Apr

How Do I Optimize My Blog For The Search Engines?

By Sid

It’s a reasonable and logical question for new bloggers. “How do I optimize my blog for the search engines?” The answer to this question is both simple and complex, as are most internet marketing and SEO topics.

There are several tactical steps that you’ll take, as well as some strategic moves. Most bloggers won’t take the time to strategize, but are more than willing to do the few necessary tactical search engine optimization steps. In this article, I’ll cover only the tactical steps, leaving the all-important strategic piece for another time.

Tactical steps to optimizing your blog for the search engines.

1. Optimize your main URL.

This is both strategic and tactical, but should be mentioned. Maybe your company name is ABC Widgets, and your main web site is www.abcwidgetco.com. That URL doesn’t mean much to the search engines. However, you make and sell compact hair driers, amongst other things.

Ideally, you’ll create a separate blog for each specific niche market in which you sell or serve. So, you might purchase the domain name ‘www.compacthairdriers.com’ for your blog.

Key Takeaway: If and when possible, include your primary niche market in your URL.

2. Optimize your Wordpress Permalink settings

Wordpress allows you to specify the look of your article URL’s. The default is indecipherable by the search engines, so you’ll want to change this. Simply go to your Wordpress ‘Dashboard’, click on the “Settings” link, and then click on “Permalinks”. The most common setting looks like this:

If the title of your blog post is “Compact Hair Driers For Less Than a Buck”, your URL will look like this:

http://www.compacthairdriers.com/compact-hair-driers-for-less-than-a-buck

Now, if someone searches for “compact hair driers”, there is a much better chance that they’ll find your article.

Key Takeaway: Include your primary keyword phrase in the post title

3. Add a Search Engine Optimization Plugin

Wordpress is so amazing because there are thousands of “plugins” — community-created programs — that add all kinds of functionality to your blog. There are a half dozen or so quality plugins that add search engine optimization functionality to your blog, but my favorite is called “Platinum SEO“.

You can download and install the plugin directly from your Wordpress control panel (a feature of the latest version of Wordpress). This plugin lets you:

Customize the HTML ”Title Tag” for your home page. This is what shows up in the search engines.
Customize the home page description and keywords.
Customize the HTML Title tag for each post. The Title tag is what actually shows up on the search engine results page as the title of the article, so you want this to match your post title. Set the “Post Title Format” to “%post_title%”.
Customize a whole host of other options. It’s best to leave it at the default settings unless you know what you’re doing. The default settings work perfectly well for most Wordpress installations.

4. Optimize each blog post (see images below).

Add “Tags” with your key phrases.
Include the primary keyword phrase for your post in the post title.
Fill in the “Platinum SEO” fields with your title and a good “lead” in the description. The lead should contain your primary keyword phrase as well, and should be compelling enough for the user to read the article.
Never use a default “Category.” Create a new category or add the post to a category that means something to your web site visitor.
If it makes sense for the flow of your article, include your keyword phrase or related phrases in your article subtitles. In Wordpress, you can define these as “Header 1″, “Header 2″ or “Header 3″ formats. Take the time to define your headers and subheads. It helps the search engines to determine the subject matter (keyword phrases) of your article.

That’s it! Now your blog posts will be optimized for the search engines.

Accompanying Images: