- 4Shares
It can be quite confusing when you first hear the word “SEO keywords”. When I first started blogging, I didn’t even find out about it till months later when I took blogging seriously.
I transferred my blog from free WordPress to Self-hosting. That’s why it’s better to learn it now than later.
If you’re a beginner blogger learning what SEO means, then continue reading. I’ll be giving you the definitions on what SEO and Keywords mean so you can get the jiss of it and some tips on how you can increase your organic traffic by optimising.
So grab your mug of coffee or tea and let’s get right into it!
*Disclosure: This post contains affiliates. I earn compensation if you buy the product. I only add affiliates that I’ve tried myself or would prefer to you. Read more Privacy Policy & Disclosure*
SEO Keywords Guide for Beginner Bloggers
If you’re still using a free blogging platform and want to take blogging seriously, I recommend you host on SiteGround because it’s cheaper, has brilliant customer service and easy to install.
Check out this post on how you can do it.
Related Posts
- The Ultimate Question: Should You Start A Blog?
- The Beginner’s Guide to Making a Self Hosted Website
- Ultimate Tips for Starting a Blog on WordPress
What are SEO Keywords?
SEO Keywords are the topic or idea of your post. This is where your readers can search and find your content by typing in a keyword that they’re looking for.
SEO Keyword research is an essential SEO practise of discovering, analyzing and using terms, that your potential readers use to search for content they want to find.
The goal here is to optimize the website’s content to match those terms. It’s usually the first SEO step you’ll need to take.
To help you get started, check out the guide on keyword research by Mangools explaining the fundamentals of this process step by step.
For example, if I create a post called “30 Teddy Bear Gift Ideas for Valentine’s Day”, then the keywords (topic/idea) are “Valentine’s day gift ideas” or “teddy bears”.
What is SEO?
SEO is Search Engine Optimization. I’m pretty sure you use search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo right? This is where SEO comes in.
These search engines index your content once it has been released to the public so that readers can find your links.
Now that you know what they mean, here are ways on how you can index your post on these search engines.
Target Audience/Niche
Target SEO Niche: A certain topic that interest the reader. Like DIY, fashion, beauty, self-development, travel, family, dating, technology, food, mum blogs, etc.
People say that it’s best to stick to one or two topics. But as a beginner, you should first start off with exploring different topics to suit what your interest is and then go along with it as you progress as a content creator.
When I started blogging, I use to post multiple different niches. From lifestyle, cooking, DIY, relationships, etc (sadly, some of those posts are either private or deleted).
After 1 year of blogging, I continued writing and writing about self-development and stuck with it. And then I added the blogging niche after 2 years.
One question I see often is, “can you still be successful with multiple niches?” My answer is, it depends on how well the writer promotes their blog.
Those people that write multiple niches are considered “lifestyle bloggers” (like me). You can STILL be successful even if you’re a lifestyle blogger but as I said, it depends on how well you promote it.
Related Posts
- 5 Brilliant Ways To Earn Income Blogging for a Living
- Republishing Blog Posts for Remarkable SEO
- The Definitive Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging
Long-Tail Keywords
No, I’m not talking about a cat’s tail. Long Tail Keywords are keywords that are longer than one-two word/s (between 3-4 phrases) and are particularly detailed keywords relevant to the content you write.
For example, if I were to look for a specific hoodie that has a Steven Universe print on it, I can type in Google search “Society6 Steven Universe Hoodies” and it will pop up relevant search topics that involve the keywords like “Society6” “Steven Universe” & “Hoodie”. Get it?
This is the better way to climb on the organic search bars because what you don’t know is that there are a lot of one-two lettered keyword phrases and millions of search results. It’s quite impossible to reach to the top of the index if you’re only throwing in keywords.
Yoast SEO
A new blogger in a FB blogging group had a problem with their title and meta-description and asked if there was a way to edit and fix it. My answer is, use Yoast SEO.
Yoast SEO is a WordPress SEO plugin to help you rank in the search engine index. It’s very simple and easy to use (that’s why I love it so much!).
Much to say, I will not go full in-depth on the plugin (you can check out more WordPress plugins here) but I will give a few basic reasons why you must have this tool if you’re using WordPress.
- As I said, it helps you rank better in an index like Google, Bing, Yandex & Baidu. You can add multiple verification codes so that you can rank in different search engines, not just Google.
- Social Media. Yes, you can customise how your content looks when you share it through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. It may look “ugly” if you don’t have this plugin installed.
- Customise your Title/Heading & Meta-description/tags. When you search on Google, you’re gonna see this.
The part I highlighted is called (from the top, going down) SEO Title, Slug & Meta Description.
- SEO Title: is the heading or title of your post. This is what the reader will see first (hence why headings are very important to get visitors to click on your content). You can use a tool called CoSchedule: Headlines to analyse how catchy your SEO title is.
- Slug: the link to your post. You might see newer bloggers with links that have dates on them etc. Yoast can fix the links for you by going to their settings. It’s best to have clean links like the image below or something that is easier to search up.
- Meta Description: Here is where you give a quick summary of what your post is about. You don’t necessarily need to write one but it is highly recommended if you want people to click on it.
This is what it will look like when you scroll down after your draft post.
And here is what it will look like in the search engine of Google.
Here is the result once edited.
