, especially with the images!
These tips are all spot on! The Yoast SEO plugin is useful for SO many things beyond SEO – I tend to make my sentences waaaaaay too long in first drafts (this one would be a good example of that!), and it helps me spot things like this when I go back for a second read so that my final published post is readable and well-written rather than an eyesore!