Posts in the Do-It-Yourself SEO Category at Website SEO Tips and Tricks

Blogging

In Part 3, we wrapped up how the meta data can be edited on each and every blog post and pages of the website. By now you should understand the point of doing all of this work: to broaden the search efforts of your website and allow the opportunity to have more than one landing page appear in the search results for many different ket terms of your website. You see, most people have websites that only focus on the home page. The home page is important, but not tweaking the other pages is a missed opportunity. You can have this edge over some of your online competitors!

This last tutorial addresses taking the knowledge you’ve gained so far and applying it to the blog on your website. Blogs are very popular in search results, often because their content is updated and linked to often. You should seriously take advantage of the blog’s power to help your website edge over your online competitors. I’ve already made a You Tube video tutorial on blogging for an automotive website group so I suggest visiting it before watching this video. Regardless of the industry you’re in, the blogging concepts in the video are universal.

To finalize this tutorial, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed by all of this information and hesitant when it comes to applying it. I understand. This is my business it it has taken years to learn what I know. If you feel that your time is better spent elsewhere BUT feel doing this stuff is important, you may want to consider my consultation services to manage your SEO for you. I’d be happy to offer you an estimate. You can contact me here or call 877-504-7483.

DON’T FORGET!! Share the love and and leave me your feedback below!

More on Meta Data

In Part 2, we introduced you to the SEO plug-in. Now we’ll put it into action and see how it affects the page content, and more importantly, how search engines and people will view your changes.

We’ll also talk about Heading tags. Heading tags are meta data you control to show the hierarchy of the page’s content. In fact, the title of this page is an H1 title, the “More on Meta Data” is an H2 title. Most people have learned to use it for formatting the size of the font – not what it’s for at all!  Title tages like H1, H2, H3 etc. provide information on the structural hierarchy of a document. It facilitates accessibility as well as web code standards. In most cases, using this order of heading identification will make your document easier for not only your readers, but also search engine spiders browsing your content as well. Go to Part 4 here.

For a larger video view, click on 'Full Screen'

Meta Data in the Source Code

In Part 1 of this tutorial, we did some searches on our example website using key phrases to see how Google ranked the website for that search phrase. We also saw how the title meta tag and meta description are used in the actual search results and how they influence how the page was indexed in the first place.

In Part 2, we’ll see how you can make the needed meta adjustments to each and every pages of your website, including blog posts, using a plug-in installed to do just that very thing. It is called the All-In-One SEO Pack plug-in created by Semper Fi Web Design for WordPress. There are several SEO plug-ins for WordPress but I find this one works best for controlling individual page meta content. This tutorial does not cover every aspect of this plug-in, just what is required for on-page optimization by the page editor.

Understand that meta data, or as I like to refer to it, “content in the source code for search engines”, is not the only solution or technique to help your page ranking in the search results. It is merely one way to help search engine identify what may be on your web pages – that’s it! It IS NOT a guaranteed way to get your pages listed. But as I said, this is just one brick of dozens in the building of our wall, but every brick is as important as the other when combined to complete the construction.

The next video will show you an introduction to the All-In-One SEO Pack plug-in. We’ll get into more detail on this too in Part 3.

For a larger video view, click on 'Full Screen'

How Do Search Engines See Your Website?

This article series is broken into 4 parts, all with videos, and dedicated to all of you who have a website built in WordPress. Why? It’s not just any website. It’s the world’s leading (and open source) blogging platform. The best-of-the-best in this world use and trust WordPress; and now so do you.

Getting down to business: you have the ability to enhance the search effort of your website, whether you know it or not! This first video is an introductory to some basic search concepts. I’ll take you through a tour of the resources available to you as well as use a live website to demonstrate search results and how it is seen in the eyes of a search engine.

After watching the video and completing Part 1, be sure to give me your feedback! I’d like to know what you and other want to know in the future so be sure to leave a comment on this page. Go to Part 2 here.

For a larger video view, click on 'Full Screen'

OK, you have a website now. If it’s through me, it’s likely built with WordPress as a Content Management System if done recently, or it’s a static page website built from scratch. Whatever you have, now you would like to see it perform.

Here’s a TOP 10 website start-up check list to be sure you’re getting the most of your website:

1. CONTENT! Be sure to complete the content of each page on your website! Try to have at least 200-300 words or more per page and place the most important words (keywords) in the page’s H1 title and within the first paragraph. Make sure you have the correct address and phone number as well.
2. GOOGLE ANALYTICS! If you haven’t done so already, sign up for Google Analytics to track your website visitors and trends. I can add the tracking code to your website for you.
3. GOOGLE LOCAL! You know that little map at the top of the search results? You can register your business for FREE to be included there! Just go to Google Local Business Center and sign up. It takes a little while sometimes to appear there so be patient.
4. B2B DIRECTORIES! To name a few that offer online registration and a link: Yelp.com, MerchantCircle.com, YellowPages.com, YellowBook.com and others. Most online directories are free, however many offer upgrades – be careful! Not every upgrade is worth-while. Use their free link for a year first. If it made any money for you, then considering upgrading. Other paid directories include Yahoo ($299/yr) and Business.com (also $299/yr). I’m not saying you need to get these but these ar higher quality directories and may be worth paying for, depending on your business type. Do some more research and see who else advertises with them first.
5. START BLOGGING ASAP! Your blog adds content so use it wisely. Be sure to watch my video about blogging here.
6. VIDEO! Know a kid with a digital video camera? Make a short (less than 10 minutes) You Tube “welcome” video of your business and staff and place it on the home page. You Tube is FREE and owned by Google and the description text used to describe the video is searchable too. Why do you think I have so many videos? Hmmm…
7. ADVERTISE YOUR WEB ADDRESS! Make sure your customer know you have a website. In fact, make it a part of your regular conversation. It’s easy: “Did you know I have a new website? I run specials on there so check it out”.
8. DISPLAY YOUR WEBSITE PUBLICALLY! Place signs around your place of business, put your webs address on your business cards, make flyers with the web address on it, place specials on a web page or blog page, and encourage them to leave testimonials on your website. This will quickly build returning website visitors.
9. GET INVOLVED WITH FORUMS AND BLOGS! To quickly get some traffic to your website, participating in other blogs and forums and sharing good quality and relevant information with them is a great way to pass along a link to your site.
10. MONITOR YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC! In step#2, I mentioned getting Google Analytics for your website. Be sure to go to it regularly and see how people are finding and navigating your website. This data can help you spot trends and may suggest needed changes or updates to your website.

If you haven’t done so already, consider upgrading your static website to a WordPress Content Management System website.This would allow you to have total control of your website WITHOUT needed to know about code, servers, uploading, or anything else involved with creating web pages. It is a simple do-it-yourself system.

WordPress is an open source blogging platform. But blogging is such a small part of it’s potential. I love this platform mainly because it offers a SEO optimized website almost out of the box. With some tweaking, it’s a well-oiled search engine machine and user-friendly for just about anybody administering it.

If you’re interested in having 6×6 Design upgrading your website to WordPress CMS, give me a call at 877-504-7483 or send me an email and I’ll give you a free estimate asap.

Now get to work!