It’s quite common, any writer who steps into the blogosphere could miss out plenty things in the initial days. Writing an article with great vocabulary isn’t not being enough at all. There are some technical SEO aspects which needed to be taken care of, for better search engine visibility.
Blogs SEO should be taken care from very initially stage of blogging to avoid and redo all the things from the scratch which could be really painful.
SEO, a three letter word, is a big term to understand and achieve the mark which you are looking for. Though I would like to mention, it’s not a rocket science at all, if efforts are on the right place.
And spending time on learning the Search Engine Optimization is completely worthful for the blog growth in multiple aspects, as you can not rely just on your Social Media Channels. A proper blogs SEO growth also tends to build up an Authority which opens up a lot of doors of monetization dramatically. Getting confused initially is quite common thinking of What to do and what not to and it applies for everyone.
Let’s be prepared to understand the actual concept of it, and there is no reason why you won’t be able to survive the roller coaster ride with an ease. Isn’t it?
Why only few bloggers could able to understand it better than the rest and making most of it. Do they have in-built SEO super powers?
Not at all, isn’t it?
Reason is simple, instead rushing out and getting into, they actually understood the actual concept of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) very well and keep on getting updated with the Google Algorithm and work accordingly.
Don’t rush for money, understand how Google ranks the pages and optimize your web pages accordingly.
I repeat again, don’t just rush keep on writing content, it won’t take anywhere. I believe in this simple line which says a lot,
Crawling in the right direction is better, than running into the wrong one
So what are we waiting for, let’s dive into and make the most out of your blog content.
Let me mention few of the core points which increases the blogs SEO to be get found in search engines.
Table of Contents
Do a Proper Keyword Research
I am sure, you know this term very well. But might overlooking it and just concentrating on creating the content.
You might have heard lot of times, “Content is King.”
And I too believe in that! And I am sure you write extraordinary content which is crucial for the rankings.
But, one thing to mention, your extremely well written content will go nowhere if the “Keyword Research” is not proper. Ranking on the first page of the search engine matters right?
Certainly it does. It describes how well you are blogging to get more visibility and footprints in. And that’s going to happen gradually, don’t expect it overnight.
I believe keyword research is very crucial and a part of On Page SEO. And if you understood the actual concept of keyword research better, you have won the half of the battle.
Use some great tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush. These tools are are essential for getting relevant keywords with your targeted one. And at the same time it will show you the approximate monthly searches and CPC(For banner Ads users) too.
Alternatively, you can also make use of Google’s Auto suggest which gives you a lot of keyword ideas. Check out the below example, searching for the term “google ranking factors”.
What ever phrase you are looking for, just put a space before the initial letter, that’s it, bunch of supporting keywords would be visible, which can be make used of. And to get the monthly approx searches there itself as you can see in the above images, I am using KeywordEverywhere chrome extensions.
Choosing the Right Blogging Platform
Opting for a decent blogging platform is similarly important. WordPress is reliable to curate quality content.
This doesn’t mean that other blogging platforms don’t have the potential.
But, as of now, none are able to beat WordPress. It is a largest CMS used all over the globe. That says the story and opt able.
WordPress.org a self hosted platform provides you full control over your blog. You can do SEO with the help of plugins and nothing can be done without your permission.
And moreover, there are thousands of plugins and WordPress themes available to choose from which will simplify your work in just few seconds.
So, it worthy to going with WordPress. For the obvious reasons, why to spend more time on doing things manually, when it can done in few clicks and you can be more productive. Apart from this there are several advantages in an addition.
Quality Content Matters
After opting for a good and reliable blogging platform, now it’s equally very important that you have some compelling content into it.
People look for some extraordinary stuff, something unique. Your content should be your identity. So, How do you do so?
Reading some books or some influencer’s blogs will give you a better idea. Nothing works if you content is not mesmerizing. Curate the content which is spot on and useful for the reader with their minimal effort.
For example, if you write about some technical posts(How-To Guides), make sure you are too the point with the article. As we all know we need to be very careful in how to guides with screenshots for the content to be more explanatory.
We have to agree that a user don’t want to read a lot, they need solutions ASAP while looking for some solutions. And its would be quite wise to serve their needs.
Apart from the text content, visual content is similarly plays a vital role in creating engaging content around the topic. It’s well said “a picture is worth thousand words”.
Backlinks which Boost your Webpages
In the SEO industry, backlinks are the most heard term. Yes, they are really imperative. And a valid reason behind it, as these comes under the most crucial google ranking factors.
Quality backlinks improves the blog SEO and boost rankings and this in the major part of off-page seo. Now, if you have query as a blogger, how to get those.
