SEO 101 for blogging: What you need to know

Are you new to blogging? Or maybe you’ve been blogging for a while but you know you really need to get a hang of this SEO stuff? If you’re ready to #SEOyourblog, this post is for you. I’m going to share all of the tips and tricks I use for SEO with WordPress. Ready? Let’s get started:

Keywords

When I talk about keywords, I’m not talking about stuffing as many into my posts as I can. These days, this will simply get you penalised by Google. Instead, I focus on natural keywords and long-tail keywords in particular.

Long-tail keywords are exactly that- longer than usual keywords. They’re often based on questions that your readers may have, and this means that they’re looking for specific information- which you can provide.

You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, SEMRush, and more to find your keywords.

Title Tags

Title tags are another name for the heading of your blog post. This is the first thing potential readers see and it determines how relevant your content is for their needs. That’s why you’ll want to include your chosen keyword here.

URL

Google (and other search engines) determine what your post is about by looking at the URL. Every blog post should have its own, optimised URL. Be sure to include your keywords here as well.

Meta Description

Your meta description is that little paragraph under your title in the search results. It basically tells both readers and search engines what your blog post is about. You want to make sure that you’re using your keyword here, but it’s most important that you’re using persuasive copy that will encourage readers to click through to your blog post. You can see this at https://www.click.co.uk/.

Internal links

Internal links are the types of links you use from one part of your website to another. These keep readers on your blog for longer, since they can see where they can find more information. Internal links are also useful for Google, which “crawls” your website.

Alt text

Images help break up your posts and make them more attractive and interesting. They also further explain your content to the search engine. Obviously, search engines can’t see images the way we can, which is why you need alt text tags. These also help when the image can’t be displayed for any reason, since they still explain what the image shows. While this may seem minor, it still helps with your SEO.

While we could talk about SEO all day, the above tips should get you started. Have you been using SEO for blogging? Leave a comment below and let me know.