10 SEO guidelines for every blogger

Keeping up with changes in Google algorithms and best SEO practices can be a challenge for any blogger, pro or beginner. If you’re beginning your blogging journey my advice would be to focus on defining your blogs purpose and attracting an audience. This should be your priority. Then over time you will learn to develop and sharpen your SEO skills.

However, if you’re wanting to jump straight in and bypass all the notes you have added to your Pocket or Evernote to read later, there are 10 standard SEO guidelines you should be aware of and adhere to for every post you write.

1. Include your targeted keywords in your page title

Your page title should be unique within your website or blog. Be sure to include your targeted keyword or keywords when deciding on the title.

2. Use a meaningful permalink

Also referred to as a page-slug, your post’s permalink should be meaningful and include your targeted keywords just like your blogs post title. Be sure to use a dash to separate words and not an underscore.

3. Keep you post title under 70 characters

The simple reason for this is that Google only indexes the first 70 characters of your page or post title. Anything outside 70 characters won’t be shown in the search engine result.

4. Limit your meta description to less than 160 characters

Write a description that would both inform and interest users if they saw your description meta tag as a snippet in a search result. Be sure to write a custom meta description of needed and make it meaningful.

5. Use as heading tags throughout your post

A typical blog post will have the post title included in the page as a heading 1. When breaking up your blog post, be sure to use heading style tags from H2 to H5 where and when appropriate. This makes it easier for the user to scan your post and gain a quicker understanding of what the post is about.

6. Keep your word count above 300

A blog post should be as long as it needs to be to get the message across. A blog post of less than 300 words is seen to be less informative then one with a greater word count. If you do choose to elaborate on your topic, be sure to keep it relative and contextual..

7. Use your keywords in your post intro

Be sure to use your targeted keywords in the beginning of your blog post. Ensuring your targeted keywords are in the first 100 and last 100 words says to Google that the content backs up your keyword selection and is not off topic.

8. Anchor your links

Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link and is placed within the anchor tag. Make it descriptive and concise. The anchor text you use for a link should provide at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about.

9. Optimise your use of images

Ensure all your images have a unique, distinct and descriptive file name. Be sure to include ALT tags and descriptions on all your images and remember — if they don’t add value, don’t use them!

10. Use consistent page title naming conventions

The structure you choose when it comes to your page titles can vary however, choose one and stick with it. I would go with Google’s suggestion of:
[post title] — [blog name]

Using WordPress?

If you’re using WordPress to power your blog, the process on on-page SEO can be made a lot easier for you by using the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. I personally recommend this plugin to all my clients.