7 Highly Effective Tips to Maximize Your Organic Blog Traffic
That helped me gain 2M+ impressions on Google.
Have you been asking this question for yourself — Why isn’t my blog getting any traffic from Google?
If so, there might be some problem with your SEO that you have failed to notice.
Most new bloggers are of the thought that creating engaging content with valuable information is all they need to rank their blog on Google.
Trust me, if that’s what you are thinking, you are making a huge mistake!
I had the same thought when I first started blogging. I would write engaging content and think, “This is what people would love to read" and hit publish.
What’s SEO? I never knew.
When I finally figured out SEO and learned how to rank my blog on Google, I started gaining a decent amount of traffic.
Now, when I am no more writing blogs, my stats stand at 2M+ impressions and 100K+ clicks on Google. And all of it is organic. No paid clicks.
If you want to repeat the same success, listen to me what I am going to say.
You might have heard that SEO is of two parts — On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.
On-page SEO involves front work like using relevant keywords, optimizing page load speed, title tags, etc. Off-page SEO involves background work like link building, guest posting, social networking, etc.
Both are completely different and need separate space to be discussed. So here, I’ll only discuss on-page SEO. It is the most important and doable part (compared to off-page SEO).
Let’s get started.
1. Define your headings and subheadings clearly
When writing a blog post, you would want Google to understand it as clearly as it can. To ensure that, you have to take care of a few things.
The first part is to define your headings and subheadings.
Google crawlers look for keywords that your blog relates to. For example, say you have written a blog on “How to lose weight” which is your exact keyword. Here, crawlers will take the heading as H1 and the rest of the subheadings as H2, H3, H4, and so forth.
So you want to make sure the rest of the subheadings are given their tags.
When I was writing blogs in the beginning, I didn’t care about headings and subheadings. I would bold the subheadings and present them as H2 and H3 tags. But that never worked.
To let Google understand that it’s actually a subheading, you have to use the tag. And doing it is simple. Just like we do it here on Medium, it’s the same case with WordPress.
2. Use targeted keywords evenly
I don’t have to insist on using keywords as you all know they are the driving factor of giving more exposure to your blog. But you have to use those keywords without sounding weird.
Don’t stuff keywords!
You are writing for a human being. The reader is a human and not an AI.
Use your keyword at least once in the first paragraph and spread it evenly for the rest of the paragraphs.
If you are still having problems, use Yoast SEO (in case you are on WordPress) as it will guide you through every step you can take to improve your on-page SEO.
3. Keep URL slugs short
I guess you don’t know what URL slugs are.
They are basically URLs after your domain name. For example, say www.example.com/how-to-lose-weight is your main URL. The bolded text will be your URL slug.
Keep it short. Include your main keyword in it.
Write it like this: www.example.com/how-lose-weight
See, how did I do that?
A study has shown that the top 10 posts ranking on Google have short URL slugs compared to others. It is believed to be one of the ranking factors on Google.
You don’t have to add every word of your title in the URL slug. It’s because Google crawlers skip those stop words.
Stop words like at, to, than are skipped by the crawlers. They can’t read them. So they ignore them. You can save their time by removing those words from URL slugs.
I would suggest you do it only as long as it doesn’t change the meaning. If that happens, don’t bother removing the words. Keep it as it is.
You can check out the complete list of stop words here.
4. Use the compressed version of your images
Images are a vital part of your blog. They can convey messages without using words. Using a strong and attractive image increases the engagement on your blog and holds the visitor longer.
But you would also need to be sure these images don’t decrease your blog rankings because of their size. Large images take more seconds to load, which can impact the overall speed of your page.
The best way to deal with this problem is to use compressed images. You can do that by taking help from online compressor sites or by doing it yourself in Adobe Photoshop.
My advice: Don’t use PNG format as they are larger in size. Use progressive JPG as they are the best. Smaller in size without losing the quality.
5. Don’t forget Alt tags
Alt tags define the context of your image. Since Google crawlers can’t see your image, they would need something to read it.
Alt tags help them do so.
It becomes more beneficial if the alt tags include your main keyword.
So whenever you use an image for your bog, use a proper name that suits it well. For example, if an image is about horses, give it a proper alt tag: horses.jpg rather than 18X00.jpg.
6. Interlink your articles
Interlinking your articles not only improve the page views but also improves your on-page SEO.
It’s a positive sign to Google when you link multiple articles in your blog post. It builds trust that your site provides valuable information to visitors.
If you aren’t sure what posts to link, you can try Link Whisper, a WordPress plugin that recommends links according to the post you have written.
7. Add some external links too
Like internal links, external links also play an important role in your on-page SEO.
If you have taken any information from other sources, I would recommend you to add a link to them. Make sure the sources are authentic and trustworthy.
It gives a positive sign to Google that your sources are of high value and that your blog deserves to rank higher.
The Takeaway
On-page SEO will definitely help you to rank higher on Google. When I was getting regular traffic on my blog, my on-page SEO score was around 85 out of 100.
If you can maintain that score, you’ll have greater success in bringing quality traffic to your blog without depending on social media.
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