How to Fix Core Web Vitals Google Update Issues in Google Console



Resolving core web vital issues in Google Console is crucial for improving the user experience and search engine ranking of your website. Core Web Vitals are a set of specific metrics that Google uses to assess the page loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability of web pages.

Most common issues are:

• Spamming
• LCP issue
• CLS issue
• Plagiarism issue
• Irrelevant content production strategy issue

The most important update that made many sites lost their ranking on SERP in March was this update below:


• INP will replace FID as a part of Core Web Vitals in March 2024. Make sure that your site provides a good page experience by fixing these issues.

INP (interaction to next paint):

A metric that assesses a page's overall responsiveness to user interactions by observing the time that it takes for the page to respond to all click, tap, and keyboard interactions that occur throughout the lifespan of a user's visit to a page.

The final INP value is the longest interaction observed, ignoring outliers.

This means you will have to fix any button on your site that takes long to respond after you click, it should be fixed or the update will hit you even more.

Lastly; to all those that are happy because their site traffic is coming back should better fix all that I have mentioned above and request for Validation or risk to lose even more because the entire update should continue for like a month, and if you are hit by any Google update, is not damaged to your site, you just have to fix it and in few weeks your site will be back and better.

Here are steps to resolve core vital issues in Google Console:

  1. Access Google Console: Log in to your Google Search Console account. Select the property (website) for which you want to resolve core vital issues.
  2. Check Core Web Vitals Report:In the left-hand menu, navigate to "Core Web Vitals" under "Enhancements."Review the report to identify any issues with your website's Core Web Vitals. This report will show which URLs have problems.
  3. Identify Specific Issues:Click on each issue to get more details about the specific URLs and what Core Web Vital metric is affected. Core Web Vitals consist of three primary metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading performance.First Input Delay (FID): Measures interactivity.Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability.
  4. Address LCP Issues:To improve LCP, optimize your page loading speed. Common fixes include: Compress and optimize images. Minimize server response times.Use a content delivery network (CDN). Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS. Implement lazy loading for images and other resources.
  5. Address FID Issues:FID focuses on improving interactivity. To address FID issues: Minimize and optimize JavaScript execution. Use browser caching to speed up resource retrieval. Avoid long tasks that block the main thread.
  6. Address CLS Issues:CLS aims to improve visual stability. To fix CLS issues: Reserve space for images and other dynamic content to prevent layout shifts. Ensure that ad elements and iframes have predefined dimensions.
  7. Verify Fixes:After implementing changes, use tools like PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to verify that the Core Web Vitals issues have been resolved.
  8. Re-submit Sitemap:After making improvements, resubmit your sitemap to Google Console to help Google re-crawl and re-index your updated pages.
  9. Monitor Progress:Continue to monitor your website's Core Web Vitals in Google Console to ensure that the issues remain resolved over time.
  10. Keep Up with Updates:Stay updated with Google's guidelines and algorithm changes to ensure your website continues to meet Core Web Vitals standards.

Remember that improving Core Web Vitals is an ongoing process, and it may require continuous optimization as your website evolves. Regularly check Google Console for performance data and address any new issues that may arise to ensure a positive user experience and maintain or improve your search engine rankings.
How to Switch from Blogger to WordPress without Losing Google Rankings

How to Switch from Blogger to WordPress without Losing Google Rankings

Do you want to migrate your blog from Blogger to WordPress? While Blogger is a neat free tool to start blogging, many beginners soon realize its limitations, and they want to switch to WordPress to get access to more powerful features. In this article, we will show you how to properly switch from Blogger to WordPress without losing Google rankings.


Why Move From Blogger to WordPress?

Blogger is a popular blogging platform created by Google. It allows anyone to create a free blog using their Google account.

However, many beginners soon realize that there are a lot of limitations on what they can do with their free Blogger blog.

WordPress, on the other hand, gives you complete ownership of your website. It also allows you to add necessary features to grow and monetize your blog. We have created a detailed side-by-side comparison of WordPress vs Blogger.

It’s important to note that when we say WordPress, we are talking about self-hosted WordPress.org which should NOT be confused with WordPress.com which is a hosted solution that has it’s own limitations. For details, see our article on the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

WordPress.org is the popular “WordPress” platform that you have likely heard about because it powers 31% of all websites on the internet.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to properly move from Blogger to WordPress while preserving your Google search rankings and website traffic.

