Did you know that 93% online experiences start with a search engine, and for 92,04% of these users, Google is their search engine of choice and therefore the best SEO tool for your blog.
For many content creators, the blog SEO looks incredibly complex. It's easy to think that no list of blog SEO strategies could ever make a meaningful difference. Others make Google a grim reaper, picking which blogs to let live and which to deprive of valuable organic search traffic.
Six years ago when I started learning how to blog, I felt like this too – completely overwhelmed and unsure which blog SEO strategies would actually work, versus which ones would just lose. my precious time. But as I grew my blog to millions of readers a year, I learned that Google is not here to get you . The search engine giant actually needs from you. They are looking for fresh, high-quality content that gives their users the best possible answers to the questions they have.
And that's what the blog SEO . It's about connecting your blog content to the solutions people are looking for and giving search engines the ability to recognize your relevant, quality content.
So what if that's exactly what you're doing…but your blog is still not getting traffic? Use these 10 Blog SEO Strategies, et do so .
These are the exact blogging strategies, principles, and tips I used to grow this blog from zero to 584 monthly readers, and I'm going to show you that blog SEO is not some mysterious beast and indomitable.
10 Blog SEO Strategies to Get Over 584 Readers/Month (SEO for Bloggers)
Disclosure : Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you I will earn a commission. Please know that I only recommend products and services that I have personally used and support. When you use one of my affiliate links, the company pays me, which helps me run this blog and keep all my in-depth content free for readers (like you).
Let's start with what you should do before, during, and after creating a post.
1. Target your keyword research
The most fundamental element of all SEO strategies starts with learning how to do keyword research and finding great keyword opportunities to rank for.
If you use too many, at best your content looks like it was written by R2-D2. At worst, Google thinks you're keyword stuffing and penalizes your site's ranking. Not good.
Newer blogs also have a lower domain authority (when you first create a website) and therefore don't carry the same weight as older, more reputable websites. Therefore, ranking for more competitive keywords can be difficult and your efforts to promote your blog will take longer to pay off.
If you are a new blogger, the best type of keywords to try and rank for are:
- Low difficulty
- high volume
- High click-through rate
The goal is to find three to five main keywords (one to three word phrases) and one to two long tail keywords (whole phrases that people search for). Long-tail keywords have lower traffic and competition, but are just as valuable. You want to choose terms around the same niche. This is something that Google highlighted as important in its recent Helpful Content Update.
So how do you find those elusive long-tail keyword phrases?
I built my own free keyword tool for you to use. Type in a primary keyword phrase that you want to rank for. Then see what the search volume is and how competitive it will be to rank for that term. Even better, these blogging tools will give you additional keyword research ideas.
If you're looking to really up your keyword game and opt for a robust, paid tool, check out Ahrefs and SEMrush to kick your SEO game out of this world. These are two ultra-popular SEO analysis tools, and you'll be in good hands with either one.
The most significant difference between the two is that while both are excellent keyword researchers, Ahrefs has the edge if you're looking to analyze your competitors' backlinks. This will be useful for you to find where your competitors are mentioned, so you can do the same!
2. Focus on user intent (not search engines)
Gone are the days when mentioning your keyword as many times as humanly possible is what got you ranked.
Google's algorithms have improved, and today it's all about quality content and user response – what people are looking to find when they type a word or phrase into the search engine bar.
Luckily, we don't need Spock's mind-meld abilities to find out what people might really be looking for when looking for something. Google has already figured this out.
Type your keyword in the search box and check the "People also ask" and "Search related to" sections. Clicking on a website and then hitting your browser's back button sometimes also reveals a "People are also searching" box below the clicked site. These are all questions and issues that people have, and you can address them in your post.
While you're on the SERP, take the time to analyze user search intent to see how your competitors have responded to it.
Try to better respond to the challenges of the reader and make your article an even more useful guide for him .
Consider:
- How long is your competitor's post? Your blog post should be at least the same length.
- What resources can you add? Think videos, helpful websites, downloadable templates (like my blog post templates).
- What concepts can you better explain or develop?
- If you were the reader, what would make the message more useful to you?
Writing a rambling 10 word blog post just because you think that's what you should be doing won't improve your SEO. But creating a targeted article that is a one-stop guide to the exact answers your target audience needs, certainly will.
Answer the reader's questions correctly and you might even land a coveted spot as the #0 position in Google's featured snippets section.
Here are two of my featured snippets to give you an idea of what they look like and what Google likes to see.
