Best SEO Tips for Bloggers

SEO is an art and a science. Small changes that are mostly free and easy to implement can have a huge impact on your Google organic traffic over time!

After doing SEO professionally for over 10 years, I’ve seen a ton of opportunities for bloggers to easily increase organic website traffic. The key is to spend time optimizing the elements of your website that are going to have the most positive impact on your traffic.

After participating in members-only SEO forums where the world’s best SEO experts conduct rigorous tests to determine the factors that mostly like influence AND INCREASE a website’s Google rankings, I have compiled a list of essential SEO guidelines for bloggers.

65 Proven SEO Tips to Increase Blog Traffic

Here are 65 proven SEO tips that will help you boost your rankings in organic search and increase your website’s traffic.

While I have focused on easy-to-implement recommendations, SEO can get complicated. Feel free to post your questions in the comments and I will do my best to respond.

You can also join the new Millennial Money SEO newsletter where I will periodically share SEO recommendations and articles.

Build Your Website for SEO

1. Quality Web Hosting

Choose a good web hosting company. It will help with page speed and server response time – both important SEO ranking factors. I have used Bluehost on all my client web projects for over 10 years. I highly recommend them.

2. Build Your Own Blog

While services like Squarespace and Weebly make it easy to start your blog because you aren’t hosting your own website your Google ranking and organic website traffic will be limited. With companies like Bluehost, it’s super easy to set up your domain, hosting, and templates.

3. Focus on a Niche

I recommend focusing on 1-2 niches on your blog, but no more. If you write about too many things then your SEO potential will be limited. Google likes to establish themes around your blog and then you can rank for a bunch of topics around that theme. (Ex. personal finance). If you want your blog to be about all areas of your life, that’s awesome, but your posts likely won’t rank as high as a blog focused on 1-2 topics.

4. Choose a Keyword-Rich Domain

Choose a keyword-rich domain name for your blog niche. Typically the shorter the domain the better. Not only are shorter domains easier to brand, but they are also often more memorable and lead to higher direct traffic (users typing into browser bars like Google Chrome).

Also, always try to buy the .com domain – which has the greatest global ranking potential. It’s worth paying extra for the .com and even buying it on the off-market. A high-quality domain is a great investment.

5. Purchasing a Domain

Most domains at companies like Bluehost start at $12, but investing in website domains has gotten a lot more popular over the past few years. Many high-quality domains will cost you between $500 – $2,500 and are always a good investment in your blog. It’s important to invest in your brand and if you put down the money you are also more likely to stick with blogging.

6. WWW vs. non-WWW

As you can see, I don’t use a www purely because I think it looks cleaner in the browser bar. While I almost always recommend not using www,  it has no impact on SEO.

Just make sure that you are consistent and don’t change it! If you do then make sure you 301 redirect all of your old links to the new links.

7. Which CMS is Best

While a lot of content management systems (CMS)’s have SEO ranking potential, I consistently see blogs on WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla rank higher. They also have the best plugins.

The primary reason is that the open-source codebases are updated consistently to support higher-ranking blogs and better security. Getting hacked can destroy your organic search rankings which can take 6+ months to recover.

9. Sub-domain vs. Sub-Directory

In other words, (seo.millennialmoney.com) vs. (millennialmoney.com/seo).

Which has the best SEO potential? If you are launching a new area of your website you should launch it on a sub-domain if you want Google to view it as its own website (with its own XML sitemap) and on a sub-directory if you want it to increase the search rankings of your core website. Both have unique SEO potential based on your specific blog ranking goals.

10. HTTP vs. HTTPs

Google rewards secure websites and HTTPS is a positive ranking factor. I consistently see HTTPS sites ranking higher. You need to buy an SSL certificate from your hosting provider to make this happen.

All of my websites are HTTPS. If you do change your website to HTTPS make sure you 301 re-direct all of the old HTTP domains to the new ones (kind of a pain, but very important).

Here’s a great switching to HTTPS guide.

11. Use a Theme That is Set Up for SEO

Use a theme set-up well for SEO. This means that the code is technically sound, it has all of the elements (footer, categories, etc.) for strong building a strong SEO foundation, and the core elements load fast. A lot of themes that I see bloggers using aren’t coded well for SEO. This is why it is a good idea to buy a premium theme and analyze it’s SEO components (which most good themes will highlight). Some of my favorite SEO WordPress themes are Personal Blog, SimpleMag, and Jarida.

Premium Themes

A lot of bloggers use free themes, but it is almost always better to pay for a premium theme. They are also easy to upload to almost any hosting company. The long term traffic ROI on your $50-$60 for the theme will be worth it. A premium theme is one of the best investments you can make.

Not only do most premium themes have more SEO potential, but they also get updated frequently. Check out the world’s largest theme website Themeforest.

12. Quality User Experience

Google is getting better at reading blogs as people do and the better the experience the higher your ranking potential. A beautiful easy to use and navigate website will always rank better than a poorly designed website.

