If you are into blogging, then you must have heard about “SEO”. A term that is not that simple to muster. In addition to this, hundred of SEO blogs have made it over complicated.
SEO is a very natural thing but owing to the competition it has become necessary and essential.
For those living under a rock (pun intended), SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation”. In layman terms, it is the art of ranking websites.
As bloggers, we often struggle to rank websites despite the good content. Due to the increasing competition, it has become super hard to rank websites without doing any SEO especially if your niche is competitive.
What is the solution then? Don’t worry here are 38 Seo Tips that are more than enough to boost your rankings and give you the necessary edge from your competitors.
1. Include Keyword in your title
This is the most common SEO tip you will see around. Please ensure to keep your main keyword in the Title.
There are millions of blog posts published each day. How do you think Google will pull up your site for a specific keyword? It first checks the H1 tag.
This can be noticed by seeing the search results. The keyword is highlighted in the search results.
Note- WordPress automatically converts the headline to H1 tag. For other platforms make sure the title is in an H1 tag.
Want to create catchy headlines – How to Write Good Catchy Magnetic Headlines | Ultimate Guide
2) Good Meta Description
The meta description is the small snippet of text shown in the search results.
First, make sure that you include the main keyword in the meta description. Due to the increasing number of blog posts being published on your topic, a good meta description can easily help increase your CTR in the SERPs.
Google’s main goal is to show the best to their users. So if they see a site converting better despite lower rankings, you will eventually rise in the SERPs.
I recommend you to use Yoast Seo plugin.
3) Interlinking
Interlinking is very underrated tactic but yet very powerful. It helps to boost the rankings of the current page as well the other interlinked pages.
Also, make sure the edit your old posts and link your new posts. It also helps to keep a new reader stick to your website.
This will increase you on page time.
It also becomes very easy for google’s bots to scan through your websites.
Authority flows from one page to other in a blog. Hence you should ensure that the authority flows to your important pages.
4) Formatting your content
Formatting content is very necessary both for the user and the search engines. Many web pages get links only because they are formatted correctly. It makes the site look authority.
Some of the subheadings are shown in the search results which helps a lot in improving the CTR.
Use the TOS plugin.
5) Linking out to sites
Many new bloggers think that linking out to authority sites will help them lose their traffic and readers.
But the point to understand is that you shouldn’t worry about this fact if you are providing good content. Linking out to both authority and smaller sites have a great impact in the rankings and also helps Google bots know better the content of your site.
So never hesitate in linking out to relevant resources. It is always a good practice.
6) Keyword in URL
Url structure is very important in SEO. Not only the length but the keywords you include matter a lot for rankings.
Gone those days where people would use the same URL structure as suggested.
There are few things you should follow-
1.Make the URL as short as possible. ( Don’t include words like years, our best and other unnecessary words that only add up to the length)
2.Include your keyword in URL. For example, if my keyword would be cheap wireless headphones then my structure would have been
website.com/cheap-wireless-heaphones3.Change your site URL structure to website.com/post-title
7) Use the keyword at the beginning of the title
According to a study if a keyword is used at the beginning of the title it has a little greater value in comparison to when it is used later in a title.
Don’t consider this as a must follow thing, but try to use this whenever possible.
8) Use of LSI Keywords
LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. In layman terms, these are nothing but related keywords.
Usage of these keywords is often ignored. But these words hold a lot of importance.
They can easily increase the keywords you rank for a single.
If you are writing a very long article, these words will naturally tend occur in the article.
Steps to follow –
- Search for the main keyword.
- See for the keyword suggestions below.
- Make sure to use them at least once in the article.
- Another great thing about these keywords is that they are a little easier to rank.
9) Social Signals
Social Signals are very important for any post for great rankings. Though it is not enough to make your post rank in the first place.
The main thing to understand is that it does matter and affects rankings. So make sure the next time you write an article make sure to make a shareable content.
Use a plugin like Sumome.
10) Responsive Design
Responsive Design means the usage of a theme or a custom design that adapts itself depending on the device you’re using, making it user-friendly and easy.
Also, make sure it is SEO-friendly. You can easily check if these features are present or not by using the Google’s tool.
Google is giving a lot of importance to mobile search hence it becomes super important to keep your website optimised for both platforms. It is predicted that mobile devices will soon overtake desktops and laptops.
Let’s see :).
11) Put your keyword in the first 100 words
I don’t know it matters, but Brian Dean, from Backlinko, says “ Make sure you add your keyword in the first 100 words itself”.
Though it is very natural to add your keyword in the first 100 words, many times people tend to forget.
Please make sure you do this for every article. These starting words are super important both for catching your user’s attention and also for rankings.
12) No index your categories and tags
I see many people still indexing categories and tags. Though these are essential for a friendly user experience, they should not be indexed. You will rarely see people coming via a category page.
