Posted on December 18, 2012 at 11:55 am by Christy Grant in SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for any website content involves many factors beyond the words on the site. There are coding standards, tags, the architecture of the site, navigation, and page titles — many components. Yet when it’s time for you to write a piece for your site — whether it’s a blog post, an update to the About Us page, or any other collection of words — you need to know how to SEO your content so that people will find you.
The number one important thing is to write unique and relevant content. Put the most important content near the beginning. Remember that your words sometimes appear out of context, so be specific. For example, instead of writing “snow shovels,” say “North Pole Gear snow shovels.” That helps search engines identify you and helps people know you.
Also, be sure not to duplicate content from other pages of your site or from any other site. Google is highly suspicious of duplication and will penalize your site for this. Always write something original and valuable. Search engine optimization helps people find your content. Providing something of value keeps people on your site.
KeywordsThis part goes into the content that you write. After doing your keyword research, use your chosen keyword throughout your content as it naturally fits. You can vary it to use singular and plural versions of the words, use acronyms or abbreviations. Just use it as relevant and as it fits. Those keywords will help Google find your page and display it in the search results, and it will help people click through to your page when they see you have the subject they’re searching.
Page TitleThis is the title that the search engines read and that people see when searching a relevant subject. Most likely, you are using a content management system and a portion of the page title will be automatically created. As long as it sounds good, frontload your page title with your keyword or keyword phrase. The page title should be a max of 66 characters, including spaces. Be sure to write it so that it sounds like a title written by a person, rather than a machine-generated string of words.
Meta Page DescriptionsThis is the brief description that appears with the page title in search results and helps people decide whether to click the link to your page. It’s a great idea to include keywords, but more importantly, it needs to be compelling. The max length should be 156 characters — or slightly longer than a tweet — with no quotes or non-alpha characters since Google removes those. So write a slightly long tweet and include information not already in the page title.
Article Title – H1 TagThis is the title of the actual piece you write. This is your heading to alert people to the main subject matter of your article. Be sure it is brief and clearly conveys the main point of your writing. Use your keyword one time within the header and be sure this is in the H1 tag in your page code.
Internal Page LinkingThis is your chance to take advantage of all the other content you have on your site, to share relevant information, keep users on your site, and show search engines that your relevancy is strong. It is a great opportunity for users to explore other areas of your site, so definitely offer that.
Be sure to use real and relevant words as the actual links. The words “click here” are generic and not relevant to your subject matter. See the links in this post as examples of relevant words to use as the links to other relevant content. All you need to do is link a phrase that is naturally part of your writing.
Almost all content benefits from having images along with it. Just be sure to always include alt attributes within the image tags. Search engines read alt attributes, and anyone who uses a screen reader can hear the alt text.
Image names are also valuable for having your images — and therefore, your site — found in image searches. Accurately describe each image in the file name and alt attribute. Use a keyword if at all relevant. Use dashes between words, rather than underscores. And do not use non-alpha characters.
So go write about what you know. Write unique content. Be compelling and provide value. With the tips above, you can include the pieces that help search engines show your excellent content to the world, helping people find it and choose to read it.
Tags: search engine optimization, unique content435 Digital helps businesses build brands on the web. Visit here for inspiration on how to stand out and grow your business.
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