This is another case for getting a premium theme. Check out all of the awesome user experience themes on Themeforest.

13. Mobile/Responsive

Google announced they will be adjusting their index to be “Mobile First,” which means that they will rank your blog based on the mobile experience (not the desktop one!). This is a huge development given that approximately 50%+ of all global searches are now done on mobile devices.

Your website needs to be optimized and fast on mobile devices. Only use high-quality responsive themes that have a great built-in user experience. Keep an eye on your mobile-specific traffic in Google Analytics, as well as your mobile index in Google Search Console. Evaluate your mobile user experience using the new Google Mobile Experience tool.

Mobile Friendly Google Test
Mobile Friendly Google Test – Run this for your blog.

14. Permalink Structure

The best structure for your blog links is “yourdomain.com/post-title” and can be changed in most themes. Don’t use the date or categories in your URL. A simpler structure will almost always rank better. If you have already started your blog with a different permalink structure, it might be worth changing and 301 re-directing all of your old posts to a simpler structure.

Take Advantage of  Free SEO Tools and Plugins

15. Google Analytics

It’s free to use. You should always have Google Analytics on your website, in fact, Google likely uses your Google Analytics data to rank your website (even though they say they don’t). A vast majority of the top-ranked websites use Google Analytics.

Here is a great Google Analytics set-up guide.

16. Google Search Console

Set up a Google Search Console Account. It’s free and will help you track the impact of your SEO efforts. It will also show you backlinks to your website, as well as if Google are having any problems crawling your website. Once you set it up then connect Google Search Console to Google Analytics.

For help, check out this Google Search Console set-up guide.

17. Check how your blog is indexed in Google

It’s super easy to see which pages from your blog Google has indexed. Just go to Google and type in “site:your-domain-name” in the search box. It will show you all of the pages that Google has for you in their search engine. You can also do this for your competitors to see which pages are ranking.

18. Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing is growing its market share and webmaster tools offer similar insights to Google Search Console, but for Bing. It has a lot of cool features and shows you the keywords that you are ranking for. Sign up for a free Bing Webmaster Tools account. Here’s a great guide on setting up Bing Webmaster Tools.

19. Best SEO Plugin

If you use WordPress or Drupal use the free Yoast SEO plugin. It’s by far the best. In my opinion, the premium Yoast plugin isn’t worth it. All you need is the free version.

20. Best Security Plugin

If your website gets hacked most hackers put malicious links somewhere on your website in a directory that will probably be hard to find. If you use WordPress then I strongly recommend using the free version of Wordfence. It’s the best security plugin out there and will help you from getting hacked and your SEO destroyed. Here is a great Wordfence set-up guide.

21. Page Speed

The speed of your website is a highly weighted ranking factor. Google wants to show fast loading blogs because they create a better experience for the user/searchers. I always recommend working until your blog pages load less than 1 second. The faster the better. Check your page speed using Googles free page speed insights tool.

22. Browser Caching Plugin

One of the best ways to increase the speed of your website is to use a browser caching plugin. It pre-loads certain elements of your blog pages, so they don’t have to reload every time. The best free plugin is W3 Total Cache. Here is a great W3 Total Cache set-up guide.

23. Submit To Global Search Engines

There are many more search engines than Google and Bing around the world. Manually submit your website to them so they know you exist and start crawling your website. Here is a list of global search engines where you can submit your blog.

Perform Keyword and Competitor SEO Research

24. Keyword Research

Use Google Keyword planner (you have to set up an Adwords account, but can use the tool for free). Google crawls keywords and links, so it’s especially important to write keyword-rich content. To do this well, use Google Keyword Planner to research how many people are searching for keywords related to the topic you are blogging about. Here is an awesome guide to keyword research.

25. Short Tail vs. Long Tail Keywords

It is always easier to rank for longer tail (3+ keywords) phrases than shorter phrases. A lot of bloggers pick keywords that are too short, too competitive, and too general. It is often easiest to rank for keywords with between 500 – 3,000 keyword searches per month.

Over time as your blog gets traction, you will have a better shot at ranking for the shorter more competitive keywords.

To learn more, read this article on why a long tail SEO keyword strategy is valuable.

26. Competitor Research

The best way to get more traffic is to analyze how the top-ranking blogs in your niche are getting traffic and copy their strategies. In order to conduct competitor research you really need to pay for a tool.

These are the best SEO tools on the market and once you have mastered the fundamentals you should check them out: SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz. I personally use all of these tools frequently.

Use Meta Data to Improve SEO

27. Main Navigation Menu:

It’s important to have keyword rich menu tabs and they should be representative of the primary focus keywords of your entire blog. Google can easily crawl your menu, so you should link to the main topics that you cover on your blog. Always include BOTH an About and Contact page in your menu, as well as 3-6 other keyword topically rich menu items. Don’t overstuff your menu.