Awesome SEO Keyword Tools
If you thought that finding keywords are hard, you’re definitely wrong! There are plenty of SEO keyword tools you can use to find similar keywords. Here is the list of free (or free trial) SEO keyword tools I use.
Note: Some are limited to how much keywords you research and require you to wait at least a day to renew your free limit.
- KWFinder
- Google Keyword Planner (Adwords)
- Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest
- Buzzsumo
- Answer The Public
- Keyword Tool
Conclusion
Now that you read through and learned a few things about SEO keywords, check out those free keyword tools, start installing Yoast SEO and go back to your newer posts and edit your title and meta-page.
And if you still haven’t self-hosted, I suggest you do it right now! Click here to go self-host at SiteGround (you won’t regret it).
If you still wavy on it, I made a post on 11 Lessons I’ve Learned Blogging with 100 Posts. I talked about how I should have self-hosted earlier.
If you love new posts about self-care, productivity, blogging tips, and other lifestyle posts, then don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter where you can get notified in your email inbox on Fridays (Aussie time). Follow my social media accounts if you haven’t already!
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Some great tips here thanks for explaining!
Thanks for reading! Hope these SEO tips help.
SEO has helped me a lot to improve my site. I only learned through reading different blogs.
Same! I stumbled upon SEO from a random site and that’s how I got to learn more about SEO. The next thing leads me to read about SEO and then watching vids on it.
I learned something new today. It is really important for all the bloggers. Such a helpful post
I’m glad you learned something new today! I’m always learning new things every day by reading blog posts.
Even during this last year of using SEO and keywords I still don’t understand them all that much, these sites will definitely help me out, I mean like you said it’s not hard I just still can’t understand every aspect of it like I wanted to, so I just need to work on it and maybe one day I’ll be more well versed in it 😀
I can relate. I’m no professional but this post is just writing out the basics on what I do currently know about SEO based on learning through other SEO blog posts. I suggest reading SEO posts from those who are more expert in it!
Thanks for the list of the sites that you can use for free! It is quite helpful.
Thanks for reading and always welcome to sharing free sites that I use (I love freebies!).
I have yet to explore about SEO and apply them to my blog. Waiting for the next vacation week to figure it out!
The sooner the better! I happen to start SEO late but after applying smart keywords and optimising it, I’m getting more page views to my blog than I have when only sharing it to social media.
Nope, I still don’t get it.
I can’t seem to get the hang of SEO and it doesn’t matter how many posts I read on it, I just don’t get it.
But thanks for trying.
I’m sorry that you’re having trouble learning about SEO. It’s important to note that you do not have to rush into learning about it. Take your time, if you have trouble taking it in from reading posts, I highly suggest watching videos about SEO for beginners. You keep watching and watching different videos until you understand it!
Wow! I’ve learned something new today. Thanks for sharing.
We always learn something new everyday!
It took my forever to understand SEO and I still have to ask questions or watch youtube because I get confused. Definitely an important topic
It will take months or even years to know the indepth of SEO and to know “what you’re actually doing”. Take your time! It’s best to intake the information and learn more than rushing through it.
I’ve been working on SEO and I’m noticing using the right keywords make such a huge difference.
That’s 100% correct! Using the right keywords is how you’re going to get visitors/bounce rates/page views and reach to the top pages of Google.
Cool Tips about SEO. Not many people who begin blog don’t know, how seo is important for bloggers!
That’s so true! SEO is spooky but also really important for your site. Like, how will you get your writing out there without SEO?
I’m a newbie to this whole blogging world and SEOs I have no idea what I’m doing! I found this post super helpful. I’m going to try out this YOEST thing and see how it goes, thanks for recommending.
Welcome to the world of blogging! I’m glad you find this post helpful and you’re already on your way to becoming an awesome blogger by installing Yoast! (Seriously, I wished I downloaded Yoast sooner). Good luck in your blogging journey!
Hello,
I’m glad I read this article. Whenever I write a post I don’t know what tags to use. I barely understood SEO. This was very informative. I’m hoping to get better I just started blogging a month ago.
Congrats on making a blog! SEO is scary at first but it’s worth to learn more about it for continuous traffic views and search engines. Good luck on your journey blogging.
These info are so vital for beginner, thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for reading! I hope to help beginner bloggers on their journey.
Wow this is great info for beginners! It took me sometime to get a hang of YOAST SEO when I just started out! Great tips.
Yoast SEO was also confusing at first for me but I’m getting more of the hang with it with the quick tutorials!
I must say, you made my day with an article on SEO keywords.
Thanks for sharing.
I’m happy to make your day! I’m not pro but I try to give out information from what I learned through out the past years in SEO. I’m thinking of creating more content on internet marketing in the future. 🙂
very good and helpful information, especially for a new blogger like me. thank you so much!
I’m happy to share new tips for new bloggers! Good luck in your blogging journey.
This is so helpful. I’m working on learning more about SEO!!
Thank you and good luck on becoming a SEO pro!
YESSS SEO was traumatizing at first haha but this post is definitely helpful because I know sometimes I am still like AHHHH what do I dooo!!!
Haha same!! At first I was so overwhelmed with SEO. Even just looking at the word “SEO” has me terrified! Now that I learned the ins and outs, I’m confident about it.
Have been thinking today SEO someday, thinks for the info, very helpfu;
Learn SEO today! Not tomorrow. It’ll definitely help with your blog.