Tips to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO Like a Pro
Search engines, especially Google, must find your blog. If you don’t, you’ll be missing out on a huge audience.
Search engine optimization (search engine marketing) can seem complicated at first. Common sense and a strict process for your content are the most important things in SEO.
SEO used to be a term that implied we were writing for search engines, not humans, a few years ago.
The best SEO practices are directly tied to how people consume your content.
How can you do that?
SEO is complicated. SEO is complex.
SEO takes six to twelve months to show results. SEO should be done properly.
Why is SEO Important
GrowthBadger has estimated that 60% of traffic is generated by organic search.
Traffic can be vital. Search traffic is important.
Search traffic can also help you make decisions.
Facebook is different. Facebook is different.
Google: What does it mean?
Google is the most popular database. Google has scanned millions if not billions of websites to index them.
Google uses more than 200 metrics to score content and then compare it with other blogs after it has been captured.
SEO does not allow you to compete with Google, but it is a way for bloggers to be more successful.
There are two things you can improve upon.
- Content on-page
- Backlinks
These two categories cover everything that is SEO-related.
On-Page Content
Google evaluates and compares your content to other content.
It wasn’t always this way. Google started its search engine many years ago. More interlinks mean that an article is more important.
This was an extremely difficult game. SEO experts might purchase backlinks from other blogs.
Two factors are more crucial than ever when creating content:
- Intent – Visitors should expect the same thing from your site.
- User Experience – How does your site compare with other sites? Do popups interrupt the user’s reading?
User experience refers to many things including the theme that you choose and the navigation menu.
If you’re just starting, it is important to first concentrate on the page content. You have total control.
SEO: Why intent is important?
SEO writing differs from other media. Google recognizes that readers are searching for solutions.
These two questions are essential to ask when you write a blog post.
- How informative are your contents?
- It’s transactional!
These should always be your first concern when you think about the purpose of your blog.
It’s SEO’s paradox. It’s a paradox of SEO. The SEO content you create can be at odds with information–>transactional content.
Paid traffic is very similar to organic searches. Visitors who search Google for something and arrive at your website, are likely to be in the buying process. Your blog’s intent should match this.
Your content must be consistent with the intent of the keywords visitors enter into Google.
The classic example of “What is a mortgage” and “What’s a good mortgage rate?” is used. While both are mortgage searches, their purpose is different.
Someone searching for “What’s a mortgage?” might find information. However, someone searching for “What’s the best mortgage rate?” may be more relevant.
Uncertain of the informational or transactional nature of your content? Google provides clues
Always look at the search results for keywords that you want to rank for. Get a sense of your visitors’ needs and then follow up with similar information.
Walt Disney said about his cartoons, “plus” your content. This means that you should constantly improve it.
It doesn’t mean you should make your articles longer than others. Instead, add value to the reader’s position in the sales funnel.
To answer readers’ questions it is a smart idea to include all of them in your article or to link to other articles.
Why backlinks are important?
Backlinks to your website are an important aspect of SEO.
You want links to be “followed”, not “nofollow”. Every link should still be taken.
Link velocity is the rate at which a blog post gets more links. Google sees high link velocity as people liking your article more and sharing it.
Backlink placement is another important factor. A link in a blog post is more valuable than one posted in a forum.
Backlinks should only be obtained from well-respected sites within your niche.
This is a brief overview of how to get backlinks.
- Guest posting on other blogs
- Guest host on podcasts
- Contact broken link blogs to find out if they can’t be replaced
- Survey to find out your niche and write an article.
- Create an infographic that can easily be shared
- Use HARO (Help A Reporter Out)
- Write testimonials for other businesses
- Create authoritative long-form content
URLs with too many characters can be difficult to share.
Side note – You might believe you can’t rank for keywords if there aren’t backlinks. There have been times when we could rank for keywords with low or moderate difficulty without backlinks.
9 SEO Tips For Bloggers
Backlinks can be hard to get, as you can see.
Before you can get backlinks, it is important to build a solid foundation.
Google ranks websites using more than 200 metrics. Let’s talk about the technical SEO aspects of your WordPress website.
Let’s discuss the ones that offer the best bang for your buck
This article about SEO writing can help you improve the quality of your writing.
1. Select from a range of WordPress hosting options
WP Engine
Our Take
WP Engine are the best choice for hosting a WordPress blog.
