This SEO guide for beginners will help you understand basic SEO. When it comes to ranking your content on Google, there are many moving parts to consider.
Time and lots of upfront work, (just to mention a few) however over time you can potentially see your content lockdown spots and begin to rank on Google Search.
Every day, tons of website/blog owners see loads and loads of free traffic to there blogs from Google.
As a new blogger you can too!
This SEO guide for beginners will be helpful and teach you a structure you can follow when writing your blog posts.
My experience with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Someone does a search for a keyword on Google. They get a list of results on the screen and bam they click on my website.
A new visitor and a potential customer.
That may seem really elementary, but for some reason that was my idea of setting up a website.
I learned very quickly that it just doesn’t happen like that. Once my site was up I began searching for the best ways to promote my blog.
I would here of SEO, maybe watch a YouTube video about it and would automatically discount myself from ever learning the process.
I’m not a super techie person and most of the information I came across on SEO just seemed difficult.
With more research I learned that SEO is basically the science of getting your website ranked in Google.
Learning SEO
Although Google’s Algorithm changes there is a basic approach to SEO. We would need to be patient and do the one thing we have absolute control over, which is writing content for our readers not for Google.
Early on I thought that it was going to be easy as pie to start ranking stuff at #1.
Imagine my sore disappointment when I discovered that with all my writing efforts my content was no where to be found.
There are videos and claims by people that promise you will rank #1 in XYZ day’s. Be careful those aren’t real claims!
I finally woke up from that dream. I started my mission to learn as much as I could about SEO and ranking my content.
Remember to focus your writing on being the best resource for people. In time you will learn The technical aspects of SEO, and build your site’s authority.
Fast forward to today. I want you to know that it’s possible to rank, but it will take some time and a huge effort on your part producing useful and meaningful content.
Im going to share some of the most fundamental SEO blog tips you can implement right now to get more organic traffic.
SEO Guide for Beginners: Why you should dedicate time to learn
SEO traffic is one of the largest sources of traffic for your blog/website… that’s free!
This SEO guide for beginners will get you on target to start tapping in to this source.
All you have to do is make a few Small tweaks to make your website more Google-friendly and overtime you can see organic traffic growth.
As a blogger having tons of content for Google to potentially rank can establish your website as an authority in your niche…….
Consider this, checking your analytics (website stats) and tracking the growth of your sites traffic daily from Google, day in and day out for relevant keywords in your industry.
You will begin to build your audience. These people will like, engage, subscribe, and some eventually purchase your products– daily!
Ready for some fundamentals? SEO Guide For Newbies: Write Blog Content That Ranks
SEO Best Tips For Beginners:
1. Keywords Keywords Keywords
Words matter because Google can comprehend the words on your blog.
If you are posting videos and have an awesome theme… In the search engines eye’s its just random code.
Specific keywords matter.
What are keywords
In short keywords come from our audience. When a user types in a word or even a phrase, Google will give them the best possible results to there query.
You want Google to rank your site for Keywords so that you can be found in search.
There are a number of tools available to find keywords. You can use MOZ keyword tool, Ahrefs, Google keyword planner and Ubersuggest.
These keyword tools have free limited services and paid full services. You can use the free versions if your just starting out. In time you may want to upgrade.
Using the paid versions will give you access to more data.
I Use the free version of Ubersuggest to figure out exactly what keywords I want to target!
Use Long Tail Keywords
If your post is about blogging you can ask the question, “how to write a blog post”
This will be your keyword. Because you are using a phrase as your keyword this is considered a “Long tail keyword”. Instead of one word which is more general, your keyword is more specific
The keyword tool will show you the search volume of your term. The difficulty score is shown in 2 options. The paid difficulty is related to paid adds.
The SEO difficulty is related to free organic traffic. Some SEO experts say for a newer blog trying to rank for a keyword term, choose terms with an SEO difficulty under 40
The cost per click indicates the term is valuable because people are willing to pay for ranking on the term.
Make sure your keyword is relevant to your topic. Use similar keyword phrases so Google can understand more about your article.
The below image shows related keyword ideas you can consider for your article.
To optimize your article choose a target keyword! Target keywords ensure that your article is going to rank for a phrase that people actually search for.
The title tag is a big factor that Google uses to understand what your blog post is about.
Include your targeted keyword in your title tag, and keep it under 55 characters.