Here are the exact steps that we will use to transfer from Blogger to WordPress:Sign up with WordPress hosting company.

  • Export your Blogger blog
  • Import Blogger to WordPress
  • Setup permalinks on your new WordPress blog.
  • Setup redirects for Blogger visitors to WordPress posts
  • Moving Other content from Blogger to WordPress
  • Things to do after migrating from Blogger to WordPress

Step 0. Before You Start

To get started with WordPress, you would need a domain name and web hosting.

For a quick primer, a domain name is your website’s address that people type to get to your blog, and web hosting is where your website files are stored. Both of these are a MUST HAVE to create any type of blog / website.

With that said, we recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and they are an officially recommended WordPress hosting partner.

Because Bloggerinstinct is the largest WordPress resource site, they have agreed to offer our readers a free domain name and a 60% discount on hosting. Basically, you can get started for just $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Once you have signed up for WordPress hosting and set up your domain name, the next step is to install WordPress on your hosting account.

If you signed up with Bluehost using our link above, then WordPress will be automatically installed for you.

If you used a different WordPress hosting, then you need to install WordPress by following our ultimate guide on how to install WordPress.

After you have installed WordPress, it is time to move your content from Blogger to WordPress.

Bonus Free Offer: Since a lot of you asked for this, we are now offering free Blogger to WordPress migration service as part of our free WordPress blog setup service. This means one of our expert team member will do the entire migration for you (100% free). Yes, you can literally switch from Blogger to WordPress without any risk.

Note: Our free blogger migration service is for smaller blogs that have less than 1000 blog posts. We can offer migration service for larger blogger sites, but that will be a paid service.

However if you are someone who likes learning and doing things yourself, then you can follow our step by step tutorial below.
Step 1. Export Your Blogger Blog

The first thing you need to do is export your Blogger blog’s content. You can do this by logging into your Blogger dashboard and going to Settings » Other page. Under the ‘Import & back up’ section, you need to click on the ‘Back up Content’ button.



This will bring up a popup where you need to click on the ‘Save to your computer’ button.



Your Blogger blog’s content will be downloaded to your computer in an XML file. Once the download is complete, it is time to import your Blogger content into your WordPress site.
Step 2. Import Blogger to WordPress

To start importing your Blogger site into WordPress, you need to login to your WordPress admin area and visit Tools » Import. On the Import page, go ahead and click on the ‘Install Now’ link below Blogger.



WordPress will now download and install the Blogger Importer plugin for you. Once it is finished installing, you would need to click on the ‘Run Importer’ link to continue.



On the Import Blogger screen, WordPress will ask you to upload the XML file. This is the file that you downloaded in Step 1.

Simply click on the choose file button and upload the XML file you downloaded earlier. Next, you need to click on the Upload file and import button to continue.



WordPress will now upload the import file. If your import file is too large, then you may see an error that your file size is too large. In this case, you would need to increase your maximum file upload limit. If your file is small, then you won’t see any errors.

Next, you will be asked to assign posts to an author. If you had multiple authors on your Blogger blog, then you can create a new user account for each author. You can also assign these posts to existing authors on your WordPress site.



After making your selection, click on the submit button to continue.

WordPress will now import all content from the Blogger export file to your WordPress site. You can view the content by visiting Posts » All Posts page.


Step 3. Setting up Permalinks

Permalinks is the term used for URL structure of individual pages. WordPress comes with a feature that allows you to set up SEO friendly URL structure. Since you are importing content from Blogger, you need your URL structure to be as close to your Blogger URL structure as possible.

To set permalinks, you need to go to Settings » Permalinks screen in your WordPress dashboard and choose the custom structure option. After that, you need to add the following text in the box next to the custom structure field.

/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html



This permalink structure makes your blog posts URLs similar to the URLs on your old Blogger blog.

However, sometimes your blog post URL also known as slug in WordPress will not match the slugs used by Blogger.

To fix this, you will need to create and run a little code snippet. Please see our guide on how to copy and paste code snippets in WordPress.