The most important thing is to choose the right web hosting provider. WPEngine is our top choice for speed and affordability.
2. Speed up your WordPress website
Our Take
Page load speeds are critical for SEO and users. The plugin will compress your files using a CDN. We love WP Rocket, a WordPress plugin that speeds up blogs.
A slower website will be ranked lower. The first impression takes only seconds.
GTmetrix lets you test your WordPress blog. It will give you an estimate of how long it takes to load your WordPress site.
How fast should your website load? It is best to wait between five and three seconds. If your site takes longer than seven seconds, it should be taken seriously.
WordPress can consume a lot of resources. It is important to find the right balance.
It is important to remember that not all plugins work the same. There are better plugins.
WPRocket is recommended to speed WordPress up.
WP rocket is a plugin that compresses and combines your content. It reduces the time for your blog load time.
A whole article on improved load times. It will be discussed in greater detail by me at some point.
3. Select from a range of WordPress themes
OurTake
It’s used extensively by our blog. It also supports Gutenberg blocks.
Too many bloggers use free or cheap WordPress themes to avoid losing their budget.
Your website’s design and functionality will be greatly affected by the choice of WordPress theme. Your blog’s design can make or break it.
If your site looks too generic, your branding and Google ranking will suffer. Your website must be easy to use and rank your content by Google.
StudioPress Genesis is our favorite theme for SEO.
Genesis is SEO-friendly. It uses schema markup to help Google find the content of your web pages. It is used on my blog and every other WordPress blog.
4. Content Above the Fold
Google reads your content as if it were a reader. Consider layout, navigation, and the location of buttons.
One of the most important aspects is your content “above the fold”. This is what you see first when you view a website. It’s not surprising that this is one of the most important aspects.
On a first date, you must be yourself. “
These are just a few examples of an open loop:
- Use an arrow to indicate that there’s more content below.
- Use a Table of Contents
- Ask the viewer a question that is answered below the fold
- Uploading a partially visible image above the fold
Keep in mind that the top of a desktop device’s screen may not be the same as the top of a mobile device’s screen.
5. Less transactional
Organic search can also be considered renting search results.
Google does not represent your company and can change its algorithm at any time.
Both shareholders and the company have the best interests to make money.
Paid traffic can be more transactional than organic. Google wants only paid traffic that converts. The value of the content is secondary to organic traffic.
You can get more traffic through paid search than organic. To be successful with organic search, you must engage your readers and make your content educational.
With a transaction, you can achieve any outcome that you want from the visitor.
- Register to receive an email newsletter
- Place an order
- Clicking an affiliate link
An article that is too transactional can be created, but Google won’t rank it. Content must be made to please Google.
6. Compress Blog Images
Short Pixel
Our Take
Blog images look great, but they can slow down page loading times. Images can take up to 70% of your download time.
Images must be optimized, just as WP Rocket optimizes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
ShortPixel has been our favorite WordPress plugin. This plugin can compress images up to 90% in some cases. These plugins are compatible with most of the most popular image formats including JPG, PNG, and GIF.
7. SEOPress WordPress Plugin
Our Take
SEOPress is a WordPress competitor plugin for Yoast SEO. It is lighter and more functional than SEOPress Pro. It supports structured data types, breadcrumbs, and Google Page Speed.
Yoast SEO was a very popular WordPress plugin. But, it’s no longer a popular WordPress plugin.
SEOPress can be used to create accurate content and share it on social media.
This tool has all the functionality that Yoast SEO offers, but you can also create a customer schema or use a pre-defined one for your blog posts.
8. Linking to Content on Your Site
LinkWhisper
Larry’s Take
You are in complete control of your blog and can link to other articles. Use the content you create as an example of how the web should look, with pages linking between them.
It is worth writing many articles on core subjects. Google places blogs in certain niches, so it is important to expand the scope of your articles.
LinkWhisper is a tool that can automate the process and add backlinking to internal pages.
9. Make short WordPress Slugs
Avoid long WordPress URLs.
Shared via Social Media, Not Just in SERP.
You can use it instead of the WordPress URL slug automatically generated by WordPress
This makes it easier to understand and more concise to look at when you examine the URL. Because it is frequently found in search results,
This tip applies to URLs that don’t include the category name and dates.
We recommend that you use the post name URL structure on most blogs. This URL can be used to optimize your WordPress SEO.
