Business partnerships can help you boost your business and reach more of the ideal clients without having to spend your already limited time learning new skill sets. This especially applies to SEO partnerships! Read on for my experiences working as a business partner and my tips for navigating a successful interview process.
Read MoreFrustrated with evolving search & your blog not ranking? Learn 4 strategies you might be missing out on that could drastically improve SEO.
Read MoreOften SEO (search engine optimization) can fall through the cracks when launching or relaunching a website, event, product, or program. Read on for my tips for not only boosting your launch and site traffic with strategic SEO, but how that strategy can attract the right customers and clients who are already searching for you!
Read MoreOften SEO (search engine optimization) can feel swamped in a fog of mystery, so today I want to share what SEO specialists do + how to choose the right SEO consultant for your business. I’ve even included a few questions to ask your prospective hire when you’re accepting quotes or holding interviews.
Read MoreUse these 6 essential Squarespace SEO strategies to rank your content! Squarespace SEO gets a bad rep, but as an SEO consultant, I want to share just how powerful Squarespace SEO is. Their built-in SEO combined with a dedicated content strategy & a few tweaks will give you everything you need to optimize your site.
Read MoreThere are so many free tools out there to help you optimize your website, but I don’t want you to drown in the technological SEO ocean! Here’s my list of recommended free tools to help you harness the power of search engine optimization and start boosting your rankings.
Read MoreI’m willing to bet, you haven’t realized the huge opportunity of local SEO! You can easily increase how many ideal customers come your way by leveraging location-based SEO. Here are 7 ways to your business can get found on by people in your area, on Google Maps and beyond.
Read MoreLearn why & how social media can provide a great opportunity for you to leverage your SEO, gain more knowledge about your dream tribe, improve your visibility in the rankings and, essentially get more ideal clients landing on your website.
Read MoreLearn what backlinks are, 7 authentic ways to get free backlinks, and how it will help your SEO and increase blog traffic to attract more ideal clients.
Read MoreI’m tired of these SEO myths and want to debunk them once and for all! SEO isn’t a quick fix, but a fantastic long-term marketing strategy.
Read MoreNeglecting core SEO is a huge reason your blog isn’t ranking. Find out the vital SEO strategies which are standing the test of time and how you can use.
Read MoreFrustrated + confused with why your blog isn't ranking in search? Read these 3 surprising reasons and 8 simple fixes to finally start tackling SEO!
Read MoreAre you getting the most out of your website? Here are 17 powerful benefits of SEO you might be missing out on that can increase traffic & business.
Read MoreLearn the basics of creating a SEO friendly URLs based on today's best practices & find out how the searcher can indirectly affect your ranks.
Read MoreMeta descriptions are STILL important for SEO & blogging. Find out why in this post, PLUS 7 tips to write killer meta descriptions easily.
Read MoreTitle tags tell search engines what your webpage is about. Find out why they're so important & how to write powerful title tags to grow your traffic.
Read More6 ways to optimize images on your blog or website for SEO and improve your page load speed to keep visitors from leaving!
Read MoreLearn how to use long tail keywords to attract your ideal clients (who are ready to buy) to your website. Plus 3 actionable tips to find the right phrases.
Read MoreLearn the basics of how to do keyword research, my favorite free research tools and how to use keywords effectively for your blog or website.
Read MoreThis post originally appeared on The Lean Green Bean blog, as part two of a series. If you missed part one, I recommend checking that out first- SEO 101: How to Increase Organic Search Traffic for Blog Posts. All caught up? Let’s dig in to part two.
You’ve installed an SEO plugin and fill out your title tags religiously. You spend time coming up with a catchy title and include at least one image with each post.
Now what?
Alt tags Even if you made a pretty title image, Google can’t read the text. So if you want it to show up in search, you have to help the search engines by filling in the alternative text. I like to do this as soon as I upload the photo so I don’t forget. If you want to go back and fill in alt tags for old photos, you can either click on the photo in each post, or go to your media gallery.
Don’t stuff this area with keywords! Either use your post title or a relevant phrase or sentence.
If you use a share button for Pinterest, the alt text is often what will show up in the description for the pin, so this is another great reason to be filling it in!
Photo NameThis is an often overlooked area of optimization. Just like you want to optimize the URL for your blog post, you want to optimize the name of your photo, which turns into a URL of its own once it’s hosted on your blog. The name should be short, simple and related to your post.
Title + Description What you fill in here will show up when you hover over the image or while the image is loading.
CaptionYou only need to fill this out if you want a description to show up under your photo in your blog post.
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Images are one of the biggest culprits for slow page load time, which affects everything from reader retention and engagement to SEO rankings.
Here are three ways you can shrink your images and optimize them for the web:
Plugin optionsInstall the WP Smush.It plugin to optimize your images. This plugin will optimize each new photo you add behind the scenes, and you can also run all existing photos through the plugin in your media library.
Manual OptionsSave your images as PNG files and upload to http://www.tinypng.com. Then download and upload to your blog. If you’re creating your image with Picmonkey, like many bloggers these days, you’ll see the formatting option when you hit “save.”
Save for Web If you’re using photo editing software like Photoshop, you can choose the “save for web” option.
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According to Kissmetrics.com, “40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.”
Test your load time with GT Metrix. GT Metrix also gives you a detailed report of what you can do to improve your speed. I recommend having a developer take a look and help you make the changes. Some of them can be technical and require understanding code.
WordPress can install the WP-Cache 3 plugin. “W3 Total Cache improves the user experience of your site by increasing server performance, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration.”
Here are 26 other tools to improve your site’s speed.
Want to expedite your blog rankings and traffic? Join my brand new, FREE 6-day Challenge…
I’m hosting my very first online challenge and I’d love for you to join us.
I’m an SEO + content marketing strategist with over a decade of experience in the industry.
I work with passionate, purpose-driven business owners and marketing directors who are tired of trying to do All The Things and spreading their efforts too thin. They want to know what's working, what's not working, and where they should really be spending their time and money.
But I'll be honest- I'm not here for the people chasing vanity metrics. My philosophy is grounded in people-first marketing and what I've dubbed #SEOwithSoul. I don't believe in hacks and "beating algorithms" as a long term strategy.
Read more about me here.
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