SEO can take a lifetime to master, but there’s plenty of simple tips and tricks you can take with you along the way when you’re first starting out. Use this list to write your first blog with confidence!
Bold Important Points And Phrases
Someone who has been doing SEO for a long time might read this section and think we’re back in 2008, but it’s true–John Mueller of Google recently confirmed that bold text helps with SEO.
Don’t take that too literally. Bold text only helps when it’s used sparingly and on relevant words. Bolding an entire page obviously does not indicate importance to any particular section for Google, and does not help provide context for Google or for the user. However, if you have an important point you need to drive home, bold away!
Use Google AutoComplete For Keyword Research
Good keyword research tools can cost a pretty penny, and free ones don’t necessarily always give you the full picture. That’s why when you’re first starting your blog, it can be a tall task to target the right keywords. There’s a simple solution that you might have heard of–Google.
Google’s AutoComplete feature gives you an idea of what queries people are searching for related to your industry, and all you need to do is type in a broad keyword and let the search bar do the rest. For example, the query “how to design a web” is finished by Google with queries like “how to design a website in wordpress,” “how to design a website in figma,” and “how to design a web application.”
You now have a few long-tail keywords and phrases to build your blog around!
Break Up Your Content With H2s and H3s
Nobody likes looking at a wall of text when they get to a webpage, and since user experience is just as much a part of SEO, it’ll serve you well to break up your text with H2s and H3s throughout the page that make your content more digestible.
Not only do headers make content easier to read for humans, but they are a great way to section your content off for Google. This is a strategy that makes it easier to rank with the new passage ranking SEO trend, which is the feature that Google uses to take certain passages from a page and put it in the Knowledge Graph at the top of a page when it’s the best answer to a query.
Link To Other Pages On Your Website
Internal links in your content don’t necessarily help the SEO on the page they’re on, but they can help the pages they link to. If one of your pages gains traction on Google, users and bots will follow the links on that page, which gives “link juice” to your other pages as well. Use keyword-rich anchor text and create a map for bots to crawl! For example, someone reading this blog might also be interested in how to run an SEO audit on their website–so why not be the one to teach them how?
Don’t indiscriminately start linking to your entire website, however. Make sure it’s relevant to the content you’re writing about and can actually add value for a user who landed on your page.
Use Alt Text On Images
Images can add value to a page’s user experience, but you want to make it work for your SEO too. Alt text is the property that allows Google to “read” images, and an image without alt text might as well be a blank space on the page to Google’s bots. If you have original imagery, you want it to rank on Google Image searches, which is achieved by using keyword-rich alt text and robust content around it.
As an added bonus, alt text is what allows text-to-voice readers to describe images to visually-impaired users, so alt text makes your site ADA-compliant!
Of course, you’ll need more than just a few simple SEO tips to implement a solid SEO strategy. Contact us today to speak to one of our SEO professionals!
