In the age of Instagram, TripAdvisor and Yelp, I don’t think I can overstate the importance of photos to local businesses. Even before platforms like these rose up and put the power of visually representing the customer experience firmly in the hands of the consumer, people wanted to see with their own eyes what they’d be getting for their money.

Don’t believe me? Read on for some compelling evidence to convince you to take GMB photos seriously.

How important are Google My Business photos to local search performance?

As part of BrightLocal (my company)’s recent Google My Business Insights Study, we analyzed the GMB Insights of 45,000 businesses in 36 industries across four countries, in order to learn how this data has changed over time and, crucially, to see if there are any correlations.

Here’s a look at the correlations between the quantities of images visible on a GMB profile and other GMB performance metrics such as website clicks, calls, views on search and more.

Businesses with more GMB photos get more clicks, calls and direction requests

There is a consistent correlation between the number of images on a GMB profile and the numbers of website visits, phone calls and direction requestions that came through Google My Business. The more photos you have on your Google My Business listing, the better your chances of leading customers from discovery to conversion.

We also looked at deviation from the median to get an understanding of exactly how much getting more images on your profile can affect customer actions. Here’s what we found:

• Businesses with more than 100 images get 520% more calls than the average business, while those with just one image get 71% fewer.
• Businesses with more than 100 images get 2,717% more direction requests than the average business, while those with just one get 75% fewer.
• Businesses with more than 100 images get 1,065% more website clicks than the average business, while those with just one get 65% fewer.

Businesses with more GMB photos get more views on search and views on maps

In case you’re fairly new to GMB Insights, here are Google’s own definitions of these metrics:

Views on Search: A customer found the business via Google Search, including local pack results from search.

Views on Maps: A customer found the business via Google Maps.

Looking at deviations from the median, we see that:

• Businesses with more than 100 images get 960% more search views than the average business, while those with just one get 62% fewer.
• Businesses with more than 100 images get 3459% more maps views than the average business, while those with just one get 71% fewer.

Businesses with more GMB photos appear in more direct and discovery searches

Direct search: A customer directly searched for your business name or address.

Discovery search: A customer searched for a category, product, or service that you offer, and your listing appeared.

Here are the key findings from analyzing deviations from the median:

• Businesses with more than 100 images get 713% more discovery searches than the average business, while those with just one get 65% fewer.
• Businesses with more than 100 images get 1038% more direct searches than the average business, while those with just one get 71% fewer.

How to get more photos on your Google My Business profile

Post them yourself

Seems obvious, right? But as the original GMB Insights Study shows, 6% of businesses with photos have just one photo on their GMB profile, and a shocking 24% have just 2 to 5 photos!

This is very easily remedied with some creative thinking, but you need to remember that to qualify as a legitimate business photo on GMB, it needs to reflect the customer experience, so I’m afraid photos of your staff every day isn’t going to cut it.

If you can, hold events and invite your customers along. This is a great opportunity to take some snaps (ideally with customer consent, of course). Take photos of interesting parts of your office interior, too, and you can definitely get away with multiple photos of the outside of your location building, provided you have one.

Get customers to post them

It’s very possible that upon leaving your business, any Google-using customers will receive a request for a review from Google

To make the most of this, try to encourage your customers to take photos of their customer experience during it, rather than after the fact. Car dealers are performing exceptionally well in GMB, so look to see what their photo-generation strategies are.

For example, if they’ve bought a luxury item, get your salespeople to ask if the customer would like a photo taken of them with it. To the customer, you’ve just done them a favor but for your business, you’ve just put a brand-building bullet in the chamber of their smartphone.

If you’re a service-area business without a physical location like a plumber, decorator or builder, ask to take photos of your handiwork once it’s complete. Get the happy customer in the shot and you’ve done even better!

Contact us if you’d like some assistance in setting up or updating your Google my Business page.

