*Updated on February 5, 2018*
Your blog is a powerful marketing tool that has the ability to earn you some legit income.
But if you want to make money blogging, people need to find your blog first.
If you currently get the majority of your traffic from social media, you might think that SEO isn’t important for your blog.
Think again.
Your blog posts have a short life on social media. After all, the average life span of a tweet is only 18 minutes. If you want your blog posts to live forever, you need to make sure they are ranking in search engines.
This is where SEO comes into play.
In this “SEO Tips for Bloggers Guide”, I will show you how to use keywords, generate organic search traffic and ensure all of your blog posts are search engine optimized.
It should go without saying that if you want your posts to rank highly, you need to be writing good content.
If you want to learn the secrets behind writing good content, read this guide I wrote, which covers all essential blogging tips.
If you’re new to blogging altogether, you might want to read my post on how to start a successful blog or jump right into it and sign up for hosting. Spoiler alert: it’s only $3.95 a month. Say what?!
SEO TIPS FOR BEGINNER BLOGGERS
This post contains affiliate links, to find out more information, read my disclaimer. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me.
1. Install an SEO Plugin
Yes, it is possible to create a search engine optimized blog post without using a plugin, but honestly, the plugin makes things a lot easier.
As per the recommendation of many bloggers, I use the Yoast SEO plugin and quite frankly, I love it.
The Yoast SEO plugin is totally free, as is everything I mention throughout this post! That just goes to show you that generating organic search traffic for your blog won’t cost you a penny!
An SEO plugin allows you to:
- Edit and modify meta description and titles
- Easily create your own sitemap
- Have crawlable categories and tags
- Verify your different social media accounts
- Keep an eye on general SEO factors
If you’re anything like most people, you might not understand what any of that means. But the good news is that you don’t really need to understand it because Yoast does it all for you.
To install the plugin on WordPress, go to your Plugins, click Add New, search for Yoast SEO, install it and then activate. For more information on how to set up the plugin, I definitely recommend checking out this post from WPBeginner that goes into much further detail.
2. Determine & Use Your Keywords
Before you even begin writing your blog post, you need to determine your keywords. This is how people will find you in search engine results.
Think of every blog post you write as an opportunity for potential readers to find you on a search engine.
I highly recommend using a keyword researching tool like KW Finder, which will help you find and rank for long tail keywords – an essential step if you want to rank highly on Google!
To learn more about finding keywords and using KWFinder, check out my new post: How to Find Keywords for Blog Posts.
What is a long tail keyword?
A long tail keyword is a 3+ word phrase that is specific to your blog post. There is less competition for long tail keywords because they are searched for less.
For example, when I wrote my How to Start a Lifestyle Blog post, I used the long tail keyword “how to start a lifestyle blog” rather than a short keyword like “blogging.” That’s because there are so many other websites already ranking for “blogging” and my blog would most likely never rank for it.
If you think no one is searching for your long tail keyword, think again. According to Google, 15% of all Google searches are completely unique!
Once you’ve determined your keywords, put them to good use!
I like to use my keywords once per every 250 words and/or where it sounds the most natural. An SEO plugin will also let you know if you’re using a keyword too often or not enough.
3. Utilize Your Headings
Headings, like the one seen above, not only make your content easier to read but they also tell search engines what your post is about.
There are six different headings to choose from in WordPress. And it’s a good idea to use a few different ones in your post (I usually use the H2, H3, and H4 headings for my content).
Heading 1 is your blog post title. You should not use this heading anywhere else in the post. If you’re using WordPress you only need to include it once in the post title box at the top of the page.
Heading 2 is your sub-heading. Search engines will look for keywords in your sub-heading to get a better idea of what your content is about. Use the H2 heading as the main heading for separate areas of ideas in your posts.
Headings 3, 4, 5 & 6 are also sub-headings, but they aren’t as prominent as the H2. Use these headings to break up your content into different parts so that your blog posts are easier to read for your visitors.
