Okay, so you want your blog post to have a high reach on Google’s search engine. Well, that’s where SEO comes into play. In part one of my guide, I go over the starting essentials. In this section, I will explain the final steps needed to learn basic SEO. 

Check out part 1 of the guide!

Keywords

Focus keywords are important. When you’re thinking of keywords, ask yourself: If someone were to search for the information I’m providing, what would they type into their search bar? 

Once you’ve found your keyword(s) be sure to include it in your post title, URLs, images (Alt Text), and in the content.

Warning

Do not overdo it. I would suggest mentioning the keyword 3-8 times in the content of your post. If you include the keyword 15 times, it could be viewed as spam by Google.

You also want to make sure to insert the word naturally. Don’t place it wherever to improve your SEO ranking.

Another tip, don’t use the same keywords on your site. If you’ve used a focus keyword for one article, don’t use the same for another.

If you do, you have to make it clear which URL on your site is most important for that keyword.

Stop Words

Stop words should be omitted from your title as they are filtered out by Google. Some examples of stop words are: “a, and, by, for,” etc. You can find a full list of stop words here.

Images

Include at least one image with every post. Not only do most readers like seeing pictures in the content they consume, but it will help you with SEO.

Since Google can’t identify the text in your images, you need to make sure it is descriptive.

Include your title, and add your focus keyword in the images “Alt Text.”

You can also fill in the “Caption” section. The text around your images is valuable for SEO.

Tip: Don’t add any image just for the sake of optimization, if you can’t find a picture that matches with your content, jut omit this section.

Linking

Include at least one link in your article. 

You can either: 

Link to others

An easy way to direct more traffic to your site is by linking to other websites. You want to link to reputable sites that match your content.

You can also reach out to the websites you plan to link to and give them a heads up.

After you publish your content, you can send them the link to your post, and if they like it, they might link back to you!

Link to yourself

It’s an easy way to boost traffic to your individual pages! 

Additional Resource

To make your life easier, you can download the Yoast SEO plugin. It analyzes your keywords and its use within your content.

I’ve gotten by using the free version, but you can always upgrade if you’d like.

SEO Overview

Keep in mind that at the end of the day, quality is more important than optimizing for SEO.  

Basic SEO is easy! All it takes is a bit of re-thinking how you approach the content on your site.

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Want a condensed version of the guide? Click the image below for your FREE PDF!