I visited a client yesterday to talk to them about search engine optimization for a large Movable Type blog. They have a blog where a dozen or so bloggers are writing content for them on a daily basis and wanted to know how they could improve their SEO ranking. The average blogger doesn’t think much about search engine optimization when they’re writing their posts so I came in to fill in some blanks for them. I write for a few blogs on a daily basis and have had really great success with the search engines by following these basic rules.
Include Keywords in your title: One of the most overlooked and important things to remember when blogging is to get the keywords in the title of the post. For example, if you are writing about a new book that just came out by your favorite author, using the author’s name and the name of the book in the title of your post is going to have a lot more relevance in the search engines than say, “Oh my god, best book ever!” Nobody is going to hit Google and type “Oh my god, best book ever!,” they’re going to type the author’s name and/or the name of the book.
Use relevant Keywords in your post: Staying with the author example, make sure the author’s full name, the name of the book, and descriptive words are used within the post you’re writing. Is it a new release? Is it hardcover or paperback? Is it a graphic novel? Who’s the publisher? What’s the plot? All of this is information people will be searching for in the search engines. The more information your post contains, the more likely it will be found.
Internal and external linking: Another important thing to do is use links whenever possible. Have you written about this author before in a previous post? If so, linking to that post will keep people clicking through your site and allow them to discover past content they may have missed. If the author has a website, link the first use of the author’s name to the author’s website should he/she have one because this will add further relevance to your post in the eyes of the search engines. Also, read the article “Why Paris Hilton is Famous (or Understanding Value in a Post-Madonna World” to learn more about the importance of linking to others.
If you use a program like Movable Type to publish your blog, make sure you include your relevant keywords in the Keywords field when writing your post. Though the search engines place less importance on the keywords meta tag then they did years ago, it still helps to include them because it supports the keywords in the title and the body of your post.
And last but certainly not least be sure to submit a sitemap of your site to Google using their Webmaster Tools. It let’s Google know all of the pages on your website / blog so they can thoroughly index your site.
I design websites, blogs, and develop social media campaigns for creative professionals who want increase their online visibility, promote their latest projects, and attract new creative opportunities.