It’s a good idea to take advantage of as many headings as you feel comfortable with using. It helps search engines to determine the key points in your content. It also makes it easier for people to skim through and find exactly what they’re looking for.
4. Update the Meta Titles and Descriptions
One of the reasons I love using Yoast is that I can actually change my meta title and description.
If you don’t know what those are, let me explain.
The meta title and description are what shows up in a search engine result. By default, search engines will grab your blog post title and the first bit of text in the post.
In some cases, this might work out perfectly. But most of the time, this results in truncated titles and descriptions that aren’t relevant or SEO-friendly.
With Yoast, you can easily change and optimize the meta titles and descriptions yourself, by using the plugin at the bottom of every post.
This also means that your blog post title and the title that shows up in search engines don’t have to be the same. You can use a “catchy” title on your blog to intrigue your readers and then an optimized meta title for search engines.
And as you can see from the screenshot above, along with being able to change the meta titles and descriptions, you can also change the URL.
5. Improve Your URL
Having an SEO-friendly URL is essential for your search engine visibility and social shares.
Your URL should be easy to read, include your keywords and be free of any stop words.
Never keep your Permalink settings on default.
If you’ve never changed your Permalink settings in WordPress, then perhaps your URL slug ends with something like /p=123. This is not doing you any favors. Head into your Permalink settings and tick off “Post Name” instead of “Default.”
You can take this post as an example of a good URL slug. I am using “/seo-for-bloggers” – which looks simple and contains one of my keywords.
If I used something like “/the-best-seo-tips-for-bloggers-the-ultimate-guide”, it would be truncated by search engines and I would miss out on my getting my keyword noticed. Plus, it doesn’t look very nice to share on social media!
Never change the URL on a post that you’ve already published.
If you change the URL on a published post, anyone who clicks on the link through a search engine will be sent to a 404 error page. You definitely don’t want that to happen! So try to get it right the first time.
If you must change the URL, then read this article from Shout Me Loud to make sure you do it correctly.
6. Optimize Your Images
If you like using images in your blog posts, you need to make sure that you are using SEO-friendly file names, titles, and alt text.
Search engines don’t know what your image is about, so you have to describe it to them through these titles.
Before you even upload the image to WordPress, save it to your computer with a descriptive name. Adding images with titles like “IMG_123” are definitely not helping your SEO.
Once you’ve uploaded your image to WordPress, add a title and alt text. Try to include your keywords where possible.
The alt text is often overlooked but this is a crucial component of optimizing your images for SEO. This is where Google likes to take its information from. Describe your picture in a few words or a sentence.
I’ll use my Pinterest image above as an example. I saved it to my computer as “seo-for-beginners.jpg”, uploaded it to WordPress and used “SEO Guide For Bloggers” as the title and then “girl learning how to use SEO for blog posts” as the alt text.
This might add a minute of extra work every time you upload an image, but it’s definitely worth it. This will help you rank higher AND drive traffic from Google Image searches.
For more information on optimizing your images for SEO, I totally recommend checking out this post by Tiffany Griffin over at Beautiful Dawn.
7. Add More Links
When writing a blog post, you should try to add as many relevant links as you can. If any of your past blog posts are relevant to your new content, add them. If there are any high-quality external websites that are relevant to your post, add them too.
These links are beneficial to your readers and are a good way to increase your rankings.
Before Google decides where it will rank you in search results, it needs to decide if your blog is trustworthy.
Adding frequent links to your own posts and links to other trustworthy websites will help prove to Google that you are a great resource, thus increasing your search rankings.
So, the next time you see a blog post that is full of anchor text links, you’ll know that the blogger behind it has some SEO knowledge.
What are your biggest struggles with SEO?
I realize that this is a LOT of information to take in. So, I recommend bookmarking this page and referring to it the next time you’re writing a blog post.
