7 SEO tips for beginners
hese SEO tips are easy to learn and implement, and will make a huge difference to your blog. But do you really know what it is and why it is important?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and the more you know about this, the greater your chance will be of obtaining traffic to you blog. Learning some SEO tips will increase your chances of not only obtaining FREE traffic, but also the RIGHT kind of traffic. The more targeted visitors you have coming to your blog, the more successful your blog will be.
There are many different things that Google and other search engines look for on web pages to help determine how those pages are going to be categorised. You need to be very clear with your topic so that the search engines can easily send more traffic your way. Sound good? Let’s get straight into looking at 7 basic SEO tips for beginners.
7 SEO tips to help drive traffic to your blog
1. Choose a domain name carefully
The name of your site should be related to the topic you are blogging about. The clearer you can be about your topic in your URL, the easier it will be for Google to know what your site is about. A name may sound great, but unless it is related to your blog topic, it’s a great name that isn’t going to do much for you!
2. The link structure
What does the domain name look of you blog look like? Is it bloggingtips101.com/p1567 or bloggingtips101.com/7seotipsforbeginners. Descriptive links will help Google know what each post is about, and will give you a better chance for ranking and traffic.
3. Consider the meta data
Meta data is simply data which describes other data. The data that shows up in search engines should appeal to people. What does the meta data say about your post? Have you included relevant titles, keywords, and a description about what the post is about? If not, then how can search engines and visitors find you?
3. Use SEO in your images
Regardless of the topic of blog, it is still a great idea to include images. Not only does it provide some visual harmony for the reader, but it also helps to boost your SEO, so it’s a win win! Whilst the search engines can not read the image, they can read the tag that is attached to the image. Therefore ensure that this tag is relevant to your post and topic. If you have a lot of great images on your blog, you will also benefit greatly from Pinterest which is a social sharing site. This site is solely about sharing images, and the more your images can be pinned by others, the greater chance you have of obtaining free traffic to your site. If you are not using images, then now is the time to start!
4. Content is King
The term content is king is probably one of the biggest SEO tips you will hear. It is incredibly important that your posts are well written and include relevant words and phrases (keywords). The challenge here is to use those keywords in a way that search engines can find them, without making them look unnatural. It is recommended that you place these keywords as a minimum in the post title, in the first paragraph of the post, in a subheading and at the end of a post. Use a keyword research tool to help you find relevant keywords for your blog and post. There are many free online options to help with this such as Google Keyword Planner. When you use the keywords in a post, remember to think about keyword density as search engines will not look kindly upon posts that have keywords stuffed all around the content.
5. Links are Queen
A king needs a Queen and can’t be overlooked in our SEO tips. Your links are your Queen and they should be treated with care and attention.
6. Update regularly with fresh content
Do you have a blog schedule? It is recommended that you decide upon a number of posts that you are going to publish within a week and stick to this. Each time your blog is updated the search engines will visit to see what can be indexed on that page. Remember that search engines = free traffic, so you want them visiting you! The more you post, the more you will be indexed. If you don’t update your blog for several months, you shouldn’t be surprised if visitors stop coming.
If you intend on building a following of readers, they will want to know that you have new and fresh content. Why would a reader bother to come back to your site if you don’t update it regularly? They have already read that content and are looking for the next chapter. If you regularly post interesting and relevant articles, then your readers will return for more. This is one of those SEO tips that you should really pay attention to. Consistency is the key!!
7. Add a blog to your website
If your static website doesn’t get updated often, then you need to attach a blog! It is the fresh content that the search spiders are looking for, so if you are not adding fresh content, you won’t be seen … it’s that simple! Add a blog to your website and see the change!
There are SO many things to learn for SEO and this post only scratches the surface. However these SEO tips are important as a starting point and the more you learn, the more you can continue to learn. It is a great idea to keep informed of SEO updates as these do tend to change regularly. If you are serious about your blog, then SEO needs to be considered as part of your job description. There is no way of overlooking this, but the more that you learn and understand, the greater advantage you will receive from it.
Have you been paying to attention to SEO on your blog? Have you implemented any new strategies and noticed an increase in traffic because of it? Do you have any SEO tips you would like to share with us? We would love to hear your experiences.