Google – How to Smash SEO
You may be wondering what is Google SEO? If you’re not a blogger than this post isn’t for you. If you are a blogger and don’t know what SEO is and how it works than this post is for you. I’ve rounded up my fellow blogging friend to give you their top tips on google and how to smash seo. For this weeks installment on the A to z blog tools and resources.
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Be human
‘Always think like a human rather than trying to beat the system! While keywords are a great place to start, think about the questions people might have about this topic. Use the questions as headers to a paragraph and give a good answer. You might end up as a featured snippet in search.’
maidenheadmum.co.uk
‘As a SEO manager I would say think about the user. Don’t write for search engines, write for the user, answer their pain points. It doesn’t matter if you have a 1000 word article if it doesn’t answer searcher’s query. Don’t forget technical aspects of SEO. Make Google search console your best friend to investigate and action any technical issues that might be holding your Website/blog/brand back.’
stylewithsubstance.net
Blog Organization
‘Learn about SEO from the start and don’t be scared of it. Because having to go back later and optimise from scratch can be painful.’
‘Plan your website. Create your own sitemap and categorise correctly. Too much rubbish content can over rule good stuff too!’
Titles and Meta
‘Learn how to write good titles and meta descriptions early in your blogging career. The last thing you want is to learnt how to do it well a year in to your blog, and then have to go back and re-write them all. It’s quite an easy technique to learn and really valuable, not just for ranking but for click through.’
‘Make sure to specify the meta title and description for your posts, to both include the keyword you’re targeting but also to entice readers to click through from Google searches.’
Plugins and tools
The yoast plugin has many fans in the blogging world mummybarrow.com, whingewhingewine.co.uk and imperfectmummy.com all vouched for it’s usefulness.
‘Use the Yoast plugin. It’s free and super easy to understand, and it provides a traffic light system for you to follow when you’re creating posts to ensure you’ve ticked all the right boxes. For example, it’ll ensure that you’ve included your keywords the optimum amount based on the length of your post.’
‘Make use of free SEO tools that are out there such as SEMrush or Moz, and keep an eye on Google Trends to try and keep your content current and searchable. Also make sure you have a strong internal linking profile – makes a big difference!’
‘Invest in a good SEO tool like Keysearch. And learn how to use it. The free ones only go do far but if you use Keysearch wisely, you’ll be killing seo. And don’t go for one keyword. Weave in as many other as you naturally can. Why rank for one when you could rank for 10, 20 or even 30.’
‘Using Google Search Console to see what keywords people are already using to find your blog posts then checking those posts to make sure they’re as optimised as possible. I like to focus on the posts that are on page 2/3 to try and get them up to page 1.’
‘Make sure you use all of the options to analyse your posts to find out what works and what doesn’t work. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are easy to add and can really help you to learn about how people are finding your site and what content they engage with.’
Images
‘One that people often forget is images. Make sure you save them to your computer first with an appropriate name that includes your key words BEFORE you upload to your site. Then, once uploaded make sure you include alt tags too.’
‘Go through old posts from time to time and add better quality of new photos.’
teaandcakeforthesoul.wordpress.com
‘Create your own original images and include your key words in the tag of at least one.’
‘Make sure your site is as fast as possible. The website speed is a ranking factor and if your site is slow, it will affect your rankings. To make your site faster optimise your images.’ behealthynow.co.uk
Key words
‘Make sure you use key words in headers and link to your own posts.’
‘Use available tools like Keywords Everywhere and Jaaxy.’
‘Don’t forget cornerstone content!’
Links
‘Interlink and Link back to other posts you have written. Also update posts regularly’
‘Fix broken links! Broken links can be very detrimental to your SEO ranking. I run a broken link check on my website once a week and fix/redirect them all accordingly.’
‘Try to avoid direct link swaps to build backlinks. It looks unnatural to Google and if you do too many you could be penalised. If you’re trying to build alot of links use multi-way swaps (3-way minimum) or guest posting to build them in a way that looks more natural to Google.
Niche it up
‘Have a niche or at the very least, a series of posts around the same subject that link together so you look like an authority on that topic.’
christmasmagicandmarkets.co.uk
‘Don’t be afraid to do a post on something quite niche or unique every now and again. Being the first can bring in some big traffic over time. Some of my best traffic comes from recipes that, on keyword research alone, wouldn’t have looked like good prospects.’
‘Don’t be put off writing about something because there’s already lots of popular posts on the topic. Just phrase your keywords and title in a different way (as a question instead of a fact, or vice versa) and it’ll make Google and the readers happy’
studentskint.com
Size matters
‘Write long, useful posts that answer a question or offer a guide to a topic thoroughly for the reader’
‘Make your paragraphs short. When writing your post make sure that you keep your paragraphs short and use a maximum of 2-3 sentences. As it makes your blog post easier for people to read/scroll’
districtofsassy.com
If you’re a writer, try to forget about everything you’ve learned. What might read well to a person does not necessarily help with SEO. In fact, shortening paragraph length and avoiding use of the passive voice are important for SEO. Established writers may take a step backwards with horror!’
SEO Support
‘Join specific SEO Facebook groups so you can stay on top of changes in Google algorithms and SEO development. I love the DNW FB group and The Blog Surgery.’
‘Taking part in crowdsourced posts for example, or writing guest posts for others. Even commenting on other blogs helps.’
SEO Checklist
‘Have an SEO checklist to make sure you’re covering all the points such as keywords, long-tail keywords, meta description, headings, alt text in images etc.’
I would also highly recommend the Navigating SEO course run by my amazing web host, Lyrical host.
