Complete SEO Guide – Learn Step by Step SEO Techniques

Search engine optimization can be scary and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you want your post to rank higher in the search engines like google, yahoo and Bing then you must make sure that the post is properly optimized.

It sounds like a big complicated thing to handle and most new bloggers give up with no or very little attempt to grasp at least the basics, but these new bloggers SEO tips will help you to understand the in and out of SEO which make things easier.

The ultimate guide to SEO your blog post

SEO simply means search engine optimization. Having a well-optimized post also means more traffic to your blog which can also translate to high income too. How awesome would it be for your content to rank on the first page of google? Below are all the new bloggers SEO tips

Tip 1. Write longer post.

Google love longer posts. Aim to have at least 1000 words minimum in each post. I know at first that might sound a lot but the more you write the better you get. Longer post tends to rank higher compared to short one.

On the brighter side having longer posts means that your posts are packed with valuable content. Remember that the most important thing is to produce quality content so don’t just ramble on to make sure you have 1000+.

Make sure you proofread your post before you hit publish so as to correct any grammatical errors such as spelling mistakes. The easy way to do this is through Grammarly which is a free online grammar checker. All you have to do is to create an account and you are ready to use it.

Tip 2. Install A SEO plugin

Having an SEO plugin ensures that both your posts and your entire website are optimized. It will also help you to understand where you are going wrong with optimizing your posts.

There are many plugins that you can use but I personally love and use Yoast. If you run a WordPress website I highly recommend installing Yoast and it is free too.

All you have to do, to install the plugin is to go to your WordPress admin then plugin>add new then search for it and install.

Note that it is possible to can create a search engine optimized post without installing, but with the plugin, things are easier.

Among all the new bloggers SEO tips this is the one I highly recommend as it makes understanding SEO way easier and it even tells you what you need to rectify.

Tip 3. Pictures

Make sure you include a few pictures in your post. Can you imagine reading a post with 1000+ word and no pictures? It can be boring but using pictures will make sure that your audience is glued to your posts.

The pictures you choose to use should be relevant to your post and you shouldn’t use images directly from the internet. If you do give credit to the owner. If you can’t afford a good camera you can always hire a good photographer.

Alternatively, you can use images from sites like shutter fly where you will have to pay a small fee but it is worth it. I love using stock images which I find so pretty and extremely easy to edit.

Use images that are the correct size to prevent your site from loading slowly.

Picture Optimization

After having the set of pictures, you want to use, the next step is to make sure they are optimized. Before uploading the pictures make sure you rename them. Rename the file where you have stored the pictures and the pictures themselves.

For example, in this post, you can rename one of my pictures from DSC _4074 to new bloggers SEO tips. Make sure as rename you using keywords both on the picture and the file name too.

Another thing is to make sure that you fill in your alt text and the title option and include a keyword. You can do this once you upload the picture to WordPress. Another tip is to make sure that your pictures are of the correct size.

To resize the pictures you can use canvas or even wp smush. Wp Smush which helps in resizing, compressing and optimizing your pictures.

TIP 4. Keyword

Keywords are words that you want your blog post to rank for. Before writing a post, you should at least know which keywords you want to focus on.

The more specific you are with your keyword the higher the chances are for ranking higher on google.

Google responds better when you at least 4 keywords. In order to come up with the best keywords to use, you need to do a keyword search.

Which you can do by asking yourself questions like if someone was trying to find information on this post how would they google it?

What would I type on google to get information in this post? Doing this will help you to understand what people are likely to search for.

New bloggers SEO tips focus more Long tail keyword

These are keywords with more than 3 words, they are simply key phrases. The good thing about using long tail keywords is that they are more unique, and they will give your post a better chance of ranking.

The short tail keywords are being used by many people in the industry so as a newbie it might be hard for your post to rank higher. Using long tail keyword means less competition.

The key to using keywords is not to force them otherwise they will end up looking so unnatural. All you need to do is to place them strategically.

A few places where you should include your keywords are:

• Blog post title

Most people are attracted to the headline first. Having a catchy headline will entice people to read your blog post so make sure you Include keywords in your post title, just make sure to keep your titles short.

Your title should be within 55 characters.

• Subtitles

In WordPress, there are 6 headings under the paragraph tab. Heading 1 is normally for the blog post only. H2 can be a subheading of H1.

Try to add a keyword in the H2 tag in a natural way. You can go ahead and use H3, H4, H5 to subdivide your content further but H2 tends to be more important.

• Permalink

Yoast will automatically generate one for you and will also tell you if there are any stop words that need to be removed.

• Pictures

As stated above make sure when you upload your pictures you add a keyword to the Alt text. This will help drive more traffic to your post.

• Blog post body

Include keywords in the 1st and in the last paragraph. Maybe after the first 150 words and the last 150 words and in the middle of your post.

The SEO plugin will help to show you if you have your keyword well. It will tell you if your keyword count is enough or if you need to add more.

• Meta description

This is a short description of what your post is all about. You will find it below your post title in the search engines.

Tip 5: Share icons

The last thing is to make sure that your reader can be able to share your content. Make sure that after every post your reader has different options on where to share the post if they want to.

Add social buttons such as Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Tip 6. Interlink

This is where you link posts within your blog. It will help to drive traffic to your old posts and it will, of course, make the linked pages rank better. Make sure you link to relevant posts.

If you link well it will make your readers stay longer on your blog reading the related posts, hence reducing the bounce rate. You can also add a related post plugin. This appears after every post and it makes it possible for related content to show.

Another important thing you need to do is make sure you have no broken links. Google hates it so do your readers. Broken links will frustrate your readers and will end up not returning.

A quick recap of this ultimate guide to SEO your blog post

• Write longer post

• Install an SEO plugin

• Pictures

• Keyword

• Share icons

• Interlink

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