Hello hello! As most of you will know if you read my 12 things I learnt at the RewardStyle blogging conference post (I haven't stopped talking about it, sorry!), I recently attended an amazing conference about blogging, influencer marketing, building your own brand and more. It was incredibly inspiring, motivating and I learnt so much in one weekend. It was like being back at University, although, lectures I actually wanted to attend and never graduate from. My head was literally bursting with new things and I had to make notes so I could report back. I really do believe that caring is sharing and I want us all to grow together, blowing someone else's candle out certainly won't make yours any brighter. I'm a strong believer in lifting each other up and working together. I was so glad so many of you read my notes from the blogging conference. I went to an SEO lecture at the conference too so I thought it would be nice to share some easy SEO tips with you today to help you get more traffic to your website or blog. If you're new to blogging, start by reading my how to be an Instagrammer/blogger/start a blog post first then move onto this one. Here are some easy SEO tips that will help make your blog traffic higher. After all, blogs are still king, with algorithms being in control of our reach nowadays on most social platforms, it seems blogs are the only things we actually *own* and can control, without a social channel capping our reach, so I'd highly recommend continuing yours. Nurture your blog. Get your notepad ready as I answer the question; how do I increase traffic to my website or blog?
What is SEO? Firstly, if you’re wondering what SEO is, it means search engine optimisation. Basically, Google controls the internet. Google’s mission? To control the world's information and make it accessible and usable for its audience.
You have to abide by Google's guidelines for posting content and generally, this means what you’re posting on your blog should be:
> Useful + informative content
> Valuable
> Unique
> Credible
> Beneficial
> Audience centric
——— SEO Tools Checklist ———
Firstly, there are a few tools you can have that may make checking your SEO better which of course, all help to make your website traffic higher.
> Google Analytics: Make sure you have an analytics account set up so you can see your traffic, properly learn about your traffic and understand where it’s coming from or, where people are dropping off your site.
> Do some keyword research: Before you write a line of copy, do keyword research, it means you’re making sure you’re appearing in search results as much as possible. You can do this on Google’s keyword planner. Have a look at what's trending or simply what people are searching for.
> Be helpful for your target audience: Ask yourself if you're helping them find what they’re after, e.g, it's not good to send people to your site and not actually answer your blog post title.
> Provide satisfactory answers: to your reader's needs. Again, ask yourself if you're doing this.
> Use the right words: eg: self-tanner or fake tan? See which wording most people are using. You may have written an amazing blog post about how the best nail varnish but most people might be searching for nail polish instead.
> Check your file sizes: Apparently Google doesn’t like pages with big files as they’re hard to load, you can reduce file size for web in Photoshop or use sites like jpeg mini or for Wordpress you can use a QP smush plugin to optimise images in mass (I use Blogspot personally so can’t use this). You should speed up image load time and provide context for Google.
> Image optimisation: Give Google context! You can name your images when saving them as they can help your content rank higher. I personally don't do this but here are some best practices I learnt. First rename your image file when you get it back from the memory card onto your computer, for example, you'd call a polka bikini 'red polka dot bikini top'. The below for example could be called 'Topshop white blouse' or 'Santa Monica Pier'. You can then further this by providing alt text once it’s uploaded. You should basically explain what your images are about by using alt text and naming what you see. Google scans it as a means to discover what’s in the image, therefore, helping to push your content out. Don’t use words like ‘the’ as they’re stop words and are, therefore, unnecessary.
> Image optimisation: Give Google context! You can name your images when saving them as they can help your content rank higher. I personally don't do this but here are some best practices I learnt. First rename your image file when you get it back from the memory card onto your computer, for example, you'd call a polka bikini 'red polka dot bikini top'. The below for example could be called 'Topshop white blouse' or 'Santa Monica Pier'. You can then further this by providing alt text once it’s uploaded. You should basically explain what your images are about by using alt text and naming what you see. Google scans it as a means to discover what’s in the image, therefore, helping to push your content out. Don’t use words like ‘the’ as they’re stop words and are, therefore, unnecessary.
—— Metadata and keywords ——
> You can use a plugin called YOAST in Wordpress but it is built on old perceptions of SEO. Sadly I don’t use Wordpress and there doesn’t seem to be one for blogger but if you're on Wordpress, check it out. Read my how to start a blog for more info on which platforms I recommend and why.
> Be a person and write like a human not a robot! Google prefers human content.
> Rename your blog title with what is provided in your copy. So if your blog post is called the top ten SEO tips, make sure you are giving people what you say you are in the blog post so Google doesn’t penalise you.
> The small blurb at the start is the meta description: what would make you click through to read it?
> Don’t stuff keywords. Yes, it's important to get your keywords in there but don't be spammy with it.
——— Mobile friendly content ———
> Searches on mobile rank differently than they do on the desktop and currently, mobile is king for search. Ensure your blog or website is mobile friendly. 60% of searches are coming from mobile searches.
> Google now has a ‘mobile first index’ so Google will consider the mobile version of your site to be the ‘real version’. It's really important that the mobile version is up to speed as much as possible. Googles algorithm favours sites that are mobile friendly.
—— Content structure ——
Using header tags:
> Header tags or H-tags are something not many people utilise, they’re apparently a great way to structure your content and divide up sections of your content in the HTML source code.
> Include your keyword prominently in your H-tags to let Google know that the keyword you’ve selected is the topic of your content.
> Add as much structure as possible, see tags as subtitles throughout your blog post. Include keyword in your header tags at least once, organically but not stuffing.
—— Internal linking ——
When you get people to come to your site, you don't want them to leave, you want them to stick around as long as possible. This improves session duration and improves bounce rate for your website. This tells Google that you are ranking well and the content is good. A great way to do this is by internal linking.
Best practice for linking:
> Descriptive words: Your anchor text should use descriptive words to let the reader know what they’re clicking on when you are linking.
> Strategic placement: Hyperlink words that are tied to older blog posts throughout your content or towards to end to give more options for readers.
> Keep it relevant: Link to previous posts readers might enjoy throughout your content. Make sure it is similar to your focus keyword. If they’re looking for beauty, for example, don't link to a food post.
> Don’t link out a keyword: This tells Google that this content is more relevant elsewhere so keep the SEO for your post, eliminate linking out other keywords. When Google crawls your site, you basically want more clicks to your site without people clicking on other websites.
> Am I able to go to my blog and change an old post or will it harm my SEO? I asked about my older, ugly blog posts and I was told: You can go back and update an old blog post as this helps SEO. Google actually reward you for updating older content.
So there we have it, a quick look at some of the quick and easy ways you can increase traffic and SEO to your website or blog. Do leave a comment and let me know if you have any SEO tips or if you find any of the above useful, let's hope it helps you drive more traffic and pageviews to your site in the right way.
You might also like:
How to be an Instagrammer/blogger/start a blog
Is Social Media Dangerous?
Blogging As A Full Time Job
Is Social Media Dangerous?
Blogging As A Full Time Job
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