28. Secondary Navigation Menu

If your theme has a secondary menu then you should start using it once you have enough content. Google can crawl both menus and it’s shown that blogs with two navigation menus get higher keyword rankings. For your secondary navigation menu (also known as the top menu), you ideally should highlight your most valuable post content OR posts on a secondary topic.

29. Footer

Your FOOTER is your secret SEO weapon and most bloggers don’t use it their full advantage. This is an opportunity to place content and internal links that will be shown on every page of your website. Always include a 100-250 word description of your website in one of the widget areas. Take advantage of your footer widget areas that your theme should have. Take a look at how my footer is built below.

30. RSS Feed

Google can crawl RSS feeds and own Feedburner, so it is strongly recommended that you set up a Feedburner feed for your blog. While other services like Feedly are growing in popularity (it’s what I use), Feedburner is crawlable and allows readers to subscribe to your blog with their own RSS reader. Sign up for your own RSS Feeedburner account.

31. Links on Your Homepage

A lot of blogs have way too many links on their homepage. This can appear spammy to Google. You should have less than 75 links on your homepage – which includes counting all links. So your menu, links to posts, links to categories, links to tags, links to advertisers, links to pages, and links to your social accounts. You can use Screaming Frog to crawl your blog to determine how many external links are on your homepage or use the Free HREF Google Chrome Link checker extension.

32. Display and Text Ads

Having ads on your website won’t help you with SEO, but they can really hurt you. A lot of blogs that I analyze have too many displays and/or text ads on their pages and posts. If you have too many ads on your post then Google might view them as spammy or at the very least a poor experience for the visitors. User experience and SEO are so intimately related, so take a fresh look at your website and think “Is this too many ads?” Ask a few friends, if they say it’s too much it probably is too much. In-line text ads are particularly annoying and I recommend against them generally. The best practice is to include no more than 3 ads on your sidebar, and no more than 2 ads in your posts. Try to avoid pop-up ads at all times if possible.

33. Popups

While it’s generally fine for SEO to include a pop-up to get newsletter subscribers, Google recently announced that they are going to start penalizing some websites with mobile pop-ups and generally dislike all mobile pop-ups. If your website has a lot of pop-ups then remove them and make all pop-ups easy and quick to click away from. One thing to keep a close eye on is your bounce-rates in Google Analytics (the number of people who leave your website after visiting just 1 page). If your bounce rates increase on your pop-up pages then you should probably remove them. If you want to be super safe, then I would recommend staying away from pop-ups completely to maximize your SEO potential.

34. High-Quality Content:

Think about the reader you want on your website. Why they would want to read your post? Most Google queries are questions – so answer the reader’s question the best you can. For example, you write a post titled “How to save $1,000”, you need to give the reader AS MUCH value as possible. The more value and answers you give the more traffic you will get. Google rewards relevancy and people who answer questions better than someone else. This is how you pick your target keywords.

35. URLs

Keep your URLs short and keyword-rich. A lot of blogs I see have URLs that are too long. Matt Cutts who is THE SEO guru at Google recommends using a maximum of 3-5 words in your URLs. I also recommend keeping them between 30-50 characters. Here’s an awesome guide on the correlation between URL lengths and rankings from Neil Patel.

36. Post and Page Titles

Your post titles impact your click-through rates (CTR) and your CTRs impact your search rankings. Try to make your post titles more each catchy. Post titles should be between 30-65 characters and also include your target keyword. A lot of blogs that I analyze have post titles that are too long. Using Screaming Frog will help you analyze all of your post title lengths. Here’s a great video on crafting high ranking post titles.

37. Meta Descriptions

While not a ranking factor on Google, meta-descriptions do impact click through rates. All of your posts should have custom meta-descriptions. If you use Yoast then you should customize them below each post. Don’t just let Google pick your meta-description for you. Write a clear description of what the post is about and the key takeaways. Well written meta-descriptions have been statistically proven to increase click-through rates and traffic. Check out this guide on writing effective meta descriptions.

38. Meta Keywords

While no longer a Google ranking factor due to the high prevalence of spam, other global search engines still take meta-keywords into account. Meta keywords should align with your target keywords and is particularly important for bloggers outside the United States. You can turn on meta keywords in the Yoast plugin and I recommend you use them.

39. Post Length

Write at least one 2,000+ post per month, then all other posts in the 500-1,200 word range. Longer posts typically rank better if the content is high quality and really relevant to a user’s search query. According to Backlinko the average Google first page result contains 1,890 words.

40. Post Frequency

Write posts as often as you can, but try to write a minimum of one post per week. There is a lot of debate on this topic and the general theory is that you should write as many posts as you can keep up writing consistently. Consistent posting and “fresh content” have been shown to have a positive impact on SEO rankings.

41. Table of Contents

In long posts always include a table of contents like I do in this post. Including a table of contents will not only help readers find the content that is most relevant to them, it’s also valuable for Google indexing the content on your longer posts. I personally have used the following Table of Contents WordPress plugin.