You will need to add this code to your WordPress theme’s functions.php file.
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add_action( 'init', 'wpb_update_slug' );
 
function wpb_update_slug() {
global $wpdb;
$result = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT post_id, meta_value FROM $wpdb->postmeta WHERE meta_key = 'blogger_permalink' ");
$wpdb->print_error();
foreach ($result as $row){
$slug = explode("/",$row->meta_value);
$slug = explode(".",$slug[3]);
$wpdb->query("UPDATE $wpdb->posts SET post_name ='$slug[0]' WHERE ID = '$row->post_id' ");
}
echo "DONE";
 
}


After saving the code, you just need to visit any page on your WordPress site to trigger this script.

Note: After the script has run, don’t forget to delete it from your functions.php file because it only needs to run once.

Bonus Free Offer: Don’t want to deal with code? We have got you covered. Since a lot of you asked for this, we are now offering free Blogger to WordPress migration service as part of our free WordPress blog setup service. This means one of our expert team member will do the entire migration for you (100% free). Yes, you can literally switch from Blogger to WordPress without any risk.
Step 4. Setup Redirects from Blogger to WordPress

The most important step in moving any website is to setup proper redirection, so you don’t lose any existing traffic or SEO rankings.

The crucial part of the redirection is to make sure that your users land on exactly the same page on the new site which they were trying to access on the old site. At the same time, we also need to ensure that search engines understand that your website is moved to this new location.

To do that, you need to install and activate the Blogger to WordPress Redirection plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Blogger to WordPress Redirection page and click on the ‘Start Configuration’ button.



The plugin will now detect the URL of your Blogger blog and show you the option to Get Redirection Code. Go ahead and click on the ‘Get Code’ button next to your Blogger URL.

It will now generate a code snippet that you need to properly redirect users from your Blogger blog to your new WordPress site.

Next, you need to login to your Blogger dashboard and go to the ‘Themes’ page. Under your blog preview image, you need to click on the ‘Edit HTML’ button.



Blogger will now display the custom HTML code for your theme. If you made any customizations to your Blogger theme, then you may want to copy the code and save it on your computer as backup.

Otherwise, you can just go ahead and delete everything. After that, copy the code displayed by the plugin on your WordPress site and paste it into your Blogger theme editor.



Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save theme’ button to store your changes.

Next, we need to set up redirects for mobile users.

You need to go back to the Themes page on your Blogger blog’s dashboard. This time you need to click on the gear button below the mobile preview of your blog.



This will bring up a popup where you need to select ‘No. Show desktop theme on mobile devices’ option and click on the save button.



That’s all, your Blogger blog will now redirect all your blog visitors to your new WordPress blog.

Step 5. Moving Other Content from Blogger to WordPress

In this step, we will move other remaining content from Blogger to WordPress. This may require some manual work depending on the settings / content of your blog.

1. Moving pages from Blogger to WordPress

WordPress’ Blogger importer tool only import posts from Blogger and ignores pages. To move your pages into WordPress, you will have to edit each page in your blogger blog, copy its contents, and then manually create a page in WordPress.

To learn more about pages, see our article on the difference between posts vs pages in WordPress.

Now you will come across another issue. The blogger pages have URLs that look like this:

http://example.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html

Your WordPress page URL will look like this:

http://example.com/about-us

To fix this you will need to use the Redirection plugin. For instructions, please see our beginner’s guide on creating redirects in WordPress.

2. Widgets

Just like Blogger, WordPress themes also utilize widgets to add content to your blog’s sidebar. To add widgets, you need to visit Appearance » Widgets page on your WordPress dashboard and simply drag / drop widgets into sidebars.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

3. RSS Feeds ‘

Search engines and users who subscribed to your blog posts via RSS feeds will still be able to find your blog. However, they will not get any new content.

To fix this, you need to visit Settings » Other page under your Blogger account. Next, you need to click on the ‘Add’ link next to Post Feed Redirect URL and add your WordPress feed.

Your WordPress feed URL will look like this:

http://yoursite.com/feed


Step 6. Things to do After Migrating from Blogger to WordPress

Now that you have successfully moved your Blogger blog to WordPress, let’s take a look at what else you can do to improve your blog.

We have created a checklist of the most important things you need to do after installing WordPress.

WordPress is quite easy to use. However, you’ll occasionally discover new things that you may need help with. 

