SEO For Dummies
I did a post about two weeks ago called SEO For Dummies and I thought it would be beneficial because SEO stuff is hard to understand and if I could put it more simply I could help people who may not be the best at technology or computer stuff. It got really good results and I noticed that a lot of people found it helpful and asked for more tips. Since I have been researching SEO for quite a few months now- pretty much since the lockdown began I have picked up on some simple and quick tricks and tips. So, I decided to share some more with you guys. Hope you find these helpful as well.
I don’t know about you guys but when it comes to SEO and all things SEO I feel like kind of a dummy a lot of times and as someone who barely knows anything when it comes to technology I really did not even know what SEO was till like some months ago. I’m not going to lie- SEO stuff makes me feel like a dummy sometimes. Even though the majority of the stuff I read about SEO optimization and stuff like that is in English I feel like it’s written in a different language that I don’t know.
It took a lot of work for me to figure some stuff out and improve my site and I want to spare people the time and effort if I can in some way so I decided to write this article for people like me who may be a bit technologically challenged. I know a lot of you do struggle with SEO stuff because I do get a lot of comments/emails/DM’s asking about it and I also got some people asking about it in a poll I took some time ago asking what you guys want me to write about. That’s why I decided to post this today. I hope you guys find it helpful.
These tips will most likely help you but if you feel like you are still not fully understanding how to make your posts and blog SEO friendly or if you just don’t have the time to make so many changes I wanted to let you know that I do offer SEO services now. I can personally both make your site as well as your blog posts more SEO friendly. For more on these services click here.
What Is SEO?
“SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.”- moz.com
I think this sums up SEO and what is really well so I’m going to just leave it at that.
Why Is SEO Important?
As mentioned above SEO can help you not only increase your traffic from search engines but also help you increase your traffic to a more specific audience. It helps you get an audience that is specifically looking for sites like yours. WordPress is awesome and I love connecting with other bloggers but just having WP traffic isn’t always enough especially if you are looking to blog professionally at some point. SEO gets you this outside traffic from search engines and helps you build your blog and diversifies the audience. Here are some easy and simple ways through which you can improve your SEO:
Keywords
I think keywords is something that most of us have heard of at some point or the other. It is usually the first thing that you read about when you try to do any sort of research on SEO and rightfully so because keywords are an extremely important part of your SEO. Using the correct SEO words can make or break your posts or your site. How you use them is also important.
You may be wondering, just like I was when I first started doing SEO research, what exactly are keywords. A keywords is a specific word that describes the topic of your post and it is the word you want to get traffic for on your site or post. For example, this post is called SEO For Dummies so my keyword would be SEO because that is the subject of this post.
Now you want to use the keyword multiple times throughout the post but you also don’t want to use it so often that search engines write your post off as spam because that will make you lose traffic instead of gain it. You should also try using more of the keyword in the first three paragraphs and fewer as your post progresses.
Meta Descriptions
The circled part of the image above is the meta description. To explain it in a simple way it is the little writing that you first see when you search something that shows you the introduction of a site or a post by the site. Apparently it is super important and having problems with your meta description can mess up your sites SEO score.
One problem could be that you don’t have a meta description which means that for some reason the search engine is not picking up your description. If this is the case it must be fixed right away. I won’t list the ways you can fix this because I personally am not an expert at SEO stuff and the cause for this could be multiple things. I would recommend doing your own research or reaching out to an SEO expert or professional SEO help site like SEMrush.
Another problem could be that you have duplicate meta descriptions which happens when you have copy and pasted the introductions of your post or you have copied someone else’s introduction. That’s why it is important to make sure that every post you have has it’s own unique introduction. If you do have duplicate meta descriptions for some of your posts this can easily be solved by editing the starting five sentences or so for the post or posts.
Post Title
Your post title is an important part of your post for multiple reasons. Firstly, it is what will make your reader decide whether to click on the post and read it or move on to a different post. It should also properly show what the post is about- clickbait is good for one time readers but having an honest title is the best way to go if you want loyal readers that return to your blog. Your title is also very important for SEO purposes.
Firstly, as mentioned above keywords are very essential for your post and therefore you need to make sure that your keyword is mentioned at least once in your title. For example, if you are writing a post about SEO the word “SEO” should be in your title at least once. If you are doing a post about blogging words like “blog”, “blogging“, “blogger” etc. should be in your title. You don’t need to use all of them but at least one of those words should be there.
Another thing you need to look out for when it comes to planning your title is that it should not be too long or too short. People sometimes disagree on the exact number of characters your post title should have but most SEO experts agree that it should have between 15-50 characters and anything more than that would mean your title is too long. If your title is too long or short the search engine may have a hard time finding your posts.
