Basic on-site SEO tips for bloggers

On-Site SEO

Many bloggers do self promote their blogs in order to attract traffic. This can be a daunting task as you have to do it almost on a daily basis. If you fail, then you won’t have traffic to your blog in fact in some cases failure to promote may mean zero readers. The only way to avoid this tedious tiring process  is to optimize your site for search engines. By implementing on-site SEO Techniques your blog stands a better chance of ranking high in search engines hence driving a large traffic from the same. 

You can start by implementing basic on-site SEO techniques as follows:

Keyword research

This is an activity you undertake to come up with an extensive list of keywords you would like to rank for. You should select such keywords that are highly searched by users in the search engines. Some of the keyword research tools include:

Keyword in title

Search engine algorithms give importance to Title of your posts. Therefore include the keyword in Title of your web posts or pages. This enables the search engines to figure out what your post is all about hence rank your posts accordingly in the search results.

Keyword in meta description

Basic on-site SEO techniques

Meta Description is just like a summary of what your page or post is all about. This is what will appear in the search results under the title. Include the keywords in Meta Description. Search engines give more weight to keywords in the meta description. Including keywords in meta descriptions increases your Click through rates. Write your meta description in a way that captures users’ attention and lead them to click.

Keyword in H1 tag keyword

This is your web page’s body. Using keywords in your site page’s body text helps to increase your overall SEO score. Search engines also give more weight to the keywords found in the H1 tag.

Alt tag on image with keyword

Using images along with your content makes your page or post more appealing. But to increase your overall SEO score remember to use Alt Tag on image with keywords, this will help to describe the images on your website.

Internal linking between your pages

Creating internal links enhances your visitors engagement by providing links which connects your blog posts. This helps your visitors to find relevant content related to the topic they are searching within your site. This increases your page views and reduces the bounce rate.

You can also read: 10 Effective ways of building links on your blog

Site structure and duplicate content

Your website structure should be such that it should facilitate search engines crawling and indexing. Ensure that you create a site structure that has no duplicate content. Many bloggers make duplicate content on their site by including same posts in various categories. This can affect your site

rankings. If you must include same content in various categories make it ” no follow” so that search engines know how to see your content.

Website sitemap

Search engines use website sitemap to crawl and index your website posts and pages. Usually there are 2 forms of sitemaps. One for the user and the other for the search engines. A user sitemap comes in the form of a single page where all the website pages and sub-pages are displayed thereby helping users find what they are looking for.  Search engine sitemap, helps to increase your site’s crawl-ability. It tells the search engines about your website pages. Therefore a good website structure together with a sitemap helps to improve your website rankings in the search engine results page.

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Related: How factors for UX affects SEO

Google webmaster tools

By using Google webmaster tools, you increase your chances of ranking well on the Google search results and also increase your chances of fully indexing your web pages. It provides tools with which you get to know your most popular keywords, how many links are pointing to your website, what pages are indexed and you can even submit a sitemap. You also get information about inbound links to your site.

Optimized website layout

For SEO purposes, the important parts of your content should come first in the HTML. Your users should have an easy navigation of your site. Your website should also be optimized for mobile users since most of the traffic come through mobile devices. You site should have a responsive design so that it can adapt itself according to the screen sizes and resolutions of various digital devices.

You can also check: On-page SEO for Beginner Bloggers

Write quality content regularly

Quality Content is the King and will remain the King as we move to the future. If you want to be successful in your SEO efforts, then creating quality content for your blogs is the most important thing to do. Search engines give huge weight to quality original content.

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Comments

147 responses to “Basic on-site SEO tips for bloggers”

  1. EsmeSalon Avatar
    EsmeSalon

    Thank you for sharing your links with us at #271 SSPS Linky. See you again next week. Very useful tips and help to all of us.

    1. Hi, I appreciate your feedback!

  2. Found it helpful. Thankyou

  3. Some great tips. Definitely some things I need to work on.

    1. I appreciate your feedback!

  4. HI John – I had no idea that assigning more than one category per post was detrimental. I will be correcting that today across the board. Thank you for the great tips!

    1. Hi, assigning more than 1 category to a post makes it appear duplicate to Google which can negatively affect your site.

  5. I do the first five you mentioned. They work well for me. Glad they are on your list. #GlobalBlogging

  6. A really handy guide, I often have posts referenced in 2 categories and didn’t realize this was detrimental. Is this the case in wordpress when it makes the first category primary? I’m guessing it aromatically makes this first link the follow link and subsequent categories no follow for that reason, or is it not that clever? #GlobalBlogging

    1. Hi, it is always better to avoid using more than 1 Category for a given post as this may lead to your content been seed as a duplication by Google, so try working with only 1 category at a time.