42. Images

Posts with images rank better than posts without. Although Google can’t crawl images they can see where images are and like to see them in posts. Typically it is recommended that you include at least 1-3 images per post depending on the length.

43. Image Sizes

One of the biggest reasons for a slow website is images that are too large and take too long to load. Resize your images before uploading and make sure the file sizes are ideally under 1.5 MB.

44. Image Alt Tags

Even though Google can’t crawl images they can crawl image alt tags. Always include your target keyword from your post in the image name and Alt Tag. Don’t upload any images without including this information.

45. Image Descriptions

Google, in fact, can crawl image descriptions so be clear what the images is of and this will not only help your posts, but get your images ranked in Google images.

46. Video

Adding video to a post will only help its ranking potential. Google is continually rewarding websites that have dynamic content that is relevant. You don’t have to create your own video to embed, you can easily go on YouTube (owned by Google) and find a video to embed on your topic. A lot of bloggers don’t embed video and it’s a missed opportunity to engage visitors and impact your page rankings.

47. Video Sitemap

If you are adding videos to your website from YouTube then you should include a video sitemap in addition to your regular .XML sitemap. If video is a key component of your blog and blog strategy then I recommend that you buy the premium Yoast Video Sitemap plugin.

48. Video Transcriptions

For your own videos, a great way to get your videos to rank is to write out full transcriptions of them as their own separate posts on your blog. When you upload the video to YouTube you can actually get the video transcribed for free and then edit the file for accuracy. Then you can cut and past the transcript from the Youtube video into its own post. Check out this Lifehacker post on YouTube transcriptions.

Organize with Blog Categories and Tags

49. Categories

Always build a list of high-quality keyword categories to your blog. These should be the topics that you plan on writing about most often. It is typically a best practice to have at least 10-25 categories on your blog. But not more than 30. If you have too many categories it actually will end up confusing Google. (Category examples: Investing, Retirement, Student Loans)

50. List of Categories

Add a list of your categories to your sidebar AND your footer if possible. These are important internal links and you want to make sure both users and Google can find them easily.

51. Tags

Tags are different than categories and you should use them to tag very specific ideas, companies, or products that you write about. Do not repeat your categories as tags on any posts! Use this opportunity to highlight something more specific. (Tag examples: Motif Investing, Vanguard IRA, Domain Auctions)

52. Most Popular Tag Lists

Every theme doesn’t have this option, but it’s a great one for SEO. If you can show your top 20 tags in your footer and/or sidebar than this creates another entry point for Google when crawling your content.

 

53. H1 Tags

Every post should have a unique H1. This tells Google this is the most important topic on the page. Use it wisely. You only want one H1 on a page. I see themes that have H1s coded incorrectly as the page title or blog title. Check your code to make sure your H1 is in your post. If not, higher someone to fix it.

54. H2 Tags

Every post should have at least one H2 tag, but you can have more than one. These are the second most important topics in your post.

55. H3, H4, H5 Tags

While not as important as H1 and H2, the other header tags are crawled differently (given ranking priority) over paragraph text, so I recommend you use them whenever you can. They also make your posts easier to read.

Build Internal, External, and Affiliate Links

56. Internal Links

All of your posts should have at least 2-3 links to other posts you have written. But make them natural and don’t overdo it. Except on your about page, where it’s natural to link through to a bunch of your posts. Always try to use keyword-rich anchor text (the words you hyperlink). Linking your posts creates more ways for readers and Google to engage with your website. Here’s some more detailed advice on internal link strategies and best practices. You can also use SEMRush to analyze your internal links for free.

57. External Links

Google establishes relevancy through links, so you also should link to other websites and blog posts about your topic. Don’t be afraid to even link to your competitors – because linking to them actually associates you with them and their topics to Google. It’s a best practice to include between 1-4 links per typically blog post.

Obviously, for longer posts (like this one!) you should use as many external links as help support your post and topic. Other blogs and websites can actually see when you link to them and might even return the favor.

Find out more about how external links approve your ranking authority.

58. Sidebar Links

Don’t overkill the links in your sidebar. I typically recommend no more than 30 external and internal links in any sidebar. Some blogs have 100+ and to Google, this can look spammy. Only link to the most relevant content to a website visitor. Keep an eye on what visitors click on using Google Analytics’ in-page analytics feature.

59. Affiliate Links

A lot of bloggers, including me, use affiliate links to monetize their blogs. Google doesn’t frown on affiliate links – except when you have either way too many on a page or they are un-natural. For example, I recently analyzed a blog that had 20+ affiliate links in a list on their sidebar. That will be viewed as spam by Google. As long as you naturally use affiliate links in your content they shouldn’t have a negative impact on your SEO.

To learn more check out what Google says about affiliate links and SEO.

