Blogging is a great way to connect with people from around the world, kickstart your business, and showcase your knowledge. However, it’s not enough to just start writing. If you want people to discover your work, you need to be able to get it in front of them. The best way to do this is by mastering SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
I knew nothing about SEO when I first got started, but it’s definitely something that you can self-learn. I found plenty of great resources online, and gradually learned how to optimize my blog for SEO. Of course, Google is constantly making changes to its algorithms, which means SEO is an ongoing process, and you need to be constantly learning. Whether you choose to use a company like https://www.click.co.uk/services/organic-search-seo/ or you’d like to master it yourself, here are some of the top things you should know:
Understand Keywords
Keywords are the terms that you audience will type into Google so they can find your blog. The best way to choose your keywords is to do some keyword research- it’s not enough to just make these up based on your gut.
Use a keyword tool which will help you find the keywords that a lot of people are searching for, but without too much competition. Then, use these keywords throughout your website and in your blog posts.
Keep in mind that you can also use keywords that are related to your main keyword- Google is smart enough to direct searchers to your blog based on similar search terms and synonyms.
Understand linking
Google ‘crawls’ your website, to see if you’ve updated it and record your pages and blog posts. But you need to help Google out by pointing the bots in the right direction. This is done by linking to different pages in your blog posts. Not only is this helpful for the search engines, but it’s a good way to keep visitors on your website for longer and provide them with related important.
Consider speed
Page speed is now a critical part of SEO, which is why you need to make sure your site loads as fast as possible. Slow page speeds will frustrate users and have them clicking away from your blog. Now, Google actually includes site speed as one of the most important factors for ranking. That means that if you have a slow website, you could miss out on those coveted top spots in the search results even if you have quality content and website design.