You'll notice that while the snippets immediately answer the user's question, more often than not they're too small to provide a full answer right out of the box.
So people click on your link to get the full story, and your article can get a major boost from that placement, making it a major blog SEO win.
3. Take your time writing SEO-optimized blog titles
You can write the best blog post ever on the internet, but if you can't get your audience to click on your blog title and read the post, then it doesn't exist.
You also need people to click on your post because the more reads, shares, and likes, the more Google sees that's what people want when they search for your keyword. Google rewards high click-through rates with better search rankings.
When it comes to learning how to write a headline, first and foremost you need to tell your reader how they will benefit from your blog post.
And then you have to keep that promise.
For example, this article promises that these SEO tips for blogging can net you hundreds of thousands of readers per month if followed diligently. And it's possible because that's how I got my 584 readers a month.
But if your headline makes overstated claims and doesn't match your content, it's a clickbait.
Avoid at all costs.
When you don't deliver on your promise to the reader, it breaks the reader's trust and hurts you more than it helps. Clickbait titles also lead to higher bounce rates, which lowers site rankings for you.
The second step is to make your headline irresistible to click on. The best headlines are a mix of tried-and-true phrases and a balance of common, unusual, emotional, and powerful words.
Luckily, the kind folks at Co-Schedule have created a title analytics tool that accounts for all of this for you, tells you how likely your title is to get shares, and breaks down your score result.
Here's how my own SEO title for my ultimate guide to starting a blog scores points:
Scores above 70 are considered good and are great titles for sharing on social media. Anything from the 80s is an excellent and definitely winning title when it comes to blog SEO.
From a blog SEO perspective, your main keyword should be in your title.
“SEO for bloggers: If your target keyword isn't at the start of your title, it's time to rewrite your title. »
Headlines are cut off in the SERPs after 60 characters. There's really no compelling reason to have a title longer than this number of characters, but if you go over the limit, just make sure your target keyword is at the beginning of your title.
Yoast is a WordPress Plugin hugely popular (free) that will help with SEO for bloggers who want to make sure your title and post content ticks all the right basic SEO boxes.
If, naturally, you find it difficult to write a catchy title that tells the reader the benefit AND is SEO friendly, you can also create a separate SEO title to display in search results using Yoast.
Click on “edit snippet” in the Yoast section of the WP editor, then remove the automatic title tags and write your own SEO-optimized title that will do better in search results.
Although your SEO title should always be compelling, you can play around with the structure.
For example, here is my SEO title from a Google code snippet:
And here's the title you'll see when you click on the post I'm using a different SEO title because my research suggests that in search results it's best to tie starting a blog to making money from blogs relatively early in the title – to clearly show the benefits readers will get from clicking on my link.
4. Use the right title tags
Header tags (H tags) are formatting options that you can apply to the content of your post.
Rather than changing font sizes to emphasize headings, you should select your heading sizes from the menu.
Here's how to select your header formats (also known as header tags) in both the WordPress content editor and Google Docs:
Correct titles are extremely important for SEO.
Google analyzes them to discover the main point of your content, which makes them absolutely essential, especially for your on-page SEO to be properly composed.
Here's how to use them correctly, in order of importance, for search engine optimization.
Title 1: Can only be used once and is generally reserved for your title. Include your main keyword here.
Item 2: These are the big ideas of your publication. They are also crucial for SEO and are great places to work in both your main and long tail keywords. Take a look at mine, and you'll see I did just that.
Item 3: These are the subtopics or smaller ideas that fall under your H2. For this article, that's each of our 10 SEO tips for bloggers. You can also add keywords here.
Title 4-6: used to help format and style your page. These have the least SEO value.
It's also extremely important to include your main target keyword in the first 100 words of your introduction.
Your target keyword and its variations should be distributed throughout the body of your article in a natural and conversational way. As mentioned earlier, keyword stuffing just to get a few more mentions is something to avoid.
The free plugin Yoast is also a big help here to make sure you hit all the targets.
5. Optimize your page URL
Your blog post URL is crawled by search engines and is an important way for them to understand what your post is about. This is an invaluable opportunity to include your target keyword.
For example, in one of my most popular guides, How to Make Money Blogging (on the Side), I wanted to rank for the long-tail keyword,” how to make money blogging "
To better optimize the article for SEO blog usability during the writing process, I made sure to incorporate the main keyword phrase into my URL slug.
I removed unnecessary words like "how" and "for" from my keyword.
You don't need than enough words so the reader knows what the link is about.
