So… this whole “SEO for website” thing?
Yeah, I used to think it was just one of those buzzwords bloggers throw around to sound like they’ve got it all figured out. Like, “Optimize your on-page strategy” and “Crush the SERPs!” — whatever that means. 🙄 I mean, when you’re just trying to write stuff people might care about, and maybe—maybe—rank on Google someday, all that technical junk feels… ugh. A bit much.
But then something happened.
Recently, this guy—Srinivas Goud Bandapally—he launched a blog called Howtoyoublog.com. Real simple. Clean layout. I liked it. But guess what? Nobody was landing on it. Like, zero people. The blog was just there, floating in the void. No clicks, no impressions, no love.
That’s when it kinda hit me. You can pour your whole heart into writing something, write about everything from how to start a blog to God-knows-what… but if you don’t mess with SEO—even the basics—you’re basically whispering into a black hole. And that’s rough. Especially when you’re actually trying.
I used to ignore that whole “SEO” mess. Thought it was for tech bros or digital marketing agencies or, like, people with spreadsheets. But nah. It’s your job if you’re a blogger. Doesn’t matter if you’ve got a perfect story, if no one ever finds it. That’s the part that stings.
So yeah, SEO isn’t just some optional fancy-pants plugin or keyword tool. It’s like… the freaking electricity. Without it, the lights stay off. Google can’t find you. People can’t find you.
And that’s the part Srinivas figured out. He built the blog. It looked solid. But then came that question: “Okay, now what? How do I get people to see this?”
That’s where SEO steps in. Not as some magical trick—but as a basic survival skill. Like brushing your teeth. Or boiling your rice before you eat it.
Because honestly? If your website doesn’t show up when someone types something into Google… what’s the point?
Anyway. That’s why it matters. That’s why we’re here.
Now the real question is—how the heck do we actually do it?
2. Deep Keyword Research Strategy
Alright, look — keyword research sounds like this clean, calculated thing, right? Like some smart blogger sits down, types stuff into a tool, boom — magical words appear, traffic flows, everyone claps.
Nah. That’s not what happened when I started.
I legit thought I knew what people were searching for. Like, of course people wanna read about “SEO strategies in 2024” — sounds important. I spent hours writing this long post… zero clicks. Not even my mom read it. And I sent her the link twice.
So I figured, okay, maybe I don’t know jack about what people actually search. Maybe Google knows better than my gut.
I started messing around with keyword tools — like Ubersuggest, AnswerThePublic, all that — and holy crap, it was like discovering an underground world. People were Googling the weirdest, most oddly specific stuff. Stuff I never thought anyone would type.
Like, they’re not searching “SEO guide” — they’re typing “how to do keyword research for SEO if I’m a beginner” or “free SEO keyword difficulty checker” or “how do bloggers even find what to write about.”
Yeah. That last one? That was literally me. I searched it at 2 a.m. once while holding cold pizza. Not proud.
Anyway — the key (ha, keyword) was figuring out user intent. That’s not just some fancy marketing term. It means: why is this person searching this, and what do they actually want out of it? Are they curious? Are they desperate? Are they trying to impress their boss with a report tomorrow? That changes how you write. Like, a lot.
I used to write like a robot with bullet points. Now? I kinda imagine I’m explaining stuff to someone panicking over deadlines. Because… that’s me. Half the time, I am that person.
Also — keyword difficulty. God, I didn’t even know that was a thing for a while. I’d chase keywords like “SEO tips” thinking I was clever, not realizing I was basically throwing my tiny blog into a gladiator ring with HubSpot and Neil Patel. Guess who loses? Yeah, me. Every time.
So now I check that number. If it’s like 80+? I run. I’m not that brave. I stick to the 20s and 30s — the softballs. The long-tail stuff. The “how to write a blog that ranks if you suck at SEO” kind of stuff. That’s my crowd.
Honestly, I still don’t totally trust the tools. Some days, I just scroll Reddit threads, Quora answers, comment sections, looking for phrases that come up over and over. It’s chaotic, but sometimes chaos is where the gold’s hiding. I think one of my best-performing posts came from a comment some frustrated blogger left on a YouTube video. Go figure.
Anyway, if you’re trying to do keyword research for your blog and it feels overwhelming or stupid or like you’re shouting into the void — yeah. I get that. Same. Still do.
