Blog SEO tips | How to increase your Blog Organic traffic

Posted by Iqra Iqbal on December 22nd, 2020

SEO optimization is a series of measures that increase the ranking of a website in search results. In that’s way SEO helps users see your website in the first positions in Google.

According to statistics, SEO-optimization of a blog gives 80% more traffic, and getting into the TOP-3 search queries will increase traffic by another 60%.

SEO tips for blog optimization, steps:

Google is constantly improving the algorithms for analyzing pages, competitors are also not asleep, which is why the science of SEO is becoming more and more multifaceted. But today we will focus on the fundamental "truths".

Side Note: If you are a bit shy about doing your own blog SEO, then you’re not alone. There are some factors which we believe works for your blog post optimization. At the end of the day, everyone wants highly relevant traffic that definitely converts or sign-up for your product. That is the key challenge in today’s competitive market. However if you want guaranteed results with your blogs, and want your content efforts don’t go to waste you can hire SEO services in Lahore for your blog. As it is always recommended to hire an experienced SEO specialist for your website instead of implementing strategies in the wrong direction.

Keywords: Why do we need it? How to choose?

If you've been creating content for a long time, you've probably heard of keywords. They work as follows:

1.  The user makes a request, for example, "buy drywall Moscow".
2.  The algorithms analyze all the resources where such a formulation occurs (the order of the phrase construction and the endings of the words do not matter).
3.  Those pages where the key "buy drywall Moscow" is found in the texts are shown first.

Please note that you don't need to spam with keys. Algorithms do not like 5 exact phrases per 1000 characters of text.

Analysis of competitors' articles from the TOP of the search results for high-frequency keywords

After collecting the keys, it is important to find out who is collecting the most traffic from them. Such routine work can be entrusted to services: Serpstat, Semrush, or Ahrefs.

Try Keys, so for a start. It works with both Google. Plus there is the most understandable interface for a beginner. The instruction is as follows:

1.  After registration, drive in your blog address.
2.  Choose a city if you have a narrow specialization (or leave Moscow as a standard).
3.  Press “Analyze” and scroll to the “Organic issue” block.
4.  Click on "All competitors".
5.  Where "Thematic" is to drive in "20", and in "Similarity" - "10".

This will give the service a table that you already need to work with. Here you can see the competitor's domain, the percentage of content similarity, how much traffic it accounts for, etc.

But how many and what keys a competitor uses can only be found with a paid subscription. Otherwise, clear the cache and cookies, drive in the keys one by one and see who gets to the TOP.

How to choose the right one? Key usage

Search engines strive to offer the user the best result for his request. For this, pages are analyzed according to hundreds of parameters. One of the key ones is the correct title.

We love to write something veiled in the headline, use smart words, strive for mystery, and whip up curiosity. But it doesn't work with an internet audience.

The robot looks so that the headline answers the user's request, thus it understands that the article contains the answer the audience is looking for. Therefore, the use of the key in any word form is mandatory.

Example. What should the headline look like when writing about a new BMW model?

How not to: “The Bavarians are breaking records again. 5-Series Speed ​​Record ”. Maybe hard-core fans of your blog will understand what it is about, but outside users will not search for BMW for such a request.

Right: "BMW M5 Competition 2021 - 0-60 in 3.3 seconds." What you write after the hyphen does not matter, you can give free rein to your imagination, but the first part will 100% fall into a high-frequency request. For titles, there is such a rule that the closer the words are to the beginning, the higher their value for taking into account the relevance of the page. Therefore, it is advisable to place words from HF queries at the very beginning of this meta tag.

The URL is important. How page URL affects rankings

The next parameter is the digestible URL (the address in the browser line). Which blog page will the search engine prefer?

It will not be difficult for a machine to master 4 lines in a split second, but, as practice shows, if it is already clear from the URL what the material is about, the ranking is better.

Note that you need to tidy up the URLs for all blog pages. Also, the ranking is positively affected by linking and referring to other articles of the resource.

For example, “as you remember, yesterday I shared my impressions of the first-generation Audi S7 test drive (insert link), and today the dealer invited me to see the new restyling…”.

Meta tags need keys too

SEO optimization of a blog involves working with meta tags. In addition to the trust of search engines, they increase the reach of keywords. So, if the title (title) and description (short description of the article) have not been written before or have not been formatted in any way, you have a lot of work to do.

Note! Meta tags are written separately for each blog page. It is important to insert relevant keys, fill them with meaning, and fit into the established standards in terms of volume.

Quality Content

And now about the content. In recent years, Runet has shown qualitative growth. There are two factors influencing this.

The first is competition. Blogging, site-building is the same business. Users go where the service (content) reflects their expectations. Now the popularity of the resource does not matter, everyone is looking for an invaluable storehouse of information.