Here’s a quick summary of what we covered:
- Installing an SEO Plugin
- Finding & Using Keywords
- Using Headings for SEO
- Changing Meta Titles & Descriptions
- Improving Your URL
- Optimizing Your Images
- Utilizing Links
And now, I want to hear from YOU! So, please leave me a comment down below telling me your biggest struggles with search engine optimization!
56 Comments
Amália
Absolutely love this article! Thank you so much for sharing, specially the part of putting the ALT on images.
June 10, 2017 at 09:24Maya
So glad you liked the guide Amalia! All the little things really add up when it comes to SEO!
June 11, 2017 at 10:15Dippalli Naik
Omg this is so helpful! I really need to implement these changes to my blog, thank you for explaining everything so well!! X
June 11, 2017 at 10:57Maya
Glad I could help Dippalli! If you ever have any SEO questions, just ask!
June 11, 2017 at 15:14Jessica
Wow! Very informative and helpful! Thanks!!
June 11, 2017 at 11:29Helen
This is a great post and thanks fir sharing it. Now i know what to do. I really needed the part for image titles and alt text. Thanks again kisses
June 11, 2017 at 12:30Maya
You are welcome Helen! Yes, never forget the alt text! 🙂
June 11, 2017 at 15:17Shola
This was a great post, thanks for writing it!
June 11, 2017 at 13:39Maya
Thanks Shola!
June 11, 2017 at 15:17shannon
so many great SEO tips! I’m always going through and trying to optimize SEO!!
June 11, 2017 at 13:50Maya
Thanks Shannon! It definitely adds some extra time to each blog post but it’s (hopefully) worth it in the end!
June 11, 2017 at 15:18Victoria with one sharp mama
I need all the SEO help that I can get. I’m so thankful for this post and I’m putting it in so I can refer to it when it’s time to work on the blog.
June 11, 2017 at 14:38Maya
So glad you found it helpful Victoria!
June 11, 2017 at 15:18Renita
Wow! This was helpful and has been added to my “TO DO NOW” list. I did not know the difference between heading and adding descriptions in my photos. Thanks so much for this!
June 11, 2017 at 15:02Maya
That’s awesome Renita. Glad you learned something new 🙂
June 11, 2017 at 15:19hemendra
This is a nice guide. Learnt new things, thank you.
June 11, 2017 at 16:17Maya
Thanks Hemendra!
June 12, 2017 at 05:23Ell
Thank you for this ! I struggle with SEO so this is so helpful! Pinning !!!
June 11, 2017 at 16:57Maya
Thanks girl! 🙂
June 12, 2017 at 05:24Frida
Great tips, thank you!
June 11, 2017 at 17:38Maya
You are very welcome Frida!
June 12, 2017 at 05:24Helene
So helpful and so easy to understand guide! You did a great work and thank you for sharing your tips! I always have issues when it comes to choose the right keywords.
June 11, 2017 at 17:58Maya
Thanks Helene! Glad you found it helpful!
June 12, 2017 at 05:26Cory @ Growing Dollars From Cents
I agree with everything in this post.
Yoast is an amazing plugin to use. I’m not sure what I would do without it. I still need to up my SEO game though but these tips should help.
Thanks!
June 11, 2017 at 20:04Maya
Yoast is a lifesaver, that’s for sure! Thanks Cory!
June 12, 2017 at 05:27Prerna Garg
Those are some great tips. So helpful. I liked that idea of adding more links, never realized it was so important.
June 12, 2017 at 02:14Maya
Yes Prerna, it’s really important for SEO. And adding more links to your other posts will help readers stay on the blog!
June 12, 2017 at 05:27Stefanie
Love this!!! so many helpful tips! Thank you for sharing!
