What’s SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and you’ve probably heard the term if you’ve been around the Internet for some time. But why is this important?
SEO is essential because, in simple terms, it’s how people find your website in search engines. Search engine traffic contributes to a considerable number of your visitors and, if done correctly, it can boost your online presence. Without getting over the top technical, here are some tips to make your website or blog search engine friendly:
1. Title Your Posts Correctly
When you title a post, think about what you would type into google to find a relevant website or web page. Think about what other people would type into google to get the same results and try to build your title from that. You will not have to do this for every single post, just the most important ones that you want people to be able to find through a search.
2. Speaking of Titles
Your post title has a very important role to play in search engine optimisation. Not only does it appear on the actual post tab, but it also appears in the title bar of the browser. To maximise the effect of your title, it’s best to make your post title the first item of the article that appears in the address bar of your browser. If you use blogger notice that Blogger does this a little backwards, putting the title of your blog in front of the title of your article. For example, “Name of your blog, title of your article.” For better SEO, instead, it should be written like this: “Name of your post: name of your blog.” To change this in Blogger, you’re going to have to get your hands a little dirty with some HTML editing. Open the HTML editor page and find:
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
and replace it with:
<b:if cond=’data:blog.pageType == "item"’>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
<b:else/><title><data:blog.pageName/><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
</b:if>
Your post title will now appear before the blog title, only if that page is a post page.
3. Your Content Matters
Your actual article/post must have some substance. If you can include common search terms/phrases in an article, it’s even better. For example, my 30 Day Shred post is my highest ranking search engine post, and it still appears on Google’s front page if you search for “30 Day Shred Results.” The words “30 Day Shred” appears many times in the document. Did you know that I did that on purpose? As long as it flows with your content and doesn’t read like a bunch of random keywords or search terms, you should think about this when you create a post.
4. Stop Stuffing in the Keywords
Many people have the idea that search engines strictly read metadata and that you should fill in your meta tags with a bunch of keywords and descriptions to get the best results. This is not true at all. In reality, Google no longer uses the keyword meta tag to crawl your pages. Stuffing your site with random keywords can hurt your ranking. Those “labels” or “tags” you put on your posts are not there for SEO keyword purposes. They are there to categorise your content so that others can quickly identify past posts under the same subject. Try not to overuse keywords on your web pages or in your coding as Google sees this as a spammy, and spammers never get anywhere.
5. Use Text Instead of Images
If possible, use actual text instead of images. You can’t have a text picture, of course, keep your headings as text, not graphic images. Search engines can’t read content images, what they want is your text content! Better yet Wrap it in the < h1 > Your Heading</h1 > heading tag. Google is looking for header tags when crawling your site, so wrapping your header in that little bit of HTML code is sure to help!
6. Image Searches Are Cool Too
In comparison to what I said above, Google will find your photos, but differently. Instead of appearing in the results of the text, they appear in the search results of the image. To ensure you make the most of this, always title your pictures correctly. Instead of posting a photo as IMG920.jpg, title the image to suit the topic of your article, e.g. “SEO-basics-for-bloggers.jpg” is what I’d call a picture in this article.
7. Get Yourself Out There
Probably the most challenging part of any website marketing is to get your website out there and then finding ways to link it to other websites. High ranking places that connect back to your website add additional value to your website. Google is more likely to see your site as a site that someone important is talking about, so they want to crawl your website. Speak of these as bonus points for your blog post. The more exposure you can obtain for your blog, the better. Post your social networking connections and ask people to check your site or social media page out.
8. Link Older Posts
Another trick to consider is to link back to some of your past posts in your latest postings that have to do with the same subject matter. Whenever you have a link on a website, the search engine can crawl through the file. Links are like doors to more material. You want search engines to crawl your site effortlessly and frequently. The more comfortable you make it easier for them to navigate around your website, the better.
9. Image Maps Help Nobody
Please do not use picture maps on your website or blog. Image maps don’t help anyone. They do not work correctly in some browsers, and they’re hindering navigation because your actual link isn’t attached to a single image. It’s like an invisible box above an image with a link in it.
10. Clean & Maintain Your Website
As previously mentioned above, links and text content make search engines move through your website seamlessly. If your site is full of clutter, meaningless photos and banners, and you don’t have a clear flow, it’s going to be hard to navigate. Delete any old outgoing links, unused photos, and clutter, and make your site more content-based than anything else.
Let’s hope you can take some of these tips and tricks and apply them to your site. I couldn’t cover it all in this article, but I gave you some good starting points! SEO is now beginning to think about how you build a blog. If you think about what users are searching for, that’s half the fight. Know, there’s no fast and easy way to get more traffic to your website. Nobody’s going to market your site for you, but you. It’s a regular job, but once you start seeing your work pay off, it’s worth it!
If you’re struggling to manage the SEO on your blog or you feel like you’re at that stage when you need to loosen the reigns a little, live more, free up your time and skyrocket your hard work to the top of the search engines then get in touch. There’s nothing worse than being drained instead of functioning at your best and enjoying life. We understand that more than most and look after our bloggers – ensuring they get the SEO they need to survive online and improve their revenue streams. Click here to go to our contact us page.
