Do you want to get more visitors to your blog?
Of course you do!
Whether you like it or not, if you want to build a successful gaming blog or any website for that matter, you will have to do the basic optimization. By that I mean the fundamentals of on-page SEO.
That also means that you don’t necessarily need to be an expert to implement it.
That’s why I created this easy to use, practical optimization checklist you can basically use for every post you create.
In this post I will cover the basic on-page SEO techniques that will set your gaming content up so in the long run you’ll get more organic traffic from Google.
It will be some time to take effect, but if you do it right you’ll have a very powerful asset which are basically free.
The important things to remember is that SEO is not only a few settings you change and magically get a lot of visitors. It works hand-in-hand with promoting, which I will discuss in another post.
So here are the 15 steps you’ll need to take in order to fully optimize your gaming posts, every time.
#1 The Yoast Plugin
Use the Yoast Plugin. In a previous post I discussed a few basic plugins you can use when you setup your gaming blog.
The Yoast plugin was one of them and it is basically the plugin you use to do your on-page SEO. Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress and is really easy to use, even if you never done SEO before.
So how can you use Yoast to do the basic SEO on your blog posts.
It’s actually very easy!
You just have to follow their basic on-page SEO checklist and make sure you tick most of the boxes. You don’t always have to get everything green to get a good SEO score, but the more the better.
Here is an example of how the checklist looks when editing a page or post.
Important!!! This is not a magical plugin that would guarantee high rankings on Google, only a guideline to optimize your content.
Now you know the basics, so let’s dive a little deeper into what you can do to properly do SEO for all your game blog posts.
Let’s start right at the top.
#2 Title Tags
Title Tags are maybe one of the most important parts of on-page SEO, although Google doesn’t directly using it as a ranking factor, because if it’s not interesting enough no one will click and read your post.
To optimize your Title Tags, you need to use your main keyword in the Title, try to use it at the beginning if it fits well. Another thing is to keep your Title less than 65 characters, because that’s where Google usually cuts it off.
I discussed in an earlier post how to write awesome titles for your blog posts, here is the link to that section if you’ve missed it.
#3 Meta Description
Just with Title Tag optimization, the same basically goes for Meta descriptions. It’s the little informational text just below the Title.
Here you want to give a quick, but actionable description in order to capture the attention of people searching for your content. Also make sure that you keep it less than 150 characters to make the whole thing visible on Google.
You can include an easy call-to-action at the end, like “Read More”, “Click to read” or “Check it out now”.
If they are searching for your topic, they will most likely click on your link if it is interesting and attention grabbing.
#4 Short URL’s
Always try to use Short and good looking URL’s for all your blog posts.
This is not only for Google, but is also very important for creating a better user experience. You should also try to use your main keyword in the URL, it will easily help people to get an idea of what your post is about.
Also avoid using funny characters like dashes, brackets, commas or symbols in your actual URL.
Which URL look the best and would most likely get more clicks?
www.nochgames.com/create-awesome-gaming-content
www.nochgames.com/8/6/16/cat=gaming/create-awesome-gaming-content
The first one looks better right!
Below is a preview of how everything may show up in Google, the Title, URL and Meta description.
We’re done with what people will see before they actually read your post, if your result shows up in Google.Next I’m going to show you how to quickly optimize your gaming posts.
This is a few things you’ll do on the actual post.
#5 H1 Header Tags
Put your keyword in a H1 Tag (header 1) at the top of your post, it’s basically the same as the Title.
In WordPress, your Title automatically gets a H1 tag, but not all themes do this. So it’s better to make sure you use it, you can only use it once.
SEO is all about telling Google what your content is about and ticking all the right boxes are a great start.
You can easily change your text into H1 Tags, either by using the drop down in the editor or by simply using Shift+Alt+1.
#6 Use Your Main Keyword In The First 100 Words
Always try and use your main keyword in the first few sentences, usually the first 100 to 150 words.
By doing this you are not only telling Google what keyword you are targeting, but your visitors will also better understand the content and know what it’s about.
Most of you will naturally use your keyword in the first 100 words, but just make sure to check it off everytime you create a blog post.
#7 Keyword Density
There are now right answer for the best keyword density, it will differ for every post or topic you will right about.
Gaming is no different. The best range for keyword density is between 1% – 1.5%, but like I said it’s not set in stone. Especially when you right longer content, using the same keyword over and over can make your content lose some quality.
The best way to work around such problem is to use related keywords naturally within your content.
For example, if you write a 2000 word post and you want a density of 1% – 1.5% the amount of times will be 20-30 you’ll need to use the same keyword.
The important thing is to make your post look and read as natural as possible, so don’t try to force your keyword where it doesn’t really fit.
It will also get easier the more you write.
#8 Similar or Related Search Terms
Sometimes keyword density can be a little misleading, especially when you use Yoast.
The point is Yoast only counts the specific keyword you select and not any related or similar terms.That is where using similar search terms come in.
It’s basically all terms or keywords that are very similar and related to your main keyword.
