Friday, March 14, 2014

Blogging Tips for Beginners



I've been blogging now for 7 months, and over the past couple have really started to work on my blog. I'm learning all about SEO, a little bit of coding, google analytics, the list goes on! Of course, I've read a TON of articles on what new bloggers should know. There are so many tips, tricks, and lists out there that it is hard to keep it all straight. Looking back over the past months, these are some of the things I have picked up on pretty easily and don't even have to think twice about anymore! Here is my list of what I wish I had known when I started out as a beginning blogger:

1. Regarding having pictures and images on your blog:

  • Adding alt tags to your pictures. These are pretty easy to do, and can greatly help with your SEO. Pretty much, when search engines go through your pages, they can't read what the image is. Having an alt tag tells the search engine what the picture is of. For example, with this picture of Lily I would tag it as "cute English bulldog sleeping". To add alt tags in blogger, you can just click on the image, then properties, and where it says alt tag add your tag! 
  • Adjust the size of your pictures to the width of your blog posts. Trust me, it makes your blog posts look much cleaner and nicer! To do this, just figure out the pixel width of your blog (mine is 650) and adjust all of your pictures to that size before uploading them. Once they are uploaded, select left alignment and 'original size'. 
  • Again, before you upload your picture name the file an SEO-friendly name. For example, rather than having it be "image_6.jpeg" (which this picture was before!) name the file something relevant, because this will also be included in your HTML and crawled by the search engines. For this image, I called it "English bulldog puppy sleeping." 


cute English Bulldog puppy sleeping
My adorable English Bulldog Lily sleeping as a puppy!
2. Always title your blog post, and always use a different custom permalink than the title. Again, this will help boost your SEO. For this post, I am titling it "Blogging Tips for Beginners". My custom permalink (and what you will see in the URL) is "Beginner_Blogging_Tips". Using a custom permalink is like getting a free SEO boost.

3. Have an about me page- and remember to update it! When I was a beginner blogger, I created my about me page and then promptly forgot about it for about six months. So, my original about me page said I was 23 years old and was engaged to be married in September 2014. Well, six months later I was no longer 23, and had been married for five months. When I find a blog I think I like, one of the first things I do is check out their about me page (because I want to know if I will really like the blog or not!). This is the most important page you can create!

4. Have a page featuring your most popular posts. My Best Of page features popular posts, as well as collects posts together. I have them organized by posts about Nick and I, traveling, and hockey. Remember as you continue blogging to periodically update this page as well!

5. Link back to your old posts and pages- it will help users stay on your site longer, in addition to giving you another slight SEO boost. By linking to other posts and pages, if a reader is interested they may just click and read another post. The longer they stay on your site, the better for you! (PS- see what I have done throughout this post, linking to other pages and posts?) Of course, you don't want to do this too much- if every other sentence is a link, its just going to look annoying. Pick something relevant and then perhaps highlight that!

6. If you don't have a dog, get one. People (especially bloggers) LOVE dogs. I didn't learn this until about a month ago, and since then Lily the bulldog has taken over as my 2nd highest viewed post, and all I did was introduce her! Unfortunately, being in Sweden, I don't have Lily over here. But trust me, once I get home this summer, Lily will be all over the place!
A bonus appearance of Lily, just because I can!
Fellow bloggers, what do you think I missed? These are the simplest tips I have picked up on over the last several months. All of these take time, but the more you blog the easier it is to remember to do all of these. I'm certainly no blogging expert (and never will be!) but wouldn't consider myself a freshly green blogger. What are the best blogging tips you have received or learned from?

16 comments:

  1. Great tips! I have got to get better about naming and tagging my pictures. That may have to be my blogging resolution!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jennifer! I had the hardest time remembering to do it at first, but now it has just become second nature.

      Delete
  2. Awesome tips! I need to work on 5+6. I have 2 rescued greyhounds!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cathy, I've found that linking back to old posts has helped my site so much. My English bulldog Lily (the one pictured!) is another reader favorite. I bet your greyhounds would do great!

      Delete
  3. Thank you so much! Great information. I'm not doing any of these , so I will definitely add to my to do list! I do have a dog , lol! Will have to incorporate him into the blog this year :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jane, it continues to amaze me how many different things there are to do with blogging in order to help boost your SEO/etc. There is so much to learn!

      Delete
  4. Great tips! I'm from Sweden too :) Live in Canada now though. Saknar min familj i Sverige dock :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See now that you're not from there, but live there, lol. Enjoy it for me though ;)

      Delete
    2. Violette, it sounds like we have (almost!) switched then! I'm from Minnesota, which lets be honest is almost Canada. Where in Sweden are you from? I have loved my years here - such a great country to live in!

      Delete
  5. Great tips! I'm just learning about making my photos larger to fit the width of the page. I still have to go back and make those fixes! #sitsblogging

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Janelle, it is definitely always a work in progress! Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  6. I agree with everyone. These are awesome tips for new and veteran bloggers.

    I decided I needed to go back through all my old posts and edit + rename my pictures + add a description. I did not know until recently that the description you write for your picture will be the same description for a Pintrest pin. Might as well take advantage of that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm with you on that! I'm definitely working on my Pinterest strategy- it seems like there is always so much to work on!

      Delete
  7. Thanks so much, I always appreciate blogging tips (just stopping by from SITS Saturday Sharefest)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Laurie! There is always so much to learn with blogging!

      Delete
  8. Very useful tips.Thank you so much for sharing these tips.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment on my blog! I truly appreciate and will take the time to respond to each of your comments. Please, do not post links unassociated with my content as they will be deleted.