June 12, 2017 at 07:28Kaitlyn
Great tips, thanks for sharing!! I have been using Yoast for a little while now and I find it to be very helpful 🙂
June 13, 2017 at 03:23Kendel
Great post! I definitely want to start using Yoast SEO, but I’m still using WordPress.com. Gutted that I can’t utilise it! I will definitely be coming back to this post when I go self-hosted!
June 13, 2017 at 06:21Amanda Dyer
Great advice. Yoast SEO is my personal lifesaver.
June 14, 2017 at 19:00Schona
Thank you! I read elsewhere that you should copy your post title and use that for your photos alt tags?
June 14, 2017 at 20:18Closet Confections
great tips. i love the yoast seo plugin.
June 14, 2017 at 20:58Pammy
I’m bookmarking this! Amazing-useful tips!
June 15, 2017 at 22:43Maya
Thanks so much Pammy!
June 16, 2017 at 19:27Denise
This article explained SEO so that I finally get it! Thanks!
June 18, 2017 at 17:37Maya
Denise, that makes me so happy! If you ever have any questions about SEO, feel free to send me a message!
June 20, 2017 at 23:41Joe @ Average Joe Finance
These are great tips! I love the Yoast plugin. I’ve been working to incorporate more key words to try and improve my results in Google. Hopefully I see some good results!
July 4, 2017 at 02:21Maya
Thanks Joe! Yoast is a life-saver for sure.
July 4, 2017 at 17:46siful moni
Thank you so much to recommend this post. I have got my all answers perfectly.
July 5, 2017 at 21:14Sophia Inza
I was scrolling through your blog and came across this post. SO USEFUL! I’ve been working on improving in the SEO area. Thank you 🙂
August 14, 2017 at 00:42Mary
SEO has always been hard for me to wrap my brain around. This article really breaks it down. Thank you! 🙂
August 21, 2017 at 00:41Ellen
Really needed help with SEO. Thank you for the tips! 🙂
October 23, 2017 at 22:02Maya
You are very welcome Ellen! I hope this post helped you out. If you have any questions about, feel free to ask! 🙂
October 23, 2017 at 22:08Janiel
super useful thank you – my yoast seo isn’t working and I can’t figure out why – think I need to talk to someone about that as it won’t save my SEO description
October 24, 2017 at 14:18Maya
Hmm.. I’m not sure why it would be giving you a hard time. Do a quick Google search to see if anyone else with your particular theme is having trouble with Yoast! There might be a solution out there for you.
October 24, 2017 at 15:50Ileana
Thank you so much! Your explanations were clear and simple, I think it is the first time that I actually understood SEO ? again, thanks for sharing, can’t wait to apply your tips !
November 20, 2017 at 17:11Fana
Awesome post, and easy to follow. This guide is perfect for every newbie blogger.
November 30, 2017 at 04:06seisanne
These are some really fantastic tips! I knew when I uploaded images, that I need to be filling out the descriptions/alternate text more but I didn’t know exactly how to do that until now. Thanks for the information!
December 4, 2017 at 19:40Karen Giuliana
Thank you so much! This article was SUPER helpful to me! I just started blogging in July and definitely want to take it to the next level in 2018!
December 27, 2017 at 04:30Casie
This is the best SEO tutorial I have found. I couldn’t ever find a clear explanation of alt text, so thank you so much.
January 3, 2018 at 17:20Maya
That makes me SO happy to read! Glad you found it helpful. If you ever have any SEO (or blogging) related questions, ask away! 🙂
January 3, 2018 at 22:20keluaran togel
Thank you for your encouraging words. I hope you will find the rest of my articles useful and help you understand SEO better
January 14, 2018 at 00:33Emily
Seriously, THANK YOU!!! This was so helpful to me!
February 10, 2018 at 05:01Maya
You’re so welcome Emily! Thanks for reading.
February 12, 2018 at 21:12result keluaran togel
super useful thank you – my yoast seo isn’t working and I can’t figure out why – think I need to talk to someone about that as it won’t save my SEO description
March 28, 2020 at 11:19