Have you been following along with my How *I* Write a Blog Post series? Well, it originally started as a crazy-long Top Ten {Tuesday} post which I turned into a series. I’m basically outlining every single detail of what I do when I write a post. It’s a nice step-by-step series if you’re a newbie and if you’re an old-timer, you might learn a trick, too!
Part 5 and 6 of this series were on the same topic: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but I decided to stir them up together in this one post and attack it Top Ten {Tuesday} style. So here we go…
The Top Ten Things I Know About {Basic} SEO
{wow. awesome, right?}
1. SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Basically it’s helping Google lead people to your site. Optimizing your posts so the search engine can help you! Google crawls through your post noticing repeated words, key words, bold phrases and headings and then holds onto that info until someone starts searching for it.
2. Bold
One of the easiest things you can do is to bold keywords in your post. If you’ve written a post about, oh, I don’t know SEO, if you can bold the words SEO in your post, Google is going to notice that.
And it’s not just for Google, either. It really helps your readers when you bold important phrases so they can easily scan. This may be the first sentence of each paragraph, the sucker-punch phrases or just your key words. They say readers stay on a blog post for mere seconds before clicking away. Help them stay with you with a little bit o’ bold!
3. Headings
If Google likes bold, then it definitely likes Headings. In WordPress you can find them in the dropdown menu labeled Paragraph. Or you can use the HTML codes <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc if you speak HTML. I tend to use <h2> most often. Otherwise it gets too big and crazy. You’ll have to experiment with how it looks on your site.
For example, my title, The Top Ten Things I Know About SEO above is with the <h2>. It’s like putting a Google exclamation point beside my title and I think it looks better and makes my post flow better.
4. URL
The other main factor for Google is your URL. There are several ways you can set up your URLs:
http://yourblog.com/?p-123
http://yourblog.com/2012/02/06/your-post-title
http://yourblog.com/your-post-title
and a few more to boot. You’ve got 70 characters to let Google know what your post is about. And if Google searches your URL to find ?p-123, they won’t bring it up for any searches! Unless you’re searching for ?p-123, of course.
(Look in your DASHBOARD-SETTINGS-PERMALINKS to change your URL to how you want.)
So, you need to make sure your URL is something searchable. For example, I would LOVE to name my post about Lydia’s Tangled Party something like, “Let Down Your Hair!” but if someone is searching for fun ideas for their daughter’s Tangled Party, are they going to google “let down your hair”? Nope. They’re going to type in “rapunzel birthday ideas” or something like that . And what do you see when you type those in? Well, looky here…
And the URL on that post? http://ohamanda.com/2011/01/11/rapunzels-golden-hair-birthday–party/ I probably should have put the word “Tangled” in it, too.
5. Title
If it really bothers you having an SEO-friendly title, you can change the title of your post and the URL of your post in WordPress. Just click edit permalink right below your title on the Edit Post page.
See? Now your title can be, “Let Down Your Hair”, while your permalink is “http://…/tangled-birthday-party-ideas”. Cool, huh?
6. Photos
I’ve gone over the SEO of photos, haven’t I? Yes, I may have mentioned it a time or twenty.
7. Categories & Tags
I am not great at this. In fact, I’m terrible at it. That’s because when I started blogging there were no categories. Only tags. So, my poor early posts have like 12,000 tags each. Here’s Amy’s take on categories versus tags. And I like it.
This is a plug-in that helps with SEO. I use it. And it makes me feel like I have a security blanket–like if I didn’t do any of the other SEO stuff right in my post, at least I did this one thing! So, get it. And feel better about yourself.
9. Unique Evergreen Content
The best thing you can do for SEO is write good content. No one is googling what Lydia and Asa did today. But some people are googling “Toy Story 3 Party” or “Creative Advent Calendars“. The more unique, helpful and evergreen (meaning it’s something people will be searching for year after year) content I write, the better chance I have at search engine hits.
My biggest traffic spike is around November when people start searching for Christmas ideas. I get constant search engine hits for my birthday party posts, Disney posts and wedding posts. For example, my top ten posts this week:
Rapunzel’s *Golden Hair* Birthday Party, Creative Wedding Guest Books, A Picture is Worth: How I Write a Blog Post, Rapunzel Party Decorations, Lydia’s Birthday Party: Top Ten {Tuesday}, The Snow White Party, Nursing School Graduation Party, The Pirate Party: Top Ten {Tuesday}, How To Throw The Coolest Muppet Type Party and Asa’s Toy Story 3 Party.
Crazy, huh? Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually reads my posts on the day I actually publish.