A few other blog SEO tips on selecting a smart URL are to only use lowercase letters to avoid duplicate content and to limit the slug to less than 50-60 characters. The shorter your URL, the better.
Yoast can check how SEO friendly your URL is and make suggestions that align well with these on-page SEO strategies and best practices.
6. Be strategic with your links.
It's a fact that search engine crawlers crawl through your text and look for keywords.
But did you know that they pay special attention to related keywords? For them, related keywords carry more weight than unrelated words and phrases.
There are three types of links to use in your overall blog SEO strategy:
- Anchor links: links to other areas of the same article (like my hypertext menu at the top).
For longer posts, like this one, it might look like a clickable WordPress table of contents. This is a great opportunity to link to your main keywords early on.
- Internal links: Links to relevant content on your site.
This not only helps readers discover useful content, but it also connects your individual pieces of content to each other in a related website that search engines can read, map, and assign authority to your content.
- External links : links to content on someone else's website.
Linking keywords to strong pieces of content — think the first page of the SERP or sites with high domain authority — builds your site's credibility through association.
Although anchor links are not essential, you should always have a balance between relevant internal and external links.
Two to four internal and external links each, per 600 words, is a good rule of thumb.
7. Create an engaging meta description
Meta descriptions are the text that appears after your title in the SERPs.
Google highlights words in meta descriptions that are identical to what you were looking for. This helps the reader connect what they were looking for with what you have on your site.
Yet another reason why Yoast is great (assuming you've chosen WordPress – one of the best website builders – and one of the best WordPress themes to go along with it) is that it gives you the option to create your own meta description for your blog post instead of Google selecting a snippet for you.
You'll see the option appear after clicking "Edit Snippet" in the Yoast section of the WP content editor.
What is the recipe for an enticing meta description?
- 50-160 characters: it grabs the reader's attention and doesn't get cut off in search results.
- The advantage for the reader is clear: the reader knows why they should click on you instead of the link below you.
- One to two keywords are included : This is how the keyword is bolded to match the user's search terms and to clarify what your article is about. Remember that your keywords should always be used naturally.
Get it right repeatedly, and your blog's SEO will benefit greatly from the work done up front. And remember, as your traffic grows, you'll want to consider more advanced SEO services that can help you apply your best practices to all of your blog pages, as well as to unlock more creative opportunities to increase your key ranking.
8. Optimize your images
Many people forget that optimizing your images also gives you another major SEO boost for your blog.
Because search engines can't "see" an image like you and me, they look at the image file description, both the title and the image alt text, to understand and rank your images.
For more SEO power, rename the filenames of images uploaded to WordPress to something short, including an important and still descriptive keyword.
This is especially important for your feature image, as it's often the one that gets pinned, shared, and indexed in image search results.
For example, you can name an image » before-after-blog-seo.jpg » where “blog SEO” is your target keyword, and the image can be a graph showing your blog traffic before and after it was optimized.
If you're using a proprietary image that you created, be sure to use your keywords in your alt text and limit your description to less than 100 characters. You don't need to do this with images you find on the internet, because they're already ranking for someone else's keyword.
Before all the keywords are satisfied with writing your image's alt text, keep in mind that its purpose is basically to describe the image to a blind person, not to be a place of stuffing key words.
Here's what to look for in WordPress after uploading your images, for writing titles and alt tags:
After the title and alt text, the second thing to do for each photo is to use tools like ImageOptim or Pichi to reduce the dimensions to less than 1 pixels and reduce your file size.
Reduce the file size as much as you can without compromising image quality and ending up with a blurry photo.
Why does your image file size make a difference to your blog's SEO?
Proper scaling and file size are key to keeping your page load times low; because if people have to wait more than three seconds for your page to display, they'll say "Bye, Felicia." This is one of the most common blogging mistakes I see, so do your best to avoid it!
9. Ensure mobile friendliness and reduce page load times
Have you ever been rushed while shopping and felt relief when there was an empty checkout line…
And then remember how quickly your joy was cut short when you realized you picked the one with the only cashier in training?
Oh, the agony.
This is what waiting for your blog post to load looks like for your reader, and it's even worse when your blog is also crawled by Google.
People won't stay if you keep making them look at blank pages, and the major search engines don't like that either. Load times and mobile responsiveness affect your blog's SEO and user experience, so be sure to pay attention to this major factor when designing your blog's overall layout.
Tools like web.dev and Google's PageSpeed Insights will let you know how your site is doing. Be sure to check out this super actionable guide on how to get the most out of PageSpeed Insights and interpret the insights you see into actionable improvements to your blog.
