It’s a no-brainer: You don’t need to be an SEO expert to be a successful blogger. After all, countless marketers themselves follow blogs about cooking, nail art, or even political commentary – none of which have anything to do with SEO. Many top-performing blogs achieve high rankings and attract numerous backlinks without obsessing over SEO. Their success stems from focusing on these key areas:

• Exceptional content: The most popular blogs garner massive readerships simply because their content is top-notch. It’s that straightforward. (Here’s a quick refresher on the eight elements that constitute exceptional content.)
• Appealing design: An appealing design is almost as crucial as great content – your business blog should be visually appealing and user-friendly. High-quality images or illustrations are a definite advantage.
• Community cultivation: Successful bloggers foster an engaged and dedicated following. While fresh traffic from search engines is always welcome, their primary focus remains on nurturing their loyal readership.
• Social promotion: Bloggers who are passionate about their content aren’t shy about sharing it. They actively promote new content on platforms like Twitter and Facebook without delay, initiating a chain reaction of reading, sharing, and engagement. By excelling in these four areas, you’re inherently implementing effective SEO. Google recognizes that featuring your blog prominently in search results will satisfy its users. However, there’s always room for improvement. Let’s explore some techniques and blogging tips familiar to SEO specialists but often overlooked by non-SEO bloggers.

Incorporate Internal Links

Internal linking shouldn’t be misconstrued as “PageRank manipulation” or some other dubious SEO tactic. The primary objective of regular internal linking is to enhance user engagement and encourage visitors to explore your site further. Suppose your blog, CinemaFunk, ranks highly for “movie review blogs.” That’s fantastic! However, imagine a visitor landing on your blog after searching for “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints Review.” They discover your movie review and find it engaging … but will they stay on your site and read more?

They might, especially if they appreciate your writing style. Fortunately, CinemaFunk features a sidebar with links to recent and popular reviews. This tactic effectively reduces bounce rate, as new visitors can easily navigate to other content that showcases your best work. However, relying solely on sidebar links has a drawback – they lack direct relevance to the specific article the visitor is currently reading. In this example, the blogger missed an opportunity to link to a previous review. They compared the current movie to another film, Upstream Color, but didn’t provide a link:

Such a link would be highly relevant to the reader and should have been included. Don’t make your readers rely on your site search to find related content! You know your own material better than anyone, so identifying older posts to link to while writing should be a breeze.

Internal Linking Best Practices:

• If you’re working on a new post and realize there’s nothing relevant to link to, consider it a guide for future content. For instance, CinemaFunk compared Gravity to 2001 but lacked a review of 2001 to link to. Why not publish reviews of classic films?
• Always use descriptive anchor text when linking internally. Instead of generic phrases like “reviewed last week,” hyperlink specific terms like “Upstream Color review.” This informs readers about the link’s destination. While there’s a theoretical risk of over-optimizing anchor text, it’s unlikely to occur if you’re not using automation or engaging in link schemes.
• Avoid excessive linking. Text overloaded with links becomes difficult to read and will likely be ignored by readers.
• Don’t become so focused on internal linking that you neglect external links. Sometimes, an external link is the most valuable resource for your readers. Additionally, when someone clicks on an external link, your site will appear in their analytics’ referring sites list, potentially alerting relevant site owners to your existence.

Optimize Images for Search

Popular blogs outside the SEO realm often feature stunning images and photography. Consider Michelle Phan, who runs a highly popular beauty blog. Her site is replete with visually appealing images, like this one:

Right-clicking this image in Chrome and selecting “Inspect element” reveals the optimization efforts made:

The image has been optimized for Pinterest, with a “PIN THIS” overlay appearing on hover. This is a smart move, considering Pinterest’s significant role in driving traffic to beauty and lifestyle blogs.

However, there’s room for further optimization. The file name is a random string of characters, making it unintelligible to both humans and search engines. Additionally, the alt text doesn’t describe the image, merely referencing the post title (“My Week in Photos”).

Image Optimization Best Practices:

• Use descriptive words in image file names. Instead of 662gf…., this photo could be named something like purple-lips.jpg.
• Utilize alt text to describe the image. Employ words that accurately convey the image’s content to Google, improving its ranking in image search results.
• Choose images relevant to your post’s topic. This allows you to use keywords that enhance both the image’s and the post’s ranking in search results.
• Refrain from keyword stuffing in image file names and alt text. It’s unnecessary to cram numerous keywords, such as “purple lips sparkly lips purple lipstick purple glitter lipstick,” into your alt text.

Long-Tail Keyword Research

Successful bloggers possess an innate ability to understand their audience’s interests and pay close attention to reader comments and requests. They often stumble upon valuable keywords organically, even without relying on keyword tools! If you excel at providing your audience with what they crave, more power to you. However, even if you don’t typically use keyword research tools for initial content ideas, they can be invaluable for identifying long-tail keyword variations within your chosen topic. Incorporating these long-tail terms in your content expands your reach to a wider range of search queries. While Google no longer offers a public keyword tool without an AdWords account, numerous alternatives exist for discovering long-tail keywords, such as Google Suggest:

Let’s analyze a random blog post from my Feedly: “Five Books on French Cuisine.” A quick glance at Keyword Planner reveals that “French food” has almost triple the search volume of “French cuisine.”

Therefore, incorporating variations like “French food books,” “books on French food,” or “books about French food” would be beneficial. (The phrase “French food” appears only once in the post and doesn’t qualify as a long-tail term.) Furthermore, there are additional possibilities: “traditional French food,” “French food recipes,” and so on. Discovering these terms before writing might influence your approach. You might opt for separate posts: one on traditional French food or culinary history, another on contemporary French cookbooks. Alternatively, you could create a comprehensive list divided into subcategories, incorporating long-tail variations like “Easy French Food Cookbooks” within subheadings.

Long-Tail Keyword Best Practices:

• Use long-tail keywords to enrich your content. Conducting long-tail keyword research might uncover previously overlooked points or inspire new ideas.
• Incorporate long-tail keywords in subheadings, image file names, and meta descriptions, not just the main body of text.
• Avoid long-tail keyword stuffing. Use long-tail keywords naturally without making it obvious that you’re optimizing for SEO. Don’t fall into the trap of this old joke:

BONUS: Additional Blog SEO Best Practices You Might Be Overlooking

• Do you optimize your URL structure to ensure it clearly reflects the post’s content? Some blogging platforms assign random URL strings instead of using relevant keywords, like in this example: thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/10/pumpkin-cinnamon-rolls/
• Do you moderate comments and respond to all legitimate ones?
• Do you make sharing your content effortless with prominent social sharing buttons? If blogging is part of your online presence but SEO isn’t your primary focus, take a critical look at your blogging practices. You might be missing out on opportunities to optimize your content effectively.