Everything You Need To Know About SEO
Because of
this thread, here's some stuff about SEO.
(I HATE DESPISE AND LOATHE SEO ACOLYTES; DON'T EVEN START WITH ME)
You'll see lots of advice about "SEO" or Search Engine Optimizing. The purpose of SEO is to help your Web pages move to the top of the results list in searches, under the assumption that most people only look at the first page or so of results from a search. The position of your site in the list of results for a particular search term or phrase is your “page rank.”
Using various SEO techniques designed to generate search engine traffic is less likely to garner traffic and readers compared to interesting, quality writing. Much of that advice about SEO can potentially hurt your Google and other search engine rankings, especially "keyword stuffing," or deliberately over-using the terms you think will bring your page to the top ranks in a search.
You're better off writing interesting content that will entice your readers to keep reading, to send a link to your page to friends, and to link to your writing on their site or blog. Yes, use the terms that naturally best describe your topic, but also use natural synonyms. Don't be a boring writer.
In the long run, you're writing for people, not bots. Keep your readers in mind, in all their variety, as you write. They’re your audience, not a bunch of bots.
Google and other search engines providers are constantly changing the way they calculate search rankings, and they're getting smarter about figuring out ways of rewarding quality sites.
The best way of making sure your pages and posts have top search engine rankings and appear in the first few results when someone does a search is to write well.
Really. Good writing trumps all the deliberate use of SEO and keyword techniques. Good writing means people will come back for more, and link to you, and comment.
Check out Google's Own Search Engine Optimization Guide.
Post and Page Titles
If you’re using a CMS like WordPress or Blogger the text you enter in the Title field of a new Post or Page form is the title I mean.
We're familiar with titles in contexts other than writing on the Web. We pick up a particular book in part because of the title. Movie titles attract our attention in trailers, and we remember them later. Newspaper article titles are second in importance only to the headlines; we make our decisions on whether or not to read an article in large part because of the information in the article's title.
Use a very clear and specific title for your Page or Post. Remember that a lot of readers will only see your title in their RSS feed, and the title has to be both clear and interesting enough that they click to read the Post. You want to be accurate, descriptive—and brief.
The title you use for your in the Title field of the Post or Page form is gets magically inserted in the HTML Title tag in the code that, probably, you don't even see. The Title tag provides important information that Google and other search engines use; the text of the blog post title is the first line a searcher sees in the search results. In order to be useful to the reader using a search engine—and to be listed early in the results for a given set of search terms—your title needs to accurately reflect the content of the post. It needs to be both descriptive and accurate.
The fact that titles need to work for two seemingly different audiences, search engines and readers, means that as writers we need to strike a balance between two seemingly contradictory requirements with respect to a post title; writers need to create a title that is catchy enough to be intriguing, but that accurately describes the content of the post. Writing a good title can be be tricky, admittedly.
Titles: They're Not Just for People
- Create titles that are intriguing, but that also accurately describe the content of the Post or Page.
- Clearly indicate the main topic of your post or page in the title.
- Shorter and succinct is better than overly complex.
- Use strong verbs.
- Use specific nouns.
- Word play, when it's appropriate and doesn't confuse the reader, is good.
- If you have to compromise, accurate description is better than catchy; a clear, descriptive title is better than an overly clever one that doesn’t make sense.
- Don’t “bait and switch” or use a title that suggests the post is about one thing, when it’s not at all about that (hint: salacious titles that don’t reflect the post will annoy many readers, and may cause search engines to flag your post as “adult” material.
Subheadings and Lists
- As a general rule, your shortest post or page should be at least 300 words. 1000 words is a good middle-of-the-road word count target.
- Use subheadings for sections of your post, if it's longer than 300 words, and maybe, even if it isn't.
- Use a subheading tag (h3 or h4) when you format your subheading.
- Use lists if it will present the information more clearly than a paragraph of text.
- If you're using a list, use the list options in HTML or WordPress or Blogger, and title your list with a subheading.
Outbound Links: Beyond the Blogroll
Outbound links are links from your post, blog, or Website to someone else's content (a blog post, or article, or Website). There are two basic kinds of outbound links:
- A link to a site in your sidebar; these links are often referred to as a blogroll. If you have a lot of links in a blogroll, consider categorizing them by type.
- A context link in a post or page on your site.
From a reader’s point of view, outbound links are extremely important; outbound links create the Web. Readers find sites (and books and authors) by following links.
Carefully chosen links are a service to your readers, and a courtesy to other writers whose sites you've used in your post. It's good netiquette to link to your sources, and to related resources for readers who want more information. Good writers provide citations for their sources.
Here are some things to keep in mind about
outbound links:
- The quality of your outbound links reflects on you. Poorly chosen links make you look incompetent, or even stupid.
- Carefully chosen appropriate links encourage readers to return for your commentary or observations, or even for your resource-finding ability.
- On the Web, an outbound link functions as a source citation. It’s often courteous to also refer to the author of the piece you’re linking to.
- In general, unless you have a very good reason, don't have links open a new browser window; that's rude. Let your readers decide how they want links to open.
- Google notices outbound links. The quality of outgoing links affects the ranking of the pages that link to them. Linking to good resources and providing citations in the form of links is good for your readers, and thus good for you.
- If you link to interesting content, interesting content, and higher ranked content, is more likely to link to you.
- Don't ask for reciprocal links; that's what spammers do.
Link to appropriate quality posts and sites—not only as citations and references where they fit in your posts, but in your blogroll or sidebar. Find other bloggers in your niche. Read them. Link to them. Comment—genuine thoughtful comments—on their blogs. Let other writers know when you've linked to them.
On Google’s PageRank Algorithm
- To determine PageRank for a given page or post, among other unknown data, Google tracks the sites link that to it.
- Links to your site from a site that has a high PageRank count more; you thus earn a higher PageRank of your own.
- Google's calculations and algorithms are pretty good at determining a "natural" link made by a person from one that's made just as a way of "fooling" the system.
- Your best bet in terms of attracting quality inbound links is to provide interesting, carefully written content that includes quality outbound links.
Linking The Right Way
Use explicit links—rather than the old-style practice of linking a word like “here”:
You can find Google's advice about writing and links
here.
Use links like this one with language that explicitly describes the content you’re linking to.
The difference is that the text that the reader clicks describes the link content.
Inbound Links: They Like You they Really Do
Inbound links are links made by other writers to your site. You want inbound links. You want them quite a bit; inbound links help Google and other search engines find your site, and individual pages or posts on your site. More importantly, inbound links help readers find you, and your books by clicking a link to your site from another site.
There are two broad categories of inbound links:
- Links to your site from another site's sidebar or blogroll (a blogroll is an ordered list of links you choose to other sites; it is typically displayed in a sidebar).
- Links to your site or page within a post or a page of another site.
Alt Tags
You'll likely have more readers than you think who are visually disabled, or absolutely blind. They may be using a screen reader which reads the page aloud to them, or converts it to Braille.
So when you use an image, use an
alt tag to briefly describe the image and relate it to the context; for instance, "The cover of Stephen King's Pet Sematary, showing a black cat, and a creepy cemetery with children's handwriting on pet tombstones."
Google will pick up that alt tag, and index it, and yes, you get "points" for that (though no one know how many).
Remember, you’re participating in a conversation.
When you link to another blogger, consider sending them a short note thanking them for their site or post. It's not only the courteous thing to do as a member of the blogging community, it leads to some super friendships, and often, a return link.
Link to blogs and sites that you think your readers would like and that you regularly read, and whose creators you know in your blogroll or sidebar.