But if you slow down and actually look at what people are typing, not what you think they should type — you’ll start writing stuff people actually wanna read. Or at least Google might toss you a bone and show it to someone.
So yeah. That’s all I got. Keyword research isn’t magic. It’s eavesdropping with a spreadsheet. And a little bit of stubbornness.
3. Keyword Categorization
Okay. So… keyword categorization. Sounds like something a marketing guy in a stiff suit would mumble about while clicking through spreadsheets and drinking lukewarm coffee from a mug that says #1 Boss. But for me? For you? It was me sitting in my room at 2 a.m., with a hoodie on backwards, watching a YouTube video titled “Short tail vs long tail keywords (but make it simple)” — and still not getting it.
I remember thinking, “Okay, so… short tail means what? One word? Two? And long tail is like a sentence? Wait, no… not a sentence, just longer? But how long is long?”
God. I felt stupid. Like, blogger stupid. Like I was trying to crack some SEO puzzle meant for robots, not messy humans like us.
Anyway — here’s how it clicked for me. Not from a guru or course or some blog post that promises “secret hacks,” but from actually messing up. I tried ranking a post once with just the keyword “travel.” That was it. Just “travel.”
Guess how far it got? Page 87 on Google. I think my mom was the only person who ever saw it.
Turns out, short tail keywords — like “travel” or “fitness” or “blog” — are way too broad. They’re like walking into a crowded party and screaming “Hey, anyone into music?!”
Everyone kinda is, but nobody knows what you mean. You’ve said nothing specific, so no one cares.
But long tail keywords? Dude. That’s like saying “Hey, I’m looking for indie folk bands from Oregon who only play banjos and sing about lost pets.” Boom. Niche found. You’re weirdly specific, and that’s good. Because now someone out there — that one person with the oddly specific search — is like, “YES. That’s exactly what I typed into Google at 3 a.m.”
That’s who you want.
So when you’re doing keyword research, stop trying to win the lottery with one-word phrases. Start getting into your reader’s awkward little brain. Think like they do. What would you type if you were half-asleep and just desperate to fix your SEO or find a blog about quitting your job to travel in a van with your cat?
Oh, and categorizing keywords is less about organizing them into neat columns and more about… understanding them. Like moods.
You’ve got your:
- Head terms (short tail) → big, vague, scary. Think: “fitness.”
- Long tail → weird, specific, cozy. Like: “at-home dumbbell workouts for busy moms in small apartments.”
- Then you’ve got related phrases that pop up when you start Googling stuff. The ones at the bottom of the page? Goldmine.
- Semantic ones too — they don’t have to be your keyword, but they surround it. Like, if your keyword is “freelance writing blog,” semantically, you’ll also talk about pitching, clients, writing schedules, deadlines, coffee addictions, etc.
It’s not a perfect system. I still screw it up sometimes. I still rank for weird stuff I didn’t expect and totally miss on the things I tried really hard for.
But I keep going. Because now I know — short tail is for showing off. Long tail is for actually getting found.
So yeah. Don’t overthink it. Just get in the head of the tired, bored, curious person Googling their way through life.
That person’s me. That person’s probably you too.
4. On‑Page SEO Essentials
Okay, so — on-page SEO. Ugh. This part drove me nuts for months. I remember sitting in my room, laptop overheating on my thighs, Googling things like “how to write the perfect title tag” while eating cold rice and trying not to cry. Dramatic? Maybe. But it’s weirdly easy to mess this up when you’re starting a blog, especially when you think it’s just about writing something “good.”
It’s not. It’s about being found. And no, not in a spiritual sense. Like… Google needs to know what the heck your page is about. Otherwise, it’s just floating out there in the void.
Anyway — title tags. Everyone says keep it under 60 characters, include your keyword, make it catchy. Yeah yeah, I tried that. But sometimes I’d write something that felt clever, and then my post would rank, like, on page 10. Which is basically the SEO version of yelling into a pillow. So I started doing this dumb little test — I’d pretend I was a half-awake person scrolling Google and ask myself: Would I even click on this? Usually the answer was “nope.”
So now I just try to say exactly what the blog post is, no fluff. Like, “How to Start a Blog in 2024 (Even If You Suck at Tech).” That kinda thing. Keywords in, real words too.
