5 Powerful SEO Hacks All Bloggers Need to Use

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can seem complicated and overwhelming to a blogger, especially if you don’t consider yourself enormously techie. However, if you don’t learn to use essential SEO hacks, your blog will suffer and won’t attract readers.

If you are going to do all the work involved in blogging, blogging a book, or blogging about your book’s topic, you want to get results, do you not? You want people interested in your topic to show up and read what you write.

For that to happen, you must cater your posts to search engine algorithms and “requirements” as well as to any internet content trends. But most bloggers don’t have the time to stay updated on what’s new in the world of SEO and content marketing. That’s where a few easy, tested, and powerful SEO hacks come in handy.

I say “tested” because the hacks I will share aren’t necessarily new. They are tried and true, which is why plugins like SEO by Yoast continue suggesting you optimize your posts using them.

So, what are these powerful SEO hacks all bloggers need to use?

Know Your Topic

Before discussing the five powerful SEO hacks I promised, I must cover one crucial point. You must know what our blog post is about. What is the topic you are writing about?

That topic is your “keyword.” If you need a few words to describe it, it becomes a “keyword phrase.” For example, your post’s subject and keyword might be “bankruptcy.” A keyword phrase could be “avoid bankruptcy” or “how to avoid bankruptcy.”

Typically, the term “keyword” is used in digital marketing to describe a word or a group of words that an Internet user enters into a search engine’s search bar. That’s the easiest way to understand keywords.

From that perspective, begin your post by considering what queries people make in a Google search related to your blog topic. You can do some research using free keyword tools, Keyword Sheeter, Answer the Public, or QuestionsDB.

Once you have a keyword or keyword phrase, implement the following five hacks.

1. Your Headline

Write a blog post headline that is interesting and has strong SEO. It must contain the keyword related to your post, and it’s best to place that term at the start of the headline.

The headline has to be short enough to be easily seen in totality when it comes up in a Google search—but not too short. (Typically, the headline needs to be 8 or 10 words or approximately 55 characters long.) It also should feature emotional, unusual, and powerful words.

Certain types of headlines work better from an SEO perspective. For instance, a strong headline might offer a list (like this post) or clearly present a negative or positive sentiment.

Check your headlines before publishing! You can use a free headline analyzer like the tool provided by Monster Insights.

2. Your First Paragraph

The first paragraph of your blog post must include your keyword or keyword phrase. Tell the reader immediately what the blog post is about using words similar to those in your headline. (Consider developing your headline and using it as a starting point when writing the post.)

3. Your Subheadings

Place subheadings, or section titles, strategically throughout your blog post. Pay attention to when you change subjects (even subtly), and let the reader know what is coming next.

Be sure to break your post into 300 words or fewer sections. Each of these should have a subheading, and several subheadings must include the keyword, keyword phrase, or some variation of these terms.

4. Your Images

When uploading images to your blog post, ensure they are tagged on the back end with your keyword or keyword phrase. WordPress asks you to add an image description in two places. One or both should include your keyword or keyword phrase.

5. Your Keyword Density

Don’t make the mistake of trying to add your keyword or keyword phrase too many times. You’ll get dinged for “keyword stuffing” or trying to rank highly by adding the keyword many times when it isn’t necessarily appropriate.

Simply stay on topic. Write about the subject of your blog post and website. That’s the best way to provide organic SEO.

Then, check that you’ve used the keyword or keyword phrase naturally two to five times in a 500-word blog post, or about once every 100–200 words for longer posts. Another general guideline is to use your primary keyword around one to two percent of the total word count.

A Quick SEO Checklist

Here’s a SEO checklist to use for each post:

• Include your primary keyword in the title.
• Use your keyword in the first 100 words of your post, strategically placing it within the initial sentences.
• Incorporate keywords in subheadings.
• Use the keyword naturally throughout the content.
• Include the keyword in the post’s meta description to help with search engine visibility. (This will only be visible if you use an SEO plugin.)

Use an SEO Plugin

To easily and powerfully provide SEO for each of your blog posts, use an SEO plugin like SEO by Yoast. There are others you can try, and usually, the free version is enough to do a good SEO job on each post. For instance, even the free version of Yoast indicates that you have not used basic SEO hacks. It also provides a place to add a meta description (sometimes called a “snippet”) for a WordPress post and indicates if your post is too short.

I’ve used Yoast for years, but you can choose whatever plugin you prefer for your site. Of course, my site is built on WordPress. Yours may not be, which could make a difference in your choice.

Whatever you do, find a way to implement these powerful SEO hacks. You can do it on your own or with the help of technology. That’s up to you.

In the end, SEO helps get your posts seen by readers. And that’s the point of blogging, blogging a book, or blogging about your book, isn’t it? You want to develop an audience for your work and have your posts read, so be sure to focus attention on SEO.

How do you ensure you provide strong SEO for your blog posts? Tell me in a comment below, and please share this post with a friend and on social media.