When I first started blogging I really struggled to find easy and simple SEO tips. I didn’t even know what SEO was. But I remember seeing the word around everywhere. I found posts that said what it was, but I still didn’t understand it at all. It’s not until I upgraded my WordPress plan to Business and started using a SEO plugin that I really started to get it. Its one common thing that alot of bloggers say they struggle with, which is understandable because it is confusing!
SEO [If you didn’t know already] stands for search engine optimisation. It’s the process you have do to your posts before publishing them. SEO consists of very important steps and rules to follow if you want your content to show on all of the major search engines. Using SEO is a great way to gain organic traffic to your site too. Getting the WordPress plugin YOAST SEO has really helped me to better understand how it works. It even has a handy traffic light system to tell you whether your post is SEO friendly and easy to read. It also tells you what you did good in the post and what you need to improve on. Its seriously improved my SEO knowledge so much.
For todays post I’m going to share some of my top SEO tips. Keep in mind that this post isn’t a post to explain how SEO works or what it is. But this is a post sharing my top SEO tips. Remember that if you’re unsure what SEO is, we have a document sharing all of this and tips in our 30 day blogging strategy plan, which is still available to purchase!
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DO YOUR RESEARCH
Research seems like an obvious point to make, I know. But alot of people fail to do it. Whether you post fictional stories or share your favourite outfits of the week on your blog, research applies to us all.
I tend to do research when finding topics to write about. A blogger friend shared with me recently a really great tool that we can all use to find out what topics are currently trending. It’s a search listening tool and is called AnswerThePublic. You input a keyword and it breaks down what’s the most searched sentence containing that word. It’s been so helpful for me to use to gather blogging topic inspiration but to also check that the topic I’m writing about is relevant.
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SUBHEADINGS ARE YOUR FRIEND
If you’ve been a reader of mine for a while you’ll see that using subheadings is something I do in every post. Subheading are really important, mainly for readability of your posts. I’ve seen alot of bloggers not use them and have paragraph after paragraphs full of words. Of course its totally your choice how you layout your blog, and there’s no right or wrong. But, it’s usually one of the reasons why people don’t want to read the content. If there are too many words it can put people off.
So, not only does using paragraphs help with readability but it can help with SEO too. Separating your points with subheadings can help you rank your post higher on search engines too.
IT’S TRIAL AND ERROR
One of the best SEO tips I have learnt is that it’s really all trial and error. You might kill it with SEO on one post and have loads of search engine traffic, but then the next one hardly gets any. You might struggle to get Google traffic but you’re doing great with bing or Yahoo searches. Learning about blogging and SEO is a constant thing. I probably learn something new everyday, so don’t be discouraged if you feel overwhelmed and confused at first.
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LINK, LINK AND LINK SOME MORE
Internal and external linking is really my pet peeve of every post I have. I think I’m almost done writing then remember that I have to search my site and get links to add to my post. If you didn’t know already, linking internally in your posts is encouraged in order to make your content SEO friendly. Internal linking not only adds more of your links to the internet but also encourages your readers to stay a while and look around.
Its really easy to do, and is just the process of adding links to words you have in your content. So here for example, I’ll link one of my anxiety posts to the word anxiety. It’s as simple as that. Linking also helps with your DA [domain authority] score too – but thats a conversation for another day.
META DESCRIPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT
If you take away anything from this SEO tips post then take away this. Meta Descriptions are really really important if you want your posts to show on search engines. If you’re not familiar with meta descriptions, they’re the little paragraph you see under posts on google and other search engines. Its basically the description of what the post is about.
You get only a few characters to sell your post and explain what it is. And this is what readers will see before deciding to click on your post. Always make sure you include one, and include any of your posts key words in there too. So for mine, I will add SEO and tips somewhere as they are both my key words for this post.
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Do you struggle with SEO? Did you find these SEO tips helpful? What are some things you wish you knew more about regarding SEO?
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So helpful!
I am so glad, thank you!
Didn’t have a clue what SEO was and I’m still a bit clueless! I’m a bit thick when it comes to technology!
This was me before I started using the plugin I have! All I can suggest is research!
Thank you!