60. Affiliate Link Cloaking

Link cloaking is fine for SEO. A lot of affiliates cloak their links, which technically creates a URL on your own domain that then 301 re-directs to your affiliate link. This is telling Google that your link has permanently moved to another link, which is a best practice. I also recommend that you no-follow all of your affiliate links, so they don’t get indexed with your website. I use the free Easy Affiliate Links plugin to manage my affiliate links and it works well.

61. Backlink Building

Google passes authority through the links to your website. Because of this, some bloggers try to game the system. Never buy backlinks from anyone. I have seen too many bloggers that have gone to Fiverr or other websites and purchased backlinks or backlink building services. In 99% of the cases, it doesn’t work and when it does, the blog ends up getting penalized for link building from low-quality websites. Once your website gets penalized by Google it will take a long time to recover, if your organic rankings even recover at all. Buying links is not worth the risk. Some services allow you to rent links, but I don’t recommend this either. Build links naturally. As long as you are creating high-quality high-value content and reaching out to other bloggers your backlinks will grow naturally. Google’s algorithm is insanely sophisticated – you can’t game it.

 

Social Media and Other SEO Tips

62. Social Sharing Plugins

Social proof is important for SEO, but a lot of social sharing plugins are way too slow for your blog and will cause too many errors. I recommend that you use the Google page speed tool and if your website gets below an 80/100 then you should take a hard look at your social sharing plugins. The social sharing plugin I use and recommend (and is the fastest I have tested) is Easy Social Share Buttons. It’s worth paying for a high-quality social plugin – most are inexpensive.

63. Google Plus Integration

Very few people use Google Plus (evidently it’s popular in India?), but it’s a powerful SEO tool. The biggest two reasons – sharing a link on Google+ creates a backlink from Google to the post and I personally find that my posts get indexed by Google faster when I share them on Google+. So sign up for a free Google+ business account (different than personal) for your blog and start sharing.

64. Contact Page:

The content on your contact page is an SEO secret that most bloggers don’t take advantage of when they should. It is always best to have an address on your contact page, even if it’s a P.O. Box that you set up at your local post office. If you can include a phone number, then even better. Google wants to verify that there is a physical location behind your blog. If you have a physical address take the next step and embed a Google map on your contact page. This will help with your local search rankings.

65. Share Every Post on Twitter

Google has an indexing relationship with Twitter, so Google actually crawls Tweets and the links within those tweets. There have been studies done that show how links that get tweeted more end up ranking higher. So share every post you have on Twitter and encourage others to share your posts as well.

SEO for the Win!

Phew. Congratulations if you made it to the end of this nearly 5,000+ word post! I will continue to add to this over time.

If you have any questions let me know below in the comments and I will do my best to help answer your question or point you in the right direction. Sign up for my SEO newsletter below where I share high-quality SEO tips and cool SEO ideas. There’s no real schedule to my emails – but I can assure you that they will help you with your SEO.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read Comments

