Creating the perfect content is no longer sufficient, you must know how to market it too. Today, there are 1.7 billion websites on the internet. How do you make yours stand out, or more importantly found out?
The answer lies in optimizing your blog for SEO. Here you can find a guide to SEO essentials that can help your blog posts stand out.
Think What you Write About
While making a blog post, one should always think about the message that the post conveys. Thus, it is important to think about the content that you wish to put on your blog and the central theme it concerns. It might be helpful to write an outline concerning SEO essentials and then forming a blog post.
Structure to the Blog Post
Comprehensive, SEO-friendly blog posts are based on a proper organization of the content. It is necessary that the blog post should be provided with a basic structure before posting it. It should include an introductory paragraph that lets the reader know what they are about to read. It should be followed by a body, i.e. where the main content is.
Lastly, there should be a conclusion, summarizing the most essential ideas. Formulate what you want to include in each section and then expand on your ideas.
Subheadings Should Be Helpful
A SEO essential, that is often overlooked, is the utilization of subheadings to optimize the traffic on your blog post. However, this does not mean that you go crazy with the keywords. If search engines sense that your keywords are plastered all over the post, then they can mark it as ‘keyword stuffing’. the aim of using subheadings should rather be to guide the readers and help them navigate the article. Use subheadings to divide the post into easily consumable parts. You can use keyword research tools like Ahrefs and Semrush to find relevant subheadings using Questions features in keyword overview section.
Share Content with Influencers and Get Backlinks
If influencers take notice of your content, they can help you promote it by sharing it on their platform. You might even be able to get a backlink from them which can help increase the traffic on your site. You should concentrate on getting your pitch right.
Try to contact the influencers who are popular in your field of work but do not come off as pushy. The primary aim is to get a backlink from the influencers, whether in the form of a link on their post or a simple share on social media. Sometimes the influencers might reach out to you, if they fight your content interesting enough. You may also read this article on how to get quality backlinks.
Optimizing Your URL
Something as simple as a URL can be a SEO essential. A lot of bloggers do not pay any mind to the URL that their posts use. However, this neglect can cost you traffic on your site. Keep in mind to make the URLs shorter and cleaner, as they provide a better experience for the users. It also helps the search engines to find your site. Do ensure that the URL you select contains the key phrase that your blog post focuses on.
Focus on Answering the Question of Your Viewers
People do not have enough time today, which implies that if your post cannot immediately answer their query they’ll move on. Let your readers engage with your content. It is imperative that they do not click on another site after a few seconds. Use keywords to attract the readers and follow it with relevant information so that the interest of the readers is sustained. Your title can decide whether your blog post will be a success or not. This SEO essential trick will help you to grow your blog. Spend time thinking about the correct phrase to title your article.
Make Use of Internal Links
If you are an active blogger, then you have much more to offer to the people who make it to your site. However, all those posts would not see the light of the day unless you bring them to the forefront. This is where you use internal links to sustain valuable traffic on your blog. Internal links are gentle reminders to your readers that your platform has other related content.
An essential SEO trick that can be useful to improve your overall ranking and ROI on your creations. Using linked keywords can let readers see what else your blog has to offer. Not only will internal links improve traffic on your site and your ranking, it will also be attractive to crawlers.
Make Sure Images Use Right Formatting, ALT Tags and File Names
To keep readers hooked on to your page and increase your ranking, visual representation of the content you are talking about is important. What is more important though, is that the image is in the correct format.
There are a few details that need to be paid attention to, while choosing an image. Firstly, the size and quality of the image needs to be taken into consideration. Ideally, the right picture to use would be a high-quality one that does not cause any delays.
Our studies have found that even a measly delay of a second can lead to a 7% deduction in conversion rates. In addition to this, readers will usually close the site if the page takes more than three seconds to load, on an average. The file type for the image can be JPG, PNG, or GIF, according to your need.
However, before you hit the upload button, ensure that the file name used is appropriate. The name should not just be relevant but should contain target keywords.
If the image is unable to load, an ALT tag would appear in its place, letting the readers know what the image was. This tag is the main reference point for the search engines, so it should be used as a SEO essential tool.
The Bottom Line
Now that you have optimized your page to include all the SEO essential hacks, you are set to publish the blog post. This does not mean, however, that you stop learning. Keep yourself updated about the latest SEO news from Google and other crawlers.