There are several ways to get backlinks to your site, Guest Blogging and Blog Commenting are my favorite and looks more ethical instead buying those.
Now, as it’s just said don’t rush to buy the back links at all, you might see several platforms selling backlinks, I would not recommend at all. As some links can really damage your site and even get penalized by Google.
It’s always good to create some high quality backlinks for your awesome content.
Use Social Media Sensibly
A blogger should not underestimate the power of social media. In fact, amongst the Google 200 ranking factors, social signal are one of them.
That means more shares and likes you get, more your pages will rank on the upper squad of search engines. Not just Google, most of the search engines like Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com and others consider this as a ranking factor.
Sharing the content at least once on the major social media platforms will help the rankings of your blog content.
Sharing your post are the most easiest and effective ways to boost your blog traffic. Share it with the relevant audience, so that it should get more hits and the user stays for longer time on your blog.
And if you don’t came to a conclusion and realize which social media platforms are working for you, and the kind of audience loving your content, then you can always take help of social Media Management Tools. These tools will show all the statistics you want to know.
Important Role of Permalinks
By default, WordPress takes its own permalinks, which are not so useful in regards of search engine optimization. So make sure you change it by Navigating Settings – Permalinks from your WordPress dashboard.
And then time to switch to Custom Structure or Post Name.
Example – /%postname%/
A slug is one of the important part of on-page SEO and it’s play an important role to increase the SEO of your blogs. So, never underestimate it.
Small permalinks are always considered as good ones. And all you need to make sure that you use your focus keywords into it without any stop words.
Try to remove the stop words increases the SEO of the permalinks. Now, if you have done some wrong in the past, then no worries those can be changed. But make sure you are applying redirections, so that you should not lose your existing rankings.
And if you have several such posts to be modified, never mind and I would recommend don’t mess into. All need to be make sure that the future posts has good permalinks with keywords.
SEO-Friendly Content
If you are using wordpress and missing out the SEO plugins it offers, then I must say you are doing it wrong.
As we were discussing about WordPress and some extraordinary plugins it provides. Amongst them, SEO plugins could be extremely useful to optimize the pages for the search engine and at the same time for the readers as well.
Plugins Like Yoast can make you create the content with ease, without less bothering on onpage seo factors. As it automatically detects and indicates the SEO of a certain page and you can correct it immediately.
Final Words on Your Blogs SEO
If you are missing any one of them, it’s high time to get those fixed sooner as possible to improve the blogs seo. Only Writing appealing content is never been enough, if your pages are not found.
Certainly SEO matters a lot for the long run. Fix and optimized your pages sooner as possible according to the ranking factors. Though there are several SEO factors, but above are the ones which generally get missed in the initial days of blogging.
Happy Blogging!
Wait! Before You Go, Read:
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Hi Navin
Great post, especially for people who are looking to get started with blogging.
In particular, I think a lot of new bloggers overlook the link structure of the posts they are writing. Using WordPress and Yoast SEO make it easy, but I have seen some horrible link structures on other blog platforms or from corporates who go it alone and build their own CMS.
The other thing I believe is important to recognise is that it does take time to get traffic and build an audience, so people shouldn’t expect traffic to come flooding in on day one.
Hi Paul,
That’s right Paul, made this post to make very new folks aware, what could go right for them and what would not be. As when I have started it all, made similar mistakes as well.
Yeah, whereas the “permalinks” a concerned, certainly we came across many of the articles, where we could blunder in the link structure, including the numbers and too many stop words. Which doesn’t make any sense in SEO aspect.
Though it quite simple to make some small and sweet permalinks including the Primary keywords manually or Yoast could also help, though I modify it manually which boost the rankings. But, that’s fine, as blogging is a long journey and we kept on learning new things over the time.
Certainly, patience is the key, in blogging, as you said traffic won’t come overnight, There is a lot of right effort involved.
Thanks for landing to this post and going through it.
Navin
Hi Erik,
Good to see Navin on your space with an informative post.
Yes, this is a must read to all who wants to be a blogger. These SEO factors are very important to taken care off.
Getting traffic to our pages is very important in blogging. Back links can play an important role in this aspect. As mentioned I too do
blog Commenting for this
Altogether it’s an informative piece.
Thanks Navin for sharing.
May you both have a great week ahead.
Best
Philip..
Hello P V Ariel,
Certainly, SEO is the only way to see a lot of footprints organically all the time. No traffic would give that pleasure as the traffic which comes from Search engines.
Though, sharing is on social media important as well, as both the things go hand in hand. As we all know Social Signal really matter a lot in ranking.
Backlinks are the fuel of a blog, Creating quality content is great, but boost the pages creating quality backlinks are the way to go.