  • Comment Author image blank
    Agreed. It is so insane how much the cost for B2B Leads from Facebook and Google has gotten. I started using a company called MaaOs.com. They Sell custom B2B Leads and Guarentee like 15 of your leads wil scheudle an appointment to talk. They give 100 free leads out as well MaaOs.com
  • Comment Author image blank
    Hi Grant, thank you very much for putting this gigantic list together! Took me a few days to read through them, but I have found the tips to be very helpful. I do have one question for 65. Google Plus Integration. It seems like Google + business account has been shut down by Google. Is there an alternative? Thanks a lot! Bella
  • Comment Author image blank
    So much great information - thanks, Grant!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Tips are great. I just wish it was longer as my SEO knowledge is rather poor and some more reading will definitely help me.
  • Comment Author image blank
    I haven't started a blog, and don't know if I will. Regardless, I want you to know that I found your tips very informative, well organized, and overwhelming! Considering that I come from a high tech background, have written for tech publications, and written ad material, there is far more about self-publishing that I did not know, and didn't think I would ever care to know. Keep at it, you done good!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thank you. These are great tips that will help me get noticed as I am starting a blog.
  • Comment Author image blank
    […] I’d highly recommend bookmarking THIS page: 67 BEST SEO TIPS FOR BLOGGERS. I learned an incredible amount of useful info from this post alone in my SEO exploration. If you […]
  • Comment Author image blank
    So helpful Grant, thank you so much. I am implementing a lot of your tips as we speak!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Worth reading! Thanks Grant for sharing, this is very informative and helpful article. They should implement this SEO tips.. :)
  • Comment Author image blank
    […] or responsive theme for WordPress. According to an article from Grant Sabatier found on Millennial Money, “Your website needs to be optimized and fast on mobile devices. Only use high-quality, […]
  • Comment Author image blank
    […] make it easy to find with high-quality SEO […]
  • Comment Author image blank
    Wow I was really blown away by this amount of valuable tips and advice in your blog post as I’m on the point of taking a jump in the blogging world. Can you please tell me how much blog post I should start with in my first month? I read some say write 1-2 articles per week and some say write 30 posts in the first month and then work on the seo. Thanks for your input.
  • Comment Author image blank
    This was tremendously helpful, thank you so much! I started last month and I'm brand new to the blogging world. I made a lot of silly mistakes, for example, I published my first post before I published my website. (I know... my marketing friends had a good laugh at that too) I've been following your money posts for a while and I'm very familiar with your story. Since I started a blog last month though this is like a brand new website for me now and I'm reading all your blogging posts. I went and checked off all 67 SEO tactics on this list, I kept the WWW out of my site too, only becuase I couldn't figure out how to add it. The SSL was tricky.,I did not realize how important it was. Thank you again for publishing this!
    • Grant Sabatier
      You're welcome Sarala
  • Comment Author image blank
    Can you show us how to manually submit our website to other search engines like Bing? Thank you!
  • Comment Author image blank
    I came to your site and have analyzed your post. There are excellent details you posted here. I enjoyed reading your blog, and it is both instructional and enjoyable.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for this valuable information. Bloggers should know that Seo is almost based on relevancy. We should select those relevant keywords who can rich the content directly.
  • Comment Author image blank
    For SEO success in 2019, eliminating technical problems from your website should be a priority. The most common technical fixes include demoting and de-indexing useless pages, adding rich testimonials and sentiments, replacing old meta data with new ones, adding local caps to site links, optimizing your site’s review management process, and maximizing presence in local directories
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thankyou Grant. you gave us valuable information. without creating the best and relevant keywords according to the our website, we can't score good. Also we must check up those websites thoroughly on which we provide our website links, its is important. really appreciate your information, Glad to read.
  • Comment Author image blank
    hey Grant Thanks alot for this great post. There is soo much to gain from this post. Love that you included so many plugins that you personally use. I will definately be coming back and slowly implementing more and more tips. Thanks again Grant
  • Comment Author image blank
    Reading this in October of 2018 and there is still so much valuable information to be found. Thanks Grant! I never knew that Twitter and Google even had an indexing relationship, but that is useful to know....every post I publish is definitely getting pinned as soon as the post goes live.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Businesses should use 2018 to break the bad habit of viewing aspects of an SEO marketing strategy[1] as a one-time exercise. Too often, some companies optimize a website page and never adjust it. Please, ignore anyone who tells you that SEO is a dark art, because the reality is rather simple. SEO is accessible, easy to learn, fun to execute and far from a mystery. We’re marketing, to people online. It’s a balance of technical and marketing discipline that, when working well together can be an extremely powerful and cost efficient promotion. I learnt this skill inside out over the past decade, it’s also the reason I can work from anywhere in the world. It’s the single most effective marketing method in my personal opinion. You are giving people exactly what they are searching for, when they need it.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Grant, this is an awesome post! Thanks for your brief introduction to SEO upgrades. Will definitely implement most of them!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Love the comment about word length. It can sometimes be tricky to cater to your readers and the search engines. You posed a nice solution for that. One thing that helps me is linking back out to my previously-posted articles that dive deeper into a subject that I only touched on in my current article!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Hi Grant, thank for writing this guide. Anyone running a blog should read this piece definitely.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Posting weekly blog is good but I think daily blog would be a nice approach..
  • Comment Author image blank
    Great article and great site Grant, lots of great content! I am inspired to get back into blogging again (in my case VR) now the tech is more interesting again.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Wonderful list! This is an informative and valuable article to read. We just could not stop learning. This post was so helpful. I even bookmarked it so I can revisit all the tips on a weekly basis. Thank you for this valuable information I really enjoyed the article from the start, thank you again
