How To Make Your Website SEO Optimized

Making your website SEO friendly is extremely important for everyone online. Search engine optimisation is honestly a learning curve. If you think that making your website, and understanding WordPress is the toughest part of making money online, then you are mistaken. For all website owners to become part of the online world, and be successful, you need to make your website fast, informative, original, and much, much more.

Write the best and most informative response to a specific question. Make your website user friendly with a clean layout and easy navigation. The more helpful your website is to people who visit your site, the more traffic you will get. Follow the guidelines by Google, and you can read their extensive guidelines for more information on the topic. I am going to run you through a few that are easy to understand and follow through with. If you are wondering what SEO is, then it is when website owners will build their websites according to some rules to be as optimised for search engines as possible.

This website has affiliate links that I earn a commission from without any extra cost to you. This means that if you click on a link and purchase something, I might make a little money. You will not be charged extra, and some of the affiliate links I use have discounts so stay tuned!

Get SSL and CDN

If you already have SSL and CDN for your website, skip this step. For detailed information, where you can get free SSL and CDN, and how to get it done, read this post How To Get Free SSL And CDN. Make sure to get this done. The importance of SSL and CDN is manifold. You see these two upgrades will make your website faster on all fronts of the world wide web.

SEO optimised website layout

Whether you are building your own website or a professional is going to build it for you, make sure it is easy to navigate. There are several things that you need to look out for like site navigation, accessible about page and no clutter.

It may seem like a wonderland of things you can add to your website page, but less is more. Your website should have a clean layout because the more clutter it has, the harder it will be for any user to navigate through the site.

Try to empty your sidebar as much as possible. Put your social links and maybe a ‘recent posts’ menu in your sidebar, leave the rest empty. In this way, you will have more ad space in the future too.

An over cluttered page is overwhelming, and unless someone made a well-formatted design, most people will veer away from your posts as it could also impede a user’s reading experience. Most websites today have a white background and simple navigation all over the site.

Site navigation is the fact that a user should be able to go to any page on your website from any page. Make a menu in your header and footer to all your posts and pages. This way, when someone is reading a page or a post your site, they will be able to click through other helpful pages for more information.

Here is a quick list of pages that should be accessible:

• About page
• Terms of service
• Disclaimer
• Privacy Policy
• a menu to all your posts collectively or categorised

You want users to visit your read your post and then visit other pages on your without any trouble.

Create good content

When you use Google to do any search, it is usually a question-based search. If you can write a full and thorough answer to a question, then you just nailed blogging. When someone who visits your site is satisfied with your post, they will read your entire post, stay on your website for a few minutes, and maybe click through other pages on your site. If that is what reader’s do on your site, then your site is excellent.

Alternatively, if your site has short posts, that partially answer part of a question, in a search term, then here is what most people will do. They will visit your site, read part of your post, without spending more than a few seconds on your website. Then they will look through other websites to find the answer to their problem, and this will send a horrible message to Google that signals your site is not informative and helpful.

So when you write about a specific topic, make sure it is something you are knowledgeable about, or you are passionate about the topic and are willing to learn anything and everything you can about the subject.

It is true that you do not need to be a professional on a specific topic to write about it on a website, but what you write should be legitimate content. SEO specialists are not trying to teach you how to be a hustler! So if you want to write about pets because you have cared for them your entire life then write about it, make a vet review your medical advice and after it has been approved publish it on your site.

However, if you want to write about pet care without any knowledge, then get a pet and then you will have more hands-on experience for writing better content. Or take a course on the topic of your preference, and add it to your website.

You should care about your website niche topic so that you will serve helpful, meaty and meaningful content.

When you care about a subject, you are more likely to do well on the subject. Over time you will have to write a hundred if not hundreds of posts on the topic, so make sure it’s something you like.

Additionally, you can take a course for just about anything online these days so take a course on the topic you are interested in from a reputable place like Coursera. They are cheap, and they have all number of courses from accredited universities.

When you write a post, make it easy to navigate with sub-headings and make all your sub-headings related to your title. Your entire post should be a well-rounded answer to someone’s question. Moreover, the quality of your content should be a top priority. As I said before, you do not need new content, but it should be well written, easy to understand, and informative without being a copy-paste from some other site.

