How to Learn SEO for New Bloggers
SEO is essential for any blog to succeed. But, you may be wondering, exactly what is SEO and how do I best utilize it for my site?
In this post we will cover SEO for new bloggers. We’ll talk about best SEO practices right from the start to set you and your new blog up for success!
Heads up: this is a lot of new information for a beginner! Don’t worry if it seems like a lot or doesn’t all makes sense right away.
We are going to be covering a lot of SEO information so feel free to take your time through this post, bookmark it for later, and digest it in pieces!
This post is part three in our How to Start a New Blog in 2023 series. Read part one for starting a new blog and part two for the best blogging resources and tools for beginners.
I was clueless to SEO when I first began and I’m still working on bettering my SEO continually. Remember that learning to blog is a journey and you will continue to learn as you go.
Ready to dive into Search Engine Optimization for New Bloggers? Let’s go!
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The goal of great SEO is to bring traffic to your blog and help you rank number one in search engine results.
There are several factors that contribute to your SEO. Headings, keywords, meta descriptions, alt tags, site speed, external and internal linking, readability, and content quality.
You’ll want to use SEO for your site as a whole and for each individual post you write.
SEO for new bloggers is key from the start because you can optimize your site with best practices fight away.
You can also take advantage of utilizing keywords and hopefully ranking high in search results.
What Are Keywords?
A keyword is your main subject matter. Keywords can be one single word, a couple or words or even a phrase. A keyword identifies the main topic of your post.
Keywords help people find your content in their web searches. By properly using a keyword strategy you increase your blog posts SERP ranking.
SERP – the Search Engine Results Page is where all the results of a search for a topic show up in a search engine like Google or Bing.
The better your use of keywords the more likely it is for your post to rank high on a SERP.
If you’ve done your keyword research well and utilized that keyword right in your blog post, imagine ranking on the top page of Google for that search! That is the power of great SEO and a great keyword strategy.
When it comes to SEO for new bloggers using keywords is going to be one of the most powerful tools for you.
Your goal in using keywords is to rank for that keyword. What does ranking mean? Ranking mean showing up as high in the search results as possible.
We’ll dive deeper into keywords later, right now let’s define the difference between a head keyword and a long-tail keyword.
Head Keywords
Head keywords are one to two words used to identify the topic of your post. Because a word or two are more common and less descriptive they are much harder to rank for.
For example if you go after the keyword “SEO” or “blogging” the likelihood of you ranking for that keyword is very low.
These keywords will have high competition because big websites have already utilized and ranked for them.
Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are phrases. When trying to rank for keywords you will have more success with long-tail keywords.
For example if you go after the long-tail keyword “SEO for brand new bloggers” or “blogging tips for bloggers just starting out” the likelihood of you ranking for that keyword is much higher than using a head keyword.
How to Learn SEO for New Bloggers
The best time for a new blogger to learn SEO is right from the beginning. The advantage to a strong SEO strategy when launching your new blog is that you can optimize your site from the start.
SEO when applied to your entire blog as well as each individual blog post will help your blog show up in searches and retain visitors to your site.
As a word of encouragement I want you to keep in mind that while SEO is important it is not something to be stressed over.
Do your best to put good SEO practices in place, but don’t let it hold you back from creating the content that you want to create.
Let’s look at four key components of SEO for new bloggers for your site as a whole.
1. Establish site keywords
While most people think about keywords in their individual blog posts, you should also be using keywords for your homepage and website as a whole.
Here is where creating a niche, tagline, and content pillars can come in really handy. Be sure to include niche related keywords in your homepage introduction, about page, contact page and any additional pages you set up on your site.
This tells Google what your entire site is about.
2. Improve Site speed
The first important factor in SEO we are going to look at is site speed. The faster your site loads the more search engine’s and your readers like it.
Site speed also helps your bounce rate. If a site is slow to load readers will leave (bounce) effecting your bounce rate negatively.
