Tips to Help your SEO
Blogging, it’s just sitting down, writing a post and hitting publish right? While that may be true for some, the reality for those of us who blog for a living is that it is so much more. What you don’t see is the hours we spend just crafting a single post, as we also have to make sure our content is seen and that not only includes sharing on social media but also learning the basics (if not more) of SEO (search engine optimisation).
Now I will never say I am expert in anything blogging, I learn new things every day, I do try and pass on things I have learnt via UK Bloggers, alongside some other amazing people and today I thought I would pass on some easy to do SEO tips.
Publish Quality Relevant Content
Last week I published a post on why your content isn’t that great. I think all bloggers are guilty of publishing content that isn’t their best. There are many reasons for this, perhaps it’s an off day, perhaps the topic isn’t something they are enthusiastic about (I know for me this is a big thing, if I don’t enjoy writing the post – it shows in my words) and sometimes we just forget the golden rule to proofread. Now we are never going to get it right 100% of the time, but if your content is littered with spelling and grammar errors, it is likely to cause issues in the long term with your searchability.
Also, make sure your content is relevant, I guess I am pretty lucky as here I can write about pretty much what I want, due to being “lifestyle”. However, if you have a niche-specific blog, going off-topic suddenly can cause issues.
Load Time
Did you know your load time is taken into account by some search engines? So it is always worth making sure your blog is loading as quickly as possible. I personally noticed a huge difference in load time when I switched hosts and had better caching installed. However, checking for errors in your coding and making sure everything is streamlined as possible can make a big difference.
Metadata
If you are working on WordPress you’ve most likely heard of Yoast (or similar plugins) and have them downloaded and work with the metadata of your posts. This can be harder to do on other platforms, but it is always worth finding out how you edit the metadata of both your website and singular posts. It is worth getting used to using; your title; a description and of course keywords within in a post to help search engines determine what you’re writing about. However be careful, don’t keyword cram posts as that can lead to them being ignored.
Ask an Expert
Like I said at the start, I’m no expert, I can only share what I have learned through muddling along. And sometimes you need to just call in the experts like click.co.uk and get them working their magic for you. Other websites such as enterprise SEO services can also be on hand to help you when needed.
Submit a Sitemap
Sitemaps help search engines navigate your website, it’s basically a list of links, leading to all the important areas of your website. They don’t take too long to set up and submit but can make all the difference to your SEO.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly
Google has stressed the importance of your website being mobile-friendly, it most definitely a part of their ranking mechanics.
This is just a small insight into some things you can do to help make your website be more SEO friendly. There are a whole host of other items to look into such as internal linking, growing natural links from others, use heading tags and more! So why not schedule a day to do some learning.
It is worth looking at this post on how to write a blog post for SEO if you are after more information.
What is your top tip for making your website more SEO friendly?
Pin it!
Love this post girl! Such great tips!!
I am glad you are liking the tips.
Yoast has been a massive help to me for understanding the basics of SEO, but I still have a lot to learn.
It is great isn’t it – definitely not perfect but it does give a base idea.
This is an awesome post! I haven’t used Yoast just yet, but what i’ve heard from your post and others comments, is that its very great! Thanks for sharing!
It is definitely worth downloading and having a try with.
This is such a helpful post, I am currently working on this for my blog now. These tips are awesome!
I am so glad they have been helpful 🙂
Glad I stubleupon this post. Indeed such a great remiber for bloggers. i need to learn more about SEO. Thanks for this, learned something new by reading your post. Good points.
Good luck with learning some more about SEO! I hope it helps get your blog out there.
What is the ideal load time? I think it’s also important to note that the loading speed in mobile should be faster since more people are now using mobile than desktop when viewing websites.
The average is around 20 seconds but a lot of people will leave if it takes more than a couple of seconds! (Gone are the dial up days hey haha)
I really need to work on my page speed. I think optimising my images would be the perfect place to start 🙂
Good luck! Image optimising can really make a huge difference!
I need to learn more about SEO. I don’t know half as much as I should. Just checked and apparently my blog is mobile friendly. Thanks for the link x
Yay! Good to know your website is mobile friendly that’s a big thing.
This is a really useful post as I would love to learn more about SEO and improve my blog position . I totally agree writing quality posts in very important.
It’s always worth spending some time getting used to it.
I needed to read this on SEO. I never knew a sitemap was so important. I am going to be using some of your tips for sure to try to improve my SEO skills.
Good luck I really hope it helps you in the long term 🙂
This post came just in time. I have really been working on better integration of my blog with an SEO.
Good luck with making those changes I really hope it helps you.
This information is very insightful. Knowledgeable content will make or break people when it comes to their SEO.
There really is so much to learn isn’t there when it comes to SEO.
Knowing more about SEO is so important for a blogger nowadays! Finding the right tips at the right moment is just great!
It really is I think day in day out we all have to look to learn something new to help us progress.
Very informative and helpful article. I am still working on my blogs loading time. Thanks for sharing!
Good luck with getting your blogs loading times down!
What a cool post! These are some spot-on tips. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
No problem at all I am glad it has been of help to people.
I use Yoast and I find it really helps me get my SEO right
It is great isn’t it – such a useful plugin to have.
Some really handy tips here, Sarah. There is so much to remember when it comes to SEO isn’t there? I really must double check my load time, haven’t done it for a while
It is like a whole world of new things to learn isn’t it!
SEO is so tricky. I love learning more and more about it. It’s absolutely fascinating.
It is something that is ever changing as well – you just have to keep on learning.
Great tips to help with SEO, I need to check my blog’s load time so thank you for the reminder.
No problem at all I’m glad I’ve remembered a few people about things.
SEO used to be the bane of my existence! I finally overhauled my site last year and couldn’t believe how much faster it got once I optimized all the imagery.
Well done that is awesome! It really can feel a bit like it is driving you mad can’t it.
I’m slowly learning about the things that get you noticed by the internet. It’s exhausting!
It really is I don’t think people realise all the things we do behind closed doors lol.
Awesome tips for people who are having a difficult time with SEO. It can be confusing but taking note of these tips can definitely help.
It really can be – I hope I’ve made these tips at least a bit more simple for people to understand.
SEO is so important & at the same time, very challenging. Any & all SEO tips appreciated now and always.
It really is – I do hope some of these help people.
Thank goodness for Yoast! The task of learning SEO otherwise seemed so daunting. Even with Yoast, it’s good to have tips, so we’re not constantly rewriting to appease the program. Thanks!
Haha Yoast is most definitely a saviour isn’t it!
All great tips that really work. Thanks for sharing
No problem at all I am so pleased people are finding them useful.