7 WordPress SEO Tips for Non-Techie Bloggers

Like most non-techie bloggers, I wasn’t so concerned about SEO when I was just starting out a couple of years ago. I didn’t think much about optimizing my blog for search, yet I wanted traffic to come in. Sure enough, I kept on wondering why I’m seeing paltry traffic to my sites. So I got into the program and learned SEO with WordPress. As I have learned, and as many bloggers did before me, optimizing a WordPress blog is simple and easy.

1.     Use WordPress as Your Blogging Platform

WordPress is arguably the most powerful blogging platform. This isn’t to say that you should use WordPress exclusively, but there are great benefits that can be had with WordPress. With its thousands of extensions, WordPress is by far the most flexible and most extensible blogging platform. Search engine optimization, the process of making website content relevant for it to be considered and ranked well in the search engines, is also a breeze with WordPress. In fact, I personally think that WordPress is the easiest blogging platform to optimize for search. A well-optimized WordPress post or page should be able to appear in the top pages of the search engines and in turn get more traffic very easily. However, there are tips and guidelines that one must carefully follow to make a WordPress blog rank well in search. So, let’s get right down to the tips on optimizing a WordPress blog.

2.     Optimize the Content for SEO

Content is still king, and it’s the very reason the blog exists. For these reasons, content quality deserves the highest level of attention. However, many newbie

bloggers fall into the common mistake of overly-optimizing their content with keywords that make their posts unnatural and difficult to read. It’s very important to properly optimize a post for search if you are to gain profitable visibility, but it’s also crucial that your posts adhere to Google’s quality guidelines. As Google and other search engines move forward to put more emphasis on quality, the focus now is more on creating high quality, useful and relevant posts that appeal to readers more than search engines. So, when writing posts, it’s important to keep the web crawlers (search engine spiders) in mind, but your focus should be more on the users’ benefit.

3.     Optimize the Title

How should a post title be written? Should it be written in such a way as to attract the readers’ attention? Or should we only consider the SEO aspects? Write titles for the readers without compromising the SEO aspect of it. Gone are the days when titles are optimized with exact-match keywords so that they are difficult to read and unnatural. Take this example: “Roofing Sacramento Tips for Homeowners” This example title is keyword-optimized for the term “Roofing Sacramento.” It’s clear that the writer intended for the post to rank highly for that keyword, but this makes the title look totally unnatural. As Google moves towards Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), you can now use related keywords instead of exact-match keywords and Google will still recognize what your post is all about. Remember, post-Penguin, Google penalizes sites that are over-optimized with exact-match keywords. In the post-Penguin world, the example title should be written as “Roofing Tips for Sacramento Homeowners.”

4.     Optimize the Keywords

Keywords still play central role in our quest to win the first page race. Without keywords, the search engines won’t be able to figure out exactly what your post is all about. It’s keywords that should be talked about in the title, in the meta tags, in the body and link profiles. So, before composing your next blog post, figure out what keywords you want it to rank well for in the search engines. One of the best tools I can recommend which I have had great success with is Google AdWords Keyword Tool. When targeting certain keywords with your post, here are several best practices to observe:

Use your keyword in the title (but not unnaturally)Keywords should be used within the first paragraph, in the middle, and in the last paragraphLSI Keywords should be identified and used throughout the article body

A note on using exact-match keywords: Remember that Google Penguin frowns upon over-optimization. It’s fine to use exact-match keywords, but don’t overdo it. Vary the keywords you are using to avoid getting penalized by Penguin. Some bloggers fall into the trap of over-optimizing their content by doing the following: • Keyword stuffing: Using the keywords in an unnatural way over and over again within the post. This is spam and is heavily penalized by the search engines. • Buying backlinks: Others are tempted to buy backlinks from link farms, hoping to get that much needed boost in ranking. However, even before Penguin, the search engines discouraged webmasters and SEOs from buying links.

5.     Optimize the Tags

Meta tags such as description tags are no longer considered to be major search engine rankings, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to optimize them. The search engines display your meta descriptions on search results as a preview for users for them to determine what your page is about. Properly placing your keywords within the first sentence of the meta descriptions helps users identify the relevance of your content.

6.     Optimize Images

The only way for the search engine spiders to determine what your image is about is by including an Alt tag. Alt tag is a string of codes where you place texts to allow the search engine spiders to properly index your post’s images.

