Search Engine Optimization for Your Blog
In the last post about blogging, we discussed why freelancers, especially freelance writers, should have a blog. We are now gearing up to discuss some intricacies of blogging and how to get it noticed. Please be forewarned that traffic does not come overnight and you will not be seeing comments and trackbacks and links immediately. It takes several posts and a lot of work. In fact, I am still working on that now with this blog and a couple others. The important thing is getting content indexed by the search engines.
This is a bit of a beginner course or refresher lesson for search engine optimization (or SEO) for those who can use it. Websites and blogs have slightly different SEO methods. SEO for blogs is very simple but can also be very complex.
First of all, it is all about the material you present in your content. Let me give you an example. Throughout this post, you will see the words, ‘freelancer’, ‘freelance writer’, ‘search engine optimization’, ‘blog’, ‘SEO’, and other important keywords several times in this blog post. This is severely important in search engine optimization. Pick keywords that relate to your niche and make sure to use them as frequently as possible. Most of my writing as a freelancer for myself, my blog, and for clients, is web content: blog articles, news articles, and even real estate page web content. In the advent of the internet, unless you are writing a book, all of it is for SEO purposes. Honestly, I shoot for around 2-4% of broad keyword saturation. I have been asked two write 5% keyword saturation for ONE simple keyword before, and it is not only difficult, but the article turns out disgusting. Just one sentence from any given paragraph turns out something like this:
The job of any freelancer is so versatile and demanding that the average freelancer offers multiple services because clients require a multitude of services from the freelancer they have hired.
That sentence was not only disgusting, but it was so obviously packed full of the keyword ‘freelancer’ that the reader cannot get by the SEO methods to actually read it. I have a better example, but for starters, I am not ready to promote myself on this site until it is promoting other freelancers equally too, and second, I do not want the client finding this, and my having insulted his project. He is a good client and a great man, but I just thought that particular project was over the top. I prefer to write for the reader. The reader will come. I would rather run cheap PPC ads for my blog and work six times as hard to get links if it allows me to write for the reader, which I have done and will be doing again. At the end of the day, I would rather attract less readers through shady SEO techniques and hold onto more of the ones I do get.
Okay, so we figured out that keywords are important, but now we need to work on the site itself. The design is not very important, but the intricacies of the layout can be. For starters, use the meta tags. They are your friend. Use the meta tag class “keywords” and stuff related keywords in there. If you have a Google Adwords account, log in and use their keyword tool to find keywords. Also use the meta tag class “description” to type your desired search engine description. Here is an example of these meta tag uses, directly from my source code:
<*meta name="keywords" content="google, yahoo, msn, freelance, freelancer, freelance writer, freelance writers, freelance web designers, freelance forums, freelance help, freelance jobs, freelance classifieds, freelance gigs, elance, guru, ifreelance, freelancer.com, freelance networking, freelance ads, freelance website, freelance blog, blogging, blogger, writer, author, freelance jobs, freelance writing, freelance star, hollister freelance, freelance web designer, freelance graphic design, freelance work, freelance photography, freelance photographer, sluggy freelance, over freelancers, freelance jobs hiring, seo, search engine optimization, PageRank, websites, website design, wordpress"/>
<*meta name="description" content="The best resource for freelancers of all types."/>
Note: In each code, take out the asterisk (*) next to each left angle bracket (<). I had to put them in so the code would be visible.
This is a legal way of hiding keywords on your site that do not affect readers. Also, you can take advantage of keywords with a few WordPress plugins. Frankly, we should discuss SEO friendly WordPress plugins as a whole. That is our next tip: SEO WordPress plugins.
First on the list, we have your choice of any “related posts” plugin. We have Efficient Related Posts installed. It not only directs traffic to other related posts, but it also adds a few extra keywords to your post. Next, we have Optimal Title. Freelance Water Cooler does not need Optimal Title, as we do not list the site name on each post’s title code. However, if you want your title up there, Optimal Title mirrors the title code so the blog post name goes first and then the name of the site, making the title of the post even more search engine friendly than it already was. Remember to use keywords in your post if possible. Next, we have Simple SEO. This plugin integrates really well with WordPress and helps to automate the SEO process on each post and adds keyword importance. Also, there is the All-in-One SEO Pack, which automates a lot of the tips we have here. All-in-One also works with Scribe SEO, which you should also install, which is more of an SEO advice and analysis plugin. However, Scribe SEO costs money.
Next, remember to update frequently. More content can mean more readers, and most search engines give more credence to more frequently updated sites. Lastly, try to get likeminded bloggers to link to you. Remember that the anchor text of the link is important. Anchor text of ” Talented freelance writer” is much more weighty than “Jane Grasmick’s site”. (Note: I do not know a Jane Grasmick. I just made her up.)
These are just a few tips. We will discuss SEO more in the coming weeks, so stay tuned and feel free to give your input. If you have any other preferred SEO related WordPress plugins, please do not hesitate to let us know in the comments or contact form and we will pass them along.
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