Meta descriptions… I used to ignore these. Huge mistake. Google might rewrite them anyway, sure, but you get, like, a 160-character chance to make someone stop scrolling. Think about it. That’s less than a tweet. If you waste it saying “In this article, we’ll discuss blah blah…” — you’ve already lost. Be weird, be clear, ask a question, something. My favorite meta description ever? I once wrote: “This post might not fix your life, but it’ll fix your blog traffic. Same difference.”
No idea if it helped rankings, but a blogger friend said it made her laugh and she clicked. So hey.
URLs. These still confuse me a little. I used to let WordPress just auto-generate whatever ugly slug it wanted. You know: “/how-to-blog-in-2024-tips-tricks-strategy-insane-guide” — like bro calm down. Now I just keep it simple: “/how-to-start-a-blog”. Clean. Keyword’s in, no fluff.
Headers. Okay. This one took me forever. I was doing that thing where I bold stuff or make it big but never used actual H2 or H3 tags. Sigh. It’s not just about making it look nice — those headers are like Google’s little road signs. And for humans too — they skim. We all do it. Use headers like you’re guiding a lazy reader through a chaotic mess. Because that’s exactly what’s happening.
Oh and alt text… I still forget this sometimes. You know when you upload a picture of, say, a “happy blogger working from home” stock photo? Don’t just write “image.” That’s useless. Write something like “woman blogging on laptop with coffee.” I even joke in mine sometimes — “cat watching blogger fail at SEO.” Google probably doesn’t care about the joke, but it helps me not hate the process.
Internal links? Honestly, I used to just slap in links to random old posts like “Read more here!” — zero context. Now, if I write about keyword research and I’ve got a post about free tools, I actually say, “Here’s a list of free keyword tools I tried when I had no clue what I was doing.” That kind of thing. It’s not rocket science. Just think like a slightly lost, very tired reader who might appreciate the shortcut.
External links — yeah, I link to other people now. I used to be scared I’d lose traffic. But linking to legit stuff (like Moz or whatever) makes your post seem like you actually did your homework. And let’s be real — I didn’t, half the time. I just read smarter people and learned from them.
So yeah. That’s what I know about on-page SEO. Nothing fancy. Mostly just… don’t be vague, don’t be lazy, and pretend your reader’s you on a bad day — impatient, distracted, maybe a little sad. Help them out. Help you out.
Anyway. That’s what I’ve got. Might go rewrite some headers now. Or not. Depends if the coffee kicks in.
5. Content Structure & Readability
Okay, so this whole “Content Structure & Readability” thing — yeah, it’s way more important than I used to think.
I remember one of my first actual blog posts — I poured my soul into it, spent like five hours writing about… I think it was something dumb like “10 reasons why your website isn’t ranking” — sounded smart, right? Yeah. Except no one read it. Not even my cousin who said she’d “check it out.” I was pissed. Mostly at myself.
Wanna know why? It looked like a brick wall of text. I didn’t use any headers. Not one H2. Just paragraph after paragraph like I was writing a school essay and trying to sound clever. It was awful. Like physically painful to scroll through.
People don’t read online. They skim. We all do it. Even you, probably. You scroll down, your eyes catch a bold line or a bullet point and you’re like oh cool, that’s what I needed, then bounce.
So yeah — headers. Use them. H2 for your main thoughts, H3 for the side stuff, the examples, whatever. They’re not just pretty titles — they literally guide people through your chaos. Like signs on a road trip. “Next exit: How to structure a blog.” That kind of vibe.
Also… white space. I didn’t get that either. Like why does it matter how much space is between paragraphs? But it’s HUGE. Break stuff up. Use line breaks like you’re afraid people will pass out reading more than three sentences. Honestly, I get overwhelmed when I open a blog that looks like a tax form.
Oh, and bullets. People love bullets. Lists. Tables. Dumb little checkmarks. Doesn’t matter. Just give people something easy to scan. If your blog post looks like a textbook from 1996, good luck. No one’s sticking around.
But here’s the other thing — don’t overdo it. I got obsessed at one point. Every sentence had its own line. Like.
Every.
Damn.
Sentence.
Looked dramatic but made the post feel like a Twitter thread on caffeine. You gotta balance it. Too messy is just as bad as too stuffy. I still struggle with that, to be honest.