Self-hosting Vs Paid Plan
I’m not an expert at self-hosting or with paid plans but from the research I have done they both have their advantages and disadvantages as far as SEO is concerned.
Self-hosted sites tend to be a lot more easier to customise and offer a lot more options to customise your site in certain ways that a paid plan may not allow you to be able to do. Certain things need to be customised for SEO purposes and therefore this can come in handy. Self-hosted sites also offer very similar features and more for a lower price compared to paid WordPress plans.
The problems I saw with self-hosted though were that first of all you kind of need to do most of the work on your own unless you hire someone to do it for you (but if you’re going to pay someone to do it for you why not just get a slightly more expensive plan and not where you do not have to do a lot of the work). You also need a lot of time and at least some knowledge on how the process is done so if you’re not good with technology or you don’t have a lot of time this may not be for you. There is also a possibility that you will lose content, media or followers during the process of moving to a self-hosted site.
As I mentioned I am not expert when it comes to self-hosting as I have never had a self-hosted site. However, a fellow blogger Jirah Merizz has an awesome self- hosted site where I was able to find a bunch of information about self-hosting such as the benefits, the problems, why self hosting and more. She was also kind enough to give me more information when I reached out to her. She used Hostinger which I think is a pretty good platform to self-host through and if you are interested in more details about self-hosting check out her site as well as Hostinger for more information. Hostinger actually seems to have some kind of 90% off sale at the moment so if you have decided to self-host this might be the right time to go for it.
With a paid plan in my experience WordPress does tend to take care of everything but it is more expensive and at the end of the day you can’t customise to the same extent as you can with self-hosted sites and so certain SEO issues can not be addressed. Also there are certain things that could go wrong- it’s happened to me- that WP will simply tell you there is no way to fix so having WP do it for you is easier but does not guarantee that it will always works out.
Conclusion
I tried really hard to keep this post simple and to the point which I feel like a lot of posts about SEO aren’t because obviously a lot of technical terms and things are involved when it comes to SEO. However, this post is more for the average writer/blogger/site owner who may not always know much about SEO or technical terms. Basically I just didn’t want people to Google every five minutes before they understood what I was saying so I tried to keep it very basic.
I know some people may find that beneficial and if you enjoyed this kind of simple post about how to better your SEO scores I have a lot more simple tips like these that I can share with you so let me know in the comments below if you would be interested in similar posts.
Thoughts
Are you like me and have a hard time understanding SEO? What is something you have learnt about SEO that you have found beneficial? Did you know about the tips I mentioned above and do you use any of them? If so do you find them effective? Would you like to see more similar posts with easy/simple tips and tricks about SEO? As always I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below and if you don’t have any thoughts about SEO feel free to just say hi!
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I have been struggling with the meta description. I think I have a better understanding. I use YeastSeo plugin for my SEO.
I too use yeastseo. I love it!
It’s really good.
Yeah that plugin is definitely very helpful!
Thanks for posting! I too only found out about SEO a few months ago. Its super helpful to use a plugin to help with SEO. Thanks for the tips!! I will say I have learned a lot about blogging from your posts! Thanks a bunch!
Yeah plugins are definitely very helpful! Thank you and I’m so happy to hear that they were helpful!
I keep saying CEO and my kids laugh as it is the language they all get. I’m trying but who knows if I’m getting it. Great you are sharing this.
Lol I called it CEO several times by mistake too! I had to double check this post to make sure I didn’t write CEO by mistake anywhere. Thanks!
That is sooo funny!
Well, your t’s were crossed and your I’s doted, so you’re all good!
Thankfully but expect me to have a typo saying CEO at some point haha!
Oh I should t have put it I. Your head!
Well, you might make more money as a CEO so it’s not all bad.. lol
Lol in that case I’m sticking with CEO…
Love it-:)
Me too! 😂
Helpful, thank you, something I need to work on, C
Glad you found it helpful!
Meta descriptions are so key so I think it’s great that you touched on this and showed an example. Yoast is def my fave SEO plugin since they provide writing tips, too! 💜
Yes they are way more important than people realise!! Yoast is super helpful for a lot of people for sure.
I have a free site on WordPress and it’s less than 2 months old. I’ve reached the first page of Google already. SEO is so important.
Yeah SEO is really vital!
Thank you for explaining everything. I am looking to self host my blog next month as I find premium plan not that worth for the cost I pay. But I have many confusions because I don’t know how and what to do for that. I am thinking of getting Bluehost for hosting and even the domain name as both are going to expire in September.
