Blogging and SEO go hand in hand. In fact, SEO is pretty vital to any type of online activity, so below are five SEO mistakes that you could be making, without even realising it!
1. NOT WRITING ENOUGH CONTENT
Although picture heavy posts are visually appealing, with little text on a given page these types of posts may be harming your ranking ability. Especially if all of your posts contain little or no text. This isn’t to say that you should stop doing these posts, but if you do a few of these I would suggest making up for them with some posts that contain around 500 words content. If not more. And I would always try to have some text on your page. Google values content and as well as making your site a great read for viewers, it could also help to increase your page quality in Google’s eyes.
2. NOT USING HEADER TAGS / SUBHEADINGS
Another mistake you could be making is not using subheadings and header tags effectively throughout your post. For example, rather than bolding a sub-heading, these should be given a H2 or H3 tag. Subheadings make your text easier to digest and Google spiders will crawl your title followed by H2, H3, H4 tags when indexing your blog post, making these important words on your page.
Unsure of what a H2, H3, H4 tag is? Read my ‘SEO Tips For Beginners’ post here
3. NOT LABELLING IMAGES WITH AN ‘ALT’ TAG
When adding images to your blog, if you do not label these correctly with an Alt tag, then Google will not be able to tell what your image is depicting. This is because search engine spiders cannot see what is on your page and will just in fact crawl the html and coding of your website. So, in order for you to have the best chance of your images showing up in search results for relevant keywords, I would suggest following these two easy steps below:
Save your image file using a relevant keyword phrase, to describe what it is a photo of.
After uploading your file change the alt text and title text to the same keyword phrase
4. NOT LINKING INTERNALLY
When writing a new blog post, if you have written on this topic before, you should be linking to it. For example:
I previously wrote an SEO post on link building tips for bloggers.
As you can see, I have linked to that previous blog post so that readers can easily find more information on the topic and also that Google can see this post is relevant and internal linking also helps for search spiders to navigate around your site. If you had no link out to another page on your blog, their search would stop on this post, when you want them to be able to crawl as many pages as possible.
Don’t just link for the sake of it though, make sure internal linking is relevant and that you also make sure that in the html of the link you add target=”blank”, so that a new page opens and your reader is not taken away from the current post they are reading before they have finished.
5. NOT USING KEYWORDS
We all know that keyword stuffing is bad, plus one of the worst things you could be doing is having hidden text on your page – i.e. if you website is white and you have keywords in white text in the header or sidebar, this could cause you some serious agg.
Watch Matt Cutt’s video on keyword stuffing and hidden text.
You obviously want to include your keyword/s in a post, because if you are wearing a denim skirt, you are obviously going to talk about it aren’t you. Try to use various keyword phrases or synonyms throughout your post and in regards to keyword stuffing, just don’t let every other word be ‘denim skirt’, as you want your content to flow and read naturally.
So those are five SEO mistakes that you could currently be making, without even knowing it!
If you have any questions on this post, please comment below and if you have found this post helpful, please do share this on your Twitter feed to give other bloggers a hand or find me @CharlotteLewis_ for more tweets!
Read my last SEO post: Is Your Blog Mobile Friendly?
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These are soo helpful!Xx
Lucy Cole | A UK Fashion, Lifestyle and Beauty Blog
Helpful as always. Definitely say I am guilty of a few of those mistakes. Hollie x
Such helpful tips, I am so new to this and will definitely try and stop myself making these mistakes xo
Emily | emsalice.com
Loved these tips, please keep making posts like this! @TheLauraBlair x
These are all so helpful! You know everythaaaaang whoo! xx
Chloe
fashionmakesmepoor.blogspot.co.uk
Great tips, thanks for sharing! I love reading posts about how to improve your blog! 🙂
Urban Obsessions // Vegan Food, Beauty & Lifestyle
I've never heard about hiding keywords! Seriously people do that?! I'm genuinely shocked (which is hard these days!)
Megan || Oh Hey! blog
Thanks Lucy 🙂 xx
Thanks Hollie and not to worry, they are easily fixed 🙂 xx
Thanks Emily, I'm glad they helped 🙂 xx
Thanks Laura – I will do 🙂 If there is any topic you want covering, just let me know! xx
hehe, I Wish 🙂 but thank you lovely xx
Thanks Mia 🙂 xx
Really great tips! I'm still trying to figure out the whole SEO things so this is really helpful. Thanks for sharing!
~Jessica
Jeans and a Teacup
Great tips! Thank you!
Agnes x
http://www.blvckbee.com
Yes, unfortunately, some do, but I imagine not many these days! xx
Thanks Jess 🙂 Shoot me a tweet if you need any help! xx
Thanks honey <3 xx