Great tips for optimising a blog: rank high in search engines
JodiNowadays it is such an easy task for anyone to create and launch a blog in the online environment with hundreds of weblogs launched daily worldwide. However, blogging is not only adding a template to WordPress and start creating posts but also optimising it for a better positioning in search engines. Higher ranks translate into more visitors and in the end, that is what every blogger needs, right?
Content was, is and will always be the king, that phrase should guide your entire blogs creative process. Many webmasters still go with the old-style keyword stuffing where the actual post is filled with keywords they want to rank for but nowadays this method, instead of helping your rankings, can definitely hurt them. Content should be well documented, written for both search engines and for visitors as well. In the end, fantastic content is the one that drives links to a site or become so viral that in one day a website can get a flood of traffic that can then become loyal readers.
Watch out for duplicate content. Though there is no penalty for duplicate content, as Google stated in the past, it is advisable to use a duplicate content generator like bots. Although, duplicate content can result from misusing the blog’s functions, these can be solved easily. Use Google Webmaster Tools to setup your primary address first, whether it is with or without www and also make use of 301 redirects.
Do a proper keyword research. Do not aim for hard-to-get keywords, instead use the long tail ones that get a decent amount of searches and are easier to rank for. A great tool for this is Google Related searches. When using it bloggers will find interesting new long-tail keywords Google considers “search-able” so try to use it as much as possible.
Optimise your images. Best practices tell us to give them descriptive names (instead of image03847.jpg use keyword.jpg. Also, never forget to add a description to the image containing the keyword again. People do not only search for text but also for pictures and videos, so try to optimise those two as well.
Make use of meta titles and meta descriptions. The most important one is the meta title while it appears in the search engines’ results so create an appealing one, one that will make the people click through your link to read more. Also, create an SEO meta description, always use your primary keywords at the beginning but again, do not do the mistake of stuffing it with keywords.
Always create an XML site-map. XML site-maps are easy to create and once they are live, submit them to the major search engines available.
Internal link structure has a major importance. Always link back to your homepage when using keywords and also make use of internal linking to create deep links to your inner pages. A major mistake one might do is to use the wrong anchor text for the link (instead of “blue widgets” they use “here”). Try to avoid this mistake.
Back-links can be created in various way, from social bookmarking to link-baiting, what matters most though is the quality over quantity. Always, a homepage link from an authority PR6 website will be more powerful than maybe 100 links from blog comments. Also, link diversity plays a major role in Google’s eyes.
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