Thanks for your Wisdom Jamie Pitman

1. For big SEO results, start small

It might sound simple, but focusing on small, incremental changes to a website’s overall SEO strategy really can produce noticeable gains over time. The Google My Business marketing site, for example, saw a near 2X increase in organic traffic.

2. Don’t be scared of changes — embrace them

Search features are always evolving to surface the most relevant content for users and to keep up with their changing behavior. For example, today, over 50% of website traffic comes from mobile, and Google Search has quickly been adapting in response. All WordPress websites are mobile-friendly and THIS is the main reason why we at SaraOhara.com only create WordPress websites.

3. Where possible, consolidate

It can be tempting to create multiple websites, each containing very similar content, to target different customer profiles or geographic regions.

Here’s the problem with that approach: duplicate content is not only confusing for users, it’s also confusing for search engines. Creating one great site instead of multiple microsites is the best way to encourage organic growth over time.

WordPress is the industry leader when it comes to content management systems. In fact, at last check, 29% of all websites are built using WordPress (the next closest competitor, Joomla, stands at just 3%).

Not only is it arguably the most user-friendly platform, it’s unparalleled when it comes to SEO. Even right out of the box, all the basics of SEO are covered.

That said, with the help of a few other strategies, you can take your WordPress SEO to the next level. Following are 9 ways to make sure your WordPress site and content are optimized to the fullest.

1. Set your Permalink structure to Static

By default, the permalink (or URL) structure in WordPress isn’t great for SEO or for users. Right out of the box, it will look something like this: http://example.com/?p=N.

Fortunately, it’s easy to change your default settings to something more search engine friendly – like http://example.com/your-post-title.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings –> Permalink Settings, and select “Post Name”. This will keep your URL structure simple and clean, and will ensure that all your new post URLS are automatically optimized.

2. Use your keywords in the two most important locations: Title & Header tags

You should obviously be using your keywords (and variations of your keywords) throughout your content. Just remember: a well-optimized piece of content won’t simply use a single keyword again and again. Rather, it will include a wide variety of words and phrases related to the main topic of that individual post.

That said, you will likely have one main keyword phrase that you’re focusing in on. Arguably the most important location to use this phrase is in your title tag (which should by default also put your keyword in your URL). Preferably, use those keywords as close to the beginning of your title as possible.

Header tags (H2, H3, etc.) ensure Google and your readers know what your content is about. WordPress makes it easy to use header tags simply by clicking on the text formatting drop down box in your Visual Editor (Note: if you don’t see this box, click on the “Toolbar Toggle” button and it will show up).

By default, your page or post title will be your H1 (most important) tag. You should only have one H1 tag per page or post.

For the main sub-headings of my posts, I typically use the H2 tag. For instance, in this post, the main headings are enclosed in the H2 tag, while I used H3 for the numbered items. Any sub-headings beneath the numbered items would be enclosed in H4 tags.

3. Upload an XML Sitemap

XML sitemaps aren’t, strictly speaking, a necessity for getting Google to navigate and index all your pages and posts. However, they can make the process more efficient, ensuring your new content is found as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, there are some great plugins that will automatically generate an XML sitemap for your WordPress site. The best is Google XML Sitemaps. It notifies Google each time you add new content, so your sitemap will always be up to date.

4. Make sure you’re set up with Google Search Console

If you haven’t yet set up your site in Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster tools), you might be missing out on important SEO warnings or notifications.

If Google experiences issues accessing, crawling or indexing your content, this is where you’ll be notified. This will also be where you’ll see any manual actions (penalties) leveraged against your site.

Your Search Console is also where you’ll be able to view some of the links to your site, as well as some of the keywords that drive traffic to your site.

5. Focus on the right content length for your keywords

There has been tons of research done over the past few years on the ideal length for content. Most of this research suggests that higher-ranking content tends to be in the 2,000+ word range.

The trouble, of course, is there are many examples of content that’s much shorter, and that still ranks near the top of the SERPs.