The problem is that Google mistakes these as duplicate content which can pose a big problem to your search rankings.
13) Make sure to add images and videos
People say that ‘Video’ is the next big thing and will overtake written content at some point. This may come true someday but I don’t see it coming anytime soon.
The important thing to understand is that people hate reading. But if you mix the text with images and videos they will be more than happy to read the whole thing.
One image can give out a lot of information. Make sure you add a lot of images and videos in your post. Also, make sure to make your own original photos and videos rather than picking them from the web.
14) Add alt tags to your images
While Google can analyse a piece of content and identify what it is about, it is impossible for Google to go through images and tell what they are about.
An alt tag helps Google to understand the images so your images show up at right searches. Though this is not they only thing through which Google understands the images uploaded on the web.
You can use “Seo Friendly Images plugin” to make your job easier. But make sure you give the right title to your images.
Eg.-
- Blog-images.jpg (correct)
- Screenshot-12-17.jpg (wrong)
15) Loading time of your page
Loading time is very crucial for a page’s rankings. Gone those days where people would use minutes for a page to load. Few seconds are enough to piss off a user and close your website.
There are many ways to decrease the reduce load time for your web page. I will mention few tips below-
- Use a CDN
- Use Premium Hosting
- Optimise your Images
16)Image Optimisation
Optimising images are very important for any blog or website. Not only does it helps to reduce website loading time it also helps to enrich user experience.
Nobody likes to wait minutes to see an image. I see no harm in optimising images as you can reduce an image significantly without losing on quality.
I use TinyPNG to compress my images. You can also this free service to optimise your images.
17) Guest Posting
Despite Google’s warning about Guest Post links and all the hype around it, Guest Posting has not lost its importance.
It is still one of the most powerful methods used to get links and get higher rankings. But Guest Posting is much more than this. It helps both parties a lot and especially to newer blogs.
Don’t think it as giving away a piece of content for free for a link. It helps you connect to new readers.
Happy Guest Posting.
18) Participating in Link RoundUps
You will see a lot of roundup flowing each day on the web. It is one of the easiest ways of getting quick exposure for your blog.
Though you may not be contacted for a roundup post, you can still get your blog in the roundup post in many ways.
One of the easiest ways is to submit your posts in sites holding “weekly and monthly roundup posts”.
You can also contact the person who has previously held a round up post and ask them to hook you up the next time they conduct a round up post.
You can always use a tool such as DropMyLink to find these opportunities.
19) Engage in Social Media
Social Media is a very powerful tool if used in the right way. It is very important to engage on social media. It can be either be by keeping your opinions or by helping someone out.
Some bloggers consider it a time-waster but trust me it is super important if you care becoming an authority.
20) Make a friendly relation with influencers
Consider influencers as teachers. Make sure to respect and show them your appreciation.
This can be done in some ways. Few are:
- Share their article on the social media
- Link their resources in your posts
- Send them your appreciation via a mail
- Engage in social media with them
Though it may not be a direct Seo Tip, it is super useful.
21) Write Long Posts
If somebody asked me the best thing that somebody should follow to make a blog successful, it would be writing long informative posts.
A study shows a direct relation between post length and ranking which clearly implies that higher the word count greater would be the rankings.
But it should be meaningful too. Whenever you write a piece of content make sure you write only when you are in the mood and always make sure to pour your heart out while writing an article. Don’t let word count restrict you.
Also, don’t forget to format the content you write.
22) Do a Site Audit
Doing a site audit every once a year is very important. You can ignore this if your site is new.
Search Engine Watch says – “Site audits are, in the simplest terms, when you pay someone to forensically examine your site with tools and their eyes utilizing their knowledge and expertise to tell you what is good and what is not so good about your site (or as we say – where you have challenges and opportunities).”
Make sure to use a powerful tool like Semrush and Seo PowerSuite to get best results.
23) Add a About Us & Contact Us Page
Not only are these pages important to a reader but also from the Seo point of view. If you want to ensure that Google sees your site as an active blog and not a PBN make sure you add these pages.
The Moz tool counts it as spam if these pages are missing from a blog.
24) Creating a Round Up
I talked about Round Up Posts earlier too. Apart from contributing to a Round Up post, you can also create one.
You just need to get in touch with influencers and share with them your question. Most influencers love to contribute to such activities. Don’t expect very long answers.
You can either get their contributions through mail or by using Google Forms if you want things organised.
Make sure you choose a good question for your roundup post. Most people link to such posts from their about us page.
This makes it very important in terms of SEO. This is also very important if you are just starting a new blog.
25) Broken Link Building
Broken Link Building is the hottest babe in the town. Though the links you get from broken link building is priceless, it takes time and effort both to get the links.
