Properly optimizing your website for search engines requires smart SEO tagging as well as strong on-page practices. Here are 6 tips on how to incorporate good SEO techniques on your website’s posts and pages.
On-Page SEO Tactics
1. Choose your keywords wisely
Spending some time doing SEO research with a tool like Google’s Adwords keyword tool or by running searches using Google.com is time very well spent. You’ll often find that your “keyword” ends up as a few words or short phrase. That’s OK, and probably better for you in many cases.
2. Use your keywords in your post title, permalink and post content
If you own a party planning business and want to write a post featuring the latest trends in wedding flowers, you may conduct some SEO keyword research that shows “popular bridal bouquet styles ” is your ideal keyword phrase.
A strong post title would be: Popular Bridal Bouquet Styles You’ll Love
A strong permalink would be: http://YourURL.com/popular-bridal-bouquet-styles
You would also repeatedly use this keyword phrase throughout the post.
Please note: It is very important that your chosen keyword phrase is used multiple times in your post. However, be sure that your use of that phrase is natural and doesn’t seem forced. Readers need to enjoy what they are reading in order to return. Once you’ve finished writing your post, it’s a good idea to re-read it and consider if replacing a few mentions of your phrase with other relevant words (such as flowers, wedding, bride, trends) would help your post flow better.
3. Positioning of your keywords affects SEO
In the post title (and title tag):
It is more beneficial for your site if your chosen keywords are located close to the beginning of that post title. In the example above, “Popular Bridal Bouquet Styles” is a stronger post title than “Lilies are the Must-Have Flower of this Bridal Season“.
In your post content:
Some say that you need to fit your keyword phrase into the first 50 words. Others say within the first 100 words. While others simply say within the first paragraph. The jury is still out on the “correct” parameters; however, it is clear that including your keyword phrase at the beginning of your post is great for SEO.
4. Use section headers throughout your post
Section headers (like point 4 above) make a post more scannable for your readers and are good for SEO. Be sure to mark up your headers with <h></h> tags.
WordPress users can choose their headings from a drop-down menu.
Users of other platforms can switch to their post’s HTML view and add the <h></h> tags there.
As an example, here’s the html view of the main section header above:
<h2>On-Page SEO Tactics</h2>
5. Search engine spiders love links
Add a couple links to older posts, into the new post you are writing. Also, be sure to choose the right anchor text for your links.
Links are very important and a huge part of SEO. But there is a difference between “just OK” and “great” linking efforts.
6. Add ALT tags to your images
Images add a finishing touch to any post. But without words behind those photos, they are meaningless to Google bots. Naming your photo files and adding keyword-rich ALT tags will benefit your on-page SEO efforts.
Implementing strong SEO practices with your site takes time and a lot of practice. Learning what SEO is, why bloggers need it and all the terminology that goes along with it, creates a solid foundation to build upon. Understanding how to compose a post with strong on-page SEO elements is the next layer in the SEO puzzle.
Liz is a 30-something marketer, social media consultant, blogger and mom. Originally from Chicago and currently living in the land of Dixie, she relishes in the flavor of fried pickles and BBQ, but longs for deep dish and a proper Chicago dog.
This is great info. Thank you!
Would it be worth it to go back & add the h1, h2 coding to some older posts? (not all!)
If you have some posts where the section headers make a lot of sense (perhaps the VLCADD posts), then I would say to do it.
Great tips! Esp the anchor tags one. That’s a mistake I see way too often…click here as the anchor text doesn’t cut it! Seo is such a slippery thing..and not guaranteed even if you do it correctly. But every bit helps.
Any advice on choosing adwords using the link above?
You want to choose terms that are popular but not too popular. So, if it’s searched 1,000,000 times or more a month, you’ll have stiff competition. Also take into consideration what keyword phrase is easily worked into your post. You’d be better off choosing a less popular phrase that fits into your post repeatedly and flows smoothly than one that is more popular but harder to incorporate.
Great tips! Especially the photo one, I use a lot of photos and haven’t really bothered tagging them. Will go back and do it now.
Great tips. I always choose my keywords haphazardly without a thought to the title or first 50 words. There’s so much strategy to this blogging stuff that I still need to learn! Thanks for helping
Great advise! I’ve always been pretty bad at picking keywords and will definitely start using the adwords tool now and putting a lot more thought into my typically plain post titles. Thank you and I’ll be sure to keep checking back for more tips.
Thank you so much for these reminders. I took an SEO class of sorts a long time ago on a Yahoo Group, but have forgotten a lot. I really appreciate this post!
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