Readability isn’t about dumbing stuff down. It’s about making it human. If I wouldn’t talk to my friend like that, I don’t write it like that. Which sounds obvious but trust me, when you’re deep in blogger mode and trying to write “Quality content,” it’s easy to sound like a robot dressed as a professor.
Anyway. If I could go back and slap my 2021 blogging self, I would. I’d scream, “Just use a damn H2!” and maybe also, “Stop trying to sound like a LinkedIn thought leader.”
So yeah. If your blog post isn’t easy to read, nobody cares how smart your ideas are. Format like someone who’s tired, distracted, hungry, scrolling with one hand while holding their phone on 4% battery. That’s your reader. Not some SEO expert. Just a regular, impatient human.
…And maybe your cousin. If she ever actually reads it.
6. Technical SEO Basics
Okay. So. Technical SEO — sounds fancy, right? Like something only some hardcore coder in a dark basement with six monitors would understand. But nah. It’s just… ugh, it’s the plumbing behind your website. Stuff no one talks about till something breaks. Like, your site’s slow, or Google’s just ignoring it, and you’re sitting there wondering did I break the internet?
Anyway. I learned this the messy way. Back when I started my blog — I was just writing. Posting like a maniac. Fonts were weird, images too big, no structure, no speed checks, nothing. Just vibes. And then someone was like, “Hey, your site loads like a potato.” I was like… excuse me?
So. Let’s talk about speed first.
Website speed is like — you don’t care until someone bounces. Like a user just opens the page, waits 3 seconds, and leaves like you never existed. I remember once I tried loading my blog on mobile in a café (using cursed public Wi-Fi) and it just… hung there. Spinning. I nearly threw my phone. Turns out I’d uploaded a 5MB image. For a thumbnail. Who does that? Me, apparently.
So I started using tools like PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix. Painful. They show you everything wrong with your site, and it feels like a report card where you’ve failed every subject. Compress images. Minify CSS. What even is minify. I googled “how to improve website speed SEO” so many times, I think Google gave up on me.
And don’t get me started on mobile-first.
I used to design everything on my laptop. It looked clean, perfect, beautiful. Then I saw it on my phone and it was… a clown show. Text overlapping, buttons hiding behind banners, that weird side scroll? I wanted to cry.
Apparently, Google cares more about how your site looks on phones now. Not desktop. Not tablets. Not even both. Just phones. Because everyone’s on their phone. Even grandma. So yeah — test it on your phone first. Like actually open your blog and scroll around. If it feels clunky or too zoomy, fix it.
Then there’s the canonical tag. Oh my god. This one broke my brain.
So, imagine you have like two pages on your site that are almost the same. Maybe one is a category page, and the other’s a filtered version or something. Google sees both and gets confused like, “Which one do I rank?” Canonical tag is like gently telling Google, “Hey, pick this one. This is the real me.” Without it, you might compete with yourself and get crushed by…yourself.
Been there. I had a blog post accidentally duplicated, and both ranked nowhere. Genius move.
Robots meta is the one I straight-up ignored for years. Not like “I didn’t get it,” just… I didn’t know it existed. That’s the tag where you tell search engines what pages to crawl or ignore. I had an entire private section I was working on — test pages, drafts, broken stuff — that was getting indexed. I mean, wow, Google, thanks for ranking my unfinished trash instead of the actual content I lost sleep over.
So yeah. If you’re a blogger — especially if you’re a solo one, doing your own SEO, design, writing, crying — don’t skip this technical crap. It’s not sexy. It’s not fun. But it’s like brushing your teeth. If you skip it, everything just slowly starts rotting and no one tells you till it’s too late.
And if you’re still reading this, idk, maybe you’re procrastinating or just trying to make your blog not suck. Either way, I respect it.
Just don’t be like past me. Compress your images. Add that canonical thing. Check your robots meta. Your future self will owe you coffee. Or a blog that actually ranks.
Anyway. Rant over.
Read More: best AI tools for blog SEO 2025.
7. Contextual Linking & Authority
Okay, so contextual linking. God, I used to overthink this so much. Like, “Do I need 10 links in every blog post?” or “Should I only link to authority sites like Harvard or NASA?” (I did that once—linked to NASA from a post about, uh, productivity tips. Because… rockets? Idk.)