So, instead of focusing on your exact content length, focus on just writing really good content that answers the question(s) your reader is asking. Rand Fishkin of Moz gives three great tips for evaluating the optimal length for your content:

1. Investigate what’s working for your chosen keywords. Check out the top-ranking content and see how long it is.
2. Ask yourself: Can I do an even better job of covering that topic?If you can do so in less words, go for it! If you think a longer post would do a better job, then that’s the direction you should take.
3. Match your content to your readers’ goals.If they have a quick question they need answered, you should probably just answer it quickly in a 500-word post. If their questions are more complex, writing a 3,000 word+ post may be optimal for this particular topic.

6. Switch your site to HTTPS

If your site gives your visitors the option to input text or other info through contact forms, opt-in boxes or payment fields, you need to make sure you’re using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).

This will ensure any sensitive personal info your visitors leave on your site is encrypted and therefore protected.

But not only is this important for protecting your visitors’ private information, it’s now an official SEO ranking factor. In fact, if you haven’t switched over to HTTPS, Google may now show a “not secure” warning to visitors when they go to your website.

If you’re not sure whether you’ve switched to HTTPS, check with your web host. They usually offer an easy way to switch over and will be happy to help.

7. Optimize your WordPress site for Speed

Not only is site speed a ranking factor, it’s extremely important for user experience. abandonment increases.

I’d strongly recommend using a plugin (or two or three) to tackle different aspects of your site speed. The ones I usually recommend are WP Fastest Cache. WP Super Cache, and WP-Optimize.

8. Internal Links

Linking to relevant content on your site helps spread link equity throughout your site, and also helps improve user signals like bounce rate, pageviews and time on site. And while user engagement may not be a direct ranking factor, the indirect benefits to your site and business are huge. Just don’t overdo it!

9. Install the ALL IN ONE SEO PACK plugin

If you only do one thing on this list, it should be this one.

Use All in One SEO Pack to optimize your WordPress site for SEO. It’s easy and works out of the box for beginners, and has advanced features and an API for developers.

First created in 2007, see why AIOSEO is one of the all-time most downloaded plugins for WordPress.

• XML Sitemap support – submit your sitemap to Google and Bing and improve your SEO
• Image XML Sitemap submitted to Google and Bing to improve your Image SEO
• Google AMP support (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
• Google Analytics support
• Support for SEO on Custom Post Types
• Advanced Canonical URLs
• Redirect attachment pages to parent post
• Automatically notifies search engines like Google and Bing about changes to your site
• Built-in API so other plugins/themes can access and extend functionality
• ONLY free plugin to provide SEO Integration for e-Commerce sites, including WooCommerce
• Nonce Security built into All in One SEO Pack
• Automatically optimizes your Titles for Google and other search engines
• Generates META tags automatically
• Avoids the typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs
• For beginners, you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
• For advanced users, you can fine-tune everything to optimize your SEO
• You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.
• Compatibility with many other plugins
• Translated into 57 languages
• PHP 7 100% Compatible

Final Thoughts

After making sure the technical features of your WordPress site are optimized, most of your ongoing SEO work will be focused on creating excellent content that attracts links.

All of the SEO strategies that worked last year will still work in 2019, so if you’re already ranking well, keep doing what you’re doing!

The only major shift this year will be to make sure your site is moved over to HTTPS. If you haven’t already, I’d strongly encourage you to do this before the new year!

Thanks for your Wisdom John Rampton

For a while now, SEO has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the marketing world. But in truth, SEO is more than just a buzzword: it really works. Despite SEO’s ubiquity, for some business owners, deciphering just what SEO entails can be a challenge. This is especially true as the algorithms search engines use continue to evolve and improve over time. Whether you’re a new business developing an initial marketing plan, an established business seeking a marketing revamp, or a successful business ready to grow to the next level, SEO must remain a centerpiece of your marketing strategy. Quality content is a key component of any successful SEO strategy.