There’s all sorts of things in the background of your blog that you don’t even think about that affect your site’s speed. Everything from your host, theme, plugins and images can contribute to your site speed.
One of the biggest culprits of a slow site is oversized images! As a new blogger I recommend optimizing all the photos on your site from the beginning to keep things loading quickly.
You can also use a plugins to help with site speed. I use W3 Total Cache. When using a plugin check each setting to see how it interacts with your website. For example I don’t use the lazy image load or minify options because they doesn’t interact well with my theme.
Use Google’s PageSpeed tool to check the speed of any page on your website. It’s a bit technical, but it will give you an idea of of where you are at and areas you need to improve.
3. Submit your site map to Google
Sign up for Google Search Console and submit your site map to Google as soon as you launch your blog. Google can take a while to index your site naturally so letting Google know about your site and asking it to index it is essential.
Once you have signed up with Google Search Console, navigate to sitemaps (under index) in the left hand menu. Enter your domain url followed by /sitemap.xml and submit.
4. Build Domain Authority
Building domain authority tells search engines like Google that your website is valuable. The more domain authority you have the the more importance Google and other search engines give your site.
Domain authority scales from 1-100, with a score of 40-50 being average and a score over 60 considered the best.
The number one way to build domain authority is to have other sites linking to yours.
One quick way to start building domain authority is to put your website url in all of your social media profiles. This creates external links to your site.
Then over time work on getting other blogs and websites to link to you by writing amazing content that they will want to share!
You can also network with other bloggers and guest post to get links back to your blog.
Keep in mind that you do not want to be spammy so don’t buy links, just work hard at getting reputable sites to link to you.
Use ahrefs website authority checker to check your domain authority. You can also use their backlink checker to see who has linked to you!
How to Optimize Blog Posts for SEO
Optimize blog posts for SEO to drive new and repeat traffic to your blog! There’s nothing like the satisfaction of knowing you’ve delivered amazing content to your readers.
In this section let’s talk about SEO for new bloggers for your individual blog posts.
Apply solid SEO practices to every blog post you write to get eyes on your posts!
1. Create Quality COntent
A quality blog post is well researched, organized and provides value.
Always aim to create well written content. This means taking the time to research you topic. Then write a well thought out, comprehensive post.
When you create quality content it’s truly reflected in your site’s success. Your readers will want to read your posts and return for more! The time and effort you put into your blog posts will show.
Great SEO begins with creating great content to serve your audience.
In addition to creating great content, post consistently to build trust with your audience.
2. Use Post hierarchy
Use headings to create topic and subtopic hierarchy throughout your blog post.
Search engines scan your post and use headings as an outline to understand what your post is about.
3. Use Optimized Images
Be sure to add images to your posts. Best practice is to use optimized file sizes.
Large image files will slow down your site speed. Before uploading an image resize it for the web. This means not uploading high resolution images (which are large files) to your website. An optimal image size is less about the exact dimensions and more about the kb size.
Best practice is to determine a consistent image sizes and keep to a PPI (pixels per inch) of 72.
I have a mac and use preview to resize my images before uploading.
Be sure to add alt tags to all of your images. Add your keyword to the alt tag on your photos. Not only does this improve your SEO it’s also important for ADA.
4. lInk to Quality Sites
Another great SEO practice is to link to external websites.
The key here is to link to quality sites. When writing a post you can link to another website or external blog post.
Use this practice to send your readers to related and quality content that further provides them value.
5. Practice Internal linking
Link, link, link! The more you can interlink related blog posts on your own site to each other the better.
Linking to your own posts serves two key purposes.
It creates a content map for search engines like Google to follow and it leads your readers to more great content you’ve written!
8. Utilize Keywords
Research and identify a keyword for every post you write. While there are lots of factors in SEO, keywords are the most important component in informing search engines what your blog post is about.
Keyword Basics for Beginners
Our first step is to research our blog post keyword. I recommend using a long-tail keyword.
How to research keywords
There are several ways to research keywords.
