Basic on-site SEO tips for bloggers

Many bloggers do self promote their blogs in order to attract traffic. This can be a daunting task as you have to do it almost on a daily basis. If you fail, then you won’t have traffic to your blog in fact in some cases failure to promote may mean zero readers. The only way to avoid this tedious tiring process  is to optimize your site for search engines. By implementing on-site SEO Techniques your blog stands a better chance of ranking high in search engines hence driving a large traffic from the same. On-Site SEO

You can start by implementing basic on-site SEO techniques as follows:

Keyword research

This is an activity you undertake to come up with an extensive list of keywords you would like to rank for. You should select such keywords that are highly searched by users in the search engines. Some of the keyword research tools include:

Keyword in title

Search engine algorithms give importance to Title of your posts. Therefore include the keyword in Title of your web posts or pages. This enables the search engines to figure out what your post is all about hence rank your posts accordingly in the search results.

Keyword in meta description

Basic on-site SEO techniques

Meta Description is just like a summary of what your page or post is all about. This is what will appear in the search results under the title. Include the keywords in Meta Description. Search engines give more weight to keywords in the meta description. Including keywords in meta descriptions increases your Click through rates. Write your meta description in a way that captures users’ attention and lead them to click.

Keyword in H1 tag keyword

This is your web page’s body. Using keywords in your site page’s body text helps to increase your overall SEO score. Search engines also give more weight to the keywords found in the H1 tag.

Alt tag on image with keyword

Using images along with your content makes your page or post more appealing. But to increase your overall SEO score remember to use Alt Tag on image with keywords, this will help to describe the images on your website.

Internal linking between your pages

Creating internal links enhances your visitors engagement by providing links which connects your blog posts. This helps your visitors to find relevant content related to the topic they are searching within your site. This increases your page views and reduces the bounce rate.

You can also read: 10 Effective ways of building links on your blog

Site structure and duplicate content

Your website structure should be such that it should facilitate search engines crawling and indexing. Ensure that you create a site structure that has no duplicate content. Many bloggers make duplicate content on their site by including same posts in various categories. This can affect your site

rankings. If you must include same content in various categories make it ” no follow” so that search engines know how to see your content.

Website sitemap

Search engines use website sitemap to crawl and index your website posts and pages. Usually there are 2 forms of sitemaps. One for the user and the other for the search engines. A user sitemap comes in the form of a single page where all the website pages and sub-pages are displayed thereby helping users find what they are looking for.  Search engine sitemap, helps to increase your site’s crawl-ability. It tells the search engines about your website pages. Therefore a good website structure together with a sitemap helps to improve your website rankings in the search engine results page.

Related: How factors for UX affects SEO

Google webmaster tools

By using Google webmaster tools, you increase your chances of ranking well on the Google search results and also increase your chances of fully indexing your web pages. It provides tools with which you get to know your most popular keywords, how many links are pointing to your website, what pages are indexed and you can even submit a sitemap. You also get information about inbound links to your site.

Optimized website layout

For SEO purposes, the important parts of your content should come first in the HTML. Your users should have an easy navigation of your site. Your website should also be optimized for mobile users since most of the traffic come through mobile devices. You site should have a responsive design so that it can adapt itself according to the screen sizes and resolutions of various digital devices.

You can also check: On-page SEO for Beginner Bloggers

Write quality content regularly

Quality Content is the King and will remain the King as we move to the future. If you want to be successful in your SEO efforts, then creating quality content for your blogs is the most important thing to do. Search engines give huge weight to quality original content.

Please you may follow us and share:

Author: John Mulindi

John writes on a variety of topics. He blogs on topics ranging from social media marketing (SMM), search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), email marketing, business, personal finance tech, entrepreneurship to personal development. In free time he likes watching football, reading, listening to music and taking nature walks.

147 thoughts on “Basic on-site SEO tips for bloggers”

  1. Thank you for sharing your links with us at #271 SSPS Linky. See you again next week. Very useful tips and help to all of us.