We hope this article helped you switch from Blogger to WordPress without affecting your Google search rankings. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress SEO guide for beginners.

How to Find and Remove Broken Links in Your Website

Broken links are links that lead to pages that do not exist. When clicking on a broken link, the page you land on is called a 404 error page, a standard HTTP response that indicates that the requested URL doesn’t exist.

What do you do when you happily surf the web and suddenly come across a 404 error?For most of us, the immediate response would be to simply leave the current site in favor of another one because both people and search engines consider broken links as unprofessional.

404 errors and broken links also have negative effects on your search engine rankings so it is quite reasonable to be proactive in avoiding them to improve exposure and increase site traffic.

Note: there are terms and methods presented in this tutorial that address WordPress bloggers, however, this article is relevant to any website owner.

Bloggers update their blog’s content more often than other site owners do. Therefore, there is a higher chance for them to have broken links found throughout their website.

For WordPress blogs, there are two types of plugins that can be used to deal with those links:Plugins that detect broken links in your site like Broken Links Checker.
Plugins that manage 301 redirects automatically like Redirection.

As a plugin minimalist, I always insist on doing things manually to avoid using and installing plugins. In this case, you can be rest assured that having the ability to deal with these problems efficiently is worth installing another plugin. 

Whether you use a plugin or not, I highly recommend checking your website occasionally for broken links and 404 errors.


Detecting and removing invalid URLs using Google WebMaster Tools

There are two reasons why pages are indexed in Google even though they don’t exist in your website:You referenced an invalid internal link by mistake because of a typo. This is the time to recommend a very simple yet essential plugin for post authors – the Link to Post plugin for avoiding such mistakes).
You published a post and decided to change its permalink afterwards (the post’s URL) after Google has already indexed the original link.

The best way to detect these errors is by using Google Webmaster Tools. If you haven’t done so already, register your site there. It’s an essential tool to have for anyone running a website.

One of the most important tools provided in GWT is the Remove URL tool, which allows you to remove invalid pages from Google search results.

Let’s see how to remove those bad URLs from Google’s index.
Detecting invalid pages that are indexed by Google

Once you have signed up for Google Webmaster Tools and have set it up and verified your site (see Google’s Getting Started guide for GWT), here is the process for finding invalid pages.

1 Click on Diagnostics from the left menu and select Crawl Errors.

2 Select the Not Found category.

3 If available, click to view which page contains the broken link.

4 To make sure that the URL is indeed indexed in Google, copy and paste the URL into Google’s search and see if any result comes up.


Removing URLs from Google’s search results

1 Click on Site Configuration, and select Crawl Access.

2 Select Remove URL.

3 Click on New removal request.



4 Select the first option to completely remove a page from Google search results.

OR

Select the fourth option in case you want to retain the page in search results but would like to remove the cached version of the page. This is useful in case Google displays an outdated version of the page in the “cached” link.

5 Click on Next.



6 Type the URL of the page you would like to remove from Google.

7 Make sure the first option is selected and then click on Add.

8 The URL to be removed should now appear in the list. If you want, you can add more pages for removal.

9 Click on Submit Removal Request.



Your request is now pending—in most cases, it only takes 2 to 3 days for Google to remove the URL.

10 Click on Site Configuration and select Crawl Access.

11 Select Remove URL.

12 Make sure the URL you requested to remove does not appear in the list of pending requests.

13 Click on Removed URLs to see that the URL is now listed there.

To make sure that the URL was indeed removed from Google, copy and paste the URL into Google’s search box and see if any result comes up.


Detecting Broken Links using Xenu Link Sleuth

Another excellent tool I like using for hunting down broken links in my websites is Xenu Link Sleuth. You can download it here.

Unlike the WordPress plugins mentioned earlier in this article, Xenu is a standalone desktop application for Windows that outputs all your site links—whether they’re valid or invalid links—and groups them into a very readable fashion.



After you install Xenu, using it is really easy.

1 Click on File and select Check URL.

2 Type your website’s URL (e.g. https://www.bloggerinstinct.com/blog/web-design/.

3 Wait for all links (site wide!) to be checked.

4 When Xenu asks whether you want a report, click on Yes.



You can enter your FTP server details, but I simply click on Cancel and Xenu generates an XHTML report locally (it opens a dialog window automatically).

