This post may contain affiliate links. Please read the Disclaimer for more info.
Before we talk about SEO tips for bloggers, are you in for a challenge?
Open a new tab from your browser and type the name of your blog in the search bar.
What is the Google search results?
Finally, I was able to get Google Site Links to appear in my search results.
This is 12-months in the making.
12 months? Seriously?
Exactly. That’s how long it took for Google to recognize my blog.
Google is one tough cookie.
But I’m not here to rant about my struggle with SEO. Besides, I get it.
Your blog post will show up in the search results, as long as your content uses the exact (or similar) keywords they enter in the search bar.
Okay, let’s stop right there.
Remember this: In order to achieve blogging success using SEO, you need KEYWORDS.
Without the right keywords, your blog will be stuck in limbo.
HOWEVER, if your content falls under a very competitive niche (like mine), chances are you’ll find it difficult to show up on the first page of the search results.
Here’s another challenge for you. Type 12 month blog plan on the Google search bar.
My blog post which uses this focus keyword appears on page 3 of Google search results.
It’s the closest I can get to page 1. Regardless, I’m happy with the result.
And then…
If SEO isn’t working well for you, you can take your chances and come up with content marketing strategies for social media and Pinterest.
However, you cannot completely rely on them.
Remember in 2019 when Facebook was down for 24 hours?
What if, your main source of traffic is Facebook? A lot can happen to an online business within 24 hours. What if you don’t have an email list? How can you reach out to your readers?
Just like what any business owner would say,
You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Therefore, knowledge about SEO is still one of the blogging basics every blogger must know.
Today, we’ll dive into simple SEO tips for bloggers, which will help you “be found” on Google.
How do I get my blog noticed by Google?
Simply put, if you tell Google what your blog is about, you’ll most likely be noticed. And by telling Google, it means, making an effort to make your blog optimized or SEO-friendly.
What does SEO mean in blogging?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO increases the chances of blogs to “be found” on Google.
For instance, if you are looking for career advice, Google will search all over the internet to find which blogs have the most accurate, relevant, and up-to-date information to address your inquiry. To do this, Google uses an algorithm to find blogs in this niche. Therefore, if your blog is SEO-friendly, it will be easy for Google to spot your content, thus, allowing your blog to appear on search results.
How long should blogs be for SEO?
There are many factors to consider as to how long blogs should be. But in order to maximize the use of keywords to rank well in Google, blog posts that are at least 1000 to 2000 words long can be of great help to your website. However, web visitors from blogs in the lifestyle and entertainment niche enjoy reading blog posts between 600 to 800 words.
Free SEO tools for bloggers
For starters, I wouldn’t recommend spending tons on SEO tools for keyword research. Of course, you will need them as you go along with your journey to becoming a full-time blogger. But if you are just starting out, you might want to spend money on other resources to make blogging enjoyable and manageable.
For instance, you can sign up with Tailwind to schedule Pinterest pins. In fact, you can get your first 100 pins scheduled for free.
Or sign up to Canva Pro to create your Facebook and Instagram posts. You can get a free 30-day trial, too.
Lastly, there’s the Creative Market. Here, you can explore beautiful and ready-to-use creative assets, templates, font styles, and premium graphics from talented creators. Sign up for free, and get free products every Monday.
Moving on, here are free SEO tools you can use to get you started with your keyword research.
1. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a free SEO tool that allows you to generate keyword ideas for your niche. It is created by Neil Patel, a well-known digital marketer, and SEO specialist.
How does it work?
Let me use this blog post as an example. My focus keyword is SEO tips for bloggers.
Below, you can see the keyword results by Ubersuggest. This allows me to get an overview of my focus keyword. Ubersuggest is telling me the:
Search volume – number of searches for this keyword in a month
SEO difficulty – competition for organic reach. The higher the number, the more competitive.
Paid difficulty – competition for paid search. The higher the number, the more competitive.
Cost Per Click (CPC) – estimated cost if you want to run Google ads for this focus keyword. The higher the CPC, the more valuable.
3. Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is a browser add on for Chrome and Firefox. It shows you the CPC and competition data of keywords, and monthly search volume.
How does it work?
Let us use the focus keyword for this blog post again SEO tips for bloggers.
I’m using Chrome. When I type the focus keyword in the search bar, the right side of my screen will give me the:
Related Keywords
People Also Search For
How to install Keywords Everywhere?
Simply go to their website and choose which browser you want it installed.
3. Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a 100% free chrome extension. Just like Keywords Everywhere, it is a search volume checker for related keywords, similar keywords, visibility, and backlinks correlation chart.
How does it work?
Using our focus keyword SEO tips for bloggers, search results will give you:
Similar Keywords
Backlinks and visibility correlations
Related Searches
How to install Keyword Surfer?
Go to their website and click the green button that says Get Keyword Surfer for Chrome.
4. Google
Of course, we cannot ignore Google. Going back to our focus keyword SEO tips for bloggers, the search results show:
Snippet
People Also Ask
Related Search
Searches related to SEO tips for bloggers
Note that you cannot 100% rely on these. The purpose of using these free SEO tools for bloggers is to give you an overview of what people are searching for in your niche, and what keywords to target. Remember, as a new blogger, aim for keywords that have a high search volume with low competition.
FREE SEO courses for bloggers
Let’s go to courses. If you feel like you need more than just reading blog posts about SEO like this, or you just want to take it to the next level by taking courses but don’t want to invest in paid ones yet, here are free SEO courses you can try.
