The WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners: Part Three
· BlueHat Marketing
Now your blog is replete with high-quality, properly researched posts with SEO-optimized titles. You’ve done the categories and the tags, and put in images with the right keywords sprinkled in. You’ve shared your posts on social media and everyone is flocking to your blog to read what you have to say. You’re basically a star. There’s still more to do though - if you want to really do WordPress SEO right.
The WordPress SEO guide for beginners part 1 and part 2 have helped you get the basics of craft down, but there are still a few more things you need to get down before you can call yourself an expert. Part 3 will take your game to new levels.
Interact in comments
There have been some controversial decisions in recent times where companies have disabled comments. This is not necessarily a good idea. Interacting in the comments with your readership is still very valuable on WordPress. According to blog giant Copyblogger, they are crucial. Here’s what they had to say:
“Blog comments are an amazing resource for any blog when it’s getting started. It’s a super convenient way to take the pulse of your audience…
And for eight years, comments have been a fantastic thing here on Copyblogger.”
If your blog is on the come up, then you need to have comments on. It helps keep the conversation open and free-flowing, and helps endear your audience to you. You may have to deal with spam and web trolls, but the readers who make your blog worth it will appreciate it. By the way - there are 670,000,000 or more comments left every year on the platform.
Get the title tag and Meta description right
With an SEO plug-in, you could easily manipulate your title tag and Meta description. This is what you see displayed in the SERP. It is your chance to advertise freely on the organic results. Tell web surfers what you are about.
Your title tag needs to grab the reader’s attention. That we’ve already covered. But what about the Meta description? Here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Use keywords, but use them wisely - your Meta description is a great place to sprinkle in some keywords, but its main focus should be to entice the reader to click. Inspire curiosity in them, throw in a call to action, or make them think they are missing out if they don’t click.
- Meta descriptions don’t influence the algorithm - but user behavior does. You shouldn’t throw in a ton of keywords and hope to trick Google’s algorithm. They don’t count it. You instead should focus on modifying user behavior. That means getting them to click.
- Keep it short and sweet - the maximum recommended length it 150 characters. If you can do it in less, great.
Guest blog!
Guest blogging is the ultimate tool in your arsenal. Once you have solidified your presence and tightened up your SEO game on your own blog, it is time to venture out into the blogosphere and link up with others in your niche to make some great guest posts. By guest posting you gain valuable backlinks, but more importantly, you gain exposure to a wide range of people. The more pull the blog has, the better. Here are some good tips to get you started:
- Write a great pitch - guest blogging comes with writing a great pitch. Tell the webmaster why you are great for them, show them what you’ve done, and sketch out a blog that would do great on their site. Show them how your post will mirror other successful posts on their blog, and do it for free to start out. Better yet, see which posts are the most popular in your niche and tell the blog master how you are going to write something related to what’s on fire recently.
- Scour their blog - scour the archives of the blog that you want write for, and see which articles were accepted by guests. From there, you should contact those people and see if you can get them to vouch for you. Try to find out what they did to get accepted.
- Know where you’re at - as a new blogger, you aren’t going to be pulling the top blogs in your niche, at least not likely. Know where you are at. Find other blogs slightly above you but that are attainable. Build your way up.
WordPress SEO is not impossible, but it takes a lot of work and dedication. SEO is more about art than it is science these days, so being able to hone your craft is important to rising in the rankings. WordPress is the most popular blogging theme, and producing high-quality content on it is by far the best way to grow your web presence. This WordPress SEO guide for beginners will have you well on your way to getting a dedicated following.