There’s No SEO Without Quality Content
Think of SEO as a chain of interlocking links: you are only as strong as the weakest component of your digital marketing plan. Hiring a designer to improve your website’s structure, searchability, and look is important, but it doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the written content to back it up. Search engines crawl through the written content on your website, social media platforms, blog, business listings, and other digital presences to determine whether your business is what a customer is searching for. This is why it’s important to build out written and visual content in all directions: it helps your business make an impression.

What is Quality Content?
There are several best practices for creating and posting quality content. Some of the characteristics of quality content include the following:

• Fresh, original content updated on a regular basis
• A stream of new content placed on your website in the form of a blog
• Social media posts geared towards what your customers want and need
• Original, interesting writing with an authentic voice
• Factual information that potential customers will find to be of use
• Content that integrates well with the visuals you use
• Error-free, readable content
• Content that links to reputable, authoritative sources that are not competitors

Thanks for your Wisdom Shirley Wilson

Thanks for your Wisdom Drew Hendricks

Google’s Love for Freshness

The freshness of content is a ranking factor in Google search. It might not seem like it when you’re a casual user of Google, of course. A lot of results are from the last few years, and when researching SEO topics, a lot of times the top ranked content is from 2007, 2011, 2014, or what have you. It’s very common to find older content outranking newer content, but that’s not a real indication that freshness doesn’t matter. In fact, one of the best strategies for coming up with new content is to find high ranking but old content and one-up it. You’re not guaranteed to out-rank it immediately, since links hold of lot of sway, but freshness is a beneficial factor.

There’s also the web crawling aspect of freshness. The more often you update your page, the more often Google crawls it. This isn’t directly correlated to your search ranking, but it does give your page more agility. If you post a new piece of content about something newsworthy, you want Google to index it today, not next week. The more frequently your site requires crawling, the more frequently Google will crawl it.

It’s a fact that not every piece of content is exceptional, and not every piece of content is going to go viral or even get a high level of traffic. Many pieces of content are relatively ignored, or used by a small and select group of users. Narrow niches and long tail keywords (3 or 4 keyword phrases) dominate search. How do you find these opportunities? You certainly can’t just write one post per month and hope that one does well. You need to write four, or eight, or sixteen posts per month, in the hopes that one or two of them do well. Not every piece of content can be a hit, but the more content you make, the more likely you are to hit.

More posts means more traffic coming in from more sources. More of all of that means more leads, and more leads mean more conversions, more sales, and more profit for your company.

In a very real sense, if you stop blogging, you lose all of that. If you stop producing content, or even taper it off too significantly and too sharply, you lose a lot of that incoming traffic. That drop in traffic can mean the difference between making a profit or losing money for your business, depending on how slim the margins you work with happen to be.

And here’s the thing. The longer you go without blogging, the worse off you’re going to be. That drop in ranking is just going to keep falling. You may be able to make it up with PPC (Pay Per Click) and social media initially, but those will start to drop off after a few months, and after a year they won’t break even any more. Eventually you’ll have no choice but to pick a blog back up if you want to grow again.

Google Posts is a micro-blogging Google My Business dashboard feature which displays your short-form on your Knowledge Panel and business listings on search engine results. If you were using Google+, you shared content (yours and others) with the hopes that someone would see it and find their way back to your website.

Reach Your Target Market with Google Posts
Google Posts are a better way to bring targeted search engine users from Google (where the majority of buyers’ journeys start) directly to your website. A year into this feature and still very few local businesses are leveraging this FREE Google My Business feature to promote their businesses. That means that adding Google Posts to your marketing mix gives you a fast and free advantage over your local competition.

Posts offer instant publication of your marketing and reputation messaging with little effort – at no cost.

Improve Your Online Reputation with Google Posts
Google Posts help you create your ideal online reputation by giving you a free tool to promote your business with content and messaging you control. Reach customers with the information they need right now to persuade them to pick your business.

Do you have a sale coming up? Have an event coming up? A promotion code for military members? Half-priced breakfast on Mondays? Senior discounts? Price match? Use only organic ingredients? Google Posts give you the opportunity to persuade customers as they find your Google My Business listing while researching the best place to make their next purchase.

Using Google Post to Promote Your Business
Google Posts were introduced as a way to share fresh content with people who found your business through Google Search. This free Google My Business feature lets you create posts with content you want displayed to customers when they find your business on Google.

Google Posts are meant to be used to show search user what is going on with your business right now. Each post you create is removed from search results after seven days, or after the event date, you specify if you are posting an event. That might sound like a restriction, but it’s actually a benefit that ensures that only the latest and greatest information of your choice is displayed with your business listings.

Quick List of Google Posts Specs & Best Practices

• Character Limits: Only the first 80-100 characters will show in the Post so make those characters count and preview the Post to make sure your sentence isn’t cut off.
• Headlines: Write headlines that make the reader want to click through. Think of it as an ad to inspire action.
• Call to Action: Tell the viewer what to do next. “Free Download” or “Learn How to” or “Order Now” are clear CAT’s that minimize the decisions the audience needs to make.
• Image Size: The best image size is 750 x 750. Anything smaller than 250 x 250 won’t be accepted. Preview the post to make sure the image appears as intended.
• Post Often: Share daily specials and current promotions to keep customers up-to-date on your offers. After 7 days your Post will be removed – thankfully, they email you when this happens.

Do’s and Don’ts for Writing a Google Post directly from Google

There is a right and wrong way to leverage Google Post. To get the do’s and don’ts we went directly to the source. This is what Google tells us about Google Post:

Google’s Suggestions for Writing the Perfect Google Post

• Be precise: What are the 3 things your customer needs to know? What do you want them to remember, for how much, and when? “Happy Hour! Half-price milkshakes from 5-6 PM every Friday.”
• Be personal: Show what your business values: “We love families at Mike’s and to show our appreciation, kids eat free this weekend!”
• Tell your customers what they can do. Are you selling a product? Tell them how they can buy.
  “Tickets range from $60-$160, and are available for purchase at the front desk starting at 12 PM EST today.”
• Highlight what makes your business, product, or offer unique. Large selection? Free shipping? Tell people:
  “Free shipping on orders over $50.”
• Be timely — use a key selling point or popular item as the hook for your post: “Spring is here. All flip flops now 30% off.”
• Be sure to include any redemption instructions, unique codes, or restrictions on offers or sales: “$10 off purchase of $50 or more. 50% off select women’s clothing.”
• Use abbreviations for days and months, and don’t use periods, to allow more space for your post, and abbreviate hours: Jan, Feb, Mar… Mon, Tue, Wed… 9 AM, 5 PM, 12 PM
• Avoid the commercial slang and excessive exclamation marks or all caps that make your post look like an advertisement: “BOGO: 50% off men’s sneakers.” “Crazy SALE today!!!”
• Don’t include more than one offer or too many exclusions in one communication: “Half price coffee and tea from 3-6 PM on Fridays, and buy 6, get one free donut on weekdays.” “10% off new seasonal sandwiches. Not valid on lunch specials.”

Thanks for your Wisdom Reputation Loop

The big Plus of Google+ (which was great for SEO) soon disappearing is the most recent Google update of Google My Business, which combines their maps and search in one convenient dashboard. It shows when your site appears in a search – and it’s FREE

Google My Business is better – and more powerful – than ever. It can be the difference between getting a potential customer or losing them to the competition.

Utilize the features of Google Business like Google Posts – you KNOW Google likes NEW information and this is one way to get noticed as the Post only last 7 days. Posts are super easy to add and they send you a reminder when you need to.

Visit Google My Business and set up your own account or contact me if you’d like me to do it

Here’s what my Google My Business Page looks like:

Thanks for your Wisdom Bernadette Coleman

Answer: “Probably not.”

The H1 is generally known as the item on the page that has the most weight. The H1, or Heading 1 tag, was technically used as the heading or “title” of the document, H1 would be the largest text on the page, the H2 the second largest, the H3 the next size, and so on. Therefore, search engines traditionally placed higher weight on the largest text on the page.

Enter SEO pros and their penchant for breaking the rules.

Some figured out that they could code anything as an H tag, but use CSS to control the size and position of the text. So search engines still used this classic signal, but became wary of it. Over time, this signal became less and less important.

I still recommend that clients try to have a single H1 that uses their core keyword and at least one H2 that does, because why not do it? It helps to structure your page visually and provides important clues about the topicality of the page.

Bing (through Duane Forrester) went on record stating that they only look at the H1 and the first H2 in terms of assigning additional weight, and Google has indicated (although not said as clearly) that they use a similar strategy.

If I were you, I’d use the H1 and the H2.

Make sure:

• The topic of the page is clear.
• The text is presented well.
• It renders well on mobile.

By doing this, you’ll have handled three things that carry a lot more weight than the header tag.

Thanks for your Wisdom Jenny Halasz

While creating a professional website requires skills that the average person doesn’t have, ANYONE can edit and maintain a WordPress website.

Fortunately, there’s a publishing platform available with the right balance of functionality, flexibility, cost, and support to match any other available solutions. That platform, of course, is WordPress!

In this post, we will look at six reasons why WordPress should be the go-to publishing choice for your website, but first of all, let’s look at exactly what WordPress is, along with a little back history.

What is WordPress?
WordPress was first launched in 2003 by two developers who wanted a better solution for publishing their blog content (Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little). 13 years later, WordPress has now grown to power over 30% of the internet – with high-profile users such as TechCrunch, the Washington Post, and BBC America, to name a few.

Its humble beginnings solely as a blogging platform are still present, but constant development has meant WordPress has evolved into a full-featured Content Management System (CMS).

Sooo WHY should you use WordPress?

1. WordPress Is Open-Source and Free Forever

You may have heard the term ‘open-source software’ bandied around, but might not know what it means. Quite simply, open-source means anybody can contribute to the software in question, and is why it’s FREE!

2. There’s No Coding Required to edit WordPress!

There are a multitude of ways in which WordPress’ design makes it easy to add pages and content. This gives WordPress the functionality of software like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, meaning styling your text with bold & alignment, for example, can be done directly within the editor.

3. Lots of Themes (Layouts) to Choose

WordPress includes several default themes designed to show off its core functionality. While these themes perform admirably, there are 1000’s of other themes to choose from, all completely free, within the WordPress Theme Directory.

Because they’re free, you’ll find that the quality of themes varies. However, the Theme Directory includes a five-star rating system, awarded by users, to help you make an informed choice. Some of the free Themes also have upgrades with more functionality you can add if needed.

There are also some developers who offer premium themes, i.e. ones with a cost attached. Normally $60 is the most you’ll pay – and just one time. These Themes are generally more committed development program with dedicated support. ThemeForest is by far the best site for purchasing premium Themes.

4. E-Commerce Is Easy With WordPress

Unlike a hand-coded website, setting up an e-commerce solution on your WordPress website is easy when using one of a number of available plugins.

One such example is WooCommerce – the most popular e-commerce solution available. Its strengths lie in how fast it is to set up a store and its support from all major payment providers.

5. All WordPress Websites are Mobile-Friendly

Google recently updated Search Engine Rules and will rank sites based on their whether or not their website is mobile-friendly first. The goal is to “help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly”.

6. Google likes WordPress!

If you want your website to list high in search engine rankings you should use anything Google likes. The coding for WordPress is very clean and suits Google’s criteria.

WordPress also comes with free SEO (search engine optimization) Plugins that make it even easier to assure you reach your market.

