Do you want to know what the most effective way to get traffic to your blog is?
The answer is simple and straightforward: establish yourself as an expert in your field and use keywords correctly in your meta tags.
The question is: how can you become an expert in your field if you don’t know how to do anything related to blogging?
You see, there is a lot of mystery surrounding SEO, and even experienced bloggers can get tripped up by simple tasks that seem impossible to achieve.
Here’s some advice on making your SEO work harder.
- Choose the right keywords. Different platforms like Google Analytics offer a way to track your audience’s keywords to find your content.
For example, if you are writing about fashion and you have used the keywords fashion, style, and clothing a few times in your content, you can be sure that those are keywords that your audience is probably searching for.
But when it comes to SEO, simply using the keywords is never enough. You need to ensure that they are relevant to your content and that there is enough competition for those keywords.
In the example above, there is a lot of competition for the keywords fashion, style, and clothing, so your chances of appearing in the top three results when your audience types in those search terms are slim.
- Create high-quality and authoritative content. Make content that will engage your audience and compel them to take action.
If you want to rank for your chosen keywords, you must create highly relevant content for those terms and add more value than your competitors.
In the fashion example, creating blog posts about the best summer fashion trends and showing those trends in action could be a way to establish yourself as an expert on the subject and create engagement with your audience.
If you can engage your audience and make them feel like you understand their needs, you will dramatically improve your SEO.
Build Your Credentials
The first step to a successful SEO strategy is to choose the right keywords. But what happens if you don’t know what those keywords are?
The answer is simple: you need to do some research. One of the best ways to do this is to consult with an SEO expert.
Get in touch with an SEO company that offers a free one-on-one consultation to get started.
During that consultation, the expert will help you identify the keywords you should target and give you some ideas for writing your content.
This will help you get started on the right foot and ensure that your SEO strategy is as effective as possible.
In the meantime, you can start building your database of potential customers by taking advantage of free trial offers or signing up for a free month of a subscription plan.
Avoid The Common Mistakes
You need to avoid making common SEO mistakes to improve your SEO.
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Avoid Using Too Many Keywords
The first and probably the most obvious mistake that you can make is using too many keywords in your content.
If you use multiple keywords in your meta tags or your content, you will surely end up in Google’s “auto-complete” list and appear in the rankings for a whole host of keywords.
This can cause problems, as you will get competition from people who are not as expert as you are on the subject matter.
Using too many keywords is never a good idea and can hurt your SEO efforts if used incorrectly.
When writing SEO content, ensure that the keywords you choose are relevant to the content and do not overwhelm it.
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Avoid Lengthy Paragraphs
Another mistake you can make is stuffing your content with lengthy paragraphs. Longer paragraphs are better regarding SEO; you should always go for at least a few hundred words.
If your paragraphs are shorter than three or four sentences, Google will simply skim-read your content and move on to the next one.
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Be Up-To-Date And Relevant
Thirdly, ensure your blog posts are up-to-date and relevant to your target audience. If necessary, you should review and edit previous posts to keep the content up-to-date and fresh.
If you want to rank for certain keywords, make sure that your posts are always relevant to the topic and add new information if necessary.
If you are unsure of what types of content are suitable for your target audience, or if you want to know more about a certain topic, you can always ask your readers or search for the question online.
Publishing outdated content is one of the worst things you can do regarding SEO, as it will hurt your rank for existing and upcoming keywords.
You should avoid using outdated information when editing and revising previous posts.
You can also encourage your readers to engage with you through social media channels to keep your content relevant.
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Add More Links
Fourthly, make sure that you add plenty of links to your content.
When somebody is searching for a specific topic, they will usually click on the first few links that appear in the search results.
If you want your content to be noticed, you should certainly add some relevant and authoritative links to your content.
But add those links to all your content: do not just add them to the article that you think best matches the topic.
You can also use tools like Google’s My Posts to discover relevant content that you have not yet published and add it to your blog.
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Have A Mobile-Friendly Content
Fifth, make sure that your content is mobile-friendly.
Since many internet users are now accessing content via their smartphones, it is important that all of your content looks the same no matter what device is used to read it.
Some of your content may still be suitable for desktop users, but you should reevaluate and edit it to be equally accessible to read on mobile devices.
You can use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to help you identify any content that is not mobile-friendly and make the necessary changes before publishing.
If you are feeling extra creative, you can also choose to create a special mobile-only version of your blog that is optimized for small screens such as tablets and smartphones.
This will dramatically improve your mobile SEO and allow you to continue expanding your reach to more people. If you want to learn more, check out Google’s SEO tips for mobile users.
Use Keyword Optimization
When choosing keywords for SEO, ensure that they are relevant to your content and that there is enough competition for those keywords.
The best way to do this is to use keyword optimization tools to find exactly what keywords your competitors use and what keywords your target audience is searching for.
There are some keyword optimization tools that you can use for free, with the Google Keyword Planner being the most popular web-based tool.
