What you will learn

To gain prospects or customers for a product, you also need to invest time and effort in marketing: A car manufacturer must also advertise the benefits of his latest car through advertisements, TV clips, and radio broadcasts, just as a beverage company does to promote the unique selling points of his new drink. But also offers that are published on the World Wide Web, such as an online shop or a blog, you can only lead to the desired success with the help of the right advertising strategy. However, classic print and television media play a minor role in this, as the advertising costs for these media would go far beyond the budget of most bloggers. Since bloggers find their target audience exclusively on the Internet, a measure is, however, inevitable: The Optimize web project for search engines. Thereby as a blogger you will learn how to get traffic to your blog or site by using Search Engine Optimization.

Table of Contents

1. Why SEO is so important to bloggers
2. SEO blogging: How can I optimize my blog?
3. Onpage-SEO for Blogs: The most important factors
4. Offpage SEO - of fundamental importance to bloggers
5. The important role of social media channels
6. These CMS plug-ins help you with the search engine optimization of your blog

Why SEO is so important to bloggers

Running a blog is a matter of the heart for many people in charge. You comment on topics that interest you personally or inform readers about what you have experienced in the recent past. How many people a finished article ultimately achieves, however, is usually less due to the quality than to the reach of the article . At the latest, if blogging is to turn from a hobby to a profession , then you have to deal with the question of how to lead visitors to your blog and increase the traffic continuously.

Above all, the positioning in the results of the search engines - above all Google - plays a decisive role, because typically most readers find the way to blog posts about the popular search masks - especially on the first results page. Only a few are specifically looking for a blog. Therefore, the aim of SEO for blogs must be to the individual contributions and the entire project be tailored to the typical search queries of those users who are interested in the blog topic of interest . Otherwise, you may achieve a good ranking, but the hoped-for increase in traffic will not occur, as the target group already recognizes in the quick preview in the search results that the content offered is of no interest to them.

Optimizing the blog for search engines is therefore a very complex undertaking, in which you should invest a lot of effort and time. However, the SEO section also offers the opportunity to outmaneuver competitors moving in a similar field and to give their own blog such an advantage in the competition for the favor of the readers.

SEO blogging: How can I optimize my blog?

Under SEO covers all measures which serve to improve the placement of a Web project in the results of search engines. A distinction is made between the two disciplines of on- page and off-page optimization , which combined together promise the greatest possible chance of success in improving the placement. While all SEO optimizations that are carried out directly on the blog (texts, headings, images, metadata, etc.) are on-page measures , Offpage-SEO deals with all external factors, with the focus mainly on link building.

Onpage-SEO for Blogs: The most important factors

The onpage optimization of a weblog covers different areas: Content is an essential field. By now, everyone knows that high-quality content is an indispensable asset of modern web projects and forms the basis of every marketing campaign. Good texts and interesting videos as well as impressive photos increase the chance of attracting new readers to your blog and retaining them in the long term. Positive user ratings and a longer user experience on your website in turn have a positive impact on your search engine ranking.

A similarly important criterion for SEO success is the performance of its own pages neglected by many operators . Availability and, in particular, loading time have become increasingly important over the past few years and with the continuous growth of mobile traffic. If the performance of the blog is inadequate, then it is judged by users such as search engines equally negative. But there are many ways to improve the page speed. You should be aware of the following when you want to optimize the performance of your website:

• Suitable hosting environment (CPU, memory, hard disk space)
• Responsive or separate, mobile layout
• No oversized design templates (Themes)
• Economical use of plug-ins and scripts
• Regular database checks
• Use of a Content Delivery Network
• Compression of images and source code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

While the above measures improve performance in particular , we now present ways to make content as search engine friendly as possible .

Keywords: focus on one topic and up to two key words

For each post that you write for your blog, you should first define a clear theme that runs through the entire text. In this way, the chance of search engines classifying the article as particularly relevant to the chosen topic increases . It's also important to find the keywords that fit the content, focusing on one or two main terms. In particular, long-tail keywords (combination of multiple search terms) are a tried and tested means to not only ascend in the rankings of search engines, but also to reach those users whose search intention fits the theme of your page.