Why you need long content for SEO

If you search the optimal length for blog posts these days, then most people will suggest at least 2500 words per post. It is true, and here is why. You see a short post of only five hundred words will not and cannot answer a question fully. This is because most questions are the root of at least ten other queries.

So when you write a post, write a heading in the form of a question and then think what could the next ten questions be of my reader. The next ten questions are sub-headings, and you can quickly fill out a blog post in no time after you have the following ten questions.

I have an example here for a post related to pet care:

• Title heading: Is it safe to give my kitten yoghurt for diarrhoea
• Sub-heading: Why it is safe for kittens to have yoghurt
• Sub-heading: How much yoghurt can you give a kitten
• Sub-heading: How often can you give your kitten yoghurt
• Sub-heading: Does yoghurt actually work

Try to answer the question fully so that your readers are left satisfied with your content. They will be more likely to come back to your site because they know you are helpful and informative. If you can please your readers, you have won over Google’s algorithm, because Google is only trying to create a better user experience.

Stay consistent

The reason all pro webmasters advise a consistent flow of blogs, and great content is straightforward; you have to serve the best material to your readers as well as tell Google that you are punctual.

Google likes punctual so much that it will see your website as an important one if you stay consistent. Ranking higher in Google is and should be a primary objective. Additionally, the algorithm of search engines are continually improving, so now they also inspect your content for value, information, originality etc.

Make a schedule when you upload posts and stick to it; this way, Google will more likely recognise you as a site worth ranking in the number one pages.

Furthermore, when you publish posts regularly each month, Google will crawl your site regularly each month, but if you blog erratically, then your site will be crawled the same way. It is better to post two posts this week and the two next week and so on.

As I said before, you do not need new content, but it should be well written, easy to understand, and informative without being a copy-paste from some other site.

Blog post formatting for SEO

Most people read a blog or sift through the news their smartphones, and this is why you should break up your paragraphs. On a smartphone, text can seem like an endless ocean of content that goes on and on. You do not want your readers to be scrolling continuously through the post to get to the next paragraph.

Here is where sub-headings play a big part because they help break-up your content. Furthermore, make your paragraphs an average of three sentences long. If sometimes your paragraphs are a little longer, it is not a big deal, but look at the layout in mobile devices to see how it looks. Most themes support this feature, and if your theme does not support a preview on mobile devices type in your website Url into your smartphone.

You can always ask a friend to check out your website user experience for some feedback. Think of it as constructive criticism, and it helps to know what other people will potentially think of your site.

Write an about page that is just you

Writing an “About Page” should be fun. Here you can talk about yourself and the things you are interested in. The reason many people navigate towards an about page is that they want to learn more about the author of the site. Please do not be formal on this page and talk too much about your work.

It’s like being a fan of someone and then wanting to get to know the person. Try to be as genuine as possible look at me who likes period drama and manga in the same sentence?!

EAT and SEO

Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, more commonly known as E-A-T is a term that Google uses to rank all websites. Expertise is the amount of knowledge you have on a particular topic. Here is the PDF document states that you do not need an official degree just a whole lot of experience on the subject.

If you write about personal finance, legal advice, healthcare and any topic that affects the living conditions of a person in a way that could potentially be detrimental, then you need much more E-A-T.

You can overcome this by simply getting a professional to review your work before uploading on your site. If you have any certificates on the niche you write about, then you should upload it to your website, and put up a contact page with at least your email.

Writing a hundred pages on any topic will convince Google that you must know what you are talking about, a contact page shows that you are a real person, and an about page gives them some more information about who you are.

The ugly truth about SEO plugins

For a non-techie, plugins are essential for website building. The sad truth is that they are slowing your site down. Furthermore, some of the most promoted plugins for WordPress are slowing your website down.

For example, Elementor a plugin for page building and Jetpack a plugin for stats, a replacement for CDN, and much more are the most common. These are used and promoted by all webmasters until someone realised that they are also slowing us down.

