Technical stuff makes my head throb.
I hire out as much of the technical-related business stuff as possible, but there are some day-to-day things I had to learn to do on my own.
One of these things was making my posts search engine-friendly so they’d be found when awesome creatives like you search for topics I cover on Google.
Have you heard of SEO? It stands for search engine optimization, and unless you’re a tech geek, you probably dread thinking about keywords and optimized titles and link building. Blah! Not fun, right?
I realized early on that I would need to make the SEO process as simple as possible. That’s where today’s video comes in. I’ll show how I do it and other options if you’re not ready to invest in the plug-in I use.
Want to check out Scribe for yourself? Click here.
Do you use another plug-in for SEO? Tell us a little about it in the comments below. What’s it called? Do you like it? Has it helped?
Thank you so much for explaining SEO and the resources available to use. As a fairly new blogger it’s one of those topics I keep reading about, but couldn’t really grasp. The technical stuff bores me as well, but I’m finding I have to be somewhat knowledgable about marketing if I want my blog to grow. I’ve gotten so many great tips from you. Thanks for your sharing what you’ve learned.
So glad it was helpful! I know SEO gave me a major headache when I first started learning about it but there are lots of tools now that can help us make it much more simple.
Hi April, First, thanks for all you do! I always look forward to your emails. I’m wondering if something like this works for shop like pages on websites and places like etsy and ebay? Or is it just for bloggers? $97 a month is very expensive for me right now so I’ll take a look at the freebie ones you mentioned if it’s something that will work for my shops. SEO is one of my most hated things too, it’s so confusing and baffling to me (and that’s probably one of the reasons why my shops aren’t getting much traffic) but I know it’s a necessity BLAH lol. Thank goodness for people like you! ♥
I understand. I signed up for Scribe in the very beginning when it was $17/month, so it was easier for me to try out without feeling like I had to spend a lot. I’m pretty sure it’s just for WordPress sites {websites and blogs} but I could be wrong.
Definitely check out some of the free ones. Sometimes, they can be just a helpful and good.
Great video! Scribe sounds great but I can’t afford it yet. The plugin I use is All in one SEO pack, which I discovered thanks to a video by Nathalie Lussier. There’s also another free plugin that I see recommended a lot called WordPress SEO but I haven’t tried it yet. Love your blog!
Thanks for adding those recommendations, Marcela! 🙂
Wow thank you April, this was so helpful! I had kind of stuck my head in the sand re SEOs, assuming the would attach themselves magically to my blog! Unfortunately my blog is with blogger so I can’t use plugin ins, but after reading this I’ve added a few manually (having found out that blogger automatically set your meta description etc to ‘disabled’) now I can keep on top of them manually when I post & hopefully rise up through the google pages!
Maxine xx
Hi Maxine. I’m on blogger as well and didn’t know about the disabled meta description until earlier this week. I came across this great tip about clicking on the image properties when composing your post and changing the image title and alt text so search engines have something to look for instead of the string of random letters blogger gives your image when you upload it. Hope that made sense. I don’t know if you already came across this or not but thought I’d share in case it could help you as much as it helped me. Good luck rising up through the google pages!
Thanks Emma, no I didn’t know that either so thank you, i’ll do that from now on too!
Maxine xx
Awesome! So glad you could take some of the info and apply it to your site.
Hi April. I’ve been really trying to get to grips with SEO this week so this post couldn’t have come at a better time. Even though I’m using blogger you really helped me get a better idea of what I should and shouldn’t be worrying about. Thanks for the great tips.
Yay! I’m so glad! 🙂
I use the All in One SEO pack too. That was the one recommended on the Yaro Starak blogging course I did when I first decided I was going to go after my dream of having my own creative business.
I love the look of Scribe – the box in the side bar of your posts to quickly analyse how your post will perform. It’s definitely something I’ll consider when I am ready to step my blogs up to the next level.
Love seeing behind the scenes of how you run your business – software, your office & art room, how you film & your equipment. Loooooving these posts, April.
The All in One SEO pack is a great option. Scribe helps me come up with ideas/keywords/options that I wouldn’t consider. Actually, I’m getting better at predicting things myself, so Scribe has kinda “trained” me. 🙂
I’m so glad! I love seeing other people’s behind the scenes stuff!
Hey April,
Awesome post! A lot of bloggers don’t take the time to learn the basics of SEO and don’t get a lot of traffic as a result. I remember when I first started out how it felt like I was talking to an empty room – it was kind of depressing. Over time I learned more about SEO and people were finding my articles.
Seeing that people were finding my articles and reading them gave me a second wind and was a much needed encouragement. So everyone who reads this should definitely consider SEO a crucial part of blogging 🙂
Scribe is a great tool as well. If anyone wants a free alternative, check out Yoast SEO for WordPress. It’s similar to Scribe but a little bit more manual work, but it is free – so there’s that.
Thanks April, loved the video as always!
– Frank Shafer
It can be really discouraging when you’re spending so much time blogging and you only have a couple readers. I’ve definitely been there. Thanks for adding that recommendation. I know many readers who would love to check out free options first. 🙂
Yes, I look back on those days and remember it felt very much like talking to an empty room. But, patience is key and everything takes time. And the more you blog, the better you get at it.
Everyone should look into Google Authorship too. It puts your Google+ photo next to your articles and helps out with ranking, as long as your content is quality. With a capital Q.
Happy blogging everyone!