DIY SEO of your blog isn’t as difficult as most people think…
Ranking high in Google’s search results can have a phenomenal impact on the success of your business. You can engage the expertise of a Search Engine Optimization company to optimize your blog, or if you have the time do it yourself.
Here are some changes you can make to your blog or have your webmaster make them for you that will improve your SEO.
Step 1: Keyword Research
What keywords do you think your customers would type in to search for your products or services? A keyword can be one word, for example. “optimisation”, but multiple keywords or keyword phrases are usually preferrable. This is because they’re more specific and more likely to be what your customers are looking for, such as “search engine optimisation for spanish blogs”.
Write down as many as keyword and key phrases as you can think of. Brainstorm with your team. Think of alternative words. Consider geographical phrases if they are important, such as “house cleaning Hornsby”. Also, get some ideas from your competitors’ websites. Try to make a list of 20 to 30 keyword phrases.
Choose the two keyword phrases you think would be searched for the most. But also remember, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is to achieve top rankings. If you want to rank high in Google for the keyword “insurance”, you have a very long journey ahead. So try your best to select two keyword phrases that are the most relevant to you business but that are not vague nor highly competitive. It’s a good idea to have 2 or 3 words in each phrase, such as “wedding catering services”.
Once you’ve selected your two best keyword phrases the next step shows you how to make some improvements to your home page.
Step 1: Keyword Research
What keywords do you think your customers would type in to search for your products or services? A keyword can be one word, for example. “optimisation”, but multiple keywords or keyword phrases are usually preferrable. This is because they’re more specific and more likely to be what your customers are looking for, such as “search engine optimisation for spanish blogs”.
Write down as many as keyword and key phrases as you can think of. Brainstorm with your team. Think of alternative words. Consider geographical phrases if they are important, such as “house cleaning Hornsby”. Also, get some ideas from your competitors’ websites. Try to make a list of 20 to 30 keyword phrases.
Choose the two keyword phrases you think would be searched for the most. But also remember, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is to achieve top rankings. If you want to rank high in Google for the keyword “insurance”, you have a very long journey ahead. So try your best to select two keyword phrases that are the most relevant to you business but that are not vague nor highly competitive. It’s a good idea to have 2 or 3 words in each phrase, such as “wedding catering services”.
Once you’ve selected your two best keyword phrases the next step shows you how to make some improvements to your home page.
Step 2: Web Copy
Web copy refers to all the words or text on your website. Because content is king in the world of search engines, your keyword phrases need to be placed strategically on your webpage to convince Google that your content is highly relevant to those keywords. The more prominent they are, the better. However, keep in mind that as important as search engines are, customers come first, so make sure your copy also reads well.
Here’s how you can increase each keyword’s prominence:
• Place your keywords in headings, preferably at the beginning of the heading;
• Include keywords towards the top of the page;
• Bold or italicise keywords where appropriate;
• Instead of having a link to another page that says “Click here”, reword it to include your keywords. I recommend something like “Read more about our Affordable SEO Copywriting Offer. It’s just $5.00 for a 300 word, keyword rich article on any topic you choose.
An important tip is to also include these keywords in your HTML “title tag”. Use your content management system to make these changes yourself, or ask your web developer to do it if you’re unsure how.
Once you have fine-tuned your home page, consider adding new content, such as detailed descriptions of what you offer, FAQs and informative articles about your products and services. If you don’t want to write these yourself, they can be located for free on the internet – do a search for “articles directory”.
Note though, that the articles offered free through article directories are going to be included as content on numerous websites and blogs. This duplication of content is one of the things Google’s search algorithm, Penguin, will flag a website for. It is far better to pay a few dollars for unique, well written content. I recommend you actually to visit and purchase your content from this Affordable SEO Copywriting Offer.
It’s also good to bear in mind that search engines can only read text, not pictures. Often web developers embed words in images to look better for website visitors or use Flash for animation, but this is a major impediment to search engines.
If you need to include images, such as photos, graphs of any kind, or a logo, utilize both the image alt and title tags to include textual content bots can read. If you do not know how to do this, ask your webmaster to do it.
Step 3: Linking
Each link from another website that points to your website, known as a back link, is considered by search engines as a vote of popularity for your site and will improve your rankings.
But it is the quality, not quantity, of the links that is crucial. The other websites with a link to yours embedded should be relevant to your industry, and preferably highly regarded themselves. Ten quality links count far more than 500 links from arbitrary websites. In the same way your personal business network can have a significant impact on the success of your business, so too the online network you build on the internet.
Brainstorm all the relevant websites that could link to you, such as non-competing companies, and industry bodies and organisations. Write a friendly email to each describing the benefit their visitors would get in knowing about your business, and request them to create a link to your website. Most people will not respond first time round, so a following up with a phone call is usually required. Do not keep emailing a request to exchange links. By doing so, will be seen as nothing but a spammer, and most respected, and therefore well ranked websites, will not work with spammers. All you will accomplish it having your email address blocked, and possibly end up being reported to your ISP for spamming.
How do I monitor my results?
Monitor your ranking with Google over the next few months by typing your chosen keywords into the search box, and recording your ranking. Also look at your hosting reports to understand what search terms your visitors are using to find your website.
I also recomment using Google Analytics, an excellent free tool provided by Google for website owners to track their site’s performance.
The above process can be also be repeated for each page of your website. Remember to keep updating your content, and continually increase the number of links to your website.
As you see your rankings climb you should see a corresponding increase in web traffic and a substantial increase in sales enquiries. Be sure to record the source of your customer enquiries so you can measure the success of your marketing efforts because only if you measure it, you can improve it.
Tags: blogging, income, make money, residual online income, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, serp