Similarly, having a good email list always a an important part of blogging to get traffic constantly. Blog Commenting can create magic in many ways, everyone should do.
Have a great week ahead!
Navin
Excellent post on SEO and increasing rankings of a website Naveen. If you want to build a profitable blog that makes money you need to attract as many visitors as possible especially from search engines like Google without getting organic traffic to a website it’s almost impossible for you to make more money from your websites.
When it comes to increasing your organic traffic keyword research plays an important role but you need to make sure to pick only long tail keywords which are highly relevant with less search volume so you can easily rank your website even if your website is brand new.
As you said quality content always matters when it comes to ranking a website you can’t really expect getting top results for any keyword with generic or thin content. We have been publishing long form of content for over 3 years and it’s working like a charm in terms of getting more search traffic and sales to a website. So yes, if you are aiming to get first page visits for high competitive for profitable keywords you need to create quality and highly engaging articles.
Last but not least backlinks always play a crucial role no matter how many changes made to Google algorithms because Google gives top priority to the sites that get a lot of backlinks from various domains.
Thanks so much for sharing this post with us.
Hi Anil,
Glad you liked the post. And yes, a blog success depends on the traffic you get and the value you produce to the readers. And if the blog is a long-term one, then focusing on SEO part is a must, one should go with.
Along with producing good quality content and keep on doing some SEO practices tends to make the blog ranks better in the search engines.
I always believe a proper Keyword research is half of the SEO.
As you said long-form content which produces a lot of value always makes sure to be on the top always in the SERP’s
There are several reasons behind that, as it provides value to the readers, they would likely to spend more time on the page, people always appreciate the detailed and thorough article and link back to it. A long form content also able to rank for several keywords, which brings a lot of traffic.
And apparently, Google see’s all this and help it go on top compared to others.
Thanks for putting a lot of value through you comment here.
Have a great day ahead!
Hello
Navin and Erik,
Great post on this blog as always. SEO is a very big topic and there are lots of things to do to get better results. With right SEO tactics anybody can boost their blog rank higher in search engines. You have written a helpful post about SEO. All these points are very effective to rank our blog and to get found in search engines.
I like all these points, especially – Backlinks which Boost your Webpages and Important Role of Permalinks.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Best wishes,
Praveen verma
Hi Praveen,
Glad you did liked it. Yeah you are right, lot of things gets involved in SEO, it huge. Infact, everyday one could learn new things, it’s that huge…
Certainly backlink are the spine of a blog. Quality backlinks has immense potential to rank out any competitor if having great content too.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, have a great day ahead!
Thanks for sharing this
Cheers buddy! Thanks for stopping by
Thanks a lot for this guide on getting traffic to a blog using seo
Glad to know the guide helped you Doronize
Yep Navin; the quality content note needs bearing bro. Folks focus on all the deets but do a poor job crafting in-depth, genuine content, and wonder they they are struggling so terribly. Turns out ya need some beef in your offering to make it stand out in search engines. Get meta’s and keywords down cold but focus 90% of your energy on creating something awesome, and inspired.
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
You are right. Everyone loves to go through the quality and thorough content only…
Quality contented is alsways appreciated in multiple ways like, shares, new links, builds email list, new opportunities and what not.
And creating such thorough content takes time and a lot of effort and research gets involved…
And that’s what makes a blogger stand out from the crowd.
Thanks!
Have a great day ahead!
Hello Navin,
Awesome article bro. SEO is the backbone to make your site appear high in search engine result page. Creating quality content and making backlinks from high authority website is very important to rank better. You have mentioned some great and helpful tips to make a blog more SEO friendly. Thanks for sharing these great and helpful tips here.
Have a Great day 🙂
Vishwajeet
Hi Vishwajeet,
Is quite often said Content is King, and certainly it is. Similarly, it won’t be wrong if we consider SEO as queen.
So, none of them are complete without each other. 🙂
The more your pamper the queen, it will look much prettier and make your blog Growth sexier too.
Here my intent is not to over optimize the content, but some basic SEO measurement can not be ignored at all to succeed.
Glad you like the tips, keep visiting!
Have a great day ahead!
Navin
When I post anything useless post in blogger it get views. But in wordpress it is getting low views why ?
Hi Anand,
Both are amazing content Management systems, And a CMS has nothing to do with the views.
Although WordPress has some more advantages in terms of maintaining your whole site and having a control over it. That’s the reason most of the users prefer it, including me.
Both have some pros and cons but nothing to do with the views.
Do let me know still if you have any questions. Happy Blogging!