You can read the post I wrote about bad but popular plugins. In short, people are led to believe that a plugin will do some SEO magic on their website, and it could not be further from the truth! Plugins like Yoast and Elementor make your website slow. Someone asked what the big difference between Rank Math and Yoast was. The answer they got was that Rank Math is the premium version of Yoast for free. After trying both plugins, I wholeheartedly agree!

Anyway, I know from my own experience that you will eventually get rid of these two plugins. After you have blogged for some months, you will become better at it, and they will become redundant.

SEO plugins, find out what is best for you

So now that you are aware that some plugins are extra luggage, but we all need excess luggage, right?! Time to make some replacements. The SEO Framework is great for all your SEO needs. They pride themselves on simplicity and honestly, that is all you need.

Many people will argue about which plugin is the best or the worst. After trial and error, I have learnt that the best strategy is to keep a minimal amount of plugins installed and activated at one time.

To check whether or not your website is loading at 90% or above go to PageSpeed Insights. There you can type in your site URL and see results as to how fast your page loads. You will also be shown what exactly is making your site slow.

For optimal SEO you must make a regular check of your page load time as many people veer away from slow pages. The optimal time for loading your page should be within 2-3 seconds. Think about it how many times have you been frustrated by a slow page and then just moved on to another site, well, that is what your readers will do.

Although some people say that page speed is not an issue anymore, I do recommend you keep your site as fast as possible, but do not waste too much of your time on this one.

Why you should scaling your images is important for SEO

The optimal image size for all web pages is 1200 by 900. Images are the meat of most web pages, but they are also the reason for slow loading time. So firstly always scale your images to the ratio I suggested, if you download incredibly large stock images. The second thing you should do is get a plugin called Smush, it will automatically make your images smaller and easy to load, and the best part is that it is free.

Although there is a pro version, I recommend the free option. Also, since it is free, you will have to manually tell the plugin to continue minimising photos after every 50 pictures. It is easy to use and understand, and your readers will not wait a few extra seconds for page loading time.

The perks of joining a community for SEO

When I first started on my blogging journey, I read a pessimistic post by an Indonesian blogger. He scoffed at the idea of making money with a blog in the first month of blogging. Of course, looking back, I realise how much truth there was in his pessimism.

He mentioned multiple avenues on how to monetise your blog within a month maybe. Let me tell you that they did not work for me! The only advice that helped me was his recommendation on joining a forum. It may seem like a bore, but it is not. A forum related to your topic in blogging or SEO is a cornerstone part of your success. I am so thankful that I joined Twitter because there are so many expert SEOs gushing with information.

Break into a community of people on your platform of choice for help and advice. You can always reach out to me on Twitter or Reddit. 😉

Plagiarism is your enemy for SEO

Your text could be plagiarised without your intention, and copied text is terrible for SEO. Nonetheless, you do not need an original idea when writing anything online, but your content should be new.

For example, I am not the first person to write about making money online, but all my writing is original. I will bring new ideas for my readers, and I do not agree with everything everyone else is saying online.

With quetext, you can check all your text for plagiarism for the astronomical cost of free! Please do not take content shortcuts because your website SEO will go to Google’s hellfire.

The importance of keywords for SEO

You have probably come across the phrase “keywords”. They are used to tell search engines what your post is about.

A keyword research tool does not have enough data to be able to formulate the correct information. However, the internet does have a huge keyword resource that is completely free. It is called the Google search bar.

When you type in any word, and the search will make auto-suggest not because Google is reading your mind! It makes an auto-suggest because thousands if not millions of people have done the same search. In this way, you will be able to analyze what people are looking for. If you are new and still a little confused about keyword research, then read this post, I wrote How to do keyword research free (for beginner bloggers and beyond).

Additionally, you can add keywords to your site description text, also known as meta tags. Do not be frightened by the name and you can read it here What Are Meta Tags and How To Use Them.

Unlike Pinterest, Google has an algorithm that likes short descriptive text as a title for your web pages or posts. When writing a heading and the first paragraph, remember to add your keywords in the title, and throughout your writing as well.

Final thoughts

All I have written is not the fifth amendment or some new law carved into the Georgia stones. Everything can change, and there are many variables, but honest hard work pays off guys if you keep yourself up to date with all the SEO tricks, you will do well. Who knows you could be better than most of us someday, so keep going because I believe in you! 😉