In the generated report, click on Broken links. Sort it by link in the table of contents to see all the pages that have broken links in them (and the broken links of course).

Finally, once you’ve detected all broken links, what is left to do is to navigate to the posts and pages containing references to broken links. You should either fix or remove those links.

What are your own techniques and tools for finding broken links? How often do you search your site for broken links? How important is it to eliminate invalid links, and why?
How to Make your Blog Stand Out from the Competition

How to Make your Blog Stand Out from the Competition

Do you want your blog to stand out from the pack? Getting your blog or other content marketing noticed requires three distinct elements; developing the best content you can, leveraging your resources to promote your blog or content and making your blog sharable so that readers persuade their friends and colleagues to read it. This holds true for B2C, B2B, not-for-profit and personal blogs.

Here are thirty-one ways to increase your blog (or other content marketing) visibility. Create strong content that stands out.

Use killer headlines to lure readers in. Face it. Without a strong headline, your posts’ chances of getting read are greatly diminished. It’s worth your effort to spend time crafting the best headlines you can.

Have a professional looking blog design. First impressions count! Regardless of whether you use your blog for personal or professional reasons, show readers you’re committed to blogging by incorporating strong blog design.

Write about juicy topics. Think trending topics. Boost your content’s talkworthiness. There’s a reason that gossip and politics are hot blogging topics.

Tell great stories. We’ve all been taught to listen to stories since we were young. Integrate stories into your posts to make them memorable.

Incorporate keywords in your posts. Content, especially when delivered via a blog, supports search optimization. Focus each post on one keyword.

Add visuals to attract attention. Humans are visual beings. Take advantage of this by using photographs and graphics in each post.

Include other media formats. Use of video, audio and presentations helps get attention and supports your search. Of course, it critical to associate related text.

Make content easy-to-scan. Big blocks of tiny text scare readers away because they look onerous and require extra work to read. Use short paragraphs and bullets to help readers.

Link out to other blogs. Pointing to other relevant information and sources is integral to blogging. It also helps you get noticed by relevant content creators.

Cross link to other relevant information on your website and blog. It’s also good to link to appropriate product information or articles on other parts of your website.

Keep a consistent publishing schedule. Many new bloggers follow a laissez-faire approach to blogging and wait until the spirit moves them. While it’s your blog, if you don’t have a regular publishing schedule, readers will think that no one’s home.

Invite guest bloggers to write for your blog. This is particularly helpful if they have strong writing skills and large followings that compliment your point of view.

Interview well known people in your field. Find a good reason for interviewing someone well known in your category to get visibility. You can get their input via email or video as well.

Review new books (books and e-books) in your category. Give your take-aways on the latest reads in your target segment.

Promote your blog. Let prospects know that your blog exists.Let readers receive posts via email. Offer readers the option of reading your content via email. This helps you expand your reach.

Offer RSS feeds. Make it easy for readers to get your content via the method of their choice.

Share your posts via social media platforms every time you publish. Use all of the major social media sites but avoid the me, me, me syndrome by also sharing other content relevant to your followers.

Add your blog’s URL to your social media profiles. Take advantage of getting your blog seen by more people.

Write guest blog posts for other related, non-competitive blogs. The idea is to give away your best writing to get your name in front of other bloggers and their readers.

Acquire blog bling. Get your blog recognized as top in its category. (For example, this blog was short listed as one of the top social media blogs by Social Media Examiner.) Let your readers know by displaying the badges you’ve earned.

Use other forms of internal media. Promote your blog across all of your internal communications and promotions. Think company emails like customer service, catalogs and flyers.

Add a link in your email signature files. Instead of your company website, include your blog address.
Include a link to your blog on your business cards. Promote your blog while you’re handing out your card. It’s a subtle way to get colleagues to pay attention.

Run a contest. Have a special give away to get potential readers engaged.

Socialize your blog content. Make it easy for other people to share your content.Spotlight customers and others on your blog. Give your readers their fifteen seconds of fame. This gets people in your audience involved and spreads your name across their social media connections.

Incorporate social sharing in every post. Place social sharing at the top and bottom so that readers can share it with their colleagues.