If you want to use a keyword tool in the future, make sure to register for a free account so that you can get started.
Once you have used Google’s Keyword Planner to find the top keywords, make a note of them so that you can start incorporating them into your content.
As you build your blog, you can simply use the same tool to find new keywords that you can incorporate into the content.
Keep building your blog, adding new content, and using the keywords you find with the help of the Google Keyword Planner – this will help you dramatically improve your SEO.
Use Metadata
While your content is important, so is your metadata. Your metadata will describe your content in terms that a machine can understand.
When somebody searches for a specific topic, one of the first things they will look for is the metadata associated with the content they find.
What Elements Should Your Meta Tags Include
Each webpage has elements that make up its unique identity. One of the essential elements to have in abundance is metadata.
It is the invisible information provided about a specific piece of content.
Without it, even the most beautiful website would appear flat and dull. This is also the reason why content creators tend to avoid using article spinners.
They know that most users won’t understand the purpose of those articles if they can’t read the meta tags.
Elements such as the header image, footer, social icons, and other small graphical elements are commonly used by content creators to make a unique identity for their sites.
However, another element can be crucial in defining a website’s overall look and feel. That is the meta tags.
Your metadata should consist of the following elements:
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The Header Images
The header image is perhaps the most obvious element on a web page and can be used to give the first impression to the visitor.
The image displayed in the header serves as the webpage’s logo or at least provides the reader with an idea of what the site is about.
It can also be used as an icon to indicate the site owner’s social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc.).
Include a header image even if you don’t have a logo or an icon. Having a unique, eye-catching image that defines the tone of your content will undoubtedly attract more visitors.
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The Social Icons
Along with the header image, the social icons located just below it are considered vital parts of a web page’s meta tags.
These icons on a page indicate that the site owner is likely using one of the many social media platforms to promote their content (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).
Including social icons allows the site owner to highlight their social presence while also providing their readers with an easy way to interact with the site.
Although many people include social icons just to include them, website owners should only use those icons that are relevant to the content on the page.
The key is to keep the number of icons to a minimum while ensuring that each one accurately represents the site’s identity.
In this way, you can use fewer icons while also ensuring that each one is instantly recognizable as an icon of a social media platform (e.g., the circle with the Twitter logo in it).
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A Description
The meta tags’ description is another essential element that can be used to give the reader a better idea of what the page is about. It should be detailed yet interesting.
A well-written description can also serve as an advertisement for the site owner’s products or services since websites with useful, attractive descriptions tend to get a higher click-through rate from the audience.
However, very few people actually read the meta tags’ descriptions. Most visitors will simply glance at it to find out what the page is about. As a result, the fewer words you use, the better.
A typical situation where this is vital is if the page owner uses very few words in the description.
In that case, having a good explanation for the lack of content will help the reader understand the page’s purpose.
It also gives the website owner the chance to improve the description should they wish to do so.
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The Meta Tags’ Keywords
The meta tags’ keywords are critical to the page’s overall search optimization.
They are the words and phrases used by the website’s content creators to describe the web page’s content in a way that searchers easily understand.
In simple terms, the keywords are the words and phrases that the content creators wish to display when someone enters those words and phrases into the search bar of a search engine.
When entering keywords into the search bar, the searcher will immediately get results that are related to what they are searching for.
However, this also means that anyone trying to guess or craft an appropriate string of words can generate SERP results (Search Engine Result Page).
In this case, the meta tags’ keywords can either be a blessing or a curse.
On the one hand, they make it easier for the reader to discover relevant content.
On the other hand, they can also make it easier for someone else to find that content and potentially exploit it for commercial gain (e.g., spamming or overhyping).
As a general rule, the meta tags’ keywords should be relevant and specific to the page’s content.
In other words, they should match the words used in the page’s content (e.g., the header, the introduction, and the body of the article).
Adding a few keywords at the end of the article’s content is also a good idea to give the reader a better idea of the page.
In the event of an automated article spinner, the keywords should be entered at the beginning of the text string (the article) to ensure that the words match.
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The URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The URL is a webpage’s address and can be used to locate it on the internet.
The page’s address is also known as the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and can be used as an alternate way to discover the page without using a search engine.
To give the URL its own meta tag, simply enter the address using the correct protocol (e.g., HTTP:// or HTTPS://).
However, very few people enter URLs into their browser address bars.
To get the most out of the URL, the page owner should create a unique, attention-grabbing URL that will be easy for others to remember.
Once you have a unique and relevant URL, enter it into the homepage’s address bar to discover more about the site.
Start Using Meta Tags Today!
The meta tags provide contextual information about a specific webpage that is not always obvious to the naked eye.
They can provide useful details such as the browser version, screen resolution, and more.
In short, they allow the website owner to tweak certain aspects of their site based on their visitors’ devices.
Suppose someone is viewing a page on their mobile phone. The website owner would want to display information in a way that is easily readable on a small screen.
Or, if someone is on a computer, the website owner can choose to display their articles in a way that is best suited for a large screen.