Anyway.
Here’s what actually matters, from someone who’s broken more blogs than built ’em: links need to feel like they belong. That’s literally it. Like, if you’re writing about SEO for your website and you casually mention keyword research, don’t just leave that hanging—link it to something useful. Maybe your other post. Or some random but solid explanation someone wrote that isn’t just spam wrapped in jargon. (We’ve all clicked those—ugh.)
I used to just shove links in because “Google likes it.” But I didn’t even read half the stuff I was linking to. You know what happened? People clicked away. Or worse—they didn’t click at all. Because guess what? Readers aren’t dumb. They know when you’re throwing links like confetti just to look smart.
And internal links? Oh man. Game-changer. But I always forgot them. I’d publish a new post and completely ignore the 27 other blog posts I’d already written that actually related. Dumb, right? I’d spend 8 hours writing something and miss the easiest chance to keep someone around longer.
So now? I make it messy on purpose. Like mid-sentence, I’ll throw in a link to another post I’ve written—even if it’s not a “perfect match.” Because people don’t think in tidy categories. They zigzag, wander. Let them.
You’re not building a robot web, you’re building a vibe. A world. A weird, chaotic, clickable little ecosystem. Like a dorm room where every book and dirty hoodie and half-written essay is part of the story. Same with your blog.
And as for backlinks? Don’t obsess. Seriously. I used to cold email 50 people a week like, “Hi I love your blog please link to me thank you.” Nobody replied. It was humiliating. Until one guy did reply… and said “Bro, this has nothing to do with my site. Are you okay?”
So yeah—just write good stuff. Weird stuff. Honest stuff. Stuff that makes people go “Wait, this is actually kinda useful?” and then they wanna link you. You build trust that way. Not with “Dear sir/madam” outreach templates or writing about “best blogging tools” for the 87th time.
If you care about your blog, and you care about the reader, the links will come. Internal ones for sure. External ones, eventually. That’s the real SEO.
And yeah—I still mess it up. But it’s fine. You’re allowed to get it wrong while figuring it out. Just… link stuff like you mean it. And don’t quote NASA unless you’re talking about space. Please.
8. Monitoring & Optimization
So yeah, let’s talk about the part no one tells you is gonna mess with your head — tracking your SEO. Like, actually keeping up with what’s working and what’s just… there, existing on your blog like that crusty plant in the corner you swore you’d water.
I used to think once I hit “publish,” Google would somehow sense my genius and bless my little website with traffic. Dumb, I know. I mean, I had GA (Google Analytics) installed, but I barely opened it — and when I did, it was like trying to read alien code. I’d stare at the bounce rate like, “cool, 87%. Sounds… like people loved it?” (Spoiler: they didn’t.)
Honestly, the first time I looked at Search Console, I thought I broke something. Impressions? CTR? Pages “indexed but not submitted in sitemap” — like bro, what even is that? Why are you yelling at me? It felt like my blog was being graded by some invisible math professor and I was constantly failing.
Anyway, the thing I didn’t get back then — and maybe you don’t either — is this: you have to check your stuff. Not because it’s fun (it’s not, it’s like checking your bank account after a weekend you barely remember), but because otherwise you’re just yelling into a void. And the void doesn’t click your links.
So now I check GA, like, once a week. Not every day — I don’t hate myself that much. But I look for weird spikes, or when a post suddenly gets attention from… idk, Turkey? (That happened. Still no clue why.) I dig into Search Console too, especially for those “low CTR but high impressions” ones — like hey, people are seeing it but not clicking. That’s your cue to fix the title or whatever.
Also. Historical optimization. Sounds fancy, right? It’s basically “go back and clean up your mess.” I revisit old blog posts — the ones I wrote at 2AM on too much caffeine, thinking I was a genius — and tweak the headings, add better keywords, fix links that are dead as my houseplants. Sometimes, just changing one paragraph bumps it up in search. Not kidding.
Look, I’m not some SEO ninja or whatever. I still mess it up. But I track stuff now. I learn from the mess. I treat my blog like a weird little science experiment. And some days it sucks. But some days, you update an old post and wake up to double the traffic. It’s kind of addictive.
So yeah. Check your tools. Fix your junk. Watch what people click. It’s not pretty, but it works.