Yeah I’ve heard Bluehost is good and I think self-hosting is definitely more affordable so if you have the time and skills it is so worth it.
Yeah, if you don’t mind can you tell me do you self host your blog or just use any WP plan?
No, I’m currently using the Premium Plan but I want to transition to a self-hosted site when I am able to.
Same here…but I find premium plan expensive than the Bluehost plan. Bluehost is far cheap than WP premium plan plus I can’t add the Pinterest tag in the premium plan.
Yeah all the WP plans are quite expensive for what they offer. I personally don’t think any of them are worth the price especially when you can self-host for less than half the price.
Yes, you are right. Thank you for clearing my doubts related to this.
I’m glad I was able to help!
So helpful! Thank you so much!
So glad you found it helpful!
Thanks for posting this!! Yes, I did know these tips and the meta description part is accurate. The title and the first paragraph of a post should have the maximum number of keywords to boost SEO. I am still learning as well and let’s see how far I can go XD
Thank you and keep learning for sure!
A really good post.. I am still relatably new blogger. I have a personal plan. Will any plugin work?
No unfortunately you need a Business Plan or higher for plugins.
Reblogged this on .
Thank you!
Welcome 🙂
You have caught so many bloggers problem perfectly.
Thank you so much!
Thanks for the nice guidance.
Hope it helps!
Good
I’m a dummy when I come to seo too. Have you switched to self-hosted site, Pooja?
No I haven’t since it’s a lot of work but I was thinking about switching after I’m done with university and have a bit more time to concentrate on my blog. It’s significantly more affordable and you get so many features.
That’s good thinking. You’ll need some time.
Love this, Pooja! I still struggling with grasping the whole concept of SEO too, but it’s very important for all bloggers!
Yes it is so important if you want to grow your blog! Thank you!
You explained it very well is a simple language.
Thank you so much!
Hey do make a blog on how to transition your website from a WordPress domain to a different domain, the costs, hosting services, best domains for poetries and how some people loose their followers while doing so and how to not (avoid) that mistake. 😅
What do you mean from a WP domain to another one? Like to self-hosting your site? Unfortunately, I don’t self-host so I can’t write about that since I have no experience but Jirah has a lot of posts about that you can check out. Also you can end up losing followers even if you don’t make mistakes- there is no guarantee that you won’t and in most cases WP or anyone else can’t help you once you have lost them. That’s a big reason I’m afraid to make changes to my blog/plan at the moment. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help but I know very little about most of the things you mentioned 😢
Oh! I thought you self host. No probs I will read her posts.
I am beginning to get afraid now.
It’s ok 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
No worries! It is of course a risk but the risk is extremely minor and the benefits are very worth it in my opinion.
I will give it a shot maybe a year or so later not sure rn. Which plan do you have ?
Currently I’m on the Premium Plan
Great btw if you don’t mind may I ask when did you switch to paid versions (how much followers you had when you switched )?
I had 10,000 followers before I switched and I was making at least equivalent to what I was paying to the plan monthly which is what I always recommend. You can check out my information about the plans and upgrading here if you’re interested:
https://lifesfinewhine.com/2019/12/28/thinking-of-upgrading-your-wordpress-plan-in-2020-read-this-first-part-2/
https://lifesfinewhine.com/2019/12/28/thinking-of-upgrading-your-wordpress-plan-in-2020-read-this-first-part-1/
I read bit the posts and they are awesome, I think I should wait for 6 more months and then switch to a premium one probably.
Also, for the question I asked I meant when did you bought your domain and monetized your site as in removed .wordpress ?
So to remove the .wordpress you need to buy a plan and a domain- both separately. I bought mine in August, 2019.
Oh! Cool do you have a blog post on that I would live to read it.
1. Any rough idea on how many followers you had at that time (August 2019)?
2. How long had you been blogging before that ?
Yeah as I mentioned I had just reached 10k followers and I had been blogging since August 2015. I do have a post about the change that I’ll link: https://lifesfinewhine.com/2019/08/08/big-news-the-good-kind/
Oh! Got it. That’s quite a long time. I think waiting would be good. Thanks a ton!! I will go through it!!
You’re welcome!
yet again a very helpful post from you Pooja. Thanks a ton 🙂
Thank you- so glad you found it helpful!
Awesome
Thanks so much for sharing this. Would definitely work on the points given thanks
Thank you and hope it helps!
Really amazing post. I am new to blogging and it is really helpful
Thank you- I’m so glad to hear that!