Comment on other blogs. Don’t just leave spammy comments with links to your blog. Instead, contribute to the conversation. Build a relationship with the blogger and his readers.

Respond to comments on your blog. Answer people who take the time to read your content. This shows that you’re part of the social media ecosphere. Go beyond just saying thank you for your comment.

Participate in Twitter chats. Don’t push your blog posts, but rather introduce yourself when you enter the chat. 

Answer questions on Q&A sites such as LinkedIn and Quora. Use question and answer sites to show your expertise.

Advertise on social media networks to drive readers. Use advertising on selected platforms such as Facebook to engage prospects.

To get your blog (or other content marketing) noticed takes a combination of great content, letting people know your blog exists and making it easy for readers to share it with their friends and colleagues.

Is there anything else that you’d add to this list to get your blog greater visibility?

13 Effective Blogging Tips for Beginners You Must Know


Want to get into blogging but not sure how to begin? Wouldn’t it be nice if your blog simply appeared with the wave of a wand?

Writing blog posts may not be as easy as bippity boppity boo, but the good news is that creating your blog can be thrilling when you have the right tools.

To avoid common blogging mistakes, we’re providing the proper guidance to help you start your blog strong.

In this post, we provide you with 21 useful tips on how to get your blog started and how to maintain it once it gains momentum.

1. Target topics people are searching for

If you want consistent, passive traffic coming to your site, the best way is to rank high on Google. To do that, you’ll need to target topics people are searching for.

Here’s how to find these topics:

  • Enter one or a few relevant keywords into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
  • Go to the Matching terms report
  • Switch the tab to Questions
Ideally, you’d want to tackle topics that are:

  • High in Traffic Potential (TP) – TP is the estimated amount of search traffic you can potentially gain if you rank #1 for that topic. We calculate it by estimating the amount of search traffic the #1 page currently gets.
  • Low in Keyword Difficulty (KD) – KD is how difficult it is to rank for the keyword in the top 10 organic search results.
You can narrow down the list by using the filters. For example, you can set a KD filter to a maximum of 10 and a TP filter to a minimum of 500.

2. Run a Competitive Content Marketing Analysis

By analyzing your competitors, you can get a deeper understanding of what’s trending in your niche. It’ll also help you see what kind of blog topics and formats resonate with your audience.

If you’re not sure how to analyze your competitors, use this free template for competitive content analysis and focus on the following:
  • Identify the key websites creating content in your niche (even if they’re not your direct competitors)
  • Analyze the content categories they have on their blogs, the most popular pages, and the keywords they are ranking for
  • Find out what makes each of them unique and what their differentiation points are
  • Assess their tone of voice, the visual look, and overall formatting
  • Learn about ways they are monetizing their websites
  • Examine their social media channels
For example, imagine you wanted to see which topics and keywords perform well for Growing Your Craft’s competitors.

First, manually inspect their websites to find the most popular/trending blog section or identify topics they seem to target the most.

If you are not sure how to find your competitors, you can start by googling the most important keywords related to your business (e.g. “etsy courses") and analyzing the websites ranking on the first pages.

To make this process more data-driven, head to the Organic Research tool and enter your own domain.

Then, head to the “Competitors” tab to see the websites in your niche that are competing with yours.Then, click on any of those websites to learn more about each competitor.

You can use the “Pages” report to find the pages (and keywords) that have been performing well for each of those websites.

3. Find “easy to rank” topics

Links are an important Google ranking factor. Generally speaking, the more high-quality links you have, the higher your page will rank.

Let’s extrapolate from that idea. If a page doesn’t have many backlinks but still ranks high on Google, it means it’s a low-competition topic. And we can find these topics using Ahrefs’ Content Explorer:Enter a relevant keyword
  • Set a Referring domains filter to max. 10
  • Set a Page traffic filter to min. 500
  • Click Details and then the Organic keywords tab to see which keywords those pages are ranking for.
  • These are potential keywords you can target.
4. Be mindful of search intent

Google aims to provide its users with the most relevant results for their queries. So if you want to rank high on Google, you need to be the most relevant result.

In the real world, that means creating content that matches search intent.

