Angela’s Note: Today’s post is a basic introduction to search engine optimization from Kelby Carr, @Typeamom, the mastermind behind the Type-A-Mom Network of websites. She’s about to release a book on using SEO in your blogging so this is a great place to start for beginners. SEO may not SEEM important, but so much of our blogging plans hinge on having good rankings and traffic it is vital to know the very basics at least.
SEO is a term that can sound so geeky it scares bloggers, but the basics of search engine optimization are quite simple. You don’t have to sell your soul to the Google gods to get traffic, either. It is possible to write for humans and search engines, and to do both well.
Think of Your Own Search Habits
First, think about your own search habits. What do you type in when you are seeking content? This very basic premise can be the core of your basic SEO toolbox. If you are tempted to use a clever, witty, abstract title, just ask yourself: What Would I Search?
Here are three basic SEO steps:
1. Start with the right words for SEO. You will want to find the perfect keyword phrase to both capture the essence of your post and that people actually search. This is called a keyword phrase. There are a couple of great free tools to research the best keyword phrase: the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker. Look for phrases that get decent search traffic, but not tons of searches since that will be very competitive. Before each post, make it a habit to do research first. It truly only takes five minutes for some basic keyword searches.
2. Use your words for SEO. Once you’ve found your keyword phrase using a WordPress consultant, use it in the title, the permalink URL for the post, the first paragraph, in headers, throughout your post, as the file names for images, as the text for outgoing links, essentially anywhere you can work it in without compromising the quality of the post.
3. Check your SEO results. SEO is not an exact science. After you’ve done some posts with optimization in mind, monitor the results. Allow some time for search engines to spider your site, then examine your stats program (Google Analytics is a nice free one). Look at which keywords are driving traffic to your blog. See if the phrases you targeted are driving traffic. Look at traffic sources to see if search engines like Google are sending more traffic. If it isn’t working, tinker. You could try less competitive keywords, for example. Consider SEO an ongoing process.
It’s as simple as that. There is obviously a lot more to SEO, but these three basics are a great way to start. It’s less a complete overhaul of the way you blog, and more a shift in thinking. I like to say it’s what a writer would do anytime switching to a new medium. Writing styles are adapted for newspapers, books, TV, radio and TV. The web is no different.
Angela’s Challenge:
Look back over the last four posts on your blog. What three words would you type into Google to find each of those posts? Are those three words included in the title and/or subheadings? If not – you know that you are the type to needs to pay closer attention to the search engine side of your writing. If so – Great!
Now look over the posts with a close eye. Do they read well? Are they easy to read and have a nice flow to them? If they sound a little stuffy and the keywords are smooshed into the post awkwardly, then you know you are the type that needs to pay closer attention to the HUMAN side of your writing.
Having trouble? Come back and leave the titles of the last four posts on your blog. We should be readily able to tell what the post is about based on your titles. 🙂
I love challenges! Already went back through some of my posts and overall, I did pretty good. I do tend to try and snaz up my titles instead of sticking to good keyword phrases. Have to work on that!
Great tips. I learned a lot about basic SEO, such as keyword searches and such, when I was creating my moms’ website with friends a couple years ago. I don’t always put it into practice, but the knowledge is there!
Tamara
http://www.theunexperiencedmom.com
I sat down to do some this just this morning in prep for a series of posts on music and little ones. I should have looked here first to find the right tools! I’ll have to get back to it and hopefully get better results this time!
@Erica – I love challenges too. My goal is that this series will present many. Whether someone chooses to do each, when presented every day, or just pick through what is most relevant to where they are right now, is up to them.
@Amber – It’s easy, easy, easy to go back through some old posts and update the title. Google will index the changes and it can help improve SEO on year-old content. No worries! It’s a total learning curve, this blogging stuff. 🙂
I agree that SEO is essential to blogging or any type of online article writing. Without it, even the best blog or article will likely never be seen by large numbers of people. There is definitely a learning curve but it’s more than worth the effort to learn. And I think this is one really important area that a lot of writers, especially new ones, overlook or view as unimportant.
Great post! Very informative with some great tips. Thank you, Kelby and Angela.
This is a great point Angela. I think I’ve learned quite a bit of SEO writing with Suite 101 but I don’t always apply that knowledge to my blog. Clearly my blog post today was probably not something someone would even be looking for unless they were looking to commisserate with a woman whose husband falls asleep in front of the tv and jealously guards it while snoring.