1. Free SEO course by Chelsea Clarke of Her Paper Route
Chelsea Clarke is the boss babe behind Her Paper Route, an all-in-one stop shop for online resources about blogging to make money. In fact, this isn’t the first time I mentioned her in my blog. Recently, she announced that she is giving away a $100 discount on her Blog Monetization Course.
Here FREE SEO course is perfect for new bloggers like you.
Moreover, she has a Blog Flipping Masterclass, an in-depth course for those who are interested in creating blogs from scratch and selling it for profit.
You can check out her other courses here.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide
This free SEO tool is made by Google. Basically, this guide covers tips for bloggers on how to “be seen” and how to make Google understand your content.
These are what you will learn:
- Getting started
- Help Google find your content
- Tell Google which pages shouldn’t be crawled
- Help Google (and users) understand your content
- Manage your appearance in Google Search results
- Organize your site hierarchy
- Optimize your content
- Optimize your images
- Make your site mobile-friendly
- Promote your website
- Analyze your search performance and user behavior
- Appendix: Link URLs used in this paper
3. How Google search works
In this free guide, Google shares the behind-the-scenes on how they ORGANIZE, MATCH, and PRESENT search results from millions of content all over the internet. Google promises that they are committed to providing the best information available out there. Furthermore, they express their commitment to being better every day. In fact, the conduct test and experiments which help their company achieve great results.
SEO tips for bloggers made easy to rank #1 on Google
Tip #1: Keywords. Keywords. Keywords.
In writing content, you are making a commitment to your readers. You are tasked
- To inform
- To opine, and
- To persuade
But all of these will be useless unless you add keywords that will Google understand your blog and bring it to your target audience.
The tools and courses mentioned above will help you get started with your keyword research.
Tip #2 Site speed
Site speed is also one of the major factors why Google will love your blog. Site speed or page load time is the time it takes to fully display the content on a specific page. Site speed determines your blogs’ user experience. Blogs with fast page load time have low bounce rates and high web visitor retention.
How to check your blog site speed?
There are two ways.
One is through the Pagespeed Insights by Google. Simply enter your webpage URL and click ANALYZE.
The second option is by using GTMetrix. My screenshot below shows a comparison between the site speed of my homepage compared to my blog post page.
Tip #3 Your blog must be mobile-responsive
How do you make your blog mobile-responsive? Mobile-responsive means your blog looks good on all devices; computers, tablets, and mobile phones.
Honestly, I don’t have to do anything to make my blog mobile-responsive. Elementor is doing it for me. Elementor is a page builder that allows you to design WordPress websites with no manual coding required. The overall web design of my blog is no longer limited to just having a WordPress theme (I’m using the OceanWP theme, by the way).
With Elementor, there are endless web design possibilities. I can redesign my website whenever I want to. Free templates are available for you to customize according to your liking. The Pro-version is a lifesaver too. You get amazing features like motion effects, popup builder, e-commerce settings, widgets, and 24/7 premium support.
Tip #4 Fresh and relevant content
This can be tricky. What is fresh and relevant content anyway when every information is out there already?
Truth be told, this statement is false. We will ALWAYS have the capacity to write fresh and relevant content.
This blog post, for instance. There are thousands of blog posts out there written months or years ago about SEO tips for bloggers. Not to brag but, this one you’re reading now is proudly fresh and relevant. In fact, my next SEO tip didn’t exist until recently.
Tip #5: Use the Rank Math Plugin
Rank Math is a WordPress plugin that you can install in your WordPress website to help you identify whether your web pages or blog posts are SEO-friendly or not.
First, you will see a preview to edit snippet.
Google defines a snippet as a description of or an excerpt from the webpage. Therefore, a snippet refers to a portion of a blog post taken from the Google search results.
When you click the blue Edit Snippet button, this is what will show up on your screen.
Here I’ll edit the permalink and description.
The permalink is the blog post URL, whereas the description serves as the meta description.
As soon as this blog post goes live, this is what will show up in the Google search results.
Below the edit snippet section, you will find a space where you enter your target keywords. Rank Math allows you to use up to 5 keywords per blog post or page. It acknowledges the first keyword you enter as the focus keyword. Notice the star icon on my keyword SEO tips for bloggers.
Other keywords I used in this blog post are SEO for bloggers, free SEO tools, tips for bloggers, and blogging basics.
Moreover, scroll down and you will find 4 other sections of the Rank Math plugin to help you optimize your web page or blog post.
These sections are:
Basic SEO
Additional
Title Readability
Content Readability
A very important note: If you’re using the free version of WordPress.com, you will be unable to install free SEO tools like Rank Math. To do so, all you have to do is upgrade your plan to business or continue blogging with a self-hosted WordPress website like Bringing Up Business.
Self-hosted means you have a web host provider that takes care of your digital assets. In my case, a WordPress blog. To do this, I bought my domain name from Namecheap and linked it to my Interserver web hosting service, before installing WordPress.org.
Conclusion
There’s so much to learn about SEO tips for bloggers that we haven’t discussed yet. Hopefully, I was able to cover the blogging basics you need to get started with SEO.
In a separate blog post, we will dive into how to write high-quality and SEO friendly blog posts.
SEO Tips for Beginners
Looking for some more information on SEO and Blogging Tips for beginners?
Check out these posts:
