Many of my readers who use the BlogSpot platform have always declared stern interests in learning how to make Blogger blogs SEO friendly.
As a result of that, I have decided to publish this ultimate Blogger SEO tutorial that will help you master the default Blogger post editor and help you write Search engine friendly blog posts.
Someone once asked me if the BlogSpot platform is SEO friendly. The answer to that question is a straightforward YES, BlogSpot blogs are SEO friendly.
Even free BlogSpot blogs rank very high on Google Search results; provided you write articles that actually deserve to rank high.
However, it is advisable to use a custom domain on Blogger – in order to have an edge over free blogs.
The very first step to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is verifying your website’s ownership with Google Search Console and submitting your sitemap.
Also, it is very important to use Google Analytics to help you understand your visitors and the way they interact with your website’s pages.
But how do you get people to visit your website in the first place?
There are many ways to go about that. You could use social networks, paid traffic, social bookmaking sites, etc. But, truth be told – the most effective way to get visitors to your blog is by doing proper on-page SEO.
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On-page SEO tips for BlogSpot blogs
Making Blogger blogs SEO friendly is not so easy compared to WordPress. Reason is, there are no SEO plugins in Blogger that helps monitor your on page SEO and other important SEO related issues. However, you can still optimize your blog posts for SEO, even without a plugin.
Watch video guide
Writing a blog post needs more than just creative or skilled writing. If you want your blog posts to get a better search engine rank, then, there are a few things you need to keep in mind while writing your blog posts.
1. Write the proper length for your blog posts
The proper length for your blog posts is dependent on your blog niche and the content of that post itself.
Your blog posts must always contain a minimum of 300 words no mater your blog niche. It is advisable you go higher than 300 words, especially if what you are writing about requires detailed analysis and references.
For instance, this blog post contains over 1000 words – not because I love writing lengthy articles – but because I can’t possibly explain everything I want explained in less than 1000 words.
Search engines give preference to a lengthy, well researched and well written blog post.
2. Use a proper keyword density
Before writing a blog post, there is a need for a proper keyword research. But after doing your keyword research, you need to maintain the proper keyword density in your blog post. The maximum keyword density advised by SEO experts is 2.5%.
In WordPress, it is easy to calculate the density of your keyword density using the Yoast SEO plugin. However, for everyone that uses the BlogSpot platform, it has to be done manually.
Actually, you may not be able to calculate the exact value of your keyword density in Blogger, but this can be estimated.
Let’s say for instance, I write a blog post that contains 300 words, and my keyword is SEO; if SEO appears 30 times within my post, then, that’s a keyword density of 10% – this will be considered keyword stuffing, because 10% is actually way, way higher than the recommended 2.5
.
Reason you need to avoid keyword stuffing is that: Google has, a long time ago, punished keyword-stuffing blogs with the panda 4.1 algorithm upgrade, and still frowns at websites that still involves in such practices.
3. Use proper header tags in your post
This is one of the best on-page SEO tips you must never ignore, not for any reason. By default, the post title is always set at the h1 (header one) tag and you shouldn’t use any other h1 tag in your post.
how to use header tags in Blogger
If you add another title within your post, then, you need to use either h2, h3, h4…. tags for them.
You can use your html editor to enclose that header in the code, in the form: <h2> header name </h2>
You can also do that without having to switch to html mode. Just select the text you want to add a header tag to and click on Heading.
Blogger provides you with three header tags.
- Heading: also h2 tag.
- Subheading: also h3 tag.
- Minor heading: also h4 tag.
The ‘Normal’ is the default text format.
After selecting your header text, click on the header tag you want for your text. For instance, my first header in this blog post “On-page SEO tips for BlogSpot blogs,” is tagged with h2.
4. Add well sized images
Every blog needs the perfect image for an enhanced UX (user experience). However, an image that’s too large can extend beyond the sizes of mobile screens and hurt the experiences of your mobile visitors.
If you want your images to look good on mobile devices, the dimensions must be around 640 × 520 – not too less not too much.
Also, for your images to load faster on slower networks, make sure you compress them properly. If your images are too large, they will load slowly.