Navin
In my thoughts, one of the best SEO tips is Audits, When planning a local optimization strategy, businesses should first assess their websites. A businesses website should act as a solid foundation for the rest of their efforts to be built upon, Optimizing local listings, press releases, etc. are only as effective as the website they link to. Moreover, Thanks for such a relevant information. I had also completed Digital Marketing Course and after reading your blog, I can truly say this blog will really help every digital marketer at the beginner stage. Looking forward to more relevant blogs from the page.
Thanks for the kinds words, certainly the foundation has to be right if one looking for a long run in the online industry. Some precise decisions need to be taken. Thanks for the comment. And congrats on the completion of your Digital Marketing course. 🙂
i suffering problem with kw research. Will you suggest how i can improve my kw search?
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Find long tail keywords, are the key, an Easier way would be put your competitor website in SEMrush, extract all the keywords which they are ranking for and check the competition level and complexity to rank it. Make the better content.
Drop the keyword, if the tool shows complexity more than 25 or 30, and go for the lower ones, (although, depends on several aspects)
Although don’t just rely on tools itself, to get the basic idea. My personal preference is to do a manual research from the Google search page itself, Autosuggest or you can also use UbberSugest an awesome keyword tool finder. Hope this helps!
Great idea!! How can i increase my backlink???
Use forums and solve peoples issues, Guest Posting, blog commenting works like charm.
Thanks for sharing an informative post that bloggers can really use to optimize their results. Can you share with us your system for coming up with new content ideas?
There are plenty of ways to get some post ideas, reading other blogs, forums. I prefer Quora to get the post ideas, although don;t just stick to it…
It will help in several ways, creates new connections, you would be able to solve others issues, getting backlinks, referral traffic and more.
Find the questions, which more wants answers for, or trendy ones. Buzzsumo could also be a big help.
Find long tail keywords, are the key, an Easier way would be put your competitor website in SEMrush, extract all the keywords which they are ranking for and check the competition level and complexity to rank it. Make the better content.
Drop the keyword, if the tool shows complexity more than 25 or 30, and go for the lower ones, (although, depends on several aspects)
Although don’t just rely on tools itself, to get the basic idea. My personal preference is to do a manual research from the Google search page itself, Autosuggest or you can also use UbberSugest an awesome keyword tool finder. Hope this helps!
There is a lot of people out there that thinks SEO is a do now and see results tomorrow, This is not the case and good SEO takes time and anything up to 6-8 months to achieve long-term result improvements. Great article thanks.
That’s right Sarah, a white labeled SEO takes time, patience with proper strategy has to be in place to get going in the long term basis…
Have a great day!
Useful article for people who are getting started in blogging. Thx a lot.
Glad you did liked Alex!
In 2018, loading time is the most important part of the website ranking in search engine. A website that has less loading time can easily be ranked higher in mobile searches.
Absolutely Anajali… That’s should be the primary focus… Thanks for going through the post!
Have a great day ahead!
It’s great that you elaborated on how you can optimize SEO for your blog. I agree that you should be doing proper keyword research so you can find a keyword that fits your blog and site. In my opinion, you should be looking for a keyword that has a decent amount of searches but not too much competition.
Bingo! You got it right Hector!
Proper keyword research makes the whole process quicker. There are many scenarios, when the content ranks, with a well researched keyword without any links at all, only social boost makes it find the way.
Glad you like the post. Stay with us for more. 🙂
Navin
Thanks, Navin for the awesome info! I do believe in Quality content they rank with fewer backlinks!
Yeah buddy, it all relies on the keyword competition. Lower the competition, easier it to rank.
I have found it very hard to convince people using SEO methods that content is important as you said “content is king” some feel that the wording clutters the site or page. I wish they would grasp that relevant content gives something for Google to look at and rank accordingly.
Navin just one thing I would like to add regarding SEO if you don’t mind, naming your blog something relevant to what you are giving information (or selling) about. Having a URL name that has no relevance to what you are doing will not help others find you and your ranking will fall. Thanks for the post, Navin found it very informative.
Hey Navin,
When we talk about SEO, talking about high quality content. Having high quality content helps big with SEO – even without getting into all the technical headaches.
And, doing keyword research is a smart tactic to do well in search engines. In addition, using LSI keywords strategically and naturally inside your (high quality) content matters a lot!
Thanks for putting this together.
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi
Great Share!
First off, congratulations on this post. This bucket list for you to know the right jobs detail. SEO is a very big topic and there are lots of things to do to get better results. With right SEO tactics anybody can boost their blog rank higher in search engines. You have written a helpful post about SEO. All these points are very effective to rank our blog and to get found in search engines.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Best wishes,
Priya Singh