We always stress the importance of SEO for your website. One great way to redirect traffic is through blogging. You can read about some SEO options that mention that here. It is easy to forget about SEO for your blog with all the emphasis on website optimization. Here are a few pointers.

Precise. Clear. Searchable

Keys words are not dead in SEO, but they are used differently. You need to build your posts so that they make sense to just read the title and description. Search engines need to easily identify that this post should be displayed first when a certain topic is searched.

Tips

• Keep your title precise and unique. Google uses this to index pages. 
• Make sure your page name contains relevant keywords. 
  • Your page name will be: www.YOURDOMAIN.com/PAGENAME
• Use relevant keywords with your images
  • Alt Tag - This is what Google uses for indexing
  • Name - This will also be the image description 
  • Title - This will appear when someone hovers over the image
• If other blogs link to you, see what keywords they are using to associate with you
• Vary your title and your title tag
  • Your title should be precise, but you can use alternative words in the tag to make your post search friendly 

For more tips on wording, click here. 

Note: Content is the most important aspect of blogging. You need to write great content to engage more readers. DO NOT jam pack your posts full of keywords.

Interface

When I mention interface, I am referring to what the reader sees on your blog page. There are a few easy ways to increase SEO on the interface.

• Pagination: This is when you organize your blog so that all posts aren't endlessly running on the same page. 
  • You can improve this by simply adding page numbers.
• Categorize your content.
• Add a "related posts" section that will appear when readers are viewing a particular post
  • Make sure the related posts make sense and share common ground with the topic the reader is currently viewing.
• Add "previous" and "next" post buttons.
• Add sharing buttons.
  • You can use this for all forms of social media.

See more on what you can add to increase your blog's SEO here. 

Tools

Open Site Explorer

This tool will rank the URL of your blog or website on a scale to 100. It will tell you the link anchor text, domain authority, and page authority.

Try it out here.

Google Keyword Tool

This is your best bet for free keyword research.

Try it out here.

SEO Site Tools

This tool is a Google Chrome extension that will display any website's SEO tags.

Try it out here.

Yoast

This is great if your blog is ran off of WordPress. It gives options for free and paid SEO plugins.

Try it out here.

For more information on on managing your SEO or blogging, contact a  Blue Archer Professional.