If you are not able to compress your images by yourself, you can make use of a free online compression tool – compressnow.
5. Add Image Alt Attributes
The image alt attributes was introduced with the aim of aiding the visually impaired people have a sense of what an image is all about.
Why do you need to add alt attributes to your images?
Google happens to care about the visually impaired, so you too must. With image alt attributes added to your images, you will not only help the visually impaired better understand your website, it will help make your Blogger blog SEO friendly and help you rank higher in Google search results.
How to Add Alt Attribute to Images in Blogger
In your Blogger post editor, click on the image you want to add alt attributes to and then on properties.
Under properties, you can add your image titles and image alt attributes.
- The title text is like the name given to your image.
- The image alt attributes explains everything found in that image in details.
Quick tips for writing alt attributes
- Make sure alt attributes contain keywords relevant to the post.
- Maintain a good length; not too long, not too short.
- Do not stuff keywords in alt attributes.
- Do not use the same alt attributes and titles for your images.
6. Use an SEO friendly URL
Your post URL most also be SEO friendly if you want your Blogger blog to rank higher in Google.
What makes a post URL SEO friendly?
- It must contain keywords.
- must not be excessively long.
- must not contain stop words.
By default, after writing a blog blog post, a URL is automatically generated for your post. Although I have observed the default post URLs in Blogger are not excessively long, they may not contain the right keywords, hence, the need to change from the default URL.
How to change the default post URL in Blogger
Under the post editor, at the right hand side, click on ‘Permalink.’
Select custom Permalink
Type in your new permalink, ensuring you separate each word with a hyphen and click on done.
7. Use Labels to group blog posts
In Blogger, for proper grouping of blog posts, Labels are used. If your blog posts cover several topics, then you need to always group into several Labels. This will not only help your blog to be well organized, it will help search engines better understand what your blog is all about.
How to add Labels to posts in Blogger
At the right hand side of your Blogger post editor, click on Labels.
Enter the label you want for your post. In case of multiple labels, separate each by a coma and a space and when finished, click on Done.
8. Use a good search description
This is one of the most important thing to do after writing a blog post in your Blogger post editor.
The search description is the brief information that is displayed about your post when it is seen in search engines.
There’s a need to pay attention to the description of your blog posts in search engines, because it is what actually gets people to click on it in the first place.
By default, if you don’t add a search description for your post, Google and other search engines automatically picks any text in your post and display it in search results.
How to add a search description in Blogger
In your Blogger post editor, under post settings, click on ‘Search description.’
Paste your search description in the space you are provided with and click on done.
9. Ensure proper interlinking
One thing that Google likes is a well linked blog post. When writing, in Blogger, always make sure you do proper interlinking of your blog posts. Not just internal links, make sure you add external links – making sure you use dofollow and nofollow tags properly.
If you links to external sites that tries to rank for the same keywords as you, always add a nofollow tags. Also, make sure you use a nofollow tag on affiliat links.
How to add nofollow tags to links in Blogger
In your Blogger post editor, click on ‘Link’
Add the anchor text and the web address of the external link you want to add to your post.
Make sure you select ‘Open this link in a new window’ and ‘Add rel=nofollow attribute and click on OK.
You can learn more about nofollow links here.
10. Check for spelling errors before hitting the publish button
Nice one, you have done well so far, but there’s one last thing you must do before publishing your blog post. It is called ‘proofreading.’
Proofreading goes way beyond just checking for spelling errors. However, it’s the first step.
The Blogger platform provides you with a spell checker, so you don’t need to use any other external services.
At the top of your post editor, locate and click on the abc icon.
After clicking on the spell checker icon, in a little above two seconds, the spelling check should be done.
All the terms or words strange to your Blogger dictionary will be highlighted in yellow.
Go ahead and locate every word highlighted in yellow. Add the words that shouldn’t be highlighted to your dictionary by right-clicking on that word and clicking ‘add to dictionary.’
When you are done with all the steps above, you can go on and hit the publish button.
That is all about writing a search engine friendly blog post in Blogger. If you enjoyed this guide, do well to share with your friends using the share buttons after this post.
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