Are you looking to get your blog
highly ranked on Google?
Would you like some tips to help your blog appear for specific
keywords? If so, keep reading…
Why Search Matters for Blogs
In an earlier article, I talked about the importance of blogging and search engine rankings.
However, once you’ve got the blog up and running, the next thing to do is to start
optimizing your posts for the search engines. Although search engine
optimization (SEO) can be overwhelming to the newcomer, once you understand a
few basic concepts, you’ll soon find it’s really not that difficult.
Good SEO copy and a search engine–optimized website accomplish
three things:
1.
They’re easy for the
search engines to read
2.
They’re easy for the
target audience to find
3.
They’re easy for
people to read
Everything you do to optimize a post is based around those three
basic concepts.
So with that in mind, here are six things you can do to
optimize your website or blog posts for the search engines:
#1: Start With Quality Content
The first and most important thing you can do is to write
a good, informative post that is accessible, easy to read and appeals to your
target audience. In the old days of SEO copywriting, web pages were
stuffed with keywords to the point that it hurt the actual content. Aside from
the fact that the search engines have caught on to keyword stuffing, readers
are going to quickly bounce from a page that doesn’t provide the information
they were seeking.
Information of value is also much more likely to attract
incoming links. When search engines see other websites linking to a web
page, especially if it includes relative content, they determine that the web
page holds information of value and move it up the rankings.
SEO starts once you’ve got a solid blog post.
#2: Determine Targeted Keywords
Think like your target audience. Which words will they use to find your post?
Once you’ve written your post, it’s important to decide how you want readers to
find you. These search terms are your keywords. With a well-written post, the
primary keywords are often obvious.
However, there are a number of tools available to help with
keyword research. One of the most interesting tools I’ve found is Google
Wheels.
The great thing about Google Wheels is that it gives you an idea
of how Google thinks. When you enter a search term, Google returns a “wheel” or
web of related terms. You can then click on each of these related terms to
create more wheels. Using the wheel, you can quickly find related
keywords that should be included in your post or meta information.
Google Wonder Wheel shows related keywords for the search term
"SEO."
For example, the phrase “SEO tips” returns a Google Wheel with
related phrases such as “SEO tools,” “meta tags,” and “search engine
optimization tips” — all keywords that occur fairly naturally in this very
post.
To find Google Wheels, expand the left-hand column on the main
Google search page and look for "Wonder Wheel."
With a little revision and by including these terms in the meta
title and descriptions (see below), you caninclude these keywords in your
optimization. When Google sees related keywords in all the right places, it
can easily determine the information on the page, thus improving the chances
that the page will receive a higher search engine return.
#3: Write Strong Meta Titles and Descriptions
Meta titles and descriptions tell both the search
engines and the reader what’s on the page. The meta title and description
also show in the search engine results, so they need to convince readers to
click through to the website. Good content management systems and blogging
programs include a place for meta information.
In WordPress, premium themes such as Thesis orStudiopress include fields to directly
enter the meta titles, description and tags. You can also use plugins such as
the All in One SEO Pack,
which adds meta fields. Other platforms such as Blogger require some basic
coding. Whichever platform you use, the meta information is a vital
step in optimizing a web page for the search engines.
Good meta descriptions match the content on the page. Primary
keywords should appear at the beginning of both the title and description. Title
tags are limited to 72 characters and title descriptions approximately 165
characters. Anything longer will be cut off in the search engine
results. While it’s acceptable to use a number of keywords in the meta
information (as long as it reads well), don’t overuse terms. Repeat a keyword
more than twice and the search engines may actually penalize you for keyword
stuffing.
While the general consensus is that Google no longer looks at
the meta tags, other search engines might. It can’t hurt to add a few keywords
to the meta tags. Focus on the primary keywords and don’t overdo it. Five or
six of the keywords recommended by the Google Wheel would serve well for meta
tags.
#4: Analyze and Revise
The next step is to analyze your copy, determine which keywords
are rising to the top and make appropriate revisions. The problem is it can be
hard to tell which words the search engines will recognize as primary keywords.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools available to analyze a web
page and show you primary keywords or keyword density.
Most free tools require you to publish the page before you can
run an analysis.SEOCentro’s Meta Tag Analyzer provides
a detailed analysis of a web page or blog post. It shows the relevance of the
meta content to the information on the page, how it will appear in the search
engine results and an in-depth keyword analysis including keyword density.