  2. HI John – I had no idea that assigning more than one category per post was detrimental. I will be correcting that today across the board. Thank you for the great tips!

  3. A really handy guide, I often have posts referenced in 2 categories and didn’t realize this was detrimental. Is this the case in wordpress when it makes the first category primary? I’m guessing it aromatically makes this first link the follow link and subsequent categories no follow for that reason, or is it not that clever? #GlobalBlogging

    1. Hi, it is always better to avoid using more than 1 Category for a given post as this may lead to your content been seed as a duplication by Google, so try working with only 1 category at a time.

  4. Amazing tips, thank you so much for sharing. I am still a “newbie” in the blog world and I do have one question: What is “Alt Tag”? You mentioned that on “ALT TAG ON IMAGE WITH KEYWORD”. I have clicked on several of your links and will keep researching everything you have talked about in this post. Very informative, thank you!!!

  5. Hello John, thanks for this informative post. I love your style, you make SEO optimizing seam a piece of cake. I´m starting out my blog and I´m giving lots of attention to SEO, of course, like you said, SEO Yoast makes it easier. Still have to work on keywords and links.

  6. Okay, thanks for this awesome summary – now I have my work cut out for me 😉 Trying to wrap my head around KeySearch for now and will take it from there.
    Any advice on how to do SEO for more personal posts? Or are there some posts where I should just let it go and not even worry?

  7. Wow. I am a brand-new blogger, and I had no idea how to do any of this. So, I’ll be going back over it step-by-step. Thanks for the information in an understandable format! I have much to do. — Thanks, Alicia

  8. Thanks for sharing (BSB on fb) I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. I struggle with SEO and you brought ups some good subjects I have not heard before such as the duplicate content and the website sitemap.
    Many Thanks,
    Amber
    My Homestead Life

    1. Hi Patricia, Meta descriptions is just like a summary of your article but with the right keywords. You can use SEO plugin like Yoast to guide you when adding a meta description.

  9. Very useful and interesting post. especially for the people that is starting out. I wasnñt aware of a couple of things so it was interesting to read and find out new things I can use to improve our site.
    Thanks for sharing this information.

  10. SEO is becoming my number one priority for September & connecting all my accounts. I really appreciated this & will likely be reading many more of your posts to get on top of this SEO thing. Thanks a million! Now how do I follow you 😉

    1. Hi, thanks for dropping by, am really grateful for your comments. To follow the blog just move down on the sidebar, you will get the email sign up or if you just want to follow, without submitting your email address, you need to be a wordpress user, login in, and such for my site or John M, you will see the follow button at the bottom.

  11. I wish there was a way to write SEO titles that are a bit more creative- this is my biggest challenge right now: writing clickable titles that are also Seo keyword friendly

  12. This is so helpful! Thank you for posting. I love how you explained why each point was important. It all clicked finally!

    1. Hi, thanks for dropping by, yes, these tips can act as a guide. I use Yoast SEO plugin on my blog. It makes work easier. In case your blog is powered by WordPress, you can try it.

  13. Love how you broke down the SEO resources simply and efficiently! Although premium plugins are great, there are definitely plenty of ways to optimize a website and blog posts without it being a technical nightmare

    1. Hi Mia, thanks for your insights. Many people think SEO is too technical, but that is not the case if you understand the basics. Any blogger can optimize his/her site with the help of such tips.

  14. Wow, this is the first SEO post that didn’t baffle me. I might have been doing a few of these, but maybe it is time to implement everything on your list. Your post is the much needed kick on my back to get back to work.

    Gayathri @ Musings Over Nothing

  15. Thank you for the tips! I’m still very new to blogging, and half of these things I’ve just been kind of winging as I go along. Wish I saw this first!

    1. Hi Sara, thanks for passing by. Don’t worry, you can always start from anywhere to optimize your site. The old posts and pages can be updated at any time. Optimization of a site, is a continuous process. You keep doing it, so long as you have a site.

Leave a Reply to John M Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.