7.     Use the Right WordPress SEO plugins

As mentioned previously, WordPress is one of the most flexible blogging platforms available. With its many SEO plugins, you can simplify your SEO efforts. Some of the most common SEO plugins include: • All-In-One SEO Pack • WP SEO By Yoast • SEO Friendly Images • SEO Smart Links

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Crucial Editing Tips for Bloggers

Editing is a required skill for bloggers. This will help make sure that your work is flawless and will be received widely by readers.

However, this is something not a lot of bloggers know how to do well. Remember that doing a spell check on Word is not considered editing. If this is the only kind of editing you do, then your work will always be sub-standard and will make you look unprofessional.

Editing will take several minutes and will require focus and great attention to details.

Editing will help you discover mistakes you’ve missed like a typo error or an incomplete paragraph. Through editing, you will see how your post is structured. It’ll help you see if the content flows smoothly or if the voice and style is right for the intended audience, etc.

Ultimately, editing will determine if your post is going to engage your readers. It will give your readers something that’s interesting, entertaining, and easy to read.

A lot of bloggers edit their work. The only problem is they’re not doing it right. The following editing tips will help you identify mistakes you must avoid:

Bloggers do this because it saves time. The problem with this strategy is it keeps the ideas from flowing smoothly. It disrupts your flow. When you frequently stop to correct a spelling or change a sentence, you’ll never get done.

You will eventually find yourself stuck in the middle of the post, trying to remember what you were supposed to type.

Surprisingly, many people depend solely on the spell check feature when editing. This is NOT going to polish your work. It may flag typos but it’s going to miss many grammar errors. And it’s not going to help you figure out which sentences are out of place.

You can’t depend on this to see if your content flows smoothly because it’s not very good in checking context.

Take a break as soon as you’re done writing. Don’t edit right away because your post is still fresh on your mind.

Go watch T.V. Grab a coffee with a friend. Listen to music. Put on your running shoes and head out. Or sleep for a few hours.
Once you’re done doing something totally unrelated to blogging go back and edit your post. You’ll have more clarity and focus to spot mistakes a lot better.

We all desire to have the perfect end product. However, for a lot of people, this desire is so strong they end up over editing. This is bad because you’ll always try to find something wrong in a sentence or paragraph. And when you keep on doing that, your work will end up like a butchered meat. No one’s going to buy it.

Using overused words

Some writers feel that using certainly, absolutely, definitely, and other similar terms makes them sound intelligent. All these do is make the readers cringe so unless they’re ABSOLUTELY necessary, ditch these words. You DEFINITELY have to keep your sentences concise.

Not checking contracted forms of words

You’re and your are two of the most common misused words. Your a professional blogger, so you should know the difference between these two. It’s you’re responsibility to ensure contracted forms of words are used right.

Misuse of articles

It’s very annoying to read something that looks like a first grader has written. Misusing articles is definitely a huge blunder. It’s very elementary, so unless you want to turn readers away and laugh at your supposed writing prowess, check how you use them especially with acronyms in the same sentence.

Wrong use of apostrophes and other punctuation marks

Misuse of punctuation marks will make you look unprofessional. The worse part is readers will think you’re not that good of a writer to screw up apostrophes, quotation marks, periods and commas!

Using too much words

Blog posts work well with as little words as possible.

Technical terms are only for a very specific type of audience

At times when you write about something that’s a little technical, make sure to explain any terms average readers may not understand. You’ll lose them if you don’t write in a language they understand. Jargons should only be used when you’re writing for a very specific audience, like when writing for an industry-related blog.

There’s no need to discuss what mortgage is if you’re writing for a real estate blog. But if you’re writing about the connection between that and finance tips for a freelancer, then you’d have to explain further.

Do yourself–and your readers–a favor and follow these editing tips. You’ll churn out posts that are great to read.

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Are Bloggers Addicted to the Internet?

As bloggers we spend a great deal of time on the internet… probably even more than the average internet user!

In the infographic below we put Men and Women to the test to see who is more addicted to the internet!

The reports was created from a survey about lifestyle priorities and was conducted in July 2012 among 1029 respondents.

What is the average time men and women spend online each week?

- 48% of females spends more than 26 hours per week on the internet, while 46% of men spend more than 26 hours per week on the internet.

I know I spend more than 26 hours on the internet in just a few days!

Percentage of Time Men and Women Spend Doing Certain Activities Online

- At the end of the infographic you will probably find it very surprising how closely some of these numbers are between males and females. I particularly found the gaming numbers very close and surprising. For the most part, each of the categories (games, shopping, email, social networks) all really came close to 10% range for both male and females.

Now it’s time for someone to do a similar report with bloggers so we can blow these numbers away with how much time we spend online!

Infographic created by: broadbandexpert

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