The second is search engine loyalty. The latter is looking at:

•  Spam with keys. They are not needed in every paragraph. A couple of mentions are enough (depending on the results of competitor analysis);
•  Copy-paste. Stolen content only generates traffic if the source doesn't care about optimization at all;
•  Errors in every sentence. Literacy matters. As well as the presence of slang words. It is better to abstain from the latter;
•  A sheet of text without structure, navigation, with an abundance of adverbial expressions - all this lowers the site's rating in the eyes of the robot (and users too).

Also, search engines analyze how much time users spend on the site. If people read from start to finish, the blog will get a plus in rankings. And for this, the article must benefit the target audience. 

Photo and video for the article. What is possible and what is not?

When it comes to a personal blog, SEO optimization of a site can be improved with copyrighted materials: photographs, drawings, screenshots, and videos. The presence of this kind of content increases the engagement of the audience and, if everything is personal, there will be no complaints from the search engines.

But for borrowed materials, you can run into an ignore list. How to add materials to avoid getting banned? There are many options:

•  use images without copyright (this parameter is configurable in image search);
•  use photo stocks like Freepik, Pixabay or Unsplash;
•  unique images through Canva, Piktochart, Photoshop.

In order for the images to generate additional traffic, the image needs to be tagged "Alt", where it will be briefly described what is shown in the image. Then they will be ranked in the "image search".

It doesn't work that way with video. It is better to add video reviews, interviews, etc. via YouTube (remember to leave a link to the blog in the description). This will attract additional traffic and optimize page load speed, which is highly regarded by search engines.

Content structuring. Everything for the convenience of searching

According to statistics of user behavior, 43% of the audience skim through the text, stopping at the sections with the information they are interested in. Unless it's storytelling, of course. Therefore, a clear and understandable text structure seriously affects ranking.

This has already been briefly mentioned above, but you can add:

•  the text is broken into paragraphs. Short and meaningful. The main idea must be completed;
•  sentences are short, not loaded with turns, a bunch of commas, introductory and adjectives;
•  everything that can be done in a list must be in a list;
•  no long subheadings. More is better but shorter;
•  it is worth making a section "Contents" with links so that the reader immediately understands what information can be found in which subsection;
•  add tags as they do on social media. It will be useful if there are several headings, plus it makes it easier to close the linking issue and track the behavior of "guests";
•  do not place quotes, heading "question/answer", attention blocks.

The layout of the text is also important. The font size between the heading, subheading, and text should be easy to trace. The spacing between lines and paragraphs must be different. It is better to limit the line length to 80 characters maximum. Better than 60.

To find out how good your structure is according to search engines, you can use the Yoast SEO service (Readability Analysis tab).

Optimizing older articles, adding links

Get ready for the fact that you will have to constantly optimize old material: add, check facts, change information if it is out of date, etc. Articles should be exhaustive. If a user has gone to competitors - this is a bad sign for a search engine.

When optimizing old posts, it is worth taking care of maintaining the integrity of your blog. Linking and mentioning old articles will help with this. This will make the guest more likely to delay, read more material, and become a regular reader.

Also, old articles need to be checked for indexing, place in the TOP, compliance with current key queries, etc.

Don't forget about reindexing. Adopting the Webmaster and Search Console

After making changes, you need to make a request to re-index the page by search engines. If this is not done, the robot will not notice new SEO parameters and will have to wait for a long time for positive results.

Everything, the site has been added. Now in the "Indexing" tab, click on "Re-crawl pages", insert a link to the page and click "Submit". Re-indexing time depends on the queue.

The nice design has not been canceled

According to the latest algorithm updates, search engines are now paying attention to page design. Of course, the robot does not pay attention to the shade of the background or shadows that have not been worked out. It is important for them that the web design is simple and straightforward. That is, the main emphasis should be placed on the fact that the user does not move the mouse for several minutes in search of the desired button.

A website without a mobile version in 2020 is not a website

According to statistics, 70-75% of Internet traffic now comes from mobile gadgets. Often, for a blog, this figure is even higher. Many people read on the way to work or school, in line, etc. Therefore, having a convenient adaptive layout or a mobile version of the site is a must.

Don't have an adaptive or mobile version? The user will say goodbye. Plus, search engines take this factor into account and will not put such a site in the TOP-10.

Use social media

If you take any decent resource, they have groups on social networks with which they:

•  announce the release of new material;
•  remind readers of old publications (give them a second life);
•  attract subscribers, who then become regular readers.

Mentioning a blog on social media has become a lot of weight for search engines. An unspoken rule was developed: the more often links to a site are found on third-party resources, the better it ranks and gets into the TOP-10.

Let's summarize

SEO helps to make a website/blog attractive to search engines. The higher the position of the resource in the SERP, the higher the traffic, and with it, the profitability, click on advertising, brand awareness, etc.

Modern SEO is about high-quality structured content, internal consistency of the material, well-chosen keywords, titles, meta tags, and URLs. Plus the active attraction of traffic from social networks.