5 Quick Ways to Improve your Blog SEO Ranking

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So you’ve decided to create an epic blog post and you want your content to get discovered. In order to do this, you need to make sure that your content is optimized for search engines. In this post, I will show you 5 quick ways to improve your blog SEO ranking on both WordPress and Blogspot hosted blogs.

1. OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG POST TITLE

First thing first, your post title is what would lure visitors from search engines and even social networks to visit your blog. You want to make sure your post title is as clear as possible and includes keywords that you want to rank for.

Long-tail keywords are usually the best way to improve your blog SEO ranking because they are more specific and less competitive when compared to single keywords. A long-tail keyword is a search term that consists of more than one word, which targets a narrow audience. For example, rather than writing a post about a “cruise”, you would write about “cruise reviews”.

Other areas you should include your long-tail keywords are:

• The post URL
• The body of your post – aim for ~2% keyword density
• The meta description (called “Search Description” in blogspot)

Use Google Keyword Planner to check for related keywords. It also shows you how competitive particular keywords are (Low, Medium, or High competition). Opt for narrower/more targeted keywords because it focuses on your target audience and has smaller competition.

Tip: Keep your post title to less than 70 characters. If it is longer, your full title will viewable limit in search engines.

2. ADD META DESCRIPTION

Meta description (called Search Description in blogspot) is the description associated with your blog post that will show up in search engine. It is a concise and convincing overview of what a visitor would gain from visiting your blog. It is displayed underneath your post title in a search result.

If you’re on WordPress, you can use Yoast or Jetpack plugin (both available in free versions) to edit your meta description. You’re not alone if you are on Blogspot. You can use SEO Review Tools, a free website to analyze your post. All you have to do is copy and paste your post content and it will give you a score and suggestions for improvement. I used it a lot to improve my blog SEO ranking when I was on blogger.

Tip 1: Include your long-tail keyword in your meta description to increase the relevancy of your article.

Tip 2: Keep it short, concise, and compelling preferably under 160 characters. A call to action motivates people to click through to your post because people generally like being told what to do.

3. IMAGE OPTIMZATION

There are several ways you can optimize your images to make it work in your favor in search results. Very large images increase how long it takes for your site to load. It is recommended that your page/post loads within 5 seconds. If it takes longer, you run the risk of losing visitors which would increase your bounce rate.

You can start off by resizing large images before your upload them. Free services like Flickr and PicMonkey can help you reduce the size of your images before you upload them. I have used both services and now use a photo editing software to resize images on my desktop. Try the Resize Image After Upload plugin if you’re on WordPress. P.S: Having too many plugins installed can also slow down your site.

Equally important is the need to include “Alt(ernative) Text” on all your images. By providing alt text, you help search crawlers understand the information that your image signifies.

To edit “Alt Text” on Blogspot: Upload image > Insert image in post > Click on image > Properties > Alt Text

To edit “Alt Text” on WordPress: Upload image under the Insert Media tab > Click on image you want to edit > fill in the Alt Text

Tip 1: Before uploading your images, rename the image file to a relevant keyword. For example, change it from “IMG000345” to “Your keywords 01”. Doing this lets search engine know that your images are relevant. Images will also show up under your keyword when someone uses the image search option on Google.

[RELATED POST: 26 Top Blogging Tools for Every Blogger]

4. IMPROVE YOUR BLOG SEO RANKING WITH HEADER TAGS

Which would you rather read? A giant block of text containing 20 sentences or text broken down into digestible bits of 3-5 sentences? Utilizing good formatting will increase your users’ experience which will make them stay longer on your blog. Good use of header tags, bullet points, numbered lists, and paragraphs/white space also makes you content easier to read.

This is what it looks like in WordPress:

This is what it looks like in Blogspot:

Heading tags are similar to the Table of Content or Outline of a book. The H1 tag is the most important heading for SEO. The H1 tag represents the title of the book. The H2 tags are the chapters within the book. And H3 tags, if any, would be smaller sections within the chapter. Here’s an example:

HEADING (H1): Title of Post

SUBHEADING 1 (H2): Subheading A

MINOR HEADING 1 (H3): First minor heading for this section
MINOR HEADING 2 (H3): Second minor heading for this section

SUBHEADING 2 (H2): Subheading B

MINOR HEADING 1 (H3): First minor heading for this section
MINOR HEADING 2 (H3): Second minor heading for this section

Tip 1: You would rarely have to select H1 when writing your post if you use a theme that automatically makes your post title H1. So you will end up starting with H2. It varies from theme to theme on WordPress.

If you’re on Blogspot, it’s a different ball game. I recommend reading this post on how to add H1 tag in Blogger AND backing up your template before making any changes. Warning: It is a little complicated.

Tip 2: There is only one H1 tag per post (never repeat H1 tag). H2 through H6 tags are used in the body of your post.

Tip 3: Use fonts that are easy to read. Break your content into sections using heading tags. Add bulleted points, numbered lists, tables (rows and columns) where appropriate to increase user experience.

5. INTERLINK TO RELEVANT CONTENT

Linking to another relevant post within your blog (internal linking) is a great way to get backlinks to your blog. An example in this post is the “related post” I have just after the 3rd heading. Another way to get backlinks to your blog is by commenting on other blogs and website.

Drop two relevant sentences as a comment and include your clickable blog link at the end. This will be covered in more depth in the follow up post next week on how to promote your blog post after you hit publish. Include this code after your comment to make your link clickable. Replace red font with your blog details.

<a href=”http://yourblogname.com/”>YOUR BLOG NAME</a>

It is good practice to have a balance between outbound links (to other websites) and inbound links (links to your website). If there is another website that has information your readers may find useful, do link to that website. Linking to high authority domain will likely improve your blog SEO ranking.

Tip 1: Link to keyword rich posts as often as possible. Rather than “Click Here/Read This” which has no additional search engine value beyond the linked URL, try using the title of the blog post instead. In this post, I linked to “26 Top Blogging Tools for Every Blogger”. Here’s another example:

• Interested in improving the SEO ranking of your blog? Read this X
• Interested in improving the SEO ranking of your blog? Check out these 5 Quick Ways to Improve your Blog’s Search Engine Ranking. √

Tip 2: Affiliate links within your post should be marked as “no follow” since you get an incentive (commission) for linking to them. In Blogspot, you can do this by checking the box that says “Add ‘rel=nofollow” attribute. In WordPress, I use Ultimate Nofollow plugin to add the nofollow attribute. 

And that’s it my friends! These are 5 quick and very actionable tips you can implement to immediately improve the SEO ranking of your blog (I use them too). To help you remember these steps, you can download the FREE Search Engine Optimization Checklist below that I created just for you.

Got questions or SEO tips not discussed in this post? Drop them in the comment section below.