There are so many bloggers out there who struggle to get quality, targeted traffic to their websites. However, this is not uncommon because most people do not know how to implement proper SEO strategies to get noticed in the major search engines.
In this article, we will break down 4 vital SEO tactics that you should be using in order to get the most exposure out of your blog. Organic traffic generated from the search results is not only free but can be some of the best converting traffic around.
With that being said, let’s get right into it!
1. Optimize Existing Meta Tags
Your meta tags are truly the foundation of your website when it comes to SEO. This is one of the first areas that Google will look at when trying to determine what a given page is about. It is critical that you optimize your meta tags to the best of your ability with target keywords in place (and without keyword stuffing). You may even benefit from doing a simple SEO audit of your website using a tool like Screaming Frog to scrape out your current meta tag data.
The meta tags that we will discuss today are Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Header Tags and Image ALT Tags.
- Title Tags: Your Title Tags hold the most weight in the eyes of Google and should contain your most important keyword phrases. These are seen in the search results as the blue clickable hyperlink when you perform a certain search query. It’s a best practice to try and keep these as close to 70 characters in length without going over.
- Meta Descriptions: Meta Descriptions show up underneath the Title Tags in the search results and are the short snippet of text that describes what that ranking page is about. Every page or blog post on your website should contain a unique Meta Description that is compelling and encourages people to click-through. Try to make these as close to 160 characters in length as possible without going over.
- Header Tags: Headers (H1, H2, H2, H4 etc.) are the only meta tags that actually show up directly on the website. These are generally the main heading that is above an area of text on a webpage. Header tags also hold a lot of SEO weight and should be optimized with your most important keyword phrases in place.
- Image ALT Tags: When you upload an image to your website, you are able to apply a keyword rich Image ALT Tag to it. This allows for additional optimization and should be added to every image on your website.
2. Generate Consistent Content
Content is truly king when it comes to SEO. Writing optimized content on a consistent basis, while ensuring your meta tags are optimized properly (as discussed above), is a powerful tactic for generating floods of organic traffic. However, you want to ensure that you’re always providing immense value in the content you produce. Do not just throw anything up on your website as most people will be able to see right through it.
Let’s talk about consistency and optimization for a minute here. Your content creation schedule needs to be consistent and remain that way for the long-term. At the very least, you should be publishing one high-quality blog post per week in order to start gaining some traction. With each article you write, try to sprinkle in some of your target terms within the content and also add a few internal links to other relevant pages on your website. The internal links will help users navigate your site more efficiently and also spread some link juice from page to page. Over time with enough optimized content on your website, there’s a good chance Google will start ranking some of these articles and that’s when you can really start to see some momentum.
3. Building Quality & Natural Links
Now in order to bring everything together, you must build quality backlinks to your website. This will help drive higher search engine rankings which in return will generate more organic traffic for your website.
One specific strategy that is both effective and powerful is guest posting. This is where you would simply reach out to other relevant websites in your niche and see if they are accepting article submissions. You would generally want to pitch them 3-4 blog topic ideas for them to choose from. Once you receive the green light to start writing your article, you would simply add your website URL within the body or author bio. When this article is published, you will build yourself a natural and quality backlink!
You will want to try and guest post on websites that have a solid domain authority for the best results. You will also want to target different pages in your guest posts to diversify your link building efforts. Meaning, don’t just build links directly to your home page. Mix it up a bit.
Like generating consistent content, link building should also be an on-going effort for the growth and health of your blog. Over time, this is really how to produce noticeable ranking movement in the search engines.
Conclusion
In conclusion, please keep in mind that SEO is a long-term strategy and should be approached with the right mindset. It takes time to produce quality content, optimize your tags properly and build quality backlinks. If you are diligent and persistent with your efforts, it’s only a matter of time until you start gaining more exposure for your website.