Strategic positioning of keywords

Once you have completed your keyword research , you need to place your search terms in the right places: in headings and body parts, keep in mind that implementing a keyword is never at the expense of readability. An excessive or disproportionate use of the keywords can also be quickly classified by search engines as keyword spam and punished. Of fundamental importance, however, is to incorporate the key keywords in the following places:

• URL : The URL is one of the first pieces of information processed by search engine crawlers. Since each post is published under a unique URL , you also have the option to include one or two keywords. With a good URL structure that reflects the categorization of your posts, you also increase user comfort. For example, the URL myblog.de/marketing/blogger-tipps tells the reader that the article comes from the subject area "Marketing".

• Title Tag (Headline): The title is displayed as the headline of the search result in the search engines. It gives the search services and users a first indication of which topic your article deals with. Here is the rule: The further up the search term to highlight, the better for the SEO.

• Description : The description is a short text that appears like the title in the search results and provides the search engine and the readers with further information about the content of the blog post . The description should contain at least one keyword.

Internal links

Often neglected but still an important onpage SEO discipline for blogs is internal linking of various articles. If you have the opportunity to link to older topic-related articles in a new article , you should definitely do so. In this way, you not only increase the time your readers spend, but also increase the chance that all pages of your blog will be tracked and listed by the search engines. For many content management systems, there are plug-ins that automatically link suitable articles; You can also set the internal links manually. However, limit yourself to one or two links at most per text, as the link power per additional link is greatly attenuated becomes.

If you link two articles together, you should also formulate a suitable, natural anchor text. Anchor text is the mostly highlighted part of the text, which leads users to the linked page by clicking on it. So you should choose instead of a meaningless "here" a link text that makes sense in the context - for example, the title of the linked target article.

Keep topic tags clear

Tags, also known as buzzwords, provide a great way to categorize your items thematically . First and foremost, they serve the convenience of your readers, who can navigate your blog much better with a well-structured keyword index than if you do not. Although the tags are by no means considered meta-keywords by the search engines, they have no direct relevance for the search engine optimization of blogs. However, the search engine services will certainly reward you if the tags you have selected and assigned increase the usability of your blog .

Optimize images

When designing blog posts, you usually do not limit yourself to just text, but also integrate multimedia content such as video clips and especially pictures in an appropriate place. Good onpage SEO for bloggers is therefore also concerned with the optimization of these types of content, which are recognized as such by the search engines by default, but only with additional information can be understood. This information is actually the file name and the so-called alt text . The latter can be defined in the tag of the respective image using the alt attribute.

In addition to its role as a translator for search engine crawlers, the alt text is also a crucial component of user-friendly and accessible web projects: the actual function of the HTML attribute is to describe the image content if the image can not be loaded for some reason , Visually-impaired users can have their alternative text read out with the appropriate tools. You should also equip the file name with suitable keywords, because this not only helps you in the usual ranking, but also improves your positioning in the Google image search. Learn more about the subject of SEO in our guide article .

Offpage SEO - of fundamental importance to bloggers

If you want to run a successful blog, you can not do without offpage SEO. Unlike the on-page methods, this is not about keywords, usability , text structure and Co., but about the concrete increase in the popularity of your blog through active marketing and especially through the generation of so-called backlinks . The latter indicate to the search engines that a web project has relevance, so the number and quality of links pointing to your blog also serve as a major factor for search engine rankings. Since the crawlers of the search services recognize which pages the referrals come from , it is important that you sign upcreate mixed mixed link profile with backlinks from many different sources:
• Forum links : In forums, internet users talk about a wide range of topics. Adding praise to your blog and recommending one of your articles to other users of the forum shows the search engines that your project has met with acceptance on the Web.

• Links from other blogs : Links that have been set by other blog operators also prove to be a driving force in increasing link popularity . The more established the blog is, the more you benefit from the return reference. The active exchange of links has been a useful practice in the maintenance of weblogs for many years.

• Links from industry or article directories : Enter your blog or even individual articles in an online directory, not only create valuable backlinks, but also increase the chance that users will notice you.

• Links from Big Portals : Portals like Huffington Post, which have a tremendous amount of content and high traffic, are a first-rate, though not easy, source of strong backlinks that underpin the trustworthiness of your blog.

You can also create your own backlinks by linking your own post, for example, in the comment section of a similar article in a foreign blog - with the note to have also written something about the topic in question.