Along with keyword density, SEOCentro analyzes meta tags and
their relevancy to the page content.
Textalyser.net and Live allow you to analyze copy
and determine selected keyword density before publishing. With both of
these tools, you’ll need to determine the primary keywords based on the density
of the term. When looking at keyword density, it’s important to keep it below
about 5%. Any higher and you might be penalized for keyword stuffing.
I personally use Scribe for SEO to analyze a web page or
post before publishing. Although a premium tool, Scribe will not only makes
suggestions for revision, it identifies primary and secondary keywords and
provides tips for moving alternate keywords to the primary position. The latest
version of Scribe also includes built-in keyword research and link-building
tools.
Once you have a clear picture of how the search engines see your
page or post, you cango back and revise to emphasize or change desired
keywords.
#5: Internal and External Links
It’s important to include both internal and external
links in your post. Internal links help the search engines index your site,
identify primary keywords and can increase the page rank of linked pages. When
linking to other pages on your site, it’s important to link related
keywords instead of phrases like “click here.” Linking by keyword
tells the search engines that there’s related content on the linked page.
For example, near the beginning of this article: “In an earlier
article, I talked about the importance of blogging and search engine rankings.”
A common SEO mistake would be to link to the term “article.” “Article” has
little to do with the content on both this page and page to which I’m linking.
However, the phrase “blogging and the search engines” includes keywords
important to both articles.
External links or links leading to pages outside your website do
a couple of things. Like internal links, external links help the search engines
identify important keywords. Even more important, they can help create incoming
links from other websites. When you link to another site, the
blogger or webmaster will usually see a “trackback” or incoming link. If you
offer related content, it’s possible that your colleague might find information
of use on your site, and in turn, link to one of your articles. Incoming links
from relevant and reputable websites are highly valued by the search engines.
Actually, they’re probably one of the most important factors when determining
search engine ranking.
Just like keywords, you don’t want to overuse linking. Too many
links and it becomes spam. You also want to be sure that you’re linking to
quality websites both in the eyes of the search engines and your readers.
#6: Optimize the URL
One of the easiest yet most overlooked elements to optimize is
the URL. A simple URL that includes a couple of keywords helps the search
engine determine what’s on the page.
·
URLs such as “www.yoursitename.copm/2010/09/12/post143″
tell the search engine very little about the topic at hand.
·
A URL such as “www.yoursitename.com/seo_tips”
not only provides two highly targeted keywords for the search engines, it’s
much easier for your reader to remember when looking for your article.
A real-world example:
An analysis of the text up to this point in this article (using
Scribe for SEO) shows the following primary keywords:
·
the search
·
blog
·
posts
·
SEO
·
engines
·
tips
·
optimize
Not really the words I wanted to highlight. “The search” comes
from my repeated use of the phrase “the search engines.” I would much rather
see “search engine optimization tips.” It’s important to note that when I ran
my analysis, my meta information looked like this:
As you can see in the meta information, I’ve included the phrase
“the search” in both the custom title tag and the meta description. I need to
drop “the search” from my meta information so that it reads:
Custom Title Tag – “SEO for Blogs in Six Easy Steps”
Meta Description – “SEO isn’t all that complicated. These six easy tips will help you optimize your blog posts.”
Meta Description – “SEO isn’t all that complicated. These six easy tips will help you optimize your blog posts.”
I also went back and revised the copy so that I had fewer uses
of the phrase “the search engines.”
When I run the analysis again, I can see that “SEO” has become
my only primary keyword. I’m not quite happy with that, though; I want “SEO
tips” as my primary keyword, so I’m going to change my title tag to read, “Six
SEO Tips for Blogs” and delete “easy” from my meta description so that it
reads, “SEO isn’t all that complicated. These six SEO tips will help you
optimize your blog posts.”
This slight change is enough to make both “SEO” and “SEO tips” primary keywords.
In this case, changing the meta worked because I had already
come close to my desired keywords through the natural process of writing on the
topic. I could also refine even more by going back to my original article and
increasing or decreasing the number of times a keyword is written or possibly
highlighting selected keywords using bold text.
Although SEO may seem overwhelming and it may seem like the
rules are always changing, remember what I said at the beginning of this
article.
·
An optimized blog post
is easy for the search engines to read,
·
It’s easy for the
target audience to find and
·
It’s easy for the target
audience to read.
If your blog posts and web pages stay true to
these three points, you’re already way ahead of the SEO game.
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