48 Best SEO Tips For Bloggers to Boost Traffic in 2021

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Are you struggling to drive organic traffic from search engines such as Google to your website? Here are 48 proven SEO tips that actually work.

If you just answered “Yes” then please continue reading these 48 Best SEO Tips to help you get more organic traffic and make more affiliate sales.

It is however important to note that results don’t just happen overnight simply because you implemented some SEO tips.

The truth is you are going have to wait at least 6 months if you have a new website before you can actually see a decent amount of traffic from Google.

Implementing these SEO tips will however improve your chances of getting seen on top SEO results pages over time.

48 Best SEO Tips For Bloggers

1. Clear Blog Post Outline

One of the habits I have cultivated over the years during my blogging journey is to always come up with a blog post outline before I even begin to write my blog posts.

This helps me stay organized and also enables me prepare my blog posts in advance.

One of the things I include in my blog post outline is my target audience and how my blog post will help them achieve a particular goal or solve a particular problem. (More on that below)

As you set out to write your blog posts, always ensure you create a clear blog post outline.

2. Deep Keyword and Topic Research

This is one of the most important aspects of writing an SEO optimized blog post.

This SEO tip will ensure you rank high in search results pages and get traffic.

I use Ubersuggest and Google Keyword planner for my keyword research. They are both free keyword research tools that are great for finding high volume keywords with little competition.

I also focus on long tail keywords with high volume since they are much easier to rank for on Google SERPS.

You should also do extensive research on your topic and see what your competitors have written on the topic.

This will help you craft a better article that will be useful to your audience.

You can read more on how to write an SEO friendly article here.

3. Create a Starter Headline to guide you

Creating a title helps me actually start writing my blog post.

It is also one of the most basic SEO tips you will find.

I am not a full time blogger and as such I may find myself always postponing writing new blog posts for my blog but once I pen down a headline it become much easier to actually do the writing.

While creating a headline, make sure to include the focus keyword you are targeting in it.

It is recommended that you include your focus keyword at the beginning of your title.

Your title should be catchy and attention grabbing since it is the very first thing that your readers actually see before they click through to read your bog post.

List numbered articles have been proven to be very effective and drive the highest click throughs in SERPs.

You can also check out this blog post on how to craft better headlines that drive clickthroughs.

Always use power words when creating your headlines.

4. Define your post-specific audience

This is a very vital element of your blog post.

You should define your target audience as this will ensure you get the moist of your blog post.

You should be reaching the right people with your article to get the best conversions.

If for instance you are writing on weight loss products, you will want to target people with interest in weight loss, yoga, body building and keto diets.

This will ensure you get the best conversions.

5. Define your post-specific purpose

What are you hoping to achieve with your blog post?

Are you informing your audience of a particular topic or teaching them how to get something done?

Is your post helping your target audience solve a particular problem?

These are some of the questions you ought to ask yourself as you define the purpose of your blog post.

6. Come up with your primary keyword

After you do deep keyword research as we discussed earlier, you should zero down on a primary keyword you want to focus on and rank for on SERPs.

I prefer to focus on long tail keywords as they are easier to rank for.

You can see how to find long tail keywords with high volume here.

7. Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords

In addition to coming up with a primary keyword that you want to rank for, you should also find related and similar keywords that you can rank for as well.

A great way to find related keywords is to enter your primary keyword into the search bar and search for it.

Then go to the bottom of the search results where the “Related Searches” section is.

You can pick some of these keywords and also use them across your article.

The “People Also Ask” section is also a great place to find related keywords that you can target in your blog post.

This will help you rank for more keywords and increase your website’s traffic.

8. Minimum of 1000 words

As you write your blog posts, try to aim for atleast 1000 words as the minimum.

Search engines rank longer posts higher than shorter posts in the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)

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9. Use of Short and Sweet Sentences

Shorter sentences make your blog posts much easier to read comped to longer sentences.

Try to use atleast one to three lines per paragraph as you write.

This will greatly improve your readability score and improve your rankings.

10. Use of active voice in your writing

When writing content, always write in a speaking tone.

This will make your content more engaging and greatly improve the readability of your content.

As a result, the bounce rate will reduce which may lead to higher rankings.

11. Action-ability of Your Content

Try to include calls to action within your blog posts to increase post engagement.

This could be as simple as a call to click through to a particular post through internal linking strategies.

You can also ask your readers to share your blog post with their networks which will increase traffic to your website.

Read Also: How Lidiya Built A Successful $6K/Month Blogging Business From Scratch

12. Primary Keyword used in the headline

As you craft your headline, include your primary keyword in the beginning of your headline.

This helps search engines better understand what your content is about and also increases your chances of ranking on SERPs for that particular primary keyword.

