6 Easy SEO Tips Bloggers Need To Start Using Now

You know me as YMC’s 50 Shades of Green blogger, but what you may not know is that I also work behind the scenes as YMC’s Sponsored Content Manager. A part of my job is working with the team to make sure all of our sponsored blog posts are optimized for the search engines.

So what are some easy SEO tips that you, as a blogger, can implement to make sure your posts will be found by Google and other search engines?

You don’t have to be a tech wizard, a search engine expert, or a SEO guru to optimize your blog posts for search engines. A simple search will tell you TONS of things you can do to make sure your posts get picked up by the search engines, and how to get people will click on them. Rather than filtering through the sea of articles on this subject, here are the 6 easy SEO tips for bloggers to start doing today before hitting publish on that next post.

1. Optimize Your Post Title

The title of your post is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle for 2 reasons:

#1: To make your blog post stand out to the search engine.

#2: To make your blog post stand out to readers. More clicks, the higher your post will rise in the search results.

When naming your post, include keywords about your post subject in the title and subtitle, also keeping in mind that it should be interesting so readers will want to click. Remember that there is an ocean of other blog posts on the internet; you want yours to be the one that gets clicked.

  Not good: SEO For Bloggers

  Good: 6 Easy SEO Tips Bloggers Need To Start Using Now

Which title above would you be more likely to click on? #2, right?

The bolded words in title #2 are my keywords, and I’ve written the title in a way that is intriguing to someone searching for easy SEO tips they can use on their blog posts.

2. Optimize Your Post Images

Before uploading any images to your post, it’s so important to give them a descriptive name—a name that describes what the picture is about. The reason why you want to give your picture a name is because it gives the search engines another way to find you. Make sure the name is descriptive and that it includes a few keywords.

Use dashes (-) to separate the words in the title, never use spaces.

  Not Good: IMG05394956490

  Not Good: easy seo tips for bloggers

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  Good: easy-seo-tips-for-bloggers

3. Add Alt Tags To Your Post Images

Have you ever sat around waiting for a web page to load and where an image should appear, you see text? That is the alt tag.

Search engines cannot read images, so the search engine sees those spaces as white space, so we need to help it. The alt tag will tell the search engine that an image is going to sit in this spot and what the image is all about. Alt tags also serve as a way to give a description of the image if a text reader is being used by someone who is visually impaired.

Again, use descriptive words that will tell the search engine something about the image using keywords. This will also help it rank when someone does an image search.

The area to enter the alt tag for images is different for all blogging platforms, but you should be able to find it in the same general area where you upload your image.

4. Optimize Your Post With Keywords

Use keywords in your title, subtitle, and throughout your post. Try to get them as close to the beginning of your post as you can. If possible, try to also scatter a few throughout the rest of the post, as well. A good tip is to write the post as you normally would, then go back and see where you could add some keywords in a natural way. Don’t force keywords or it will be obvious to your readers and it will take away from your post.

5. Optimize Your Post and Website With Internal Linking

Linking to other posts on your website has two purposes:

#1: To increase page views so readers stay on your website longer.

#2: To improve your website's search engine rankings.

Whenever you have the chance, link to any page on your site that is relevant to the post you are writing. Don’t go overboard and don’t throw in random internal links "just to do it," it has to make sense. When adding an internal link, phrase it so your link will be descriptive. Never say “click here” and hyperlink the word “here”—make your link descriptive and then hyperlink.

  Not good: Click here to learn how to clean your glass top stove using two natural kitchen ingredients.

  Good: Click here to learn how to clean your glass top stove using two natural kitchen ingredients.

Another tip for internal linking is to go back and update older content with links to your newer content.

6. Optimize Your URL Structure

When writing a post, I sometimes decide what the title will be after I am finished writing the post. I put in a placeholder for the post name (usually "Enter Title Here"), so sometimes my initial URL will look like this:

yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/gwen-leron-50-shades-of-green/20140801/enter-title-here

After I decide what the title should be, I go back and rename the post and the URL/permalink so it clearly says what the post is about.

Whatever your blogging platform is, you have an option to edit your URLs/permalinks. Some blogging platforms will truncate your url, if it does, always be sure that you edit so it is optimized.

You can either use the exact title you used for your post title or you can remove all the stop words. Either way, all of your keywords will be included and this is good for search engines.

  Not Good: yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/gwen-leron-50-shades-of-green/20140801/enter-title-here

  Not Good: yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/gwen-leron-50-shades-of-green/20140801/tips-bloggers

  Good: yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/gwen-leron-50-shades-of-green/20140801/6-easy-seo-tips-bloggers-need-to-start-using-now

  Good: yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/gwen-leron-50-shades-of-green/20140801/6-easy-seo-tips-bloggers

Bonus Tip

Make it easy for readers to share your content! Add social  buttons to your website—the easier it is for readers to share your content, the more inclined they will be to do it. The more times your post is shared, the more clicks you get to your site, which, of course, will help your search engine rankings.