Whether you are a blogging beginner or an expert blogger, you need people to be able to find your blog on Google you know the importance of having a search engine optimized blog that will generate organic traffic. After more than six years as a web developer I have narrowed down 6 simple but very important tips to drastically increase Google falling in love with your blog.
Keywords, Key Phrases, Key to Google’s Heart
If you are using an Empowered Blog this method is already built in. Use the same keywords in the title (the text that appears at the top of the browser window) as your h1 tag (the post/page title). This page for example has a title of WordPress Blog Search Engine Optimization in the top of the browser and as the Heading One (h1) tag.
Unique Titles
Try to make the post/page title as unique as possible from your other posts and pages. This will ensure the highest indexing by Google of your pages. If two posts/pages are titled very similar, Google may consider them to be that same page, thus indexing only one.
Proper Hierarchy
When writing a new blog post or page, inside of the tool bar is a button that lists several text options such as Paragraph, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. Use this button wisely because it is very important. The headings are ranked by Google in their order of importance on your blog. So using this post as an example, the h1 (Heading 1) tag is the post title because it is the most important. The next most important are the subtitles, heading 2, above each paragraph. Then, if I were to have additional titles under the subtitles, they would be Heading 3…and so on.
Better to be on Top
Google will pay more attention to any text that is closer to the top of the page. Make sure to have your keywords and phrases relevant to the whole article within the first paragraph of your post/page.
Image and Link Attributes
Always, always, always utilize the alternative text and title attributes when adding an image to your posts or pages. This helps Google to identify the image. Also, never forgot to use the title attribute when creating a link, thus identifying the link in more detail.
Friendly URLs are Your Friend
This is a core function provided by WordPress is an absolutely must have in the wonderful world of Googe Seach Results. if you don’t have these set, you could be missing out on some serious traffic. Google can use this to help them identify what the blog post is about. To learn how to set up your Friendly URLs.
What is a Friendly URL or Permalink?
A URL is the web address that identifies the location a web page is on the internet, this URL is http://cliftonhatfield.com/wordpress-blog-search-engine-optimization/. A friendly URL is commonly made up of two or three parts. The first part being the domain name, cliftonhatfield.com. The second could be numbers representing the data it was posted or it’s identification number. The third is the most descriptive with keywords and phrases that help describe what the article is about. This is also called a slug. In our example, wordpress-blog-search-engine-optimization is the slug and really identifies what you will find at the web address.
Don’t Be Banned From Google!
Read 5 Out Of Date SEO Strategies
Awesome tips, the importance of being “Organic”. I had heard that there are 7-10 factors that help you become organic. Also that avoiding spam, and keeping spam ads off of your site is supposively important as well. I could be wrong, that is just what I have heard.
Thanks Amanda. Yes, monitoring spam is very important. No body likes spam and they may be turned off to see that you any site or blog.
.-= Clifton Hatfield´s last blog ..WordPress Blog Search Engine Optimization =-.
SEO is our best friend when it comes to getting organic traffic to our website.
And if we stick to who our target market is, the better off we will be pulling the right people.
Working with the right people is what successful leaders do.
Great post Clifton,
Jerome Ratliff
.-= Jerome Ratliff´s last blog ..Wash Your Mouth Out With Soap and Get More Distributors =-.
You are so right, Jerome! Often people want a quick surge in traffic with paid PPC but what they don’t remember is that after their paid campaign is over, so is that feed of traffic. Organic traffic may take a little longer but inbound links, SEO opitmization, and keyword targeting is forever. :)
Thanks for the feedback. Let’s connect on Facebook and Twitter (@cliftonhatfield)