Practical SEO for Every Blogger
Keywords and Writing
You’ve picked a topic and 2-3 keywords that you want to focus on. Time for the writing to begin. To produce quality, relevant content, writers really need to focus on readers. There’s really no getting around that. So I recommend you write your post without a thought of SEO, and save the keyword positioning for the editing stage. Attempting to do both at once is like trying to serve two masters, you won’t do either well.
The Key to Keywords
Don’t pick a key that will open every door on the block, or a key that only you will be able to find. Translation: Avoid key words that are too broad and likely to be in every document. At the other extreme, don’t choose words that only you use. But then, you knew that.
Use keywords naturally. Overuse of keywords is to search engines as overuse of home office deductions is to tax forms–it raises a flag that you might be trying to beat the system. Avoid that. Using too many keywords is not only dangerous, it’s unfair to readers who come to you expecting a post that is well-written prose, worth reading.
Keywords and Formats
Posts come in many sizes and flavors. This section actually gives you two lists in one. It’s a main list of formats your posts might take. You might use it to spark your imagination before you start writing when you’re looking for some variety. Within that list is the information on where your keywords might best be positioned after each kind of post is written.
Post Formats and Keyword Information
Lists. In a list, keywords should be in the title, any list description, and only as necessary in the items.
Q & A or Interview. Use keywords in the questions, and enourage the interviewee to use them in his or her answers–if the interviewee finds they come naturally.
Informational Essay. The title should carry the keywords, if it can. Subheads–h1, h2, h3–should repeat the appropriate keywords for each section. The paragraphs that follow each subhead would naturally use the keywords the section content discusses.
Running text with multiple links. When you offer links with an explanation, it would seem important to the reader that you put the descriptive content before the link. Keywords could be part of that description. There also seems to be no reason that keywords couldn’t be part of the hot-linked text.
Multipage posts with or without the more –> feature. Remember that you need to repeat your keywords again at the beginning of each new page. The spiders see each page as a new article, so to speak.
Graphics, Tables, or Photos with text support. Position keywords in the image description as well as in the appropriatie parts of the text. For the image description, use this tip Gerald McGarry left for us as a comment yesterday.
As far as images go, the accepted way to assign text to them is to add an alt=”description of image” tag to the image. This gives the search engine something to chew on, but more importantly it provides valuable information for blind users who rely on screen reader software.
Five Simple Keyword Rules
Other formats, those intriguing things, that we come up with every day follow the same basic rules as described above. What are those rules?
- 1. Position keywords after the post is written.
- 2. Keep the number of keywords limited.
- 3. Avoid overusing keywords in the document.
- 4. Position keywords in titles, headers, early in text, and on new pages.
- 5. Position keywords in graphic descriptions as appropriate.
Some Fun Tools. Play with them. Then put them away. 🙂
Keyword Density Analyzer
Find out what the key words on your blog already are
Overture Keyword Selector Tool
Remember all of the keywords in the world have no relevance on their own. They need quality content. Write for your readers and the rankings will follow. So will the readers.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Couldn’t have written it any better myself Liz.
I guess points 2 & 3 are pretty much the same but those points are the most important thing in my mind – stick to 2-3 keyword phrases.
I like the Overture tool – have been using it for years. It’s great to see how the real world actually searches.
Sometimes we can get too insulated in our own writing with what “we” think users might search for – it’s a great eye opener knowing some of the combinations of words people use.
Hi Martin,
Welcome back, it’s nice to have the room to ourselves again. I guess I wasn’t clear about 2 and 3. 2 was supposed to refer to the number of actual terms. 3 was about how many times you repeat those 2or3 terms. Another example of the writer always knows what the text means. 🙂
I like the Overture tool, but haven’t had much use for it on my personal blog, escept on the rare occasion when I get an urge to do nonfiction–social conformity has been a really big piece for me. I think I get hits every day on that.
Liz
Hi John,
Thanks for the trackback and for the straightforward and fair tone of your assessment of what you’ve seen so far. As I mentioned at your blog, we’re not finished with SEO for bloggers by any means. This week we’ll be talking about the ins and outs of links.
I really appreciate your feedback done in such a professional way. You’re a credit to bloggers. I hope you’ll stick around and make your voice heard.
Liz