I need to save this✨🙌🏽
Meta description —need to do more research on that.
Thank you for sharing Olivia💕 xx
Yes! Meta Descriptions are sooo important. Please let me know if you need any help, I got you girl 💖
thanks for sharing Olivia 🙂 havve a great week and cheers from Portugal, PedroL
And same to you! Thank you!
🙂 PedroL
This is so handy! I really need to go through and add metadata to my posts… i always forget even though i know better! I also find that having posts over the 1k word count with a few high quality external links works well xx
Yes for sure! Meta descriptions are really important when it comes to people finding your posts on search engines! xx
Thank you Olivia. Still trying to get a handle on SEO
It can be really confusing! I hope the SEO document in your 30 day plan is helpful!
It is, but it feels like there is so much to do. But your guide/strategy is good to provide focus. Now just working away at developing my own blog 🙂
I use keywords in subheadings some times I get 3000 visitors but this tip not working for some other posts ,what am I doing wrong look at my website http://www.tamilsolution.com
Unfortunately I am not able to just look at your website and figure out what’s wrong. Take a look at your posts and make sure they are all SEO friendly. I have some posts that do better than others, its just the way it goes sometimes.
Do a blog structure tips
I have a blogging plan that I am currently selling which has some tips about blog structure. If you’d like to purchase, here is the link: https://gumroad.com/l/qNynV
Thank you for this… I found it really helpful😃❤
I am so glad! 🙂
Very, very informative and needed info! Shelly just informed me about a lot of this, so I’m updating some posts. I will most definitely be implementing this as I continue to move forward! Thanks to you both for providing such valuable information! One question, where are you adding the meta description?
You’re so welcome! 🙂 I’m not sure, I think it depends on your WordPress plan. Currently there’s a section at the bottom where you write posts that allows me to write the meta description. I think its because I have the YOAST SEO plugin installed!
Ahh yes! I’m on premium, so I’ll probably have to look into upgrading to the business plan for the plug-ins. Thanks!
No worries!
Really helpful post. Now you have me wanting to upgrade my WordPress plan
Hahaha! Its been very much worth it for me!
Thank you Olivia,
This was very helpful
Bernard
I am so glad to hear it, thank you!
This was very helpful! Thank you.
Thanks alot!
This is so helpful, I’m going to go and have a look at your blog strategy plan now!
Thank you! Please let me know if you need any help 🙂
thank you so much for this! i gotta work on meta descriptions
Thanks for reading!
just bought your blog strategy pack! It looks great
Yay!! So glad! I hope you like it!
This is really helpful, thank you!
You’re welcome!
This is really helpful, thank you!
My Pleasure 🙂
I might try out meta description
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for reading!
Soon I’ll switch sides then I’ll have to get used to SEO got to start early not to struggle.
Yes I would recommend!
Thank you for the information
Sure thing!
Great tips – thanks for the Answer the Public advice. Also very interesting that some posts will perform better with SEO than others, for no apparent reason!
Thanks so much!
Thank you! As a new blogger myself, I’ve been wondering how to make the best use of SEO. Great post!
You’re welcome. I really hope you find it helpful!
Cool I like to share your link
Thanks for the info
Thank you for this. As I’m not familiar with SEO but I got useful information from this article posted by you.
I’m just loving your blog, sorry for blowing it up with all my comments tonight 🙂 I’ve considered getting Yaost but haven’t yet. Do u know where I can add meta descriptions for my posts if I don’t have yaost? Or maybe I should just get that plug-in. Thank u!!
Thank you for the info! I had no idea what SEO was and still have no clue what I’m doing. 🙄. This is my first message even. Ha. As my site title implies though, I Dive right in. 😉. Much love and gratitude! 🤗
I find SEO so challenging 😥 Your tips do help thank you!
SEO is still a work in progress for me. Your SEO guide was very helpful and helped me implement some basic things I never thought of, though I still have to remind myself to do them 😅. I can’t wait to upgrade my site plan to business as well. I think having that Yoast plugin would be so helpful.
Great post Olivia. I really enjoy reading your content and learning new blogging tips. Also that 30 day blogging schedule guide is so helpful.