What is search intent? Search intent is basically the why behind a query. And since Google works to show the most relevant results, we can look at the top-ranking pages to figure out the three Cs of search intent:
  • Content type – Is there a dominant type of content on the SERP, such as blog posts, product pages, videos, or landing pages?
  • Content format – Is there a dominant content format on the SERP, such as guides, listicles, news articles, opinion pieces, or reviews?
  • Content angle – Is there a dominant angle on the SERP, such as freshly updated content or content aimed at beginners?
For example, let’s analyze the three Cs for the topic, “best wireless headphones.”
  • Content type – They’re all blog posts.
  • Content format – They’re mostly listicles.
  • Content angle – They’re mostly fresh, i.e., updated to the latest year.
So if you’re targeting this keyword, you’ll likely have to create something similar—a listicle updated to the latest year.

5. Read Every Day

Novelists should read more books to be better authors and bloggers should read more blogs to be better bloggers. When we read other work besides ours, we are exposed to other ideas, other writing styles, other tones of voice. And all of what we read can influence how we write.

So no matter how much time you have during the day, whether it’s 30 minutes or two hours, spend some time reading through online content that interests you or is related to your niche. Even reading content outside of our interests or wheelhouse can be beneficial!

If you’re not sure whose content to read, try reading content by influencers, thought leaders, subject matter experts, publications, and even your competitors.
 
6. Build a Content Strategy

Now that you have a platform and a good understanding of your niche and audience, it’s time to start building a content strategy. Sure, you can aimlessly cover various blogging topics on the fly and see where they stick. But in the long term, that isn’t always the best solution.

80% of marketers felt their blogs performed better when they had a strategy. With a strategy, marketers can focus on goals more, find areas for improvement, and create more measurable progress. 

A good strategy also helps you establish your brand and story more clearly. That way, your audience knows who you are and what you’re about from the beginning.

Documenting your content strategy will involve listing the following items:
  • Your target audience
  • Primary goals for your blog (e.g., building a contact list and converting those people into paying customers)
  • Metrics you’ll use to track performance (e.g., traffic and newsletter subscriptions)
  • Resources and budget
Next, you’ll move to creating a content plan for your blog that will speak to specific content topics, keywords, dates, promotion tactics, etc.

7. Pick the Right Blogging Platform

What is the “right” blogging platform to use? It depends. Are you blogging for fun? As a hobby? Are you testing it out to see if this blogging thing will stick? Then look for free options.

One of the best free options is to create an account on Medium.com. It’s not only free, but it’s also super simple. And with more than 60 million unique monthly readers, there’s no need to drive traffic! So, start here first.

If you really want a website, WordPress.com has a free plan. But understand that it’s like squatting on a friend’s couch versus owning your own home.

If you plan to blog as a business, then you’ll want a self-hosted website using WordPress.org. This will cost money, but your new blog will look far more professional.

Plus, you don’t want to depend on a free platform that could kick you off at any time or that dictates what you can or can’t do. No, once you get serious, you’ll want that self-hosted site. SiteGround (affiliate link) is the web host we recommend most often to our students. To learn more about it, check out our in-depth SiteGround review.

Once you get your WordPress blog set up, you’ll need to choose a theme. Your WordPress themes will only determine your blog design, but can also affect your site’s loading speed, so choose carefully. The good news is that there are some great choices for free WordPress themes.

8. Less is More: Choose Smart Plugins

WordPress is powerful, but it can’t possibly include every feature everyone wants. Nor would you want it to — that would make the software bloated and buggy, which is nerd talk for slow and unreliable.

Instead, when you want additional functionality in WordPress, plugins can serve your needs.

Plugins are pieces of software code that you can add to your WordPress site. Many are free for basic levels of service, with premium add-ons available. Just know that they can slow down your site, so don’t use them unless they serve a clear purpose.

Each WordPress plugin you choose needs to play nicely with your theme and other plugins you’ve installed. And you’ll want to make sure the plugin is updated regularly — a sign that developers still care about it.

The safest path is to stick with well-known plugins that get high ratings from other WordPress users.

Some categories of useful or smart plugins:
  • Performance optimization plugins can decrease page load times. Your web hosting company may provide one for you.
  • SEO assistant plugins such as Yoast SEO help with basic on-page SEO or search engine optimization (don’t worry, we’ll cover this later).
  • Automatic backup plugins create copies of your blog and upload them to Google Drive or other online storage services like UpdraftPlus, for example.
9. Make your posts easy to read

Let’s be real. No one is clamoring to read your article. They’d rather be on Netflix.

