Having blogged for the past three years, I’m well aware that it isn’t quite as simple as just writing a post… Whilst the content is obviously the most important aspect of any post, there’s so much more to writing and setting up a blog post such as pictures, videos, links, category’s, spell-checks (which I really ought to do more of before hitting the ‘publish’ button) and of course SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for ‘search engine optimisation’ which will be of importance if you plan on making money from your website. If you fancy ranking highly in the rabbit warren that is google’s search results then you need to consider SEO before posting anything online.
Being a Wordpress user, I tend to cheat a little when it comes to SEO. I use a rather nifty plugin titled ‘Yoast’ which tells me whether my SEO settings for each post are either good, mediocre or utterly useless through a traffic light system. I usually aim for green lights on all of my posts but it isn’t easy…
Yoast asks me to input the meta data for my post; the title, the keywords and the stuff which google will pickup upon and rank my post from accordingly. I usually include at least three or four key words from each post and simply copy the title post as the SEO title, this tends to put me on a green light but there are times when finding the correct combination of words, titles and such-like to hit green can be tricky.
SEO is especially important should you happen to include PPC (pay per click) advertisements upon your site, as the only way in which to have users click upon those links is to attract them to your site in the first place. For further information and guidance upon further improving your SEO for PPC take a look at ‘Click Consult‘.
There’s quite a lot to consider when it comes to SEO, thus I decided to put together my own list of ‘ten top tips for SEO’ which I hope you find helpful.
Ten Top Tips For SEO
Set your permalinks (the actual address for each page) sensibly.
So for example, each of my posts are within a specific category www.mysite.com/category/pagename. This helps users to locate pages should they then click upon a specific category, they can then sift through relevant posts which link to a similar topic.
WordPress comes with a default permalink setting which allows you to change them as per your convenience and needs. These settings can be found in settings -> permalinks.
Create a sitemap for your website
This can be done fairly simply through a Wordpress plugin called Google XML Sitemaps. This automatically generates a sitemap which you can share with search engines to better index your site.
Use ‘Google’ Analytics
A free tool offered from google (you will need a google account to set this up). Having installed google analytics, you will then be able to view the traffic coming to your website and find out how they first discovered your page, whether they return, how long they hang about for and all kinds of useful information.
Hosting
Be sure to choose a reliable host, it’s no use if your website is up and down like a pair of tights. Your readers do not wish to see error messages or be left waiting for your site to load, they will move on and most likely not bother returning. It’s important therefore to choose a reliable and trustworthy host.
Optimise your media
Media is incredibly important. However, it can either ruin or improve your website massively. It is important how you tag and name your images, as they too will determine your SEO. With the correct tagging and naming of images, you are likely to improve your chances of ranking higher.
Use correct heading tags
The H1 (heading1) tag must be used for the title of the blog post, it is crucial to keep your H1 tags clear and informative. The H1 tag is often copied into the title and keywords for the SEO.
Make your content sharable
Be sure to include social sharing links at the top or bottom of your posts, if people enjoy reading your content they can then share it easily thus increasing your traffic.
Use links and anchor texts correctly
Be sure to include links to your own posts within your own posts, by interlinking your posts you are more likely to drive further traffic to your site. It is important to keep links relevant and of interest for readers.
Produce high-quality content
It’s no use producing shoddy content, readers will not return should they find your posts boring. Be sure to keep your content interesting, informative and engaging.
Use SEO Plugins
Whether you are new to SEO or an expert, Wordpress has a number of free plugins (such as Yoast) which best accomplish SEO. These plugins allow you to automatically add the information rather than manually entering meta descriptions, sitemaps and such-like.
This is a collaborative post and may contain affiliate links