LEARNING SEO

“SEO Made Easy”. Most of us want our site or blog to rank high in the search results on Search Engines like Google or Yahoo for our chosen keywords. We want lot’s of relevant visitors to our site, and we can provide them great value, and ultimately, increase our blog monetization.

It’s all about relevance here… We want Google or Yahoo to “decide” what our web page is all about, accurately and relevantly (is that a valid word ;-) ), and return our site as results ON THE 1ST PAGE preferably to users that search the keywords and phrases relevant to our site!

So, let’s see how we can improve our SEO… and hopefully, I can make it easy for you. Let’s start:

Choose Your Keyword
When we are writing a post, choosing your keyword may look like a simple step, but choosing the right keywords would mean whether your post is on the 1st page in Google or in page 101 or worse appear in the most irrelevant pages. Let’s do it right… consider the questions:

How popular are the keywords or phrases?
In other words, how many times do people search for this keyword? Generally, if no one (or very few people) is searching for a keyword, it’s not as valuable. We should aim for keywords with a count of above 5000 for the past month. Don’t bother about keywords below 5000. You can go to http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion for your keywords.
How competitive are the words?
How many other sites are trying to rank for the same keywords. Generally, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is going to be to rank for it. Let’s look for competition less than 5 million and going under 3 million is best due to less competition. Check the number of Google results for the keywords at the top left corner of Google. Results 1 - 10 of about 5,000,000 for means that there are 5 million competing websites with the searched keyword.

It’s best if you can find words that are popular with less competition. That’s why it pays to spend a lot of time in researching your keywords. You’ll be surprised at the untapped gems or niches that you may find.

On-Page Optimization

Now you have your keywords, how to optimize them on your blog post or web page?

1. Page or Post Title
This is most important as users look at it to know instantly what a page is about. The title is used in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). If you want a high click-thru rate, try putting together a page title that is CATCHY but at the same time relevant to your post.An example: “Atomic Blogging - The inside and out of atomic blogging.”
The main keyword is [atomic blogging]. Its a good title because the main keyword is repeated once as the first phrase, and once later in the sentence. Try doubling your keywords and get good results in Google.
2. Body Text
You want to keep paragraphs short (short paragraphs help hold the attention of readers). Use your keyword as much as you can… especially in the first 20 words of your post. However, don’t overuse your keyword as it may result in an Over Optimization Penalty (OOP).
3. First Sentence of the Body Text
Use your keyword somewhere in the first sentence of the body text. This reinforces to the search engine the fact that the keyword is important.
4. URL/ File Name
If your page is about “Atomic Blogging”, then you would name the page atomic-blogging.html. Always make sure to use a hyphen “-” and not an underscore “_” (most search engines have a hard time with underscores). Don’t even think about using a space.
5. Meta Tags (Meta Description and Meta Keywords)
Meta tags are located in the tags. They are invisible to users, and are used strictly by some search engines.
- Meta Description: A descriptive sentence that describes your page. Make sure to use your keyword.
- Meta Keywords: Include a list of keywords. The best way is to write your body text, and then select keywords from that text.

Experiment with the above. It’s not a exhaustive list of things that you can do to improve your SEO, but it’s essential.