Summary

The website provides a guide on enhancing SEO using five free techniques focused on keyword optimization, internal linking, and proper use of headings.

Abstract

The article "How to Enhance SEO" outlines five free strategies for improving a website's search engine optimization. It emphasizes the importance of selecting specific keywords or phrases to reduce competition and improve visibility. The article advises using these keywords in titles, within the first 100 words, and in the first half of the content, as well as in image titles and alt text. It also suggests breaking up content with headings and subheadings, linking to other relevant posts, and ensuring all links are functional to maintain SEO. Additionally, the article debunks myths about duplicate content and emphasizes the significance of a compelling, keyword-rich title. The author shares personal experience of improved blog traffic and follower count by applying these techniques.

Opinions

The author believes that paying for plug-ins or business sites is not necessary for new bloggers to improve their SEO.
Using Google Trends to monitor keyword performance is recommended for optimizing article exposure.
Overusing keywords can negatively impact SEO, suggesting that quality and readability should not be sacrificed for keyword density.
Internal linking is considered more beneficial than external linking for SEO and reader engagement.
Regular checks for broken links are important to maintain SEO.
The author disputes the myth that duplicate content across platforms affects SEO, trusting search engines to identify the original source.
Quality content is highlighted as the number one tip for successful blogging, beyond SEO techniques.
The author invites readers to support their work and offers a mentoring course for further guidance.

How to Enhance SEO

Five Free Techniques

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation are steps you take to make your site more attractive to search engines.

When I started blogging it was a foreign language. Over the months I have researched ways to improve my Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I have slowly started to advance up that ever slippery slope.

Most of the pages dedicated to improving SEO suggested you download plug-ins to your website. Easy enough, except to use plug-ins you have to have a business site at £18 a month.

As a new blogger, I was not willing to commit this amount of money every month.

Here are the five free techniques I used to increase my SEO.

1 ) Keywords or Phrases

It is important to choose your keywords or phrases carefully.

If you were writing an article on fluffy cats and used the keywords ‘Fluffy Cats’ you would find many posts. If you changed those keywords to be ‘Ginger Fluffy Cats’ you have already cut the articles down.

Ensure when you write your posts that your keywords are as specific as possible.

You can then check how these keywords are performing on search engines. Google Trends is an easy way to do this. As a writer, you can then tweak your phrase for maximum exposure.

2 ) Using Those Keywords

Once you have settled on your keywords you need to use them to your advantage. Ensure that the keyword or phrases are used in the title of the post. Then ensure it appears again within the first 100 words of your post and once more in the first half of your writing.

Don’t cram keywords in every sentence, as this will actually have a negative impact on your rating.

Ensure that you use relevant pictures in your post. Pictures can also help increase SEO. Don’t upload a picture which is called JPG12345, change the name to your keywords.

You can do this by right-clicking on the image and hitting rename before you upload. Further to this you can then hover over the picture on many websites and click to edit it. Change not only the title of the picture but the Alt Text to your keywords or phrase.

Finally, ensure that you use the keyword or phrase once more in the conclusion to the article. Ensure that before you hit publish, you use the keywords or phrase as tags in the post.

3 ) Use headings and subheadings.

Ensure that your article is broken up into headings and subheadings. I use WordPress for my blog. They state Heading 1, Heading 2. Obviously, Heading 2 will rank higher in the search results than Heading 4. Again try to use your keywords and phrases but don’t stuff them in so the post doesn’t flow.

4 ) Link to Other Posts

This is the easiest of all the tricks and has other rewards. Ensure that you link to past blogs you have written. Linking to other sites is also good, but not as productive as linking to other posts you have written.

Increase SEO and increase views to older posts as well.

It is important when using links that you check to make sure that all these links are still relevant. A broken link, as it is called can reduce SEO. I do this by using a simple online checker once every 6 weeks.

5 ) You Control Your Title

Ever seen a post published where the titles are a bunch of random numbers. This happens when the host site tries to assign you a title and fails.

You can also change this to be more concise and contain your keywords or phrase. On WordPress, you click here

On Medium you click here

There will be a way to do this on all hosting sites. Use their help menu to try and locate it if you can’t find it.

Myths About SEO

There is a common misconception that posting duplicate content across many platforms. For example on your personal website and Medium can affect your SEO. This is not the case. Search engines are clever enough to know where the original content was published. They will send you to this article first, but it will not affect your SEO.

It is up to the individual writer to decide which is their main platform for writing and post to that first.

The idea that if you alter your post then searches will recognise them as two different posts, is wrong. If search engines see two posts very similar they may think that your website is copying content. Rather than enhancing your SEO, it could reduce it.

Finally

These are the basics of Search Engine Optimisation. Search for more detailed posts to take the concept further.

Over the months I have seen an increase in traffic to my blog and my followers have increased. Just, from adopting these five simple techniques.

This was not an overnight success but, it has made a difference.

Remember though my number one tip is always provide quality posts for your readers.

Do you have any tips for increasing your SEO?

Support my writing here and access my mentoring course for more tips and tricks.