If you’re looking to rank higher on Google, you’re going to love this post. As someone who just started a blog this year, I can honestly say I’ve learned a lot about blogging after writing 52 short and long form articles.

This article is going to show you the best search engine optimization practices in 2023. Plus, I have a secret weapon: my sister, Danielle, has a wildly successful blog and she has been a gold mine for practical tips when it comes to growing your business’ online presence. 

This article will give you tips in descending order of importance - meaning if you don’t want to incorporate every single tip, that’s totally fine. But be sure to include the top few tips as they will contribute the most to your success!

With that said, let’s get started!

If you want to rank high on Google, do your keyword research

If you’re anything like me, the idea of doing keyword research sounds complicated and intimidating. Luckily, I promise you it’s not as bad as it sounds. Hop onto Google’s Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest and type in keywords that you want to write an article on.

For example, this article is on ranking high on Google so I went onto Ubersuggest and looked at their keywords. As you can see, the amount of searches for these keywords are dismal at best. Additionally the competitiveness is HIGH.

This is a sign to keep looking for different (but related) keywords. Once you find a keyword that has a high volume of searches with the lowest possible competitiveness that you can find, go ahead and start writing your article. Here are some simple rules you are going to want to follow:

• Have your keyword in the first sentence
• Have your keyword in the title
• Have your keyword in most of your subheadings
• Have your keyworkd in your URL

Fill out your meta description and insert your keyword there as well

Yoast defines a meta description as “the meta description is an HTML tag you can set for a post or page of your website. In it, you can describe what your page is about. If you’re lucky, Google will show it beneath your page’s title in the search results. It brings you an opportunity to convince search engine users that your page will offer what they are looking for.”

You see, your meta description has two components:

1. It needs to contain your keyword phrase
2. It needs to be persuasive to people who are looking for the information contained in your blog post

PRO TIP: browse the meta descriptions in the articles that rank for the keywords you’re using to help you stand out from other websites!

Include your keyword in the alt-text

Alt text is simply the description of the photos you’re using in the article. Not only will photos help make your article more readable, it will also provide you with an opportunity to add alt-text which will further strengthen your SEO. You can also add videos here too if they are relevant and helpful to your article.

Google favours long-form content

Long form content can help you rank better. People tend to like articles that are going to show them how to accomplish their goals. Due to this fact, longer articles tend to be more helpful and informative. Thus, Google tends to prefer them. 

Keep in mind that you want to make sure you’re only using long-form content if it makes sense for the article. Avoid rambling on just to make it a long-form piece of content.

Use backlinks to rank high in Google

For those of you who don’t know, backlinks are simply links to other websites that boost your own credibility.

For example, in another article, I linked back to Facebook’s definition of reach. This is because Facebook is a highly credible website and Google will look positively on this.

Another strategy is to include internal links. These are links that link to other articles on your website. This can be a smart strategy to get people to visit your services pages or keep them on your website by referring them to other potentially helpful articles that are related to the topic they might be looking for.

Danielle recommends having at least one backlink and one internal link.

Include tags

Tags can be used to not only help your readers find relevant articles to the topics they’re interested in, but tags can also give you an SEO boost too!

If there are well-known public figures mentioned in your articles, make sure you include tags of their name. This increases the chances of your blog showing up for users who are also searching for them!

Google favours consistency

So how often should you post? For optimal results, you need to show up consistently. It’s important to keep a balanced schedule however because you don’t want to burnout.

For example, I wrote 52 blog posts in 2022 so that I wouldn’t need to worry about them in 2023. This allowed me to pre-plan my digital marketing strategy without feeling overwhelmed. 

You might be more disciplined than I am and able to come up with weekly or monthly blog posts. But whatever schedule you decide, make sure it’s consistent!

In Summary

If you want to rank high on Google, make sure you implement a strategy and remember that starting a successful blog doesn’t need to be that difficult - you just need to consistently work at it!

Interested in growing your business’ online presence? Join my Exclusive IG Growth Accelerator Training and learn how you can grow your business on social media for free!

See you there!