Google displays only 55 characters in search results, so anything more than that will not be read by search engine users anyway.
3. Meta description
Meta tags are the foundation of SEO, and one of the first things you add when writing your article.
Keep your meta description within 150 characters, and have your keyword inside. Google will bold any keywords if it is in your description when someone searches it.
4. Interlink posts
One of the best ways to let Google know what your post is about is to Link to your own posts with the relevant keywords.
Google use a process called crawling. This is basically how Google reads your site to see the relevancy of your content.
By interlinking between different posts with relevant keywords, Google is able to learn more about your site.
Make sure to interlink posts. This helps to send signals to Google about your article.
This also helps to reduce your bounce rate as more people click on your links and visit multiple pages.
5. Content is king
Get your word count up. (without sacrificing quality, of course!)
Long form-content is good for Google. It shows depth in your writing and creates a perception of higher quality content.
Write blog posts at least 2000-3000 words. When it comes to longer posts make sure they are outlined, your readers may just want to scan your topics opposed to reading word for word.
6. Add alt text for images
Using relevant keywords in the alt text of your images can also help your posts in Googles search.
7. Change your permalink structure
You want your blog posts title to be simple. If you are using WordPress to build your site you can easily select more user friendly options in the permalinks section.
They should look something like this: https://omghailey.com/seo-tips
and not https://omghailey.com/2019/3/5/*&^%$%%post
8. Install Yoast SEO WordPress plugin
For non tech people like me there is a WordPress plugin that will help with most of our SEO work. Yoast SEO plugin.
As you are writing content it will make suggestions to you so you can optimize your article.
Related Post: Best WordPress Plugins 2020
9. Decrease website load times
Ideally you want your sites load time to be 2-3 seconds and even less if you can get your site well optimized. Google penalizes slow sites.
You can check your site speed using Gtmetrix, Pingdom and Google Pagespeed Insights.
Reducing load times is an in-depth subject, however these 3 tips will help you to speed up your site significantly.
- Compress all your images. I do a 2 step process of compression with my images. First, I compress my images manually using img2go.com This is a free online tool that i discovered. it works well, its simple to use, and its FREE! I also use a plugin called WP Smush that automatically compresses any images that are added to your site.
- Use a caching plugin– simple put caching will save your web pages for frequent visitors. Each time they visit your site the page loads faster because it was saved. a first time visitor would have a slightly longer page load.
- Use Lazy load option to load images on your website when a visitor views your posts. This is an option included with WP Smush. Just select it and that’s it.
I have read many articles on the subject of caching. There are free WordPress caching plugins and paid WordPress caching plugins.
My experiences with several websites has led me to a free plugin called WP Fastest cache.
Summary
Optimize your blog posts for Google with the following steps:
- Include a target keyword in every post
- Make sure to Optimize your title tags
- Write compelling meta descriptions
- Create longer posts
- Use Alt text for images
- Interlink your posts
- Change permalinks structure
- Install the Yoast SEO plugin
- Decrease website load times
Believe it or not there are so many blogs out there that don’t have a proper SEO structure.
Using this SEO guide for newbies will help you with optimizing your blog posts, making the user experience better by increasing website speed and start ranking ahead of approximately half of our competitors.
18 Responses
I do not have wordpress as a host, but I found that very helpful. Keep up the good work.
Thank you!!
This an awesome guide. Thank you very much.
Thank you kindly, hope it’s useful
Thank you very much for this guide.
Thank you!
Very helpful, especially regarding how to increase website speed. Love the resources and will check them out!
Thank you glad it helps
Aaaah SEO. Sometimes I get so intimidated by this topic that I just have to sit myself down and decide. SEO or die. I choose SEO all the damn time. Saved this for later.
That’s how it is make the decision and get it done
This is a great SEO resource for beginners. SEO might look complicated but it really isn’t if you take all the steps.
Yes it to me some time to figure that out but that’s the truth.thanks Lisa
This is literally the best and most helpful information I’ve read regarding SEO. Usually it makes me want to throw my hands up and walkway lol. This made sense!! thank you so much!!
Thank you Natalie I’m so glad this helped. Hang in there you will get it!
I always look forward to your post, you always seem to be able to find a way to make every time interesting and full of fresh content. i also write reviews about
I am studying a lot about seo at the moment and you are helping me!
Loved the content!
Thank you so much Luciana!