Does your head spin when you think about SEO? Do you ignore it and just try to make your little Yoast plugin happy? SEO is so much more, but it doesn’t have to feel daunting. I’m here to give you the ultimate guide to SEO for beginner bloggers!
Whether you’re just starting out in your blog or you have been running a super huge site for nearly a decade, SEO plays a role in who actually sees your site.
One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started my home decor site was completely ignoring SEO. More like S-E-NO, am I right?!
I knew how important it was.
I knew it was something I needed to focus on.
I actively chose not to.
And my site suffered. I was putting out great content that approximately 4 people were seeing per month and I had to basically beg those people to see it.
Now, my blog is getting thousands of views specifically from Google every month (not to mention the traffic I get from Pinterest). It has taken a lot of investment of both time and money, but I want to share my best secrets to you of how to become BFFs with SEO and Google!
Complete SEO 101 Guide For Beginners
What does SEO stand for?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. This means when someone searches for a particular term, what comes up is served up by Google in a specific order for a specific reason.
Take the search “how to start a blog”. When you type that in to Google and hit enter, Google will serve up web pages with the pieces of content that it deems are the most valuable to you.
Why should this matter to you?
Because if you’re creating valuable content, you want people to see it, right?
So, how do you do that? With these easy SEO tips.
How do you write blog posts that will rank?
This takes a long time to do.
SEO is a slow burn. Pinterest is also a slow burn, but you can see faster results.
Incredible content is super important for SEO, but there’s a lot more that goes into it.
Write for your audience.
You don’t only want to write for what you think will rank. This will make you sound super sterile and boring.
Who is your target audience?
Fill in this blank: The people who will get the most out of my content are people who ________.
Here’s how I would fill out that sentence: The people who will get the most out of my content are people who are high income earning bloggers trying to up their blogging game or trying to find ideas as to what a virtual assistant could even do for them. The other people who would get the most out of my content would be those who are trying to become a virtual assistant and just may not know where to start.
That’s who I’m writing to.
Why is a target audience even important?
Because at the end of the day, Google is a bot so they can’t recognize the human factor. SEO is what gets people to your site; your personality and valuable content is what will keep them coming back.
This is why I can not stress enough the importance of having a niche. And a niche that makes sense. A niche that other people are searching for. Some far off woo woo niche might work for a target audience, but it’s not sustainable.
What does Google look for when they’re ranking a site?
Age of your site
Fun fact: Did you know that for the first 12-18 months, your site is in a Google sandbox?
While sandboxes are typically super fun kids things, they may feel more like a sand trap at the golf course. You keep chipping away at that ball, and it may take you 40 swings, but eventually you’ll get there.
But you have to keep chipping.
This sandbox is like Google’s test for your site. They’re trying to gauge what you’re posting about and if your content is authentic and original.
Take a look at what I mean:
This is a snapshot from one of my favorite SEO tools, SEMRush. (You can actually get a seven day FREE trial of this tool if you’re interested with my affiliate link!)
Do you want to know when I started my home decor site?
August of 2017.
Now do you see what I mean when I say I intentionally ignored Google?
Not only did I ignore it, I actually started working on SEO in late March of 2019. And do you see how long it actually took for Google to recognize my site and I started ranking for keywords?
Stick with it. It’s exhausting, but I promise you it’s worth it.
It’s 100% free traffic and while I love Pinterest, am on Pinterest, and offer Pinterest management as one of my packages, it’s a lot of work.
Google is the gift that keeps on giving – you have a good idea for a post and add in the proper SEO strategy, your content can continue to rank on Google with organic searches without you doing a single thing.
On page SEO
“What the heck is on page SEO, Carmen?”
I’m so glad you asked.
Your website is made up of pages and posts. Posts are like what you’re reading now. A page would be something like your home page or your about page.
Did you know that not only are your blog posts supposed to be optimized but that your pages also are included in Google’s ranking factors?
This helps tell Google what you’re about which means that when you’re writing your about page, it needs to be keyworded well; not just a little history about who you are.
I actually have an entirely separate post I’m working on about how to write an about me page and some great things to include in that. If you want to be the first to know when that goes live, make sure you stay in touch with our email family!
How Can I Improve My SEO Fast?
What’s that saying? You can either have it done fast or done right, but you can’t have both.
If you want SEO done right, you will have to be patient.
Good SEO takes time for Google to begin to trust your site and give you authority.
Want some quick wins?
- Make sure you have internal links (that means in your posts, make sure you link to other posts you have written!)
- Broken links – fix ’em! Nobody likes it when they’re excited to click on a link to be taken nowhere.
There may be a couple things you can do for some quick wins, but when it comes to super solid SEO, it takes time to get in a rhythm of researching the right keywords, finding the search queries that will get you the most traffic in search volume and following your Google Analytics closely to see what’s working.
Is SEO easy to learn?
What I’m about to say is probably going to be unpopular, but after taking several intense SEO trainings and courses and masterminds, my answer is a resounding
Y E S.
People make SEO way more complicated than it needs to be in my humble opinion. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very digestible if you give it enough time.
I’m actually working on a VERY very digestible (and completely free!) email course that can change your SEO mindset and help you up your SEO game with me holding your hand along the way!
Make sure you’re on the list for that to be the FIRST to know (hint: if you’re already on my main email list, this is TOTALLY separate. You’ll want to make sure you’re signing up specifically for SEO stuff. I know that not all of my regular subscribers want to hear SEO mess so I made you guys in a special lil’ club!)
