1. Anatomy of a blog post Community Sherpa Streamlining the creation of a SEO rich blog post
2. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? By definition…the process of improving visibility of a website or webpage in search engines via ‘organic’ search results In other words… Increasing the likelihood that someone finds you online.
3. What goes into effective SEO strategy? Two Buckets: On The Page Ranking Factors Elements that we are in direct control of Off The Page Ranking Factors Elements that are influenced by readers, visitors, and other publishers (writers).
9. How Can I Strengthen My SEO VALUE? Define Keywords right off the bat Use the list of keywords to build: Title Main body of content Tags Links Picture optimization Use your creativity to avoid ‘stuffing’ keywords
11. Creating a SEO Rich TITLE What goes in the <title>My Site</title> tag in the HTML code of your web pages. In Wordpress your ‘post title’ becomes the HTML title. Titles should be 70 characters or less Titles should contain target keywords people use in search engines.
12. Creating a SEO Rich TITLE cont. Remember two things: Your Title carries the MOST weight of any other internal (On the Page) SEO factor! If you did NOTHING more than create better titles for your posts, you would rank better!
14. Creating SEO Rich CONTENT Using target keywords in the first 100 words boosts rankings. Make it a habit to make the first sentence of your post a “synopsis” of the content; include keywords (for meta descriptions). As a best practice, it’s good to have target keywords at least utilized at beginning & end. “Synopsis” to start and “closing” or “wrap up” to finish.
15. Creating SEO Rich CONTENT cont. Using target keywords repetitively in content helps crawlers determine relevance. Keyword density percentage is irrelevant* *provided your use of keywords is in natural language & doesn’t look like a spam directory or link farm.
16. Title w/ rich keywords: “Carlisle” “Vanilla Bean Bakery” Synopsis that uses researched keywords to sum up what post is about – “meta description” Keywords that appear naturally within the content of the blog.
18. Creating SEO Rich LINKS The number of sites that you link to determine your online “authority.” Your authority is compromised of the authority of the sites linking to you and their relevance. Linking to trusted sites with a high page ranking increases your SEO. Using a URL shortener speeds up the page-load time and increase SEO.
19. Creating SEO Rich LINKS cont. Permalinks are optimized for SEO by default. Linking to your other pages & posts increases relevance in search engines. Using internal links helps users, but also helps build up your number of internal links. If using Zemanta, use ‘Related Posts’ section to add your previous posts to the bottom. 30 quality authority external links from 30 different domains count significantly more than 30 quality authority links from the same domain. i.e. Zemanta always links us to Wikipedia & Google maps.
20.
21. Creating SEO Rich Pictures. When uploading images or files, use target keywords in the actual file names. i.e. ‘vanilla_bean_bakery_carlisle.jpg’ Using keyword driven filenames will get additional indexing & traffic from image search engines, document search engines, & even main Google search. Using keywords in ‘Title’ and ‘Alternative Text’, as well as linking to external site.
22. Creating SEO Rich Pictures cont. Title is the text that shows up when you hover over the picture. All three should be SEO rich with a variety of keywords. Picture should link to an external site rich in authority and/or relevancy.
24. A.I.O.- Take SEO To The Next Level This crucial plugin is installed on all* of our blogs; however, it is not properly set up. To get the maximum benefits, we must manually tweak the ‘settings.’ The plugin set-up is two parts: Blog as a whole Individual post
25. All-in-One SEO - Blog Blog Set-up Settings>All in One SEO Home Title Home Description Home Keywords The most important two areas are Home Title & Description. This is the metadata information for the blog’s homepage which often carries the most search engine importance.
26. All-in-One SEO – Blog cont. Home Title – this is the title that all users see in their browsers, and this is the title search engines use as well. Bad title: “Lincoln Woods Apartments – Pet-friendly, Pool, Luxury, Near Philadelphia” Good title: “Lincoln Woods Apartments – Lincoln, PA’s Luxury Rental Community.” Do not dilute with keywords; instead use a readable, natural tag line that highlights a few keywords.
27. All-in-One SEO – Blog cont. Home Description – this is solely for search engines, and most users will not see this while they are on the site. Keep it within 160 characters Use the ‘Living At’ page or Client’s main website to grab their sales-pitchy description.
28. All-in-One SEO – Blog cont. Home Keywords – this is where you will add keywords that you want to target. Separate by commas Use target keywords Think about niches, amenities, and other keywords that set the client apart. Example: Carlisle, Luxury, Contemporary, Townhomes, Corporate, Family Friendly, Premier, apartment homes.
29. All-in-One SEO – Post Title – For the Post (Copy & Paste title of Blog) Description – Synopsis of the post Keywords – Targeted keywords for the post. Title/Description/Keywords– follow the same guidelines w/in the post as you did for the main blog. If you leave blank, plugin will default to description & keyword values in main settings. Fill in the SEO pack with the post & blog in mind. If you leave description blank, then it will auto-generate it from the first 160 characters of your blog (*Synopsis!) Using the SEO Pack will override the default Meta title & description, give you a more accurate result in search (which ultimately improves your SEO & clicks)
30. Key Points to Remember Create a solid list of target keywords before you write, after you research. Create synergy between the blog post & the blog as a whole. Be creative with keywords and use them naturally. Never keyword stuff. SEO is guaranteed to increase results and improve our client deliverables. If you’re unsure about something, ask before you publish a post. A lot of times, there’s no going back once posted.
