10 SEO Tips For Blogs – A Visual Explanation!

As marketers, we know how important search engine optimization is. We need to practice on-page SEO to end up on the prime property of any search engine results…page one, preferably spot number one! That’s how people, who enter the keywords related to our products or services, can find us quickly.

But darn, if there aren’t always algorithm updates with Google. Now what do you do? How do you keep up with all the changes? That’s why I want to share with you the most current 10 SEO tips for blogs. Learning how to optimize blog posts for SEO is crucial to our businesses.

Take a look at this infographic blog SEO checklist, and we’ll break it down further below.

Anatomy of an Optimized Web Page

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It sure helps to see it all in visual form, doesn’t it! Let’s cover each point:

URL

• The URL should be the title, and therefore contain the keyword of your article.
• When published, the URL will show your website name, followed by the category (if you use them), followed up by the title name. This doesn’t mean you can’t change your title down the road if you wish. Just never change your URL. That could affect your ranking.

Meta Description Tag

• The meta description tag is what shows up on the search result page. It’s a short description of what your article is about, like a small preview. Personally, I stay under 160 characters.
• I would highly recommend the “All In One SEO Pack” (AIO) plugin for your website. It’s a very useful tool and is favoured by Google. It will pull up a meta description from the start of your article if you forget to insert your own description.

Here’s a screenshot below an article in the back office of my website. With the AIO plugin, you can choose what the meta description says by typing it in the description box. As you type, you’ll see it appear in the preview snippet.

I personally try to use my keyword in my meta description as well.

Title

• Your title needs to be relevant to your article. In other words, it should describe what the article is about. It should also contain your keyword, preferably at or near the beginning of your title.
• As you can see in the picture above, my keyword is “what’s an email list”. It’s at the beginning of my title, and the AIO has entered it for me.

Header Tag

• Header tags are the larger size fonts you use for the title, subtitles, etc. They bring more emphasis to sections of your article, which is a great way for people to skim through your article.
• The H1 tag should be reserved for the title, and it’s the biggest size font in your article. Then use H2 tags for your subheadings, H3 for lesser headings, etc.

Article Copy

• This is the content or body of your article or blog. Be sure that you write out useful information that is relevant to the topic you chose. The more valuable the material, the better you will get ranked.
• Do not overstuff your keyword in the article. This will actually work against you for ranking. The best thing to do is use LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords throughout. These are synonyms or related words to your keyword.

Visual Assets

• The use of pictures not only helps your SEO but is just plain enjoyable to your reader. No one wants to read a huge block of text. That’s boring and most people will move on. Relevant pictures bring interest to the article and help to break up the text.
• Always remember to add the “alt text” to your image. This is a great place to use an LSI keyword. Consider it extra real estate for ranking opportunities, lol.

Embed Code

• Adding an embedded code to your article is a great way to share your information in a visual way. The infographic above is embedded in this article. I love to use YouTube videos when possible. They provide the embed code to add to any of your posts.
• Google is currently favouring videos, so if you find one, (or make your own), use it! You can find almost anything on YouTube. Just make sure it’s relevant and preferably short.

Social Share Widgets

• There are multiple plugins that you can use for social media sharing. They can offer you a variety of styles, colours, metrics, etc.
• These are great for increasing your traffic sources. If someone really likes your article, they’ll share it with their friends. There’s nothing better for business than getting your post shared over and over.

Open Graph Meta Tags

• This is how you should post your article on your social media accounts.
• Use a relevant picture, your title, and a brief description. Always add the URL, which when clicked, will bring them to your website.

Twitter Cards

• Ever notice when you tweet something with a link, it will only show the link but no picture? Well, Twitter cards allow you to show pictures and videos with your tweet. Here’s a tutorial on how to add the metadata to your page.

OK, there you go! Some simple yet very effective ways to optimize your blog for an SEO friendly article.

And if you’d like to know where I learned all this, please CLICK HERE

Wishing you successful posting,

Suzanne