9. FAQ / Schema
Okay so. Let’s talk about FAQ schema and like… what the hell it actually does for your blog or website or whatever project you’re stressing over right now.
Because I swear, I used to look at those little dropdown questions on Google—you know the “People also ask” things—and think, yeah, cool, Google magic. Didn’t even realize I could get my stuff up there too. Like, me? My dumb little blog? Yeah. Turns out… that’s kind of what FAQ schema does.
I remember the first time I heard the word “schema.” I thought it was some advanced, robot-only coding thing. Like… only people who wear glasses with no fingerprints and drink protein coffee at 4AM would get it. But no. It’s just this lil’ code snippet you toss into your site, and boom—Google understands your page better. Or pretends to. Depends on its mood, honestly.
Anyway, I was messing with this one post—super basic guide about how to fix a slow website—and it wasn’t going anywhere. Just floating in SEO limbo. Then I added some FAQ questions at the bottom. Stuff people actually search for, like “how to increase website speed on mobile” and “do images affect page speed?” (they do, duh, but also… I still upload 5MB PNGs sometimes, I’m not proud). And I wrapped those Q\&A bits in FAQ schema.
Which is basically like waving a neon sign at Google saying:
“Heyyy, this part right here? Useful answers. Give it some love.”
And what’s wild is, two weeks later, one of those little dropdowns showed my blog. My blog! Right there. I almost screamed. (Okay I did. I dropped my coffee. Not important.)
So yeah—featured snippets. Those little boxes at the top of Google that steal clicks from everyone else? You can sneak into those with FAQ schema too. Not always, not guaranteed, but like… it’s your one-in-a-million shot. I treat it like a lottery ticket. No joke. Low effort, high reward kinda thing.
Oh and if you’re wondering how to get featured snippets — I mean… write like you’re answering dumb questions from a confused friend. Be clear. Use actual questions people type. Short-ish answers. And don’t be a robot. Google has enough of those.
Look, I’m not some tech genius. I mess up tags. I forget alt text. I’ve literally crashed my entire site trying to add one stupid plugin. But this FAQ thing? I got it right. For once.
So yeah. Add that FAQ section at the bottom of your blog post. Make it useful. Don’t overthink it. Just imagine someone pacing around their room at 2AM Googling “how do I make my blog show up on Google” and then… boom your site answers it. Neat, right?
Okay. I need a snack. My brain’s outta words.
10. Conclusion + Next Steps
Alright, so… if you made it this far, wow. Either you’re seriously into SEO or just really bored, but either way, thanks for sticking around. I didn’t think I’d ever write something this long about keywords and meta tags and whatever else makes a blog not disappear into the void. But here we are.
Honestly? Learning all this SEO stuff — the basics, the not-so-basic stuff, the “oh crap, I didn’t know Google cared about that” moments — it’s been… a lot. Like trying to fix a leaky sink while reading the manual upside down. At first, I thought it was all just fluff, like “write good content and magic will happen.” Spoiler: nope. Google doesn’t give gold stars for effort.
There were times when I literally sat for hours wondering why my blog wasn’t showing up anywhere, even when I Googled the exact freaking title I wrote. You ever done that? Typed your exact blog post into Google and still ended up on page 7? Soul-crushing. But eventually, after tweaking the meta this, changing the title that, crying a little bit, fixing the alt text — stuff started to move. Tiny, annoying wins. But wins.
So… yeah. If you’re reading this as a blogger or a website newbie or someone who’s just trying to figure out this SEO mess with a half-functioning laptop and three tabs open to keyword tools — keep going. I mean, it’s frustrating. It’s weird. It feels made-up sometimes. But it works, kinda. Over time. Ish.
Anyway, no pressure, but maybe go back through this thing and actually try a couple of the steps. Or don’t. Idk. But if you do — start with your title tag. That’s what changed stuff for me. Then just slowly chip away at the rest. Like a very boring puzzle.
If you’ve got questions or wanna share something you figured out, just drop it in the comments or shoot me a DM or email or whatever method of digital yelling you prefer. We’re all guessing half the time anyway.
Alright. That’s it. I’m gonna go lie down or watch dumb YouTube videos for a bit. Good luck with your blog. Hope your website actually shows up on Google.