4.2 Seo Optimize Blog

How to Optimize Blog (SEO) 

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. There's a good chance you'll need to optimize or work on a website that uses WordPress if you haven’t already! 

Pages and posts

WordPress has two basic sections for uploading content. There are pages (which are defined as landing pages on your website), and there are posts (which are essentially blog posts). One could argue that this article could be used as a guide to uploading and optimizing landing pages on WordPress.

1.Uploading your blog post

Before you get to optimize your blog posts for organic search, you need to get them live on your site.

You can alternate between the “visual” and “text” editor here. If you're familiar with HTML, I'd recommend “text," as you can spot any potential errors in the code and have more control. If not, the “visual” editor works perfectly fine.

If you have links in your post (which you should), double check that they were added correctly. If not, you can add a link using the WYSIWYG editor. In general, try to at least have 3 relevant internal links in each of your posts. The important thing to remember is that if the reader will find it useful, it's okay to add it.

 If you have images, place your cursor where you want the image. Click on “Add Media” and select “Upload Files.” After choosing your preferred settings, click “insert into post” to add your image in your article.

Note: It’s always a good idea to compress your images before uploading them so they don’t cause long load times. 

Here’s a great guide to compressing your images.

Scroll down a bit and you should see the “Categories” section on the right side of your screen. You don’t have to categorize your post (unless your site is organized by categories), but you can add one if you wish. If you do, WordPress will create category pages that pull in posts within that category. Here's a great write-up on how WordPress utilizes category pages and what you should consider from an SEO perspective.

Under the "Categories" section, you'll see the "Tags" section. Similar to categories, you don’t have to use tags. In fact, that you should always no index tagged pages that are auto-generated by WordPress, as oftentimes it can cause duplication issues. Nonetheless, you can add tags to your post here.

Scroll back up and find the section that’s called “Publish.” Here you can choose “Preview” to make sure everything looks right in your post before optimizing/uploading it. If something doesn’t look the way you want it to, just edit that section.

If you want a snippet of your post to appear on your blog homepage instead of the entire thing, simply place your cursor where you want the break to be and click on the “Insert Read More tag” button.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR WORDPRESS BLOG

The best way to have lasting SEO success is to think about search query intentions and user experience. If you create a user-friendly site with terrific content and helpful solutions, you’ll be rewarded by search engines.

1. FOCUS ON CONTENT QUALITY

First things first, the basis for any blog is its content. Before we go into other aspects such as image optimization, keyword structure, or link building, it’s essential to get the basics right. For blogs, content is the backbone. So, before you invest time to optimize your WordPress blog for SEO, make sure you’ve mastered your content.
Google loves original, high-quality, and well-researched content, so invest some time increasing your content quality. Use genuine resources and get first-hand material if you can. Also, look out for typos and grammatical errors because they diminish the value of your post.

2. INVEST IN KEYWORD RESEARCH

Contrary to what some people may think, keywords still matter. Your potential readers or customers use certain phrases to search for information online. These ‘keywords’ are key to getting your blog site served when they type in that query. With a good keyword planner, you can identify some phrases relating to the topic of your post.
Long tail keywords are usually very effective and can get your blog ranking high on search. Google has a free keyword planner tool, or you may use Longtail Pro. By strategically placing these popular keywords into various positions of your blog, you will be visible for search bots to pick up.

3. FOCUS ON LINK BUILDING

Linking is the principle behind Google’s original algorithm. When Larry Page developed Page Rank, he did it on the premise that the most popular web pages were the most important (to put it simply). Based on that, if many pages link to a particular one on the internet, it will be presented on SERP as a priority. For this reason, link building is an important way to boost your blog SEO.
Having said that, it isn’t as easy as just asking any website to point their pages to your blog. This is often the basis of most black-hat SEO. You must ‘earn’ the link genuinely with content that offers value. Some honest ways to build links include guest blogging, article marketing, social links, and commenting on other blogs.

4. OPTIMIZE YOUR MEDIA FILES

 Slow loading pages are massive UX killers and will often increase your bounce rate — the rate at which visitors leave your site without engagement. One major cause of a slow blog site is improperly optimized media files.
For example, your image files may be too big. This places a strain on the server when it’s trying to call up files. Reducing them to an appropriate size can boost page loading time. The same can also be done with videos. Other techniques involve titling them appropriately and inserting  the Alt  Text.

5. IMPROVE YOUR MOBILE UX

 To optimize WordPress for mobile, move your proposition ads to the bottom or presenting it after the user has read the content.
The key to a high search engine ranking is providing a solid user experience. If you are doing it right, your blog will rank favorably above its peers.

6.Analytics

In addition to user comments that are strong indicators of the public interest in your posts, it’s recommended to keep track of the total number of page views and reflections that each post that you published last month has attained. Google Analytics will help you manage this task better than anything else. The statistics will show you what topics are in the biggest demand among your readers, thus you will get a better understanding in what way you should keep on moving for a greater success. 
Why is Optimization Important?
There are so many benefits to having a well-optimized site. Here’s a quick breakdown:
  • Increased Website Traffic: By improving your site’s SEO, you’re almost guaranteed to see a boost in traffic. Search engines like Google will crawl your content for keywords and begin ranking it in search results, so when people search for these keywords, your site will appear!
  • Cost-efficient: One of the biggest perks of increasing your site’s organic traffic is that it’s free! Rather than paying per click or using Adwords, organic listings will continue to bring you traffic over time without costing you a penny.
  • Sustainability: SEO is really a gift that keeps on giving. If an article of yours goes viral because it’s optimized well, it will keep getting traffic as long as people are searching for it. While sharing your posts on social media is great, this tends to give posts a short lifespan. However, when paired with great SEO, that post that you worked so hard on a few months ago can continue to gain traction and eventually become #1 in  search  results.
  • Brand Credibility: These days, people look to Google for answers to just about anything. If a search engine recognizes your site as credible, it’s likely that web surfers will, too!
  • Better ROI: By optimizing your site, you’re reaching people who are actually searching for what you provide. Rather than running aimless ads (even though ads can be effective), paying attention to your site’s SEO can get you in front of the right audience…for free!
  • Stay Competitive: As more and more people are realizing the importance of SEO, it’s more important than ever to step up your game and keep up. Great SEO can be what sets you apart from a competitor.
  • Data: Last but not least, optimizing your site and measuring your performance with a tool like Google Analytics can give you valuable customer (or reader) insight. You can determine how people are searching for what you provide and optimize your site accordingly!