  7. Saving this to study and practice later. Visiting you from the global blogging link up. laurensparks.net

    1. Hi Lauren, thanks for the feedback!

  8. I have some work to do. Thank you! #thoughtfulthursdays

  9. I look forward to implementing these suggestions! Thank you for the help!

    1. Hi Elizabeth, I really appreciate your feedback.

  10. […] Basic On-Site SEO Techniques for Bloggers. […]

  11. This is amazing. Thanks for the tips

  12. I had no idea there were keyword research tools…. goodness.

    1. Hi Collette, your feedback well received.

  13. Thank you for such an awesome article.

    1. Hi, welcome again.

  14. Amazing tips, thank you so much for sharing. I am still a “newbie” in the blog world and I do have one question: What is “Alt Tag”? You mentioned that on “ALT TAG ON IMAGE WITH KEYWORD”. I have clicked on several of your links and will keep researching everything you have talked about in this post. Very informative, thank you!!!

  15. […] Hi Sarah, good to hear that you are already making sales, it is usually a learning curve, so you keep on improving everyday. On SEO, you can read this post for a start: Basic On-Site SEO Techniques for Bloggers […]

  16. No doubt John , this is wonderful info. and great tips

    1. Hi Ajay, thanks for dropping by again. Most welcomed.

  17. chrisy beason Avatar
    chrisy beason

    Great info! hanks for putting this together

  18. Great Information and I plan to try it out. Thank you! ~ Thea Topaz (www.theatopaz.com)

    1. Hi Thea, thanks for visiting.

  19. Helpful tips, thanks!

  20. Some really great tips there! Very useful for ranking and appearing in search. The tools are helpful too! Thanks very much 🙂 – Roseanna

    1. Hi, thanks for the comments.

  21. So much knowledge, thank you!

  22. A lot of great information here. Your tips are very easy to follow. Great post.

  23. Great article! I didn’t even think to tag my photos as well. Thank you!

    1. Hi Ari, welcome.

  24. Great tips as always! Helpful points!

    1. Thanks for visiting again. Most welcomed.

  25. Finally an seo article I can understand brilliantly written thanks

  26. A useful guide and easy to read!

  27. Very good article…
    Thanks for sharing…
    Keep up the good work…

  28. MAGLY DELGADO Avatar
    MAGLY DELGADO

    Hello John, thanks for this informative post. I love your style, you make SEO optimizing seam a piece of cake. I´m starting out my blog and I´m giving lots of attention to SEO, of course, like you said, SEO Yoast makes it easier. Still have to work on keywords and links.

    1. Hi Magly, am grateful for your visit and taking time to comment on this post.

  29. sharinagel Avatar
    sharinagel

    SEO for dummies like me! thank you!!

  30. This is one of the best SEO breakdowns I have ever read! Keep up the good work- there are always helpful gems on your blog!

    1. Thanks very much.

  31. Great post! I need to add a sitemap to my website! Will be using a few of these tips! Thanks!

    1. Hi Whitney, thanks for visiting.

  32. Okay, thanks for this awesome summary – now I have my work cut out for me 😉 Trying to wrap my head around KeySearch for now and will take it from there.
    Any advice on how to do SEO for more personal posts? Or are there some posts where I should just let it go and not even worry?

    1. Hi Annika, there are keywords to any kind of post. So, yes you can do a keyword search for your personal posts too.

  33. Wow. I am a brand-new blogger, and I had no idea how to do any of this. So, I’ll be going back over it step-by-step. Thanks for the information in an understandable format! I have much to do. — Thanks, Alicia

    1. Hi Alicia, thanks for the visit. Welcome.

  34. Green Leafy Gael Avatar
    Green Leafy Gael

    very helpful and useful

  35. Creative And Healthy Fun Food Avatar
    Creative And Healthy Fun Food

    Oh thank you! I really need to work on my organic reach and this is so helpful!

  36. Awesome post. Great tips for improving SEO and getting traffic. 🙂

    1. Welcome. Thanks for visiting.

  37. […] though SEO is important for your blog, the first priority should be your readers.  Try to find a balance […]

  38. […] Basic on-site SEO Techniques for Bloggers […]

  39. I will definitely start looking into the google webmaster tools. Always trying to increase traffic to my site through SEO. Thanks for the great advice!

    1. Hi Makenzie, am grateful for your comments.

  40. myhomesteadlifecom Avatar
    myhomesteadlifecom

    Thanks for sharing (BSB on fb) I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. I struggle with SEO and you brought ups some good subjects I have not heard before such as the duplicate content and the website sitemap.
    Many Thanks,
    Amber
    My Homestead Life

  41. How do I add meta descriptions?

    1. Hi Patricia, Meta descriptions is just like a summary of your article but with the right keywords. You can use SEO plugin like Yoast to guide you when adding a meta description.

  42. Investinginlifeblog Avatar
    Investinginlifeblog

    I suck at technology stuff so i really appreciate blogs like this! Thanks!

  43. Very helpful, thank you!

  44. lifeofwanderlusters Avatar
    lifeofwanderlusters

    Very useful and interesting post. especially for the people that is starting out. I wasnñt aware of a couple of things so it was interesting to read and find out new things I can use to improve our site.
    Thanks for sharing this information.

  45. Really useful post thanks for sharing!

  46. Ashutosh Avatar

    Very useful article.
    Thanks to share post like this.

