7 Ways To Improve Your Blog Search Engine Rankings
“How to improve your keywords ranking in Google?” is probably the million dollar question every blogger has ever thought.
Not long ago, I had shared some ON-page SEO techniques which helped you to rank higher in Google and today I am back with some more advanced and data-backed tips to improve keyword ranking.
Before starting I would suggest you to check the current position of your keywords so that it would help you to track the improvement after following my tips. Here is a big list of google keyword position checker tools to help you out.
1# Optimize your blog post title
Your blog post title is the anchor text that pulls visitors in from the search engine pages. Be sure to add keywords into it, preferably the ones you want to rank for.
Actionable tip 1:
Include narrower and more targeted keywords than broad keywords. For example: If you have an article about “Long Tail Keywords” go for “How To Find Long Tail Keywords For SEO” rather than a broad “Long Tail Keywords” only.
Add long tail keywords in Post title
Actionable tip 2:
Try using actionable and psychological keywords in your blog post title. You can significantly boost your ranking using keywords like “updated”, “step by step guide” etc.
Increase Google search ranking using Psychological words in post title
Though these words themselves have nothing to do with SERP but they will increase your click through rate which is also a ranking factor.
Actionable tip 3:
Keep your title tags within 59 characters. Google considers 50-59 characters in displaying on a 512-pixel screen which means an average 55 lettered title tag is optimum. You can read more about it here.
Title tag preview tool
2# Add keywords to post and media
Now that you already have content, I would suggest you to add keywords in a way that does not appear stuffed. Again, try using various related keywords in the post content that have similar search value. It will help you a lot to get ranked on Google.
Search engines have become more intuitive and can identify a cheap keyword stuffed article from really valuable ones with related keywords too.
Actionable tips:- In an average a 2% of total wording can be used to allocate keywords.
- For better search engine ranking, place your main keyword within the first 100 words and repeat the same in the conclusion too.
- For images, try using alt tags that are a source for the search bots to know what your picture is about. Alt tags can dramatically increase your ranking and organic traffic via image search functionality of search engines. Also, try optimizing the image name to something related to the post rather than a random image0001, camcorderimg345 etc. Read complete image optimization guide here.
3# Internal linking
Internal linking is one of the safest ways to getting backlinks from your own site. This can also drain some search engine juice on otherwise old posts and eventually help the reader by showing him a related post of value. Confused?
The link I have on the introduction showing you list of rank checker tools is one of the best examples of internal linking.
Actionable tips:- Link to related posts: You should link to related posts and on the context to your current post. Linking a page on writing skills to a post on architecture will do more harm than good.
- Do not link like an automated harvester. Do it at a slow and steady pace. Have a proportionate ratio of new and old posts linked. Be sure to add different anchor texts.
- Do not suddenly increase internal linking to a post that is getting down on SERP. Instead do not link the page loosing ranking. You can try linking to pages that already have the post linked in them.
- Read these best practices of internal linking.
#4 Guest blogging
Guest blogging is not dead and will never die. Yes, but one done for SEO is dead long back since 2014. You can obviously use guest posts to highlight relevant posts of yours which are in-context. Having a guest post on an authoritative site can boost your blog’s ranking and search engine visibility.
If you are new with Guest blogging, then I highly recommend you to read thisguest blogging guide.
#5 Blog commenting
Which was initially done to interact and build relationships is now a good source of getting visibility. You can searchkeywordluv and commentluv enabled blogs to leave your desired links.
Actionable tips:- Don’t comment on blogs that are spammy and irrelevant to your niche. This will not only prevent your site from being flagged by Google but also help you reduce the bounce rate that the readers of those blogs would bring to you.
- Use the commenting trick as soon as you publish an article on the web. This secret trick I follow is revealed as under:
- related to your topic
- have still fresh comments flowing in and
- have commentluv enabled
After you publish your blog post do a quick Google search on the keyword you are concentrating on. Chances are Google hasn’t crawled on yours yet, so go to the top five (at least) sites that are:
Now write a meaningful comment on the post and leave your latest post link. This will help to get your post indexed faster and also you can get referral traffic from those sites’ visitors.
#6 Social Shares
Though social shares are always a controversial factor of boosting your search engine rankings, they for sure will help you to rank higher on Google. The more the number of social shares, the more is the referral traffic which in return means more authority and ultimately higher rankings. Crazy! Huh?
Actionable tips:- Share the heck out of your blog posts. You haven’t toiled day night to keep the post in your closet. Instead make it shine like gold. If you are ashamed of sharing your blog posts like anything, go back and edit it to come up with something that you will proudly share.
- Here is a priceless list of blog post sharing tools that you can use to share your blog posts automatically after you have published them.
- Get responsive social share buttons on your website that allow visitors to share your content. There is no need to be everywhere, use only 4-5 networks that bring you tons of traffic. Try Monarch!
- Do social bookmarking for your blog posts that would ultimately bring you more reshares and referral traffic. Try building relationships with influencers through sites like Triberr. I have gotten tons of tweets and many authoritative link backs from those bloggers using Triberr. Did you hear link backs = good position on SERPs? Lucky you!
#7 Repurpose your content
When you have created a content that is worth showing off why give it the same old costumes. Remember Donald duck and Uncle Scrooge?
Yes, they were the only species that looked good with the same costume every day. Not the same with our blog posts, though. You should repurpose your blog posts into other types of content like videos and slides that are easily rankable. Check these 9 types of content you should definitely publish in your blog.
Actionable tips:- Convert your post into a video. You can use your existing post for this or can create a teaser with a PowerPoint presentation converted to video. Now upload it to YouTube with a link back to your blog post.
- Convert your posts into pdf and syndicate them to sites like Slideshare. Slideshare is now the YouTube for marketers (as said by socialemediaexaminer.com). So leverage its huge potential.
Did you know search engine crawl SlideShare every second? It’s because the huge number of submissions. You can use this to get your posts ranked just after they are published.
I strongly recommend you to read: The Marketer’s Guide to SlideShare ~ How to Build Your Brand, Generate Leads & Create Opportunities
Other tidbits that will help you to increase and enhance your search engine rankings are:
- Increase your website speed (Read this guide)
- Make your site mobile responsive. Use a premium fast loading and responsive theme like these.
- Update your old blog posts and revive them using these techniques.
- Build high-quality links to your blog for better rankings. If your blog is new, try these link building tactics for new blogs.
- Check keyword difficultybefore targeting any keyword.
- Do proper keyword research and competitor analysis in order to rob them of their SERPs. Use these techniquesto check your competitors' keywords.
- Get your grammar and writing correct. Google never sees a webpage filled with errors as authoritative. Follow this method to find and correct your grammatical mistakes online.
Conclusion:
So, you now have received the top tips to rank #1 in Google. I have followed these tips myself to improve the keyword rankings of my blog and they work awesome.
What do you do to improve your keywords position in search engines? Leave a comment!
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