3.02 – Optimising Blogs
Optimising Blogs
Because blogs (discussed in Chapter 2) are basically websites in a different format, the same principles of site optimization and configuration apply, including the need for inbound links and cross-promotion on social media services. Hard-learned lessons and best practices truly pay off because search engines crawl frequently updated blogs at least daily.
Integrate your domain name with your blog URL (http://yourblog.yourdomain.com) or buy a separate, related domain name (http://yourcompanyblog.com), even if a third-party server hosts your blogs. For SEO purposes, you must own your own blog domain name. A blog at www.mycompanyblog.blogspot.com or www.typepad.com/mycompanyblog isn’t acceptable.
Blogs are primo link bait. The casual sharing of relevant, text-based links in posts, the use of blog rolls (bloggers’ linkable recommendations of other blogs), and related thematic material attract inbound links like black jackets attract white cat fur. With all that link juice, plus rapidly updated content, many blogs quickly zoom to page one in search engine results.
Review all requests for inclusion on your blog roll or reciprocal link offers. Make sure that the requesting site is relevant, has a decent page rank, and is one that you feel good about recommending.
Different blog platforms operate somewhat differently, leading to confusion on the part of bloggers trying to optimise sites for search engines. Whatever your platform, the same methods you follow for websites still apply, with a multitude of additions:
» Include keywords from your primary list in your blog name, such as http://yourcompany. com/social_media_blog. The blog name should appear with an HTML <h1> tag on only the front page. On other pages of your blog, the heading level can be as low as <h3>.
» Include keywords in individual titles for each post. Use these keywords in the <title> tag in the source code for that entry, as well as in the page URL. Put those titles at the HTML <h1> level.
» Include primary keywords in the first sentence of content, which becomes the page <description> metatag by default, unless you write one manually. Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post.
» Fill out the tag box with your keywords, but do so judiciously. You don’t need to bloat your blog tags with synonyms or terms you don’t need to rank on.
» Incorporate search terms in anchor text for links on your blog.
» Use <alt> tags, captions, and descriptions with search terms for any images or media you upload to your blog.
» Post rich, appealing content with search terms regularly and often.
» Make sure the search engine spiders can crawl your blog easily by including a side navigation column on all pages and by offering access to archives and previous posts from all pages of your blog.
» Include a linkable breadcrumb trail that includes keywords without reaching the point of overstuffing.
» Provide internal text links to your own related posts, especially to relevant ones that are already ranking well.
» Submit your blog to blog directories and syndicated submission sites. You can find excellent lists at https://bloggerspassion.com/blog-submission-sites, www.bloggersideas.com/top-free-high-pr-blog-submission-sites-lists and www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories.
» Use your blog roll as a resource – just having a blog roll isn’t enough. Contact other bloggers to request a backlink or offer a reciprocal appearance on your blogroll in exchange for a backlink. Just be careful that you don’t inadvertently create a link farm. For more on blogroll links, see www.britmums.com/2014/07/Blogs-sidebar-blogroll-yet.
» Get backlinks to your blog with trackbacks (an automated way of notifying other bloggers that you’ve referenced their blog) or by posting comments on other blogs. Not all blogging hosts support trackbacks.
» Create an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines, just as you would for your website.
» Use permalinks (permanent links) to maintain blog URLs permanently.
» Use analytics tools to monitor traffic and user behaviour.
If you need quick suggestions for good blog keywords, install the Wordtracker Keywords Tool (it offers a free 7-day trial) at www.wordtracker.com/find-the-best-keywords. It sits next to your blog editor on the screen so that you can consider tag suggestions while you write. Alternately, return to Google’s free Keyword Planner, as described in Chapter 2.
If you’re an experienced blog writer, your posts are probably already written with one designated search term in mind. Review your top 10 to 15 most-viewed posts, make a list of the keywords you used for them, and use that list as input into the Google Ads Keyword Planner.
Long blog pages with a lot of responses, including those from spammers, may end up with too many outbound links. Ask your programmer to place an HTML nofollow attribute in the code just before links from comments to discourage people from leaving fake comments that include links to their own sites in hopes of increasing their own search rankings.
Optimising WordPress
Although plug-ins for WordPress templates can be set to automatically generate title and page description metatags, you may want to tweak the automated SEO results for important posts. Auto-generation is fine for mundane posts or when you’re short on time.
For more flexibility and additional optimization features, try the Yoast SEO plug-in at http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo or the All in One SEO Pack at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack.
Make your WordPress life easier by searching the list of WordPress plug-ins for items you need at http://wordpress.org/plugins. Compare plug-ins carefully – they’re not all alike.
Here are a few things you can do to optimise your WordPress blog posts:
» Swap elements of the blog post title. Reverse the WordPress plug-in default arrangement by putting the post title first, which contains keywords, followed by the name of your blog.
» Use a consistent format for keyword-rich page titles on all pages. You can set up the format after you’re in your template and apply it everywhere by using the Yoast or All in One SEO Pack plug-ins.
» Aim for longer content lengths. All of your posts should be a minimum of 300 words, but the more words you have, the more opportunities you have for utilising WordPress’ SEO features.