10. You remember the title of this post, don’t you? What *I* Know About {Basic} SEO. I am not remotely an expert. And honestly, I don’t want to be. SEO can be complicated. And it’s not a science. But I do think about it with every post and the little rules I do know, I stick by. Even little steps can help your SEO. Here are some other fabulous resources for understanding and mastering SEO:
A Comprehensive Post on SEO at ProBlogger
Mom Blog SEO by Kelby Carr {an ebook}
What is SEO? from Blogging with Amy
OK. That’s all I got. I hope you’re not embarrassed at my lack of SEO-knowledge. Or maybe you learned something. What’s your SEO tip?
:: :: ::
OK. You know what to do! WRITE a fabulous top ten list on your own blog. LINK back to me somewhere in it. PASTE your post’s URL in the linky below. Start LOVIN’ on the rest of the participants with tweets (#toptentues), pins, stumbles, comments or just straight up clicks! For more and specific details, rules and a fun little button see my Top Ten {Tuesday} page!
Love this, Amanda. I am still learning too but I make sure to add a meta description to every post. That way when I link to Facebook the description I have written shows up.
Also, I add keywords to every single post. No matter what. That extra 2 or 3 minutes of work has resulted in doubling my page views in the last three months.
Loved this series.
Where do you do that META tag, Teri? I enter a description in the All in One SEO pack and it shows up like you said in Facebook, etc.
Good tips!
a
I don’t have the All in One SEO pack but I add it in “META Description.” I don’t know if that helps or not. 😉
Oh, thanks for this! By the way, I read ALL your posts even if I don’t comment. Loyal Google Reader here!
SEO makes my brain hurt. And what’s really funny is, it’s my husband’s speciality, so you’d think I’d actually know something about it. Ha!
I too am really bad at the tag/cateogry thing together with using SEO properly.. really need to read up more about it.
This series (and your other blogging posts–I love the ones about how to make bloggers happy) is SO helpful! Especially for those of us who are Newby’s!(even though I’ve been blogging for a few years! I still have so much to learn!) HA! GET IT?! NEWBY!!? (my last name…) ANYWAY….
I have #8, but I often forget to implement it! Ugg…
I have not been over here for a little while. You site looks completely different. I thought I was in the wrong place! LOL! Linked up and thankful that you are hosting. Enjoy the rest of your week!
Blessings!
I didn’t even realize about the heading in WP! Very cool
Amazing, I just had no idea that much thought could go into a post. I found all these tips very useful. I plan to implement these right away. Thanks for sharing!
I have all in one SEO and recently had to deactivate it because after I installed its most recent update, my shortlinks weren’t working anymore. Guess I was the only one with that problem, huh? hmmm…..I guess I’ll have to try it again.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post!!! It was so helpful. I’m just getting started blogging and these tips look like good habits to acquire now, instead of later. Also, thanks for hosting Top 10–it’s a lot of fun!!
Very helpful info – I haven’t done so well in a few of these areas (because I just don’t like to worry about it – LOL), but I will try to do better! Thanks!
Hmm… interesting. SEO is such a mystery to me. A lot of these tips don’t really work on Blogger, which is what I use, but it’s still an interesting topic to think about. Permalinks, for example, aren’t editable in Blogger, that I can tell. I do try to tag my posts. Not sure if that’s helping any or not, but it seems like it might.
I’m not as good with titles though – I hate bowing to the pressure to write a Google-able title instead of just using something creative. That probably hurts me in the long run, but I feel like it gives my blog a more authentic feel.
Well, you can always just SEO your SEO-type posts. I don’t SEO posts about my kids or our vacation. But if it’s something that you really want people to find (ie, that “evergreen” content), then you can put those keywords in your title. And if you think and play w/it, you can make one that doesn’t sound too wooden!
a
Thanks for the info! Always pressure to read an awesome post! Thanks again will be back for more!
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1. Re Energy sector season is End Jul -Oct (3rd) & then Feb may/june.
2.Muntazir,
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but sometimes it goes sideways too, like the last 2 wks,
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Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
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When crafting your website’s keywords and key phrases, make an effort to focus on those composed of two or three words. Studies have shown that most keyword searches are comprised of several word phrases, therefore, the even more of those keyword snippets it’s fine to use, the more internet search engine visitors to your website it’s likely you’ll see.
I usually do not comment, however after looking at through a few of the remarks on SEO: How I Write a Blog Post | ohamanda.com. I do have a couple of questions for you if it’s okay. Could it be simply me or does it give the impression like a few of the comments come across like they are written by brain dead visitors? 😛 And, if you are posting at other places, I’d like to follow everything fresh you have to post. Would you post a list of the complete urls of all your public pages like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?
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Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
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