Post by Corinne on Jan 11, 2014 18:08:43 GMT
What's SEO?
SEO = search engine optimisation. It basically means making your site/blog/post easy to read by search engines so it shows up higher in the search rankings.
There are many 'black hat' ways to increase your page rank, such as buying links, using fake key words, invisible text, cloaking, etc. Black hat techniques can result in your blog's rank being reduced, or even eliminated from the search database all together. Let's stay away from that.
I've always known the basics of SEO, when researching about it these are the things I found time and time again:
I have come across a few other tips lately that have REALLY helped me with my blog SEO.
1) Alt text in images.
I went almost a year without putting any alt text in the images on my blog. It is very easy to do and means that search engines can tell what your image is about so it will come up in google image searches.
Click on your image and then click 'properties'.
Simply enter the description into the box.
My photos come up first and third for 'perfect tartan dress' in google image search. Before that they were not on there at all.
2) Optimising your URL.
Optimise your URL so that it contains your key words. If you want to write a post about 'blogging tips', for example, you should think about what you would search for if you were looking for blogging tips. 'Check out these cool tips' might be a cool title, but it won't rank as high as 'blogging tips for beginners' or 'blogging tips for fashion blogs'. You can ensure your URL contains these words on blogger by making sure they are in your title - as your URL reflects the title of your post. If you want to retain a different, more vague or quirky title, you can always publish your post as the SEO friend title, then a couple of minutes later edit the posts title. This way your URL will stay the same, but your post title will change.
If you look here, my URL is different from my title.
3) Link your old posts in new posts.
When linking old posts in your new blog posts, the key is to make sure they are relevant to your post, and also use key words as the link. This helps your SEO and also helps reduce your bounce rate as readers are more likely to click on the related old posts. If you can't think of any old posts to link to, don't force it. If it doesn't look natural, leave it without.
What tips do you have to help your SEO?
SEO = search engine optimisation. It basically means making your site/blog/post easy to read by search engines so it shows up higher in the search rankings.
There are many 'black hat' ways to increase your page rank, such as buying links, using fake key words, invisible text, cloaking, etc. Black hat techniques can result in your blog's rank being reduced, or even eliminated from the search database all together. Let's stay away from that.
I've always known the basics of SEO, when researching about it these are the things I found time and time again:
- Great Content. Great content keeps people engaged and coming back, also means your readers are more likely to link back to your blog which help your page rank.
- Social Networking. Sharing your own content to social networking sites such as Twitter, Google+ and Facebook can result in more traffic, comments and followers.
- Popular Post Widget. Getting a new visitor on your blog is great, but will they read more posts? Or just the one and leave your site. Having a popular or 'related posts' widget on your side bar or at the bottom of your post can mean the reader will read more posts by you, reducing the bounce rate.
- Guest Blogging. Guest blogging on relevant sites is a great way to build links, and also generate new traffic.
- Keywords. Having your keywords in subheadings, bold, italics or underlined are more powerful than plain keywords.
- Keyword Repetition. Repeating keywords a few times in the post is a way to get it higher on the search engine, but be careful not to over use them as if it looks unnatural, it can ruin your content and put off your audience.
I have come across a few other tips lately that have REALLY helped me with my blog SEO.
1) Alt text in images.
I went almost a year without putting any alt text in the images on my blog. It is very easy to do and means that search engines can tell what your image is about so it will come up in google image searches.
Click on your image and then click 'properties'.
Simply enter the description into the box.
My photos come up first and third for 'perfect tartan dress' in google image search. Before that they were not on there at all.
2) Optimising your URL.
Optimise your URL so that it contains your key words. If you want to write a post about 'blogging tips', for example, you should think about what you would search for if you were looking for blogging tips. 'Check out these cool tips' might be a cool title, but it won't rank as high as 'blogging tips for beginners' or 'blogging tips for fashion blogs'. You can ensure your URL contains these words on blogger by making sure they are in your title - as your URL reflects the title of your post. If you want to retain a different, more vague or quirky title, you can always publish your post as the SEO friend title, then a couple of minutes later edit the posts title. This way your URL will stay the same, but your post title will change.
If you look here, my URL is different from my title.
3) Link your old posts in new posts.
When linking old posts in your new blog posts, the key is to make sure they are relevant to your post, and also use key words as the link. This helps your SEO and also helps reduce your bounce rate as readers are more likely to click on the related old posts. If you can't think of any old posts to link to, don't force it. If it doesn't look natural, leave it without.
What tips do you have to help your SEO?
