Blog Audit Challenge 2021
Welcome back for another month of challenges for the Blog Audit Challenge 2021! I hope you did well with the May challenges. Remember to link up your progress in the May Linky.
Each month we'll concentrate on a different area of our blogs.
The Challenges:
June- SEO
July- Content Promotion
August- Technical Errors
September- Readability
October- Follow Options
November- Security
December- Know Your Stats
Monthly link ups
In order to keep us all on track, and give us a way to see each others progress, I'll be hosting link ups on the first Saturday of every month where participants can share their links and discuss their progress.
#BlogAuditChallenge2021
June Challenges
Our focus for June is on one of my favourite topics... Search Engine Optimisation or SEO.
SEO basically comes down to using certain principles and techniques to improve online traffic and rank higher in search engine results.
Link building is one of the key aspects in building domain authority and are considered one of the main ranking factors. This applies to both internal and external links. As we've already worked on link building in previous months this month we'll be concentrating on other ways you can improve your blog SEO.
The June challenges:
When writing blog posts you want your writing to be natural, you're writing for readers first and search engines second, but you also want to make sure you include keywords to help your content be found in searches. Don't just stuff your blog posts with keywords though. Nobody likes spam and Google's algorithm is no different. Google is constantly getting smarter so you'll need to work harder too. Do your research and use a wide variety of keywords, and fit them in naturally into your article.
Keywords should be both in the headlines you use, and the content you post. One way of inserting keywords into your blog posts in a natural way is by including keyword rich sub-headings.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Google is looking for the best answer to someone's search question. That means that long posts tend to do well as they will be filled with valuable content. Target both short tail and long tail keywords in your posts.
Task 1
Make sure new posts you create are optimised with keywords in the headlines, and blog post, and check older posts to make sure they include keywords in the content of the post. Review the labels and tags for your posts to make sure you're using keywords there too. Edit where needed.
2. Blog Comments
Make sure you reply to ALL comments left on your blog posts, and try to include more than one sentence when you do. Your comments section is additional content for your post. Incorporate your keywords in your comments. Some of your readers might include them in their comments too [#winning!]. This can go a long way to improve your ranking with search engines like Google.
Task 2 - Work on your comments section. Make sure you reply to every comment left on your blog, and try to write longer comments that include your keywords.
3. Metadata
One of the first things Google scans on your website is your metadata. This includes the page titles and meta descriptions. The meta description is the short snippet of text you see in the preview line when you search for something on Google.
Metadata also includes alt-tags for things like images.
Task 3- Make sure every blog post has a title with strategic keywords, a meta description (again featuring keywords), and that all images have keyword rich alt-tags.
There are other ways you can improve the SEO of your blog but these should help get you started and make a big impact.
In general the goal is to make your blog as user friendly and valuable to readers as possible. So, make navigation easy, increase the overall speed of your site, and make it easy for Google to find your content by using the keyword strategies.
Don't forget to promote your participation in the Blog Audit Challenge 2021 by using the following graphic in any blog posts you do connected with the challenge along with a link back to this site.
Save the Date:
The monthly link up post for sharing your June progress will be on 3rd July. The July challenges will be posted on 2nd July.
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7 comments
You have such a sensible and easy to comprehend method of explaining what has always seemed like a quagmire to me. I appreciate your thoughtful posts!
ReplyDeleteThanks DJ ☺️ Glad I managed to make SEO easier to understand. It is of course constantly evolving so there's always new elements to consider and changes to make here and there but the basics I covered here tend to remain relevant regardless of any of the updates they do to the algorithms.
DeleteSEO is the bane of my existence!! It's something I struggle with on a regular basis. I've started inter-linking and trying to do keywords but they still confound me. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm probably one of the few people out there that actually enjoys SEO đŸ¤£
DeleteGreat post. I love your blog audit posts. I am still working my way through old posts. Just got to the end of 2016, only a few more years to go - so many posts.
ReplyDeleteSame here. So many posts! I think you're making better progress than me with your older posts. Way to go! It is a lot of work updating older posts but it's totally worth it.
DeleteI really want to try this challenge, maybe next year. You really are knowledgeable about blogging and I have learned so much from you, Jo’!
ReplyDelete