The best way to optimize your gaming content is to naturally place similar keywords throughout your content, try to use at least 2-5. An easy way to get similar or related keywords are to type in your keyword into Google and go to the result.
Your keyword will be in the search box. Click in the search box, but don’t press enter!!!
You can get new keywords to use by inserting a space in front or after the search term.
Here’s an example I did with the keyword “Zombie Games”.
No spaces
Space Before the keyword
Space after the keyword
See the difference?
You can do it for basically any keyword.
To find related search terms, just scroll to the bottom of the results to find it.
#9 H2 & H3 Header Tags
Just like with the H1 tag, using H2 and H3 tags for subheadings to break up your content into smaller bits can make your it a lot more easier to read.
This will help keep your posts more organized and also tell Google, once again, that you have different sections within your post.
#10 Link Out To Other Bloggers
A very important part in SEO are links.
Mainly links to your video game blog from other high quality websites related to your topic will be the best kind. I will cover getting links from other sites in another post, but including links in your posts to other websites are also a great way to get more traffic.
The importance is to find related websites, so in your case, gaming blogs and other gaming websites. You don’t need to link only to the biggest sites, it great to link to smaller gaming blogs as well.
Make sure your links are relevant to the content you’re creating, because that’s another way Google can easily identify your topic.
You can use links within your content or if you have used information from other gaming blogs and sites, you can list them at the bottom as sources.
There are no set rule, but you can aim to use about 3-5 links per 1000 words.
#11 Internal Linking
Just like naturally inserting links to other gaming blogs, gaming websites or any relevant content, internal linking good to do.
By this I mean linking to other articles you wrote earlier. You can also go back to older articles and link to your new posts. It will help boost your new posts to get more traffic faster.
This doesn’t automatically guarantee massive amounts of new visitors, but can be a key factor to increase your Google rankings over the longer term.
Another thing to keep in mind is to never use your main keyword as a link, because this is actually bad for SEO purposes.
#12 Image Optimization
Image optimization is also very important for every post you create, because it will help with both your site’s loading speeds and Google identifying what your images are about.
First of all, always try to have clear file names and to compress your images before you upload it to your post. You can also use a plugin to compress your images.
After that, it’s important to use Alt Image Tags so Google can know what your images are about. Here is how you use alt tags for your images, include your keyword and your blog name.
Click on the image > Click the little pencil icon > Insert your Alt image tag
Easy as that!!!
The 2 main tools I use to resize and compress my images are Image Resize and Optimizilla.
#13 Use Social Share Buttons
Have you ever read an awesome post and was so psyched up that you want to share the post right there?
But when you searched for the Social Sharing Buttons, there weren’t any or they are not really easy to find.
You don’t want that to happen to people coming to your gaming blog. So make sure to use Social Sharing Buttons.
The easiest way is to use a plugin, there are a few out there that you can use, but here is the one I’m using. It looks quite good and are very easy to set up.
#14 Social Media Images
This builds on the previous point, so are also very important. When someone share your link on social media it must look good, interesting and grab attention.
Here is how you can make sure that when someone share you content that it looks great.
You can do it easily on the Yoast plugin for Facebook and Twitter.
Make sure to upload an image, usually this would be your featured image, create a basic description and choose a title.
If you don’t want to change the title or description, no problem, Facebook and Twitter will automatically use your Title and Meta Tags you configured earlier.
#15 Bonus Tips
Here’s a few general things to keep in mind that can also help you optimize your gaming blog.
Boosting your site speed can have a great effect on your overall performance, which in turn will affect SEO. The faster your site loads and the better experience you give your readers.
You can use GTmetrix to analyze and optimize your gaming blog’s speed
Are your gaming blog Mobile Friendly? Make sure your site is mobile friendly, because a lot of your readers will also be using mobile devices. You can quickly test it with Google’s Mobile Friendliness Test.
Check if your post has any broken links, and fix them! You don’t want people to click on a “dead link” which takes them to a page that doesn’t exist.
If you have a few links it’s easy to manually check the links, but if you have a lot of links in your post, you can use this awesome Broken Link Checker extension in your Chrome browser.
Conclusion
Are you still here?
Great, because we’re done!
Now you know how you can implement basic on-page SEO for all your gaming posts. This will both help you earn more readers and improve the overall quality of your gaming blog.
A quick recap, using the correct plugin is important, creating interesting titles & meta descriptions will help people click on your results, how to strategically use your main keywords throughout your content and why using links to other sites in your post can help Google understand your topic better.
Further, you can easily optimize your images and make sure your social sharing options are set up the way you want it, that Facebook and Twitter shares can shoot through the roof!
Bookmark this article and tick off the items every time you need to do on-page SEO for a blog post you wrote, that way you can always be sure that your gaming content are well optimized.
Your gaming blog’s content are now optimized and ready to get more visitors, but the next step in the process is very important.
Promotion!
I’ll cover promotion in another post, so make sure to follow me on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest information about my latest posts.
Tell me in the comments. What on-page SEO tactics are you going to try first?