The important role of social media channels

Networking has always played an important role in blogging. The exchange with other operators and the mutual pronunciation of recommendations of published articles and the associated backlink structure is still a tried and tested means to increase your own reach and to address foreign readers. However, since the time of social networking, there has been an even greater scope for disseminating new content . With little effort, you can advertise your website or individual articles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and others, and in this way, address users that you might not have otherwise come across.

The users of the social media channels actively support you: "Like" information, comments or the sharing of your contributions ensure that you reach a large number of potential readers. Although these "social signals" themselves have no impact on search engine rankings , you can indirectly help improve placement. This will help your blog drive more traffic, signal to search engine services that your project is accepted, and increase the likelihood that other blog or site owners link to your posts .

These CMS plug-ins help you with the search engine optimization of your blog

There are numerous modules or plug-ins for the various content management systems, which simplify SEO for blogging in many different ways. These include enhancements for compressing images or creating Sitemaps for XML (depicting the structure of the blog) as well as caching modules or link checkers that allow you to check the status of internal and external links. Here are some useful plug-ins for the most important CMS:

WordPress

• Yoast SEO : Yoast SEO is one of the most comprehensive SEO plugins for WordPress . Among other things, it extends functions for the automated creation of meta-information, the detection of duplicate content and keyword analysis. You can also use the extension to create a Sitemap or edit the robots.txt or .htaccess file with it . In addition to the free version, which you will find among other things in the official WordPress plug-in directory , there is also a premium edition with additional features - such as a preview option for social media posts.

• WP Broken Link Status Checker : Use the Broken Link Status Checker to check the links and images on your WordPress blog. This will tell you if they work or if some cross-references are now dead. Furthermore, the plug-in tells you via the dashboard the total number of links as well as the total number of links with unique URLs and also lists the used anchor texts.

TYPO3

• SEO Basics : With the SEO Basics extension , you can add extra fields to your TYPO3 blog pages where you can enter the title tag and the description. In addition, a submodule gives you an overview page of all the titles and descriptions of your project, which can be found under "Web" -> "Info". In edit mode, you will also find out if you have inserted the keywords in the description enough times.

• mindshape SEO : For a simple title and description configuration, the extension mindshape SEO is best suited. In addition to new fields for submitting this information, the SEO Preview gives you an overview of all the pages on your blog, including a preview of the Google search results page and an assessment of the metadata you entered. In addition, the module implements a Sitemap Generator and a field for specifying specific Facebook meta tags .

Joomla

• Easy Frontend SEO ( EFSEO ): With the free extension Easy Frontend SEO you can extend your Joomlainstallation with easy administration of all important metadata in the frontend. You can choose whether the data should be generated automatically or entered manually , and define specific access rights for the latter option, unless each user is allowed to change the title and other metadata.

• SEO Keyword Factory : A useful extension to common SEO features is SEO Keyword Factory. The plug-in automatically generates search engine-optimized URLs that contain the important keywords, thus making your work much easier.

Drupal

• Real-time SEO for Drupal : Based on the JavaScript library YoastSEO.js and the Metatag module Real-time SEO for Drupal realizes an analysis of your blog pages in real time. Among other things, the extension checks whether your articles are long enough, whether you have appropriate descriptions including the focus keyword installed or whether your text is search engine friendly structured.

• CDN : If your blog has high traffic and you plan to integrate a Content Delivery Network for relief, the Drupal CDN module is the answer . It will automatically adjust the URLs of your web project's data (CSS, JavaScript, fonts, videos, images, etc.) so that your visitors will retrieve them from the selected CDN, not from the web server.

contao

• keywordDensity : Considering all embedded elements, the keywordDensity extension checks and evaluates the keyword density of your blog posts. For this purpose you can deposit three search terms per article and enter specific specifications, on the basis of which the evaluation in the form of red, yellow and green markings in the text takes place. The keywordsAnnexics extension can increase the number of considered keywords.

• Google Keyword Suggest ( qwat-gks ): Using the qwat-gks module, you can use the Google autocomplete search capabilities directly from your Contao backend. With the suggested suggestions you can enrich your keyword and thus optimize the texts, titles and descriptions of the articles of your blog for search engines.

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