  • Comment Author image blank
    Glad you shared this, Grant. If memory serves, didn't you teach yourself the bulk of this from YouTube videos? Crazy how far you've come from then, eh?
  • Comment Author image blank
    Great post, Grant! Thanks for all the tips!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Whew, this is a lot to take in but I'm glad you made this post! I've got a lot to do now..
  • Comment Author image blank
    Nice post, This is really what i was looking for, Amazing techniques you listed. Thanks
  • Comment Author image blank
    Wonderful list! I love how you structured the blog post, the sub headings are en point! One place where people don't realize they can get great SEO is Pinterest. Pins and board show up in Google results. I love Pinterest SEO. Will share this on Pinterest.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for creating this guide! It is extremely helpful for new bloggers like myself.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Hey, This is an informative and valuable article to read. Thanks for sharing it. I totally learned to write an SEO friendly post for my blog.
  • Comment Author image blank
    I just love the way you explained the points . Even a complete newbie shouldn’t find it difficult implementing these SEO strategies. I am glad I stumbled on this. Thanks for sharing
  • Comment Author image blank
    Looks like I do have a lot of work to do based on this post. We just could not stop learning. Thank you for this valuable information.
  • Comment Author image blank
    This post was so helpful. I even bookmarked it so I can revisit all the tips on a weekly basis. I have so much SEO work to do on my site after reading all your tips. Thanks for sharing!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for posting this! We hired a new sales guy at my agency and he was asking for some good resources to study up on SEO. For a money blog, this is some outstanding writing on SEO, and it compares to something you’d read on Moz or SEMrush. Definitely sharing your blog with our new employee tomorrow. Thanks for helping me get him spun up on selling SEO.
    • Grant Sabatier
      Nice. Glad I could help.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thank you for all this info! Sharing it with all my blogger friends. SEO is always something we are talking about, it's a unicorn. I had a quick question about H1, so they should be different than the Post Title? Should it be the first header in a post? If the post title shouldn't be H1 then what should it be? Thanks again! Justine @ The Iridescent Wings
  • Comment Author image blank
    Just heard you on Pete’s podcast and signed up to get more SEO tips on your email list. So glad I came across your info. . I have so much to learn with SEO. I feel like I’ve done everything wrong in the last 8 months of blogging. Thanks!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Hello Grant, your blog is extremely helpful to me. I'm new in this field and I'm still learning. I always do keep on reading the articles related blogging and SEO to get more information and your blog is being very useful for me as well as for those who don't know more about blogging and doing SEO. Thanks again for sharing this informative blog post with us.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thank you!!! This was an amazing post Grant. SO much value. I also went through all the discussion on the Rockstar Forums from late 2016 -- that was so generous of you to give all that direct feedback to bloggers. Luckily I have just recently launched my blog so I can implement all these actionable tips without having to be pulling my hair out going through years of content. -Scott
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for explaining it in very detailed manner, i really enjoyed the article from the start, thank you so much
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for creating this guide! It is extremely helpful for new bloggers like myself.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Hey Grant, thanks for the blog. It's really very useful and all are really very awesome tips for increasing SEO rank. Keep me updating
  • Comment Author image blank
    Wow! My head may explode from all this (very awesome!) information. :) I just recently started my first blog and have been working hard to implement many of these already. I've bookmarked the ones I still need to work on as action items. Thank you so much for the expertise shown in this article and your willingness to share it! Best, Emily
  • Comment Author image blank
    Great post Grant! Super informative. Definitely going to bookmark it for future reference. Looking forward to reading more from you.
    • Grant Sabatier
      Thanks Richard
  • Comment Author image blank
    Wonderful tips! I just recently launched my blog on wordpress then signed up for bluehost only to find out i can transfer my domain for 50 days! ): So upsetting but I plan to have the new page all set up for a good launch. will definitely be utilizing your tips!
    • Grant Sabatier
      Thanks Ashley
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for giving some tips to bloggers about SEO. It was interesting to learn more about H1 tags, and that it's important to make sure that it's being used properly. To me, it definitely sounds beneficial to do some intensive learning about HTML coding, or at least getting someone who understands. After all, it's the very framework of the internet. Not only that, but it could be worthwhile to research and learn about some good examples that utilize good code compared to those that don't.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks a lot for sharing all your great advice. Especially for a new blogger this is really valuable and helpful information.
    • Grant Sabatier
      Happy to help.
  • Comment Author image blank
    This was a really helpful read, especially as my friends and I ramp up our own blog. Thanks for taking the time to put this list together, Grant!
    • Grant Sabatier
      For sure Kyle. Glad you found it helpful.
  • Comment Author image blank
    This is a very helpful, post! Thanks for the easy-to-read information!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Grant, do you use any plugins (or Yoast add-ons) in addition to Yoast SEO? Is Yoast SEO all you use for your site? (Sorry I screwed up the comment author box, I see how it works now)
    • Grant Sabatier
      For SEO, Yoast is all I use. I also use an image compression plugin that helps with site speed EWWWW image optimizer.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for posting this! We hired a new sales guy at my agency and he was asking for some good resources to study up on SEO. For a money blog, this is some outstanding writing on SEO, and it compares to something you'd read on Moz or SEMrush. Definitely sharing your blog with our new employee tomorrow. Thanks for helping me get him spun up on selling SEO.
    • Grant Sabatier
      Nice. Thanks Blake!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Great work ! found so many useful information and tips at one place. Learn about SEO much more now . Thanks for sharing these valuable tips . Keep sharing ,.
