HAPPY HALLOWEEN BABES!!!
I am over here, cat face painted on, rushing to get this post live so I can sweat off my cat face at Orange Theory. In retrospect, the whole cat face was probably not the best idea… but I didn’t want to be the only grinch at Orange Theory not in costume & this was the best I could do in 5 minutes (if you take Orange Theory classes… you know how festive they get over everythingggg.)
Also- this post is kinda fitting to go live today cause the orange slip dress w/ the black accessories just turned out to be very Halloween-ish of me, yes?
BUT I DIGRESS, as per usual.
Today I wanna talk about something that blogger’s find SO SCARY, but really isn’t at all- SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is the magic of making search engines notice you & your epic content you’re creating. Sadly, you can’t just write out some feelings, add some pictures, & go on with your day *hoping* people will find what you’re talking about. YOU GOTTA OPTIMIZE IT.
Search engines are smart, but they aren’t magicians, so SEO is how you are gonna tell search engines what you’re talking about & why you need to show up closer to the top than the other chick blogging about SEO tips for bloggers (see what I did there? no? you will when you finish reading this post…).
Let’s get into this guys… SEO class is officially in session.
8 SEO Tips & Tricks for Bloggers
1. Install the All in One SEO plugin
If you’re on WordPress (which I hope you are, cause it’s the best for blogging), download & install the YOAST SEO plugin. Here is a great article walking you through all the steps to set it up properly, but I promise- it’s very simple. When in the backend of your post, you will now have an area to enter your META description (a short paragraph explaining what you’re post is about so Google knows) along with your keyword (one keyword/phrase that sums things up- for this post, my keyword is “SEO TIPS FOR BLOGGERS”).
** tip: use this keyword in your body of your post too- NOW do you see what I did above? **
The cool thing about this plugin, it gives you a score on how the SEO is for this post. If it’s not great, which is indicated by a color (red, yellow, or green- like a stoplight), it will tell you what exactly you need to do to fix it & get to that GREEN means go.
2. ALT text on Images
Giving your image some “ALT text” is basically telling Google what the image is about or the content behind it, which in turn makes the image readable by search engines.
Again, if you’re on WordPress, simply click on your image & then click on the little pencil- here you can give it a quick description. For this post, for example, one of my ALT texts may be “Fashionlush SEO tips for bloggers”, while another could be “Fashionlush Fall Transitional Slip Dresses”.
3. Link Building
Referral traffic is a great thing because it drives people back to your site, but it also helps build authority & the more authority a site has, the higher it will rank for certain search terms.
Some good ways to go about link building include: interview swaps with other bloggers who have a similar sized audience as you (you can use Alexa.com as a comparison tool!), reach out to online publications to see if they take contributors & offer to write content for their site (i.e. FabFitFun), or sign up for a site like Influenster (it’s a platform for product reviews & is a great way to get your links out there!).
4. Use Headings in your posts
When writing posts, this is a big one, UTILIZE your headings. Headings are BIG call to actions for search engines. When a search engine “crawls” your content, those headings tell search engines what you’re talking about.
Think about it like your old school text books when you had to use highlighters to help you study. IDK about you guys, but I would always color code my highlighters. Yellow was most important, then pink, then green. Same goes for these headers.
H1 should be your MAIN topic (pro tip: use your keyword we talked about above as an H1 header in your post) & then H2 will be subtopics. You can go down the list all the way to H6, but personally I keep it in between H1-H4 when it comes to my headers.
EXAMPLE: In this post, you can see where I used H1 as the main header for this list & then all of these tip titles are H2 headings. Google is gonna love me.
In your post editor there is a drop down that says paragraph- if you select your text you can change that to be a heading.
5. Beef Up Your Posts
400 words plus. I can’t say much more than that. I wish I could get away with a ton of images, three sentences, call it a day… but you just can’t! Not only is that not providing much value to your readers, but it is providing ZERO value to search engines. Get your word counter going!!
6. Update Links/Fix Broken Images
It’s unrealistic to expect you to weed through all your old content & fix broken images/update links- but if you ever come across a post that looks a little wonky (i.e. from an old site design) or there are broken image links- don’t just forget about it. Fix that- Google doesn’t like errors or broken images (they will ding you!!)
Also, study your Google Analytics & see which posts are bringing in traffic. For me- I have some posts from 2 years ago bringing in traffic, so I go back every so often & make sure all the links are up to date!
7. Recirculate Old Content on Pinterest
Following up on the above… when you find an old post that did really well, you should def. recirculate it on Pinterest! Ideally you want to find that original pin & REPIN it again. Pinterest is a search engine of it’s own, so just getting your stuff out there (or back out there, in this case) is a great idea to get more hits to your site, increase domain authority, & repurpose old content.
EXAMPLE: I had some Halloween posts from last year that were really cool- so I re-pinned them to give them some fresh loving.
8. Utilize Google+
I mean, the name says it all. Google+ is owned by Google… so USE IT because it will definitely help improve your SEO. You basically want to kiss Google’s ass, & using Google+ will help you do just that.
Set up your bio, make it look good, create some collections, network with other bloggers/like minded peeps, & def. use it to share your latest posts- just like you share all your amazing content on Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest, you should be doing the SAME on Google+!
P.S. FOLLOW ME ON GOOGLE+, let’s hang & boost some SEO.
9. Install an SSL Certificate on your Site
Google is BIG about keeping the internet safe, & having an SSL Certificate installed on your site shows Google that your site is safe & secure for people to visit.
The quickest way to see if a site has an SSL Certificate installed? Look at the domain bar right now, see how Fashionlush has “HTTPS” in front of it (versus just HTTP)? Yea- that extra S means you are safe over here. YAY me. Google, are we BFF’S yet?
Seriously though- that extra S on the end is part of the Google SEO ranking algorithm. The second you get your SSL installed, you will immediately boost your rank. Plus, HTTPS sites go faster & the faster your site is, the higher the rank as well.
How to get an SSL certificate installed? Well… you gotta have someone do it, BUT you’re in luck cause I have an EPIC SEO girl. Her name is Jordan, her company is called InfluencerSEO (site coming soon!!) & you can contact her HERE. She can just do an SSL for you, but I suggest hiring her cause I did & my SEO has never been better!
The Edit | Transitional Slip Dresses
& because I am also a fashion blogger rocking a slip dress… let’s talk about that for a quick minute (little SEO breather). Slip dresses really are my closet staple. They are always easy to style & chic, but also make for the perfect Fall/Winter transitional piece.
To dress up your slip dress for cooler temps, think layered chunky sweaters, darker accessories (if you live in San Diego & the weather won’t let you wear chunky sweaters), leather jackets, & layered pieces underneath. The options are endless!!
I am wearing one from Sincerely Jules shop (nicest blogger EVER) & the burnt orange color is just perfect for Fall. When/if the weather cools down I am envisioning it layered with a turtleneck underneath & a motorcycle jacket or maybe even a black teddy bear style coat. AHH- just dreaming of a REAL winter over here.
What I’m Wearing
Sincerely Jules ‘Charmer’ Slip Dress | Gucci Marmont waist bag | wooden heel boots (sold out- similar here & here) | Topshop baker boy hat | Ray Ban round sunglasses | gold bangles