We were just re-watching Whiteboard Friday with Moz (Rand’s mustache is on point!) so we were inspired by the process to give you a few more basic SEO tips on how to optimize your blog and improve the visibility of your content. Maybe even increase the likelihood it gets read and shared.
Headlines & Permalinks (price: free)
In order for your headlines to be completely visible in SERPs, be sure they are concise, as descriptive as possible, and are devoid of redundancy or sarcasm – yes we know this last one for sure seems almost impossible, but dream big. Stay away from Buzzfeed-like clickbait or bait and switch headlines that are embellished and don’t deliver what you say is in the post. Usually in your content management system (CMS) you can easily alter the permalink (the URL) to your blog post. It doesn’t have to match the title of your post exactly, be concise here. Google tends to prefer shorter URLs over longer, so stick with three to four keywords max. If it looks spammy, Google will think so too.
Properly Tagged Images (price: free)
We know you are guilty of this last one and frankly sometimes even we forget to do this on our own site: include alt attribute language when you upload images to your blog posts! This is particularly critical as Google cannot actually “view” your image, but it absolutely CAN read your alt text for the image. If you can take a few seconds to describe your image in the alt text with precise detail it will increase your chances of at least the image appearing in search and thus improve the chances that someone could see that image and click through to your blog post.
Navigation (price: could cost you, but it probably won’t break ya)
We’re not going to reinvent the blog wheel on this one, Search Engine Watch put out and excellent summary of benefits of aligning SEO and UX when building your website already. Head over to Search Engine Watch to view it.
In short, easy to navigate with clear search and relevant content is what keeps people on your page, happy and hunting for more content to devour.
Responsive Theme / Design (price: could cost ya but totally worth it)
Do you use cross device compatible technology? Does your website show up on any given screen size or device – with its integrity intact? Google LOVES responsive design. I don’t’ think we need to do much more convincing with that in mind.
Quality & Relevancy of Content (price: your time – not free technically)
Would you consider your content helpful? Do you share useful articles, videos or any other media that is of good quality? Have you considered writing for humans to consume instead of robots? If not, you should. Search engines love longer-form content that seems to thoroughly understand its target population/market. Try harder to produce sound content and spend less time on the aged “keyword stuffing” focus on the experience of your reader and let Google do the rest. In short: relevant holistic content is more important than ever.
So where will you begin to improve SEO on your blog?