I wanted to post that to fulfill the goal of adding to my blog. But I didn’t think about the reader or the search-er. I have to think about that and decide about writing for me vs writing for others.
So here are the titles of my last 4 posts, remember I am new at this, I think I am starting out ok;
Blogging Goals
Reading the Bible in 90 Days/ Day 5
Reading the Bible in 90 Days
How I save
I’m deferring this post to tech-savvy hubby who says:
Everyone should be aware that there are lots of shysters out there that tout themselves as “Optimizers” who can “guarantee” to increase your search engine rankings. They should not be trusted. While they might be legitimate, you have to be careful because if they use unscrupulous methods, or Google thinks you are gaming the search algorithm, Google will ban your site, and you will essentially disappear from the net. Google treats their search algorithm to be highly secret, and they constantly battle against those who are trying to spoof them unfairly.
Advice like this column is really the best way to help your rankings.
We tried the last few posts and they actually ranked number one with the following terms:
lock net stolen
fingerprint friday waiting
Help I’m Urkel
However, remember that Google will show rankings differently to different people, so it has learned about our search habits, and is trying to guess intent of our searches.
I love the part about “not compromising the quality of your post” ! When I first started writing on the web, i was hearing a lot about stuffing SEO everywhere in the post…I resented the way it destroyed my work. It made the writing ugly; and quite frankly, I don’t write to make it ugly. I’m loving this more practical approach to online writing and am thrilled that our SEO expert, Angela had another SEO guru write this guest post.
Here’s where you’ll find your answers.
When I started blogging, I was trying to think up clever titles and leads like I used to do for the newspaper–puns, wordplay, etc. were the rule of the day at the papers. As I blogged more over time, I discovered I had much better results driving traffic to my site when I made sure that locational words were part of my titles and first graphs and photo file names (I get a lot of my traffic through searches looking for specific Midwest locations). My titles might not be that exciting these days, but something like “Frankfort, Michigan, beach in winter” will bring me more traffic that something clever designed to fit in a certain width column.
I’m thinking I should go back and change some of those early blog post titles of mine!
@Dana – The only post I would reconsider the title on is “How I Save” – How you save what? Money? On Groceries? For Retirement? For college? You will be more likely to capture a reader via Google if you narrow your focus.
@Genna – Writing for yourself is perfectly fine. Just realize that your search engine traffic will suffer if you do. If you WANT people to find you via Google, you have to at least title your posts for Google. Many bloggers don’t care when it comes to a personal blog, and so they don’t. 🙂
@Ginny – SEO basics are so easy to apply yourself I too would be hesitant to invest a lot of money in hiring someone else to do it for you on a regular basis. In a highly competitive niche it might be worth it, but for most people, no.
@Chris – Thanks! I would hope that my blog posts here are easily understood and good quality reading. Yet I also have well over a thousand visitors per month via Google and search engines. You can definitely do both. 🙂
@Dominique – Freshening up old posts with better titles and maybe adding subtitles can be a GREAT way to catch Google’s attention. If you don’t have the traffic you think you should, I would look first to titles on your old posts.
Okay..I am just getting around to commenting. Crazy week. Anyway, This is the one area that I am horrible at. I was always very intimidated by SEO. But the way Kelby put it, I completely understand what she is saying. Not so scary anymore! Thank you both so much!
Thanks. It’s somewhat difficult to balance SEO with sounding real. Thanks for the reminder
I’ve done the same thing that Dominique mentions, using funny or ‘flip’ titles for posts on my personal blog.. so maybe I will revisit that.
Thank you. I find SEO’s a bit confusing and did visit Google Analytics but think that it might mess up my stats through WordPress.com so will not venture there yet. I am looking forward to reading this series. I found you through Julie of Writing Roads.
@Cheryl – it’s definitely not as intimidating as people try to make it. The geeks take it totally overboard. 😉 That’s ok though – we won’t let it stop us. Just like I don’t let professional athletes intimidate me out of trying to stay in some sort of decent shape with my home workouts, right?
@Krista – Sometimes a reminder is all it takes.
@delicateflower – It’s ok to have cutsey titles sometimes. Especially if you have a loyal group of readers or subscribers. But mix-it-up and give Google a chance to bring you new readers as well!