Hi folks, I’m currently in the air on my way to Las Vegas (my first time in America!) and just wanted to let you know that there should still be a post on Monday as normal, but most likely won’t be one on Wednesday. All should be back to the regular routine next Friday (if I’m not too jet-lagged, or as Liam Payne would say, plane-lagged). I’m hopefully going to take this time off to rest and enjoy the sights of Vegas, so I may be a little quiet on social media (except Instagram) and on here. You’ll be sure to hear all about my trip in a few weeks!
I may not be a blogging expert, but I have picked up a few hints and tricks over the years when it comes to improving SEO. In my first year of university I had a module based around web design and it was then that I was first introduced to SEO. If you don’t know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. Which basically means, trying to appear as high as possible in Google’s results pages. Other search engines are available.
SEO is very important when it comes to blogging. You want your writing to reach people, don’t you? You also don’t want your blog to be on the 20th page of Google results, as how often does anyone go past the first page? These are very basic hints and tricks to improve the SEO of your site. I keep meaning to do some research into other ways of improving mine, but at the moment these seem to work well for me.
1. Keywords are key
This is probably one of the most important elements, if not the most important element when addressing your SEO. I try not to focus on it too much, but others would have you adding in keywords just about everywhere in your blog posts. By blogging about a certain topic, you’re more than likely including lots of keywords without even realising it.
The best places to have your keywords are in your title (if you can have it as the first word, even better), the introductory paragraph, your snippet/meta description (what appears in Google under your title), your tags and in your link.
For example, if you’re writing a post about internships, you’re going to want to include that word in your title and as many different times throughout the post itself. Think how many posts are already out there talking about internships, so how will you get yours into the top rank in Google?
Make sure your headline is something people might search for, or has a lot of keywords that someone might type into the search bar. My post titled ‘What’s the Difference Between a Placement, an Internship and Work Experience?‘ performs very well every day as a lot of people would type a question similar to this into Google.
2. Insert headings
I’m not sure why, but apparently Google loves it if you split your blog post with headings. Which is why you’ll usually see most, if not all, of my blog posts being split into sections. Better yet if you list things by numbers as I do every Friday. Plus it’s known that readers are more likely to click onto posts that contain lists than anything else.
3. Keep it short and snappy
Another feature Google seems to favour is the use of short sentences and paragraphs. Keep your blog posts structured and to the point and try not to waffle too much. This always ends up being a problem for me as I go off on so many different tangents.
My biggest tip to give you is to download the Yoast SEO plug-in to your WordPress, which analyses each of your posts and gives you improvements as you write. It will tell you whether you’ve used too much passive voice, too many long sentences or if your paragraphs are too long between different headings.
4. Optimise the images that you use
When you upload your images to your posts, it will usually ask you to title the images, but there will also be a box called ‘Alt Text’. This is the one that holds the most importance. Always include your keyword/keywords in this box as they’ll appear higher in the Google Images results list. Don’t overdo it, just keep it brief.
5. Pop in some links
Where relevant of course. Some inbound links (to another blog post of yours) or outbound links (to other sites) always improves the credibility of your blog post. Just make sure that they are working links. If you’re mentioning another blogger or article, it’s always nice to add in a link to their page.
If you insert links quite regularly to your blog posts, I would advise to do a trawl through your blog once every few months to make sure there are no broken links throughout your site as it will affect your Domain Authority score.
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