Seven SEO mistakes bloggers make

Now I don’t know about you, but one of the hardest aspects of being a blogger is trying to teach yourself something you know nothing about. When I first started blogging all those years ago, I didn’t know anything about websites. All I knew was that I wanted to start writing about things online that I was passionate about. So that’s what I did. But being a blogger today is more than just writing about what you’re passionate about. It’s about being your own social media manager, web developer, photographer, copy editor, oh and SEO expert too. Because if you want people to read about what you’re passionate about. Then they need to be able to find you on Google. And that’s where’s SEO comes in.

But what is SEO? In basic terms it’s Search Engine Optimisation. And why should you care about it? Well if you want a search engine to find and rank your site. Then you need to optimise it. It sounds simple right? But with millions and millions of blogs out there, it can be harder than ever to be noticed in such a crowded place. Which is why SEO is so important. So here are the seven SEO mistakes bloggers make, and how to fix them.

OWNING YOUR OWN DOMAIN

While no-one knows the full criteria that Google uses to rank your site, one thing we do know is that Google wants to direct people to websites that are considered serious and trustworthy. And unfortunately, a free site using.blogspot or .wordpress just isn’t considered serious by Google. So if you want to improve your SEO and are serious about making your blog a long term, and potentially full-time, endeavour. Then you need your own domain.

RESEARCHING KEYWORDS

Keywords form the basis of pretty much all SEO activity. It tells you what people are interested in and reveals the type of language people are using to search for information. Knowing what people are searching for and what the keywords are, can help you create content that will answer the questions people are searching for online. And drive more organic traffic to your site.

There are some great tools out there for SEO including:

• Answer the Public
• Keyword Eye
• Infinite Suggest
• KeywordTool.io  

But if you’re wondering how to actually do keyword research, here is my three-step approach.

Step One – decide on a topic/keyword. You can keep it broad like makeup tips or be more specific with how to apply eyeliner like a pro.

Step two – use a tool like the ones above to put the keyword in to see how much traffic it gets. Don’t be disheartened if the number is low, as lower volume keywords are generally easier to rank for.

Step three – look at the related and associated keywords and see if you can include some of these in your post as well.

OPTIMISING YOUR TITLE TAG AND META DESCRIPTIONS

A good page title is a basic part of good SEO as it’s one of the first things search engines see when visiting your post. So make sure your chosen keywords are included and keep it below 66 characters so it doesn’t get cropped by Google Search.

A meta description is another basic part of good SEO as it’s what appears on the SERP (search engine results page), letting your readers know what your post is about. While it doesn’t help in any SEO rankings, it does help to drive organic traffic to your site as you’re letting readers know what to expect before they click on the link.

INTERNAL LINKING

Another common SEO mistake bloggers make is not linking internally. But it’s so important to do. Firstly, it aids in website navigation. Secondly it helps to define the architecture and hierarchy of your site. And thirdly it helps to distribute page authority and ranking power throughout your site.

Inbound links to your content help show a search engine the validity or relevancy of your content. And the same goes for linking internally to other pages on your website. So if you’ve already written about a topic that’s mentioned in your post – link to it.

Also, your homepage is the most powerful page on your site in terms of links. This is because people naturally link to your homepage rather than a specific page on your site. So create a section on your homepage for ‘Top Posts’ and add links to these posts that you want to direct more authority and boost their rankings.

BUILDING LINKS TO YOUR SITE

Links are the bread and butter of good SEO, as they’re essentially used to rank your site in Google. And there are three main ways you can get more links to your site:

Guest posting – this is something that is pretty easy to do. And could result in some serious amounts of traffic as well as massive SEO value.

Create mind-blowing content – now this is easier said done. But creating content that will explode on the internet is a great way to increase your SEO value.

Resource/links page – this is a more traditional method, but you could choose to link to some of your favourite bloggers or ask those who have mentioned you to include your link in their post.

USING YOAST SEO EFFECTIVELY 

I feel like nearly every blogger I know on WordPress has the Yoast SEO plugin. It’s a great tool – but how many of us use it effectively? One of the best things about the tool is the red, amber, green indicator it gives each post. This is based on a set of criteria that ensures you’ve ticked the basic SEO box. These include:

• Your keyword is in five key locations within the post. So the title, the title of the page, the URL, the content and the meta description
• Using the keyword in the alt tag of your images
• Conducting a flash reading score which indicates the readability of your post
• Checking whether the focus keyword has been used on other pages of your site to ensure you’re not competing with yourself

OPTIMISING YOUR IMAGES

And finally, optimising your images. Now this might seem like a minor thing, but as Google can’t ‘see’ your images, it’s relying on the alt text to tell it exactly what’s in the picture. So make sure you add in your keyword to the alt text of the image. While it won’t help hugely with your SEO, it does make it a better user experience and it helps your images to be found in search.

So these are the seven SEO mistakes bloggers make and how to fix them. Let me know in the comments whether you’ve got any other SEO mistakes bloggers make and how to fix them. Or whether you’ve found the post useful.

You can find more of my blogging tips and tricks here.