Today, we are going to discuss search engine optimizations or SEO. We’ll briefly cover what it is and why your blog needs it. This post is only an introduction to SEO, we’ll get into more advanced techniques in subsequent posts.
What is search engine optimization?
To understand search engine optimization, one must first understand what a search engine is. Chances are, you found this blog by typing “seo sem ecommerce” into the Google search bar. Hopefully, Digitalsapien.com was one of the top results for this search. You then clicked on the search engine listing and found yourself here. Google is a search engine. Search engines are tools that find and index documents (usually web pages, but may also include PDFs, images, etc) on the World Wide Web in order to help a user locate the information they are looking for. Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask are four of the word’s best known search engines. In brief, search engine optimization is a branch of online search marketing in which marketers attempt to influence the factors that search engines (such as Google and Yahoo) use to rank results in response to a user’s search query in order to drive targeted traffic to their website. In order words, the goal of search engine optimization is to get a website as close to top of the Google results as possible for a relevant body of keywords. Because it is a discipline within marketing, search engine optimization is both an art and science. Search engine optimization is not to be confused with paid search advertising (also called PPC, pay-per-click). Paid search advertising is exactly as it sounds – website marketers pay search engine to post an for a keyword in the search results. We may address paid search advertising and how to use it to market your blog at a later date. The graphic below shows how Google displays paid advertisements and natural (or “organic”) search listings.
Search Engine Optimization and Blogs
Blogs are a type of website. As search engines are a huge source of free traffic, generally all website (including blogs) should employ at least the bare minimal SEO tactics. For many, “natural search referred traffic” (traffic that comes from a search engine’s natural results, not it’s paid advertisements) will provide the largest source of traffic to their blog.
Building a Keyword Strategy
Since search engines depend on users to type in keyword phrases, the backbone of an effective search engine optimization campaign is a well-developed keyword strategy. You should start by brainstorming a body of keywords that aptly describe your blog topic. For example, let’s say you just set up a blog about making homemade ice cream. Now it’s time to build your keyword list. You undoubtedly want your website to rank highly in the SERPs (search engine result page) for the search phrase “making homemade ice cream”, but there are tons of related terms you may want your website to appear for in the search engines. Here are some keywords you may want your blog about making homemade ice cream to rank for:
- “make homemade ice cream”
- “homemade ice cream”
- “homemade vanilla ice cream”
- “homemade vanilla ice cream recipe”
- “how do you make homemade ice cream”
- “how do you make ice cream at home”
- “how to make homemade ice cream”
- “make homeade ice cream (*note the common misspelling)”
- “making homemade ice cream”
Of course you want to select keywords that searchers actually use to search for the information you offer on your blog. The Google Keyword Tool is a great free keyword discovery application. The Google Keyword Tool aids you in in finding new keywords by:
- Scanning your websites and suggesting a body of appropriate keywords
- Multiplying your list of keywords quickly by recommending other related keywords
- Offering estimated search frequencies
I’d highly recommend conducting a round of keyword research using the Google Keyword Discovery Tool and assembling a list of 20 – 50 keyword phrases related to the topic of you website.
Adding Keywords To Your Blog
You’ve completed your initial keyword research, so what’s next? Next you want to do the following:
- Place 1 – 2 of your keywords in the title tag (<title>) of your blog posts
- Use 1 at least 1 keyword in the URL of each of your pages
- Use 1 – 2 keywords in the header tags (<h1> – <h6>) of your blog posts
- Sprinkle your keywords throughout the copy of your post, being careful to maintain the readability of your entry.
- Use 2 – 3 keywords in your Meta Description tag to create an inviting search engine listing
- Use 1 – 2 keywords in the Alt Attribute for important images featured on your blog
- For keywords used in the copy of your blog post, link them to other blog posts you have already written – just make sure the keyword you are using as anchor text is appropriate to the post your are linking to. As a loose guideline, create one in-copy for each 150 – 200 words in your post.
- For example, if your post is 600 words long, create 3 – 4 in-copy links to other posts on your website using keywords as anchor text.
Adding keywords to your blog content and to these HTML elements helps search engines determine what your blog is about. Once a search engine associates your blog with a targeted body of keyword phrases, it is more likely to present your blog on the search engine result page when a person incorporates them in a Google (or other search engine) search query.
On-site Factors and Off-site SEO Factors
Search engine optimization involves more than simply adding keywords to page copy and source code. There are is a rather lengthy list of additional factors that search engines consider. Early, I mentioned factors that influence search results. These factors can be divided into two categories: on-page and off-page. We’ll address how to optimize for specific on-site and off-site factors in later posts, but for now here’s a high level overview:
On-site SEO Factors
On-site SEO factors are those criteria on your website that you, as the website administrator, have direct control over. On-site SEO factors consists of things like content, how your pages are linked together, keyword usage, and server codes.
Off-site SEO Factors
Conversely, off-site factors are things that influence your search engine rankings that you cannot control directly. Off-site factors include things such as external links to your website, characteristics of your competition’s website, and the behavior of the searcher.
SEO Resources
If you would like to learn more about search engine optimization, here are some resources to check out:
- Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (pdf)
- Google Webmaster Guidelines
- Google Webmaster Central Blog
- Google Basics – How Google Works
- SEO Fast Start
- SEO Book by Aaron Wall
- SEOMoz