  47. Wow.. very helpful ??

  48. SEO is becoming my number one priority for September & connecting all my accounts. I really appreciated this & will likely be reading many more of your posts to get on top of this SEO thing. Thanks a million! Now how do I follow you 😉

    1. Hi, thanks for dropping by, am really grateful for your comments. To follow the blog just move down on the sidebar, you will get the email sign up or if you just want to follow, without submitting your email address, you need to be a wordpress user, login in, and such for my site or John M, you will see the follow button at the bottom.

  49. […] Basic on-site SEO Techniques […]

  50. For someone who just started blogging and doesn’t know much about SEO I found this super useful. thanks for sharing!

    1. Hi Ana, thanks for your positive comments.

  51. I wish there was a way to write SEO titles that are a bit more creative- this is my biggest challenge right now: writing clickable titles that are also Seo keyword friendly

    1. Hi Nicole, thanks for dropping by, on writing clickable titles, it is very simple. I have covered it in my latest post. Reasons you are getting low traffic to your blog.

  52. Hi John,

    Great post! Lots of useful information especially for those just beginning their blogging journey.
    Well done 🙂

    Best regards

    Pedro

    1. Hi, grateful for your insightful comments.

  53. I recently took a class where some of what you’ve writen was being taught and let me say your post sums up the information very nicely.

    1. Hi, thanks for those nice comments.

  54. Very much informative !

    1. Thanks for dropping by.

  55. These are such great tips in this post that are so useful. I really love this and wish I found it earlier but still great to know it now!

    Danielle | FollowMyGut.com <3

    1. Hi, thanks for dropping by. Your comments are highly appreciated.

  56. Helpful tips and easy to understand…good for reference

    1. Hi, Welcome.

  57. Fantastic tips! Thank you so much for sharing this information – it’s helpful for newbies 🙂

    1. Thanks for dropping by.

  58. useful tips! will be coming back to this as I continue to work on my blog!

  59. […] write measures when it comes to SEO can double your blog traffic within a short period of time. Simple tasks like using the right […]

  60. Simple, useful, and easy to digest tips John!

    1. Hi Donnabeth, thanks for passing by, your comments are appreciated.

  61. Well written and useful information!

    1. Hi Tricia, thanks for dropping by. Grateful for your comments.

  62. Thanks for the great tips ?

    1. Hi Nastja, thanks for dropping by.

  63. Hey, super helpful content. Im still trying to grasp my head around these SEO’s so this post has helped me out massively. Thank you.

    1. Hi, you are much welcomed. These are basic tips, so I hope every blogger can implement them without much difficult.

  64. darlingceo Avatar
    darlingceo

    This is so helpful! Thank you for posting. I love how you explained why each point was important. It all clicked finally!

    1. Hi, am grateful for your comments.

  65. Great tips! SEO is very easy with these tips demystifying everything!

    1. Hi, thanks for dropping by, yes, these tips can act as a guide. I use Yoast SEO plugin on my blog. It makes work easier. In case your blog is powered by WordPress, you can try it.

  66. Thanks for sharing your SEO tips for bloggers!

    1. Hi, am grateful for your comments.

  67. Love how you broke down the SEO resources simply and efficiently! Although premium plugins are great, there are definitely plenty of ways to optimize a website and blog posts without it being a technical nightmare

    1. Hi Mia, thanks for your insights. Many people think SEO is too technical, but that is not the case if you understand the basics. Any blogger can optimize his/her site with the help of such tips.

  68. What an insightful post about SEO. Thanks for sharing, John!
    I’m going to be bookmarking this post for later.

    Kat

    katlast.com

    1. Hi, thanks for you comments.

  69. Gayathri Lakshminarayanan Avatar
    Gayathri Lakshminarayanan

    Wow, this is the first SEO post that didn’t baffle me. I might have been doing a few of these, but maybe it is time to implement everything on your list. Your post is the much needed kick on my back to get back to work.

    Gayathri @ Musings Over Nothing

    1. Hi, am grateful for your comments. Having an optimized site, is a continuous process, so keep working on it.

  70. Detailed, well written and easy to understand.

    1. Hi Sarah, thanks for your comments.

  71. This is super helpful! I suck at seo so it’s nice to have the terms explained!

    1. Hi Shelby, grateful for your comments.

  72. Good info! I plan to review it with my tech person to make sure we are doing all of these things. Thanks!

    1. Hi Wendy, I really appreciate your comments. You can use this as a reference.

  73. Thank you for the tips! I’m still very new to blogging, and half of these things I’ve just been kind of winging as I go along. Wish I saw this first!

    1. Hi Sara, thanks for passing by. Don’t worry, you can always start from anywhere to optimize your site. The old posts and pages can be updated at any time. Optimization of a site, is a continuous process. You keep doing it, so long as you have a site.

  74. Very helpful post, especially that tip with picture alt tags! Thanks for sharing!

    1. Hi Hanka, grateful for your comments.

  75. Very useful information especially for beginners. Unfortunately I haven’t had success being approved by Adsense so far

    1. Hi, thanks for dropping by. On adsense, I have a post on what you need to do before you apply for Google Adsense. You can read it: How to get Google Adsense Approval.

    2. Neither have I 🙁

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