13. Primary keyword in image files names

Also include your primary keyword in the file names of your images.

This is an image SEO optimization tactic that is usually ignored by many website owners.

This will increase your ranking on image search results and consequently increase website traffic.

You can also check out this post on how to do image SEO.

14. Avoid image copyright infringement

This is not only an ethical issue but also a legal one.

You should avoid using copyrighted images on your blog post especially if you are running advertisements by popular Ad networks such as Google AdSense.

Using copyrighted images on sites monetized by Adsense will most likely result in your Adsense account being banned.

15. Write an inviting Meta description

After seeing your blog post title, the next thing your potential readers see is your meta description in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Writing an inviting and engaging meta description will also increase the click though rate to your articles.

Also see 8 Best WordPress Themes for Blogs here.

16. Include primary keyword in meta description

This helps search engines better understand what your content is all about.

It will also increase your chances of ranking for your primary keyword.

17. Primary keyword in the first 100 words

This helps search engines understand what your article is about from the very beginning and can result in higher search engine rankings for the target keywords.

18. Link to relevant and authoritative sites

Linking to other authoritative sites not only enriches your article content by providing your visitors with various references for more information but also gives Google the impression that your content is of high quality.

19. Posts Illustrations e.g. analogies, examples

People like to listen and read great stories.

As you write you bog posts, always try to be as illustrative as possible.

Use examples as much as you can to help your audience understand the message you are trying to pass out.

You can also give your own personal experiences such that your audience can connect with you.

Also see the 11 Best Author Bio Box Plugins for WordPress to Add Author Bio here.

20. Visual Content: Add Supporting graphics

As the saying goes, “Images speak louder than words.”

Adding images, graphs, infographics and pictures will not only improve the engagement of your content but also make it more shareable.

Infographics have been known to be a great way to build backlinks to websites since they are compelling and easier to understand.

Read Also: 7 Best Free Online Photo Editors to Enhance your Images

21. Create a Starter Headline to guide you

As discussed earlier, headlines are the very first thing people see when searching for a particular search query on SERPs.

You should therefore endeavor to craft attention grabbing headlines to increase the click through rate to your blog posts.

22. Proper sourcing and citations

If your article was created using content from other sources, it is only fair and legal that you give them the proper attribution that they deserve.

23. Compress images before uploading

Compressing your images will help to increase website load time.

It is now common knowledge that among the things Google factors when ranking pages on SERPs is load time.

The faster your website loads, the higher your rankings.

I personally use Imagify to compress my website images since it is compatible with the WP Rocket plugin which I use for caching on my websites.

Imagify is a great free plugin that will compress your images for better load time.

This is a very important part of your On Page SEO.

Interlinking your posts helps to transfer link juice from one post to another.

This will help you build backlinks to your website fast.

It will also help google crawl bots to easily crawl your pages.

25. Use clean simple URLs in all your posts

Long URLs always look spammy for most readers. Therefore avoid them at all costs.

A great way to optimize your URLs is to always include your target keyword in the permalink structure.

This will not only give visitors an idea of what to expect when they click through to your blog post but also help with SEO.

Also avoid using stop words in your permalink structure.

You can see a list of stop words to avoid for better SEO results here.

26. Primary Keyword in Images Alternate Tags

This is one of those vital SEO tips that is usually ignored by many website owners.

Adding your primary keyword will help you drive targeted traffic when your images rank on image search in the SERPs.

27. Primary keyword in at least one subheading

This is great for SEO and will help in ranking for your primary keyword in SERPs.

This SEO tip will help you rank for multiple keywords.

A great place to find related keywords is the “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” section on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) when you search for your keyword on google.

To get your related keywords, simply input your focus keyword in to the search bar on google and search for it.

Then head over to the “People Also Ask” section and the “Related Searches” at the bottom of the SERPs.

As a rule of thumb, always pick one to three keywords that make sense and that are related to your focus keyword.

You can then include these keywords in the body of your content.

29. All keywords are naturally used (not forced)

It is important that your keywords look natural and not forced.

Remember that you are writing content for humans and not robots or search engines.

Let your reader be first priority as you write your blog.

Therefore make sure that your content makes sense and adds value to the reader.

30. Break your post with subheadings H2 & H3

As you write your blog posts, always break it down into H1, H2 and H3 headings.

This will not only improve the readability of your post but also help with SEO.

Always include sharing buttons in prominent places on your blog posts such as before the content and after content.

You could also use floating sharing buttons to improve the shareability of your post.

You can also see how to back up a website for free here.

32. Right category and right tagging

Adding your blog post to the right categories and using appropriate tags will help your users easily access your content and also help improve your overall SEO.

Check out this article on List of 50+ Quality Blogs That Accept Guest Posts here.