  • Comment Author image blank
    I would definitely look into my site and apply everything u said. Hopefully I get them right coz right now, google adsense hasn't been a good help. It won't show on my site. I'm using wordpress and free themes
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thank you so much! Totally awesome. So you have any tips for compressing large photos so that the quality isn't diminished too much?
    • Comment Author image blank
      EWWW Image optimizer is what I use.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Amazing post Grant! Thanks for putting all this great info in one place. Now to create a script that does all of it with the click of a button!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Holy GOLD! Can't explain how awesome this article is. Thank you very much for being willing to share it. Looking forward to implementing these and seeing our traffic continue to grow. Your an inspiration!
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks!
  • Comment Author image blank
    I have a second question - sorry for commenting twice! I noticed your author bio consists of keywords separated by a |. Any more information on that technique?
    • Comment Author image blank
      Oh I need to re-write that. There is no SEO reason for it, but placing keywords in your bio can be useful since they are on every page - as long as they are natural. Putting a link to your about page in the author bio is useful as well.
  • Comment Author image blank
    I thought I read that Neil Patel recommended leaving the post date in the URL? Woops! Thanks for sharing this list. I've bookmarked it and will be working on my SEO this year!
    • Comment Author image blank
      No way Neil said that! Haha. It only makes sense if you want to get on Google News and are a news site, but for everyone else it's just wasted (and quickly dated) space in a URL. It can be useful if you are churning out a ton of content daily, but what makes more sense is to ensure there is a time stamp within each post that Google can see. All good though if you have them, it's probably not worth switching your entire blog. Thanks Julie.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Grant, this is a fantastic list of easy-to-follow, actionable SEO tips. I love it! Also, thank you for linking to my Wordfence tutorial. Much appreciated.
    • Comment Author image blank
      No prob Matt. Thanks for stopping by.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Grant, Thanks for this, I've just switched themes and will now use the information you've provided here to go through my site piece by piece. Thanks for all the work you have done over at RSF; great tips there as well.
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks FrualFox. Happy to help. I love your new theme. HotelsandMoney looks great!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Nice write up, dude! I was planning to do some keyword research. You laid out some great places to get started on that, and more!
    • Comment Author image blank
      Nice. Thanks Mr Crazy Kicks. SEO4Life
  • Comment Author image blank
    Wonderful and informative post Grant! Truly a life saver and makes it easier for a lot of bloggers who are looking to improve their SEO. Thanks a lot!
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks TirelessWorker. SEO can generate massive traffic gains - just takes a little bit of investment. Happy to make it easier for everyone to understand and implement.
  • Comment Author image blank
    I don't know why I wasn't using tags on my posts before now. Thank you for pointing that out. I've already started adding them to all my prior posts. Also, thanks for the recommendation on Wordfence. And the footer upgrades are on my to do list!
    • Comment Author image blank
      Nice! Footers = SEO power! Thanks for stopping by Kimberly.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for this! I'm just getting started and this will help tremendously. I love that you didn't mention Google Ad Words or other paid marketing tools. That money is better spent in your Roth.
    • Comment Author image blank
      I agree More Capital! The best thing about SEO is all it requires is good content and good optimization. Then occasional tweaking, but the traffic is free. It's the highest ROI digital marketing I've found! Thanks for stopping by and best of luck with your blog!
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks so much for this as well as the detailed feedback in the RSF. Mr. Groovy and I have a date on Tuesday afternoon to implement what we can right now. We really appreciate your generosity.
    • Comment Author image blank
      Nice! Couples SEO date. I love it
  • Comment Author image blank
    This is completely awesome. Everything you need to know about SEO but were afraid to ask, or something like that. I've started implementing as many of these as I can figure out. Also, thanks again for the recommendations you shared with me on the RSF forum. I've started making the necessary changes and I've seen search traffic increase already. Cheers! -PoF
    • Comment Author image blank
      Nice! Happy to help.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Thanks for taking the time to write and share this post - it was very informative and useful. SEO, to me, is a necessary evil. I don't like it, I don't enjoy working on it, but I know I need to so I'll begrudgingly do so, and your post will be my blueprint for the 30 minutes I spend on this stuff each week.
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks Ty. Happy to help. 30 minutes is more than enough time per week. After a few months you'll have knocked all of this out and SEO will be just another part of your routine.
  • Comment Author image blank
    SO much incredible information Grant. Thanks for doing this - especially for some of us who haven't had experience at all. This is a great way to "give back" to the PF community!
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks Vicki. PFBlogger4Life
  • Comment Author image blank
    Grant, Thank you so much for this post. I got so much value from just a first read. I was able to tweak several things during the reading of the article that will help me. I also read some uncomfortable truths about stuff I am doing wrong and will need to improve. I have bookmarked and will utilize heavily as I move forward and learn. You rock! Cheers, Paulie
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks Paulie.
  • Comment Author image blank
    Amazing post! Thanks for putting this altogether. My organic search traffic has finally begun to steadily increase since switching to Yoast. I've still got a lot of things to improve upon though. I've got this post scheduled to be shared on Facebook and Twitter, and it's also favourited so I can refer back to it.
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks Graham. I appreciate the comments! Happy to help and appreciate the share.
  • Comment Author image blank
    This is FANTASTIC!!! I just read through this whole article and each tip and made notes on everything I need to do to "fix" my site. I have a lot of work ahead of me! :-) Thanks so much for putting this together!! -- Jim
    • Comment Author image blank
      Thanks Jim. Happy to help and thanks for stopping by. I love your blog BTW.