Ranking at the top of the search results is one of the most sought after goals for content creators and bloggers of all sizes. Even novice bloggers hear about SEO pretty early on, and will often quickly find themselves thrown into a world of outdated recommendations, tips, tricks and secret strategies to get more traffic and higher rankings for their site.

Of course, hearing about it and knowing what to do about it is not the same thing. And as time continues to progress and Google gets smarter, many of these outdated SEO strategies can actually do more harm than good.

When it comes to actually perfomringthe right search engine optimization methods and strategies on your site, there are plenty of options to choose from. Such methods consist of gaining new backlinks, writing high-quality content and also making sure your site is running at the fastest speed possible. You will also want to make sure your site is mobile optimized and looks great no matter what browser someone is accessing it through.

If you’re struggling with how to go from reading about SEO to doing some SEO, keep scrolling for some SEO tips. As you make your way through the list, be sure to note which methods you’ve already tried, and which should be added into your day to day content creation and marketing efforts.

1. Get Down With the Keywords

Good blogs need good keywords. In fact, any tightly focused blog will include them because the content demands it.

That isn’t the same as SEO keyword stuffing, which search engines will punish ruthlessly.

A good blog post will include one or two primary keywords and a longtail keyword if it makes sense. There are several excellent keyword research tools available to help you pin down the best choices for you.

2. Mobile Friendly

Estimates place the number of smartphone owners worldwide at over 2.5 billion. That means the people looking at your blog probably do it on their phones as often as not. It also means that any blog not optimized for mobile display will suffer.

Making your site mobile friendly can prove as simple as using a responsive theme on your content management system. It can also mean getting your custom site rebuilt for mobile display. Either way, it’s a necessary step for your blog traffic.

3. Work the Images

A good blog post needs good images. You should include, bare minimum, at least one relevant image per post. That can mean some time scrolling through image sites or creating your own, but it pays off in terms of user interest.

You must also keep the images small. If the image site doesn’t let you download a small version, you can use an image editing program to do it yourself.

Wondering why? Let’s jump to the next section…

4. Keep Your Site Fast

Lots of things can slow down your website. Shared hosting combined with high traffic can do it. So can loading your CMS with plugins that lose compatibility.

A big one, though, is large media files. That 2000px by 2000px image might look fantastic, but it’s bogging down your page load times. Small jpeg images load fast and that’s the way to go.

5. Outsource

No one is an expert on everything. Maybe you focused your attention on traditional marketing techniques. Maybe marketing is a new animal for you.

If you’re not feeling fantastic about your SEO skills, that’s okay. You can always outsource some or all of the SEO-related work to professionals like these SEO consultants. Outsourcing is a time-tested method for accessing skills a business doesn’t have in-house.

When exploring your options with any type of freelancer or outreach services, make sure you put some time into the research process to make sure the company is worth hiring and has a proven track record for success. This can often be accomplished by searching for their name in Google and including the word “reviews”.

Getting the Most From These SEO Tips

As mentioned throughout this article, the internet is growing at a massive pace and with more than a billion active sites creating content on the internet today it’s only getting more competitive. This means it will take more time, money and effort than ever before to get your site ranking at the top of Google for relevant keywords and search phrases.

In order for all of this work, it’s important to make sure you are getting the most out of these SEO tips, while approaching each of them like any other new or unfamiliar topic. Don’t tackle it all at once, and try to have a tracking solution in place to measure your results as new changes go in place.

To get started, simply pick out one or two tips and dive deep into the available material. Once you master and implement those tips, move on to the next one. This approach lets you understand what’s happening on your blog, rather than taking it on faith.

Looking for more tips on taking your blog to new heights? Check out our other blogging articles and resources.