» Insert a longer title description, with more search terms, into the image title field. WordPress automatically uses the title you give an image as its <alt> tag. Unless you insert a longer title description with more search terms into the Image Title field, WordPress uses the filename as the image title.
When you write a post and add tags, WordPress automatically adds your tags to its global tag system. The global system determines the WordPress list of hot topics in real time. Users can click any word in the real-time tag cloud to view the most recent posts for that tag.
Duplicate content can have a negative effect on your SEO efforts. So, how do you avoid getting penalised for it? Read this article on GreenGeeks.com to get some tips: www.greengeeks.com/blog/are-you-being-penalized-by-google-for-duplicate-content.
Optimising Blogger
Contrary to myth, Google doesn’t necessarily give preference to blogs hosted on its own service, Blogger. However, Blogger poses some unique advantages and challenges:
» Blogger templates place <h1> through <h6> tags into the source code through the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) interface, thereby helping with SEO. You can easily adjust page titles and blog names for the correct heading level in page templates.
» Blogger lacks theme-related categories, which makes it a little more difficult for you and for theme-based SEO. To overcome that problem, create permalinks that include your categories or directory names. We discuss permalinks in the following section.
» Because Blogger doesn’t provide a related-links feature, create that list of related text links within or at the bottom of each post. These links should lead to your other postings on the same topic. Or take advantage of unlimited sidebar space to create a separate section for related links above your blogroll.
» Use labels on Blogger to categorise your posts. On the page where you’re writing a post, click the Settings tab in the right column. Select Labels from the drop-down menu. In the box that appears, enter the terms you want to use, separated by commas. (Your changes are automatically saved.) For future posts, just click Labels in the drop-down menu. All the terms in the box appear below your post when it’s published.
» Blogger defaults to weekly archiving, but the time frames for archiving are malleable. Adjust the time frame based on your volume of posts and comments to maintain good keyword density. If you post only weekly, it might make more sense to archive monthly. For an extremely active blog, you might want to archive daily.
» Creating text links is easy, so use your keywords in links whenever possible.
Optimising Wix
Wix (www.wix.com) is one of the more popular, free website builders. One of the draws of Wix over other platforms like Blogger is that there are industry-specific templates with “thousands” of drag-and-drop design features you can use to create your site. Wix is arguably one of the easiest blogging platforms to optimise because it has its own SEO helper built right in, aptly named the Wix SEO Wiz.
» Complete each of the three steps in the Wiz in their entirety. They’re laid out for you in an easy-to-understand and complete way.
» Utilise the Wix Marketplace (www.wix.com/marketplace) if you’d rather enlist the help of a Wix partner for your website optimization.
» Use long-tail keywords. The more targeted your keyword, the more you’ll be able to attract the right audience and increase the chances of people finding (and clicking on) your website in the search results.
» Choose the correct domain name. Make sure it’s not too long, but that it’s easy to remember while still reflecting your brand. Try to use one of your primary keywords in your domain name.
» Utilise local SEO, especially if you have a brick-and-mortar store. People are more likely to search for Cupcakes in Denver to quickly narrow down the search results.
» Craft unique titles and descriptions on every one of your website’s pages. Want to read more about optimising your Wix site for SEO? Their handy SEO guide gets into even more detail about the ins and outs of Search Engine Optimisation (https://seoguide.wix.com/en) as well as this blog post for some quick SEO tidbits: www.wix.com/blog/2017/10/12-seo-tips-boost-wix-website.
Assigning permalinks
Because most blogs are created on dynamic, database-driven platforms, their posts don’t have fixed web addresses. Links to individual posts disappear after the posting is archived and no longer available on a page. Obviously, that’s bad news for inbound links and SEO.
Permalinks (short for permanent links) solve that problem by assigning a specific web address to each post. Then individual posts can be bookmarked or linked to from elsewhere, forever.
Most blog software programs, such as WordPress and Blogger, already offer this as an option; you just have to use it. If your blog doesn’t offer it, you can generate permalinks at www.generateit. net/mod-rewrite, although you may need help from your programmer to install them. Try to avoid links that look like this: www.yourblog.com/?p=123. Instead, choose an option to use one or more keywords, such as www.yourblog.com/contests/summer-travel-sweepstakes.
If you prefer to customise your permalinks, use the Permalink option in the Post Settings box. On the page where you’re writing a post, click the Settings tab in the right column. Select Permalink from the drop-down menu that appears. Then you can create a URL that’s different from your title, which you might want for search term reasons.
To generate WordPress permalinks, open the Settings option in the Admin panel, which appears in the left navigation. From there, select Permalinks from the second-tier navigation and choose either the Common Structure option or the Custom Permalinks option to enter your own structure. (For example, you might want to insert a category.) For new blogs, that’s it; for existing blogs, you may need to use the Redirection plug-in, as well. For more information, see https://wordpress.org/support/article/using-permalinks. For directions about creating permalinks on Blogger, visit https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/2523525 and scroll down to the “Rewrite your URLs” section.
