If you have been around in the Optimization world, you have learned the term “Content is King.” And how you approach presenting your content makes the difference between a home run and a base hit.
Many people believe that SEO (search engine optimization) is a one time activity; they use the set it and forget it approach. Once they achieve a top ranking, they discontinue a campaign. What they fail to take into account is the competition and soon will catch-up. For successful marketing, you need to be focused on the long-term metrics, such as search rankings and overall Web traffic, rather than just the immediate results.
Be Patient
Establishing yourself in the search engines takes time. If you are seeking immediate results, then I hope you will wake up soon. Though some avenues can provide almost instantaneous indexing (such as a blog versus a website), you need to maintain a steady, and fresh infusion of content to maintain your ranking.
But not only should you content be informative, your SEO targeting needs to be precise. If you write a post that talks about too many unrelated subjects, then search engine spiders become confused as to how to index your page. Be clear, concise and consistent.
Targeting the Right Terms
If you have a site and are trying to target a specific terms, such as “Writer and Author SEO Tips”, then you need to use these terms in your title, subtitles, alt (alternate) tags and content. The name of the page can also help in indexing your page, such as paranormal-romance.html.
The key is to add enough indicators on the page without appearing spammy. If you repeat the keyword phrase 10 times, you will rank well. so, it is logical to think that if you repeat it 100 times on the page, it will rank even better, right? WRONG! There is a delicate balance to search engine algorithms and they are continually evolving.
The best avenue is to write a quality piece with a sprinkling of target keywords. Don’t try to stuff words into your writing that simply do not belong there. It could not only trigger the spam police, but will reduce your writing to the substandard level.
Basic SEO Tags
A few area’s to focus on when writing your blog or website posts.
- Title. Obviously, this is the first thing people will see when searching for your content. It is the title that shows in the search engines. Make this short, and to the point, putting your key phrase in the title if it fits the content of the article. Keep it to 80 characters (about 6 or 7 words).
Example:
<title> “SEO Implementation for Blogs and Websites” </title>
- Subtitles. These help break up the content on the page for easier digestion. Keep these short, but enticing. People tend to skim content, so adding subtitles helps viewers find information quickly. A long page of content without breakers (subtitles, bullet point, block quotes) is a “turn-off” to many online readers.
Use tags such as <h2>, <h3>, <h4> for your subheads. These are called heading tags. For example:
<h4>SEO tags for blog Posts</h4>
- Alt Tag. This is part of the source code, so you need to know basic HTML to add this to your page.
The basic structure within the code is:
alt= “How to Add SEO alt tags to a blog post”
It is important to note that many browsers do not recognize the ALT tag, so a complementary tag (title) can be added:
title= “Using the SEO title tag in blog posts”
NOTE: This title tag is different than the Title tag mentioned above.
When you upload a photo, you can add a Title, description and even a caption, which become the ALT tag in your blog post. Take advantage of these beneficial SEO features.
[modified] excerpt from: Unruly Guides – Optimization and Design for Writers, March 2011.