Conclusion
Choosing a publishing platform for your website can be tough and choosing the wrong one means wasting time and money later, when migrating to a more suitable solution. WordPress should be your first choice for publishing your website. In this post we looked at some of the reasons why. Let’s recap:

• WordPress will be free forever.
• Using WordPress is as easy to edit as using your favorite Word Processor.
• There are many free themes and very feature rich premium themes such as the Avada Theme (one of my favorites).
• WordPress can be extended with plugins to provide extra functionality.
• Selling products is easy, with several e-commerce solutions available to get started instantly.
• Google likes WordPress.

Thanks for your Wisdom Tom Rankin!

Here is a comprehensive SEO checklist to help you optimize your blog for a wider readership.

1. Research optimal keywords. Before writing, find tools to help you decide which keywords are best for you to use in your post. Using resources such as the Google AdWords Keyword Planner, you can look up relevant terms to determine how well they are performing. This will help you to identify what your audience is searching for so you can write your article accordingly.
2. Apply keywords in prime and controlled locations. Try to use your primary keyword in the title of your post. Keywords should also appear in your introduction and your conclusion, as well as your URL.
3. Introduce keywords naturally. Don’t force it, though. Readers will not be pleased if they are bombarded with keywords. Keywords should flow seamlessly with the rest of your sentence.
4. Use long-tail key phrases instead of small terms. If local audience members research “all-day breakfast” in their town, the keyword shouldn’t be “all-day breakfast”; it should be “all day breakfast in (town name),” as that is likely the phrase they will input into their search engine. Doing this will make your post a focal point even in a huge sea of articles on the subject.
5. Don’t forget to optimize your images, too. When uploading your photos, use the keyword in the image name and in the alt image tags. Providing as much information as possible to search engine sites will only help to rank your blog’s relevancy.
6. Be smart in your Description. Your blog post’s description should be short and to the point. Aim for around 150 characters at most. Writing an engaging description, which appears below the page’s title on Google, is a simple and effective way to ensure that your readers click through and read your post.
7. Use descriptive anchor text on links. Anchor text is the clickable text of your hyperlink. Showing your audience other relevant posts (and making sure they know where a link will take them) is an important part of SEO. It also helps the audience to feel engaged with the text and play a role in their reading.
8. Reference current and relevant links. Use other websites as references when possible. If you’re proving a point or referring to another article, linking to that article is not only courteous, it’s also good for your blog. Make sure what you’re linking to is current, though, and make sure it actually has something to do with your post.
9. Link internally. Not only should you link to other sites’ posts, you should also link to your own. Relevant content you’ve published in the past should be linked to your new post. This allows for an endless cycle of promotion that can be used to your advantage.
10. Ensure that your site is compatible in all formats. Your readers should be able to access your blog post on their computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. The format should therefore be easily readable across all platforms. It’s also important that your mobile site loads quickly, as readers may exit your site if they have to wait too long.
11. Improve loading time. You can improve loading time by tweaking the images on your site. Eliminate unnecessary images, and reduce the file size of necessary photos. You should also use very small images in your thumbnails so the whole picture is visible and your readers can click through to see the image at a higher resolution if they so desire.
12. Provide subscription tools. Giving your readers a way to subscribe to your content is extremely beneficial for building and maintaining a readership. If you’ve already convinced a reader to subscribe, then you’ve given yourself a chance to have the same reader for a future post.
13. Actively use social media. Setting up social media accounts will help you to engage with readers. Actually maintaining those social media accounts can help with SEO and will allow loyal readers to easily find and follow your blog. It will also help you to broaden your audience, as you may reach a readership you might not have been able to reach before. Be sure to include social share buttons directly on your blog posts, too, to make it easier for readers to engage.

Effective blogging and SEO go hand in hand. Being able to find your post will not matter if readers do not enjoy the content, and readers will not be able to enjoy your content if they cannot find your post. That’s why it’s so important to be able to do both. Using both the blog checklist and the SEO checklist will aid you in attaining the perfect balance. Get to it, bloggers!

Thanks for you Wisdom Inkly