Another great easy to read post Pooja!! I have heard about everything you’ve mentioned but wouldn’t be able to do most of it on my own. That’s why I got Debby too 🙂
Thank you! I completely understand what you mean- it’s so much work doing everything on your own. It would take hours everyday for months if you already have preexisting posts you need to edit.
I try (when I’m well) to edit old posts, at least one a day – so it’s going to take a while.
Yeah it does take a while but eventually it is worth it.
Very Nice Pooja… <3 <3
Spirituality Awakening
Thank you!
You are most Welcome 🙂
Thanks, this is so helpful and I’d definitely appreciate further tips 😊
So glad you found it helpful and more tips will be coming soon for sure!
With as much disdain as I have for what SEO has done to the Internet, I am still uncharacteristically drawn to your posts about SEO. Lol. I love that your writing has a definitive personality behind it that even comes through on posts about such a dry of a topic as this. I strive for that but I think it’s always difficult to see it in your own writing.
Wow thank you so much that is such a huge compliment because I do try hard to put my own little twist on all my posts. I do think your posts do have your own unique twist to them too! I’m glad you’re enjoying my SEO posts and aren’t finding them too dry because some of the posts I had to read to learn about SEO almost put me to sleep lol!
Pinned this to read later. As much as you say it’s for dummies, I think I need a bit of coffee and an alert mind so I can take notes. Super excited for this second one!
I totally understand- SEO is still complicated to an extent even if it is simplified!
LOL is there a category for dumb dummies?
I may need to start making those too lol 😂
you explain things so clearly! I never understood a thing about this topic and here I am, starting to figure it out!
Thank you so much! I tried to keep it very precise and simple because SEO can be a lot to take in.
to be honest, I have never paid much attention to it. However, if I was blogging for a living, I would pay much closer attention to SEO…
Yeah if you want to make money blogging SEO is pretty vital.
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Educative post, getting to know more about SEO.
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for this information 😊
Hope it helps!
Thank you
You’re welcome
I truly appreciate these posts. I definitely have to go back and look at my meta description. Seriously these are so helpful for clueless SEO first timers like me! I have a lot more work to do.
So glad you’re finding them helpful! I have the same problem- some of my posts have the same meta description so I need to work on those one by one. Unfortunately it’s a very long process but so worth it- my views have increased a lot after making my site more SEO friendly.
Oh man I have SO much to learn. I look forward to more of these posts!
Honestly I do too- SEO is sooo complicated 😣
Informative post!
Thank you!
Informative post….
Thank you!
I knew about these tips except the keywords and self hosting part Pooja. Thanks for the education!!! SEO is really quite the task. I’d like to add that alt tags for images can also help improve your SEO performance.
Glad this taught you something new! yes alt tags for images is really helpful as well!
Exactly!
Reblogged this on Lifesfinewhine.
Wow, so many comments, Pooja! I know what SEO is but frankly don’t give it any thought. I have the WP Business plan and could use a plugin but haven’t tried it.
Lol it’s an old post so the comments have accumulated! Yeah honestly SEO is great if you’re trying to make money off blogging but if it’s more of a hobby it’s not that important. Plus, paying too much attention to SEO can ruin your post. For example, they say the posts have to be long but in my opinion short posts do just as well if your post is good.
SEO is so important! This post is so handy. Thank you!
Yes it is and glad you found the post helpful!
Thank you for writing this again. It truly helps. I think I had known about keywords and such, much before I started a blog, however, I too don’t have a self hosted site or a paid WordPress plan. So I think some of those SEO Optimization tricks others use won’t fit into mine.
Happy to help. Yeah some of them are specifically for those with a paid plan or self hosted blogs.
😊🙏
I hate the technicalities that come with SEO. :/
I think you’ve covered all the basics really well. I would add that I find the Yoast Plugin helpful with the paid plan. I don’t do much SEO but I do do what Yoast suggests till I get that GREEN SMILE. 😀
I have created my brand’s website by myself and I really did like how easy the business plan from WP made it. But I so think that in a year or so if I expand my business – I’d definitely self host and hire someone to design my site.
Yup the technicalities are the worst part.
Yes Yoast is wonderful and I would encourage anyone who has plugins to try it out! Your brand’s page looks great and I’m sure it’ll be even better when you self-host!
Wow, this was easy to understand. 😊
That’s great thanks!
Yes, I struggle with SEO as well, I wish Google would just have some kind of guide and clear explanation, anyways, thanks for this post, it helps.
Glad this helps and yes unfortunately SEO is quite unnecessarily complicated.
Great post thanks for sharing
Thanks so much.