The steps are super simple.
First, you need to find a broken link. You can use a tool such as Link Miner to find broken links.
Then you need to make a similar article and hope to get a link back. People appreciate when others invest time in finding a broken link on their web page. So they will be more than happy to substitute it with a similar article of yours.
You can find an extensive guide to Broken Link Building from Gotch Seo here.
26) Create an Infographic
“Guestographics”, a popular word in the SEO space. I regard it as the easiest way to get high-quality links.
But you need to invest in a good infographic to expect great results. The best thing about Infographics is that it will not only get you many shares but it easy to get it published on different sites with a short piece of content.
Also, make sure you add your contextual link with the text you provide with the infographic.
27) Do follow the affiliate links
Harsh Agarwal says – “One of the primary concern of most of the Affiliate marketer is dealing with affiliate links from SEO perspective. One major way to make sure your affiliate site grows and doesn’t get penalised due to affiliate links is by making sure you are adding value to your layer of content.”
What is the solution then?
Make sure all you affiliate links do-follow. Do the same if you are using banners etc
You can make use of a plugin like “Pretty Links” to manage affiliate links.
28) Anchor Text
On-Page Seo is a very natural thing. I agree, many blogs are making it over confusing as to what needs to be done.
I know you must have read many tips on anchor text and ratios to be used. Until unless you are setting up a PBN, you should totally ignore all the crap about anchor text.
Rand Fishkin from Moz says –
You should totally ignore the stuff about anchor text and ratios.
Until and unless you are not creating a spammy website it won’t harm you in any way.
29) More links from one site – Good or Bad
I bet you would say bad. Why would somebody want many links from one site?
But the truth it doesn’t affect your site’s ranking if you have many links from one site pointing to your website.
So next time you have the opportunity to grab a link from a site you already have a link, go and grab it.
Trust me. It isn’t bad.
30) Link Relevancy
This is a very normal thing. I know you must have read a lot about these on other blogs.
The thing to understand here is that it is the very natural for a Seo blog to get a link from a Business or Marketing website, but it looks shady if you get the same link is from a fitness website.
But don’t over do this. It is normal to get links from here and there.
31) Get links for unmentioned stuff
When you read blog posts, you might have noticed an image with no source mentioned.
This usually happens.
You can always claim your unmentioned images in two ways-
1.Reverse image search your popular blog images
2.You can also set up Google Alert when somebody mentions your website or name.
After you find these opportunities, you only have to mail them get your link.
Simple. Right 🙂
32) Help Hacked Website
As many as 20,000 websites are hacked each day. And do you know the funny part, many site owners are unaware of it?
You can see sometimes hacked websites during a Google Search. You can easily approach these blog owners and tell them the solution.
This way you can easily ask for a link or a mention.
33) Blog Commenting
No, it’s not lame to comment on three blogs a day.
Yes, I know that comment links are do-follow ones. I don’t care.
The thing to understand here is that blog commenting is much more than just a link back. Make sure you regularly comment on related websites. This helps make connections that come very handy sometimes be it influencers or your readers.
No, I don’t recommend things like three blog comments a day. Do it when you like and doing it often will help.
34) Use Social Sharing Plugins
Shares are important as discussed earlier.
So how to get more shares!
Use social sharing plugins like Sumome. These helps increase your shares and also helps to make your content resonate all over the web.
There are many other free alternatives too.
35) Update Old Posts
I see many people telling – “I am out of ideas. I have written so many posts ..blah blah…”
Things are changing each day. Why can’t people update old posts? Not only will it be helpful in increasing search rankings but your readers will appreciate it too.
Make sure you when you update, you add a significant chunk of content and update the date too.
Don’t update content only when you are ranking but also when you are on the top, and you don’t want your rankings to drop.
36) Use “Jump” Links
Not only does “Jump” links help user to find the desired section of the post, but it also helps in SEO.
Sometimes Jump links are shown in the search results. This makes these links priceless and increases your CTR.
You can create them yourself or by using a plugin like Table of Content Plus. It also comes included in many themes. Just look for it.
37) Schema Ratings
Have you heard this word before?
Maybe!
Let me make it simple for you. Things like star ratings and author name that shows up in the search results come under schema ratings.
Using this will certainly help you get higher rankings. Be it a review post or any other post it is highly beneficial for search engine rankings.
It makes the search result professional and increases CTR significantly.
38) Create a Resource
People like to read resources. Who doesn’t?
The important thing is that people also like to link to resources. Some blogs have a dedicated resources pages.
Getting links from these super important pages is crucial.
So next time you write a post make it a resource.
I hope you would have enjoyed reading the blog posts. You can always ask your questions below in the comment section below.
What are your useful SEO Tips? Share them below. I would love to add them to my list.