If your blog isn't mobile-friendly, you'll need to either hire a professional, choose to use a mobile-friendly theme (like OptimizePress), or install a WordPress Plugin specific to help you.
If your page load times need to be improved, you can start by:
- Optimizing your images
- Removal of all WordPress plugins non-essential (WordPress blogs only)
- Upgrade to one of the best hosting plans to speed up your site
The simple fact though, is that it costs money to blog, and you will likely have some of your own budget constraints. Depending on your situation, you may need to choose only from the cheapest hosting plans, budget-conscious shared hosting options, or even free hosting plans that come with certain restrictions on the data front. speed. If so, then it's ok . Blogging is a long haul, so you can afford to upgrade your hosting later once your site starts generating revenue.
Your ultimate goal is to have your pages and posts load quickly, ideally under two seconds (or faster).
10. Promote your content
When you're new to blogging, you may feel like you have a lot of catching up to do with your blog content.
You just want to write, write, write… and write some more. But if your blogging goals include wanting more traffic and improving your domain authority…
You should spend 20% of your time writing and the other 80% promoting your content.
As a blogger, content promotion will make or break you. Spend 20% of your time writing and 80% of your time promoting.
Here's how to promote your blog content for optimal SEO results:
- Writing guest blog posts: Being posted on someone else's blog gives you a chance to get a backlink (aka backlink ) to your blog. When someone else vouches for your work, it shows Google that you need to provide quality content and rewards you with better search rankings.
- Networking with other bloggers: if you've been smart and learned to pick a niche to blog about your expertise (or connections), other bloggers can be your best friends when it comes to spreading the word! Use smart blogger outreach practices to send them an email asking them to be invited to their podcast, accept a Q&A-style post from you, or join forces to create a blog series together. joint YouTube videos. Better yet, start your own podcast and use it as a networking tool. Just make sure you choose the right podcast hosting for your budget.
- Sharing new content on social media: People aren't going to check your site daily to see if there's updated content. Make everyone's life easier by sharing and promoting posts on social media. You never know, you might get lucky and go viral.
- Continue to promote older posts: you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Take what you have, update it, improve it, and share it with a few different titles to see what gets the most social media attention.
- Promote content through your mailing list: your newsletters and welcome emails are amazing opportunities not only to practice email marketing your blog, but also to link to relevant content that your readers may not know, have missed, or have forgotten about. Your email list will be especially important when it comes to promoting giveaways (like an eBook you wrote) and content designed to monetize your audience (like my compilation of Bluehost reviews, for example).
- Pin blog posts on Pinterest: Pinterest is a great complement to Google, especially while waiting for more organic search engine traffic. You might find that Pinterest's traffic isn't as reliable as Google's, but since Pinterest's algorithm isn't as sophisticated, it's still much easier to start ranking and generating tons of traffic. traffic to your site. I'll be using Pinterest to promote content both on my new side blog, VeganTable — and while I help out on my girlfriend's blog, Vegan Anj — so stay tuned for the lessons I'll learn with this tactical.
While each of these actions are important and contribute to getting the traffic you crave, don't overwhelm yourself thinking you have to do it all, every day, or you won't get the blog SEO results you crave. Take your time. to thoughtfully create a blogging business plan that builds on your own strengths and experiences, consider posting to a blogging job site if you need help, do your research by reading books from relevant blogging, consider taking blogging courses to deepen your knowledge and commit to continuous learning.
Pick two things to focus on for the month (or even quarter).
Work on some of the other elements of your blog SEO strategy when you have the time and make sure your SEO work still fits into your overall blog strategy.
When it comes to blog SEO, you're in it for the long haul.
I wish I could say that you can implement these ten blog SEO strategies today and immediately see a virtual rush of people rushing to your blog to devour every word you write.
But… the truth is, you might become an SEO expert with your blog content and not see much change at the very beginning. It's probably not you.
It can take up to six months (or even longer) to start seeing results.
But once you do… growing your blog can be more explosive than your wildest dreams.
And once you get 584 monthly readers, because if you put in the effort to perfect your blog SEO and create great content, you will. Don't be complacent. Keep learning, take the right blogging courses, and read the right blogging books to advance your skills and improve your blog's SEO strategy.
Regularly take a close look at your blog's SEO and content analysis (every three to six months). Get my free blog planner package to help you start this process.
Dig deep to see what works, what doesn't, and what can be improved.
Above all, keep your audience in mind and ask yourself what you can do to make your content even better. for him .