You can use a keyword tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ubbersuggest, install a plugin like Rank Math to WordPress, or even use the Google search bar to see what related searches come up when researching your subject matter.
When researching keywords look for keywords with high volume searches, but low to medium competition.
This is where long-tail keywords are ideal. Depending on your niche it may be harder to rank for certain keywords than others.
You want to choose keywords that people are searching for, but that not a lot of your competitors are already using.
Keep in mind the whole point of using keywords is to help your readers find you in the search results.
For example if I were writing a post about running tips, I would start to research the phrase “running tips.” Now “running tips” as my keyword would likely have a high search volume. However, it would probably also have high competition. This would not be the best keyword to rank for.
If I expanded this keyword into a long-tail keyword like “running tips for beginners in there fifties,” it may have a lower search volume, but it would likely have a low competition.
One you have researched your keyword it’s time to implement it in your blog post.
Place keywords through out your blog
- Use the keyword in your post url
- Place the keyword in the title of your post
- Use the keyword in your meta description
- Use the keyword in your first paragraph
- Use the keyword in your heading 2
- Add the keyword to your images alt text
- Use the keyword sprinkled naturally throughout your post
- Use the keyword in anchor text links in other blog posts
SEO and Keyword TOOLS
Know that you know basic SEO for New Bloggers let’s talk about the tools that will help you employ SEO on your site!
There are tons of free and paid keyword search tools. Keep in mind as you use these tools and do your keyword research that you are looking for keywords with good search volume but low to medium competition.
1. Google Keyword Planner – FREE
Start with Google Keyword Planner. One of the best free options for keyword research is using Google itself. Google Ads has a keyword planner that helps you identify average monthly searches and competition.
2. Ubbersuggest Extension by Neil Patel – FREE & PAID
The Ubbersuggest extension for Chrome delivers keyword data right on Google’s search page. Which means anytime I search for something in Google I’m being hand delivered keyword ideas and information.
3. BiQ SEO Suite – FREE & PAID
Check out BiQ SEO Suite. BiQ is a search engine optimization suite that helps you find and analyze keywords for your posts and so much more. BiQ’s SEO intelligence tools are amazing.
- Keyword Intelligence: Utilize this tool for keyword research. BiQ provides information on related keywords, content ideas, popular questions about your keyword and trending searches related to your keyword.
- Content Intelligence: My favorite of the intelligence tools, use this component to fully evaluate your post. Content Intelligence will analyze your post content and grade it. It will suggest improvements and related keywords or long-tail keyword paragraph by paragraph. This tool is pure gold!
- Rank Intelligence: Want to know how your individual posts are ranking? Enter your url and rank intelligence will give your your google search ranking. It will let you know if your post is the number 1 result or the 100th result based on keyword searches. For example if you search for “glow stick lantern craft,” I have a post ranking in the number 2 position. This is super valuable information!
- Rank Tracking: Enter your url and set keywords to see how your posts are tracking for that keyword. This is a great way to monitor a keyword over time to see if your ranking is going up or down.
BiQ SEO Suite is incredibly comprehensive and will provide you with tons of information to identify a strong keyword or long-tail keyword for your post.
4. RANK MATH PLUGIN
I also use the plugin Rank Math. This plugin acts as a guide to optimizing your post for search engines. Which is key when it comes to being found when people are searching for content. Rank Math will help you track your keyword through out your post, if you’ve included internal and external links, word count and so more more.
How to Crush your Search Engine Optimization
Learn everything you can about SEO and be sure to apply it to every post you write. SEO can be somewhat daunting in the beginning. Having a system for your website and blog post SEO will save you time and help you quickly identify strong keywords.
The goal of this post is to help you learn SEO for new bloggers. There are entire sites, books and courses dedicated to SEO! Keep learning about it as you go.
You will find that SEO and strategically using keywords will be essential to bringing traffic to your site.
Now that you understand keywords and SEO for new bloggers read my guide on the 15 most important things to do before and after you hit publish on a blog post.
xoxo Naomi