Therefore, it’s your job as a blogger to get them to start reading. As famous copywriter Bond Halbert said, “Good writing creates effortless reading.”

Here’s how you can transform your user’s reading experience:
  • Use short paragraphs – Huge chunks of text daunt readers, but short ones invite them in. Use Hemingway to fix this.
  • Break up long sentences – Long sentences are hard to follow. Break them up by finding instances where you used words like “and,” “because,” and “that.”
  • Insert multimedia – Videos, images, GIFs, etc., can help illustrate your points without adding more words.
  • Use formatting – Bold, italics, quotes, and lists break up chunks of copy and add extra emphasis.
  • Read your copy out loud – This pinpoints areas where your content doesn’t flow smoothly.
10. Create Enticing Titles To Increase CTRs

It’s essential that you create engaging blog titles that capture the reader and increase the click-through rate (CTR) on search engines and other channels.

There are variations of articles that get more clicks than others because of how their titles are formatted. Here are some generic variations you may have clicked on yourself:
  • “How To…”
  • “Everything You Need To Know About…”
  • “A Guide to…”
  • “3, 5, 7, or 9 Things You Should…” (odd numbers in posts get clicked more)
According to our research, “Everything You Need To Know” titles and comparison articles generate the most unique monthly pageviews on average.

Besides, “Mistakes To Avoid” articles and guides get the most shares.

A few attributes of engaging blog titles are:
  • Specific: Let the reader know right away what to expect
  • Actionable: Show the reader the value they’ll get from reading the article
  • Catching: Hook your readers right away while also keeping them intrigued
For example, imagine you are writing an article about beginner vegan recipes for people on a gluten-free diet.

It’s important that your headline showcases that these vegan recipes are easy to cook and fit the gluten-free diet.

You might also want to share the number of recipes and highlight the uniqueness of your selection.

For instance:

“20 Vegan & Gluten-Free Recipes You Can Make in 15 Minutes”

Or:

“20 Easy-to-Make Vegan & Gluten-Free Recipes [With Video]”

Remember, your blog’s page title should be between 50 and 60 characters long. It’s also important to include your target keyword(s) in the headline.

11. Consistency Is Key

Let’s be honest. You chose blogging because you love to write, but we all experience those days where writing is the last thing we want to do.

Writing can be tough at times.

A day or two off is not a big deal, but it puts you at the risk of losing momentum. Days become weeks, which then turn into months.

To prevent this, don’t write only when you feel like it. Write on a schedule. Be consistent.

As a new blogger, you have a decision to make: How often are you going to create new posts? Weekly? Monthly?

Decide on how often you’ll post and stick to that decision. Readers need that consistency.

12. Build an email list

If you’re building your following on third-party platforms like Twitter or YouTube, don’t be surprised if they suddenly ban you, delete your account, or limit your reach.

They have their own policies, and control is out of your hands.

The best way to combat this is to build an email list. For as long as your fans are subscribed to you, you can communicate with them anytime.

Building an email list requires two ingredients: traffic and something of value.

Following the blogging tips in this post will get you the traffic. This means what you need is something of value to persuade your readers to join your list. At Ahrefs, we keep it simple by offering to deliver more of the content they loved to their inbox.

But the world’s your oyster. You can offer a free ebook, the PDF version of the post, an email course, whatever. All you need is a bit of creativity.

13. Get feedback on your content

If you’re writing alone, it’s easy to make mistakes and miss things. So it’s worth getting a second pair of eyes on your content before you hit “publish.”

We do this all the time. We take turns to read each other’s content and offer feedback. We identify areas that can be added or removed, points that can be clarified, and sentences that can be worded better.

We’ve even reflected that in each of our blog posts.

Final thoughts

Blogging is hard work. But the good news is that you’re not alone.  Plenty of bloggers have gone through the ups and downs. With that hard-won experience, they’ve charted the path for you.

Remember to remain consistent, be authentic, do your research, and always be willing to learn and grow.

But most importantly, don’t give up. When it feels like you’re not getting back what you’ve invested, just keep going.