33. Monitor using Yoast SEO plugin

Use the Yoast SEO plugin to monitor the SEO optimization of your blog post.

Yoast will show you recommendations that you can act on to improve the overall SEO of your post.

Key points to take note of include restricting your meta description to 320 words and restricting your blog post title to 60 characters.

Always avoid keyword stuffing as this will derail all your SEO efforts.

As a rule of thumb, always aim for 0.5 to 1.5% keyword density

You can also see how to properly set up Yoast SEO plugin for better rankings.

34. Have a strong Call to Action at the end

Always use the opportunity at the end of the blog post to add a call of action which could be encouraging your readers to share your blog posts with their contacts and networks.

35. Proofread your post for errors

There is nothing as annoying as reading text that is full of grammatical errors.

This is something you easily avoid by using software such as Grammarly.

I personally use Grammarly to proofread my text and ensure that they are free of any grammatical errors and mistakes.

Having well written content with good grammar will not only be a sign of professionalism on your part as a blog owner but also improve your credibility as an expert in your area of specialization or niche.

People are also less likely to trust or even buy from a website with poor grammar since such sites tend to seem spammy.

36. Write additional 10 or more blog titles

This is one of those SEO tips which will be most helpful for those using Pinterest to drive highly targeted traffic to their websites.

You can use these titles while creating various pins for your blog post

Also see How to change your WordPress Password from cPanel here.

37. Featured Image

Always add a featured image to your posts and include your primary keyword in the alternate text.

This will greatly improve your SEO efforts.

Also check out an honest PLR.me Review here.

38. Add At least one pinnable image

This is a great way to get more website traffic from Pinterest.

Ensure you add high quality images that will entice users to click through to your article.

You can also see 350+ Pinterest Group Boards to Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic here.

39. Blog post monetization: affiliate links, Advertisements etc

Also ensure you monetize your blog post with affiliate links and advertisements.

While using ads, ensure you place them strategically such that it doesn’t ruin the user’s experience while reading your article.

Remember, they came to read your article and not get bombarded with advertisements.

Not yet monetized with Adsense? See how to get fast Adsense Approval for new website here.

You can also check out 6 Realistic Easy Ways to Make Money Online here.

40. Affiliate disclosures where applicable

If you are monetizing your website with affiliate links, you might want to add affiliate link disclosures to your blog posts.

You can see how to add affiliate links to your blog posts here.

41. Click to tweet quotable blocks

This will increase the engagement on your blog posts and therefore result in more traffic to your website.

It is important to remember that Google also considers social signals as a ranking factor.

So this will increase your ranking in SERPs.

42. Captivating Excerpts if your layout uses them

Depending on what theme you are using on your blog, you should add excerpts on all your blog posts.

This will give your readers a sneak peak of what to expect when they click through to your blog posts.

You can see how to add excerpts to your blog posts here.

43. Offer complete solution to a single problem

As you write your blog post, try to be as helpful as you can.

Your readers should be able to get value from your blog posts.

This will not only improve your credibility as an expert in your niche but also turn your readers and visitors into raving fans.

Also check out Free Legal Documents For Blogs here.

44. Introduction has a hooking effect

Always add a captivating introduction to your blog posts to encourage your readers to continue reading your blog posts.

45. Do a final edit

After writing your content and fully optimizing it for SEO, always do a final thorough check to catch any errors and grammatical mistakes you might have made along the way.

I personally recommend using Grammarly to check for spelling errors and other grammatical mistakes you might have missed.

46. Simple language

As you write your content, always try to avoid complex and ambiguous words unless you really have to.

For instance you don’t need to use the word “Proximity” when you can use “near” in your blog post.

Using a simple language will not only improve the readability of your content but also reduce bounce rate since people will be able to understand the message you are trying to convey.

It will also increase the likelihood of them sharing your content which is good for SEO.

47. Optimize for readability

Always ensure that your content is easy to read.

This can be achieved by using shorter sentences and always writing in the active voice.

Also make use of H1, H2, H3 and H4 heading among others while writing heading and sub-headings.

48. Preview your post before publishing

Always make one final thorough preview of your blog post just to ensure that there is nothing important you left out.

This will help you leaving out very important information in your posts.

Conclusion

Like I said earlier at the beginning, the truth is it is going to take some time before you can start seeing tangible results from implementing these SEO tips.

Your traffic from Google won’t just shoot up overnight even if you implement all the SEO tips discussed above.

But if you persist and continue creating great content, you will reap the benefits and start making money online.

So now I would like to hear from you.

How did you find these SEO tips?

Are you implementing some of these SEO tips and if yes have you seen any improvement in organic traffic on your site?

Let me know in the comments below!

Also share this SEO tips blog post with your friends and family.