We get asked “The million dollar question” all the time:
Can someone tell me the best way to help my posts move up the ranks on google?
Here are a few basic concepts to consider
- Keyword rich and natural site content is the number one way to get your site to rank as well as possible.
- Tags are meant as a method of cross-posting and linking like content together. If you have 1000 tags with 1 post each then it’s not going to do it’s job. Clicking on a tag should bring you to other relevant content.
- Avoid having the same content appear in different ways on your site. An example of this would be a category (or tag) archive, if it’s being indexed, with only 1 post will look like duplicate content to the search engines.
- If WebDog built your site, use the SEO features built into your site. This includes the set it and forget it SEO Settings and the per post/page settings.
- Always use unique page titles that include key words, but aren’t key wordy
- Always fill in the image title with a relevant image title and accurate but brief description in the alt field.
- Always use the SEO settings to give a description and keywords
Some tips on keywords
- A million other sites are going for the easy, generic key words. This means you are a very small fish in a very big pond
- The more specific your key word target is, the smaller the pond becomes
- If you are most interested in traffic from your region, or city then use that in your keywords for an instant boost in the standings.
- Use Google Adwords to analyze your site to get suggestions on more complex and specific key words. This is free.
- Don’t use the same keywords on every page/post. The crawlers at Google prefer unique content.
- Keep a list of the keywords you are using to build on with new pages/posts.
Some tips on building backlinks
- The more links going to your site the more engines like Google will like you and rank you higher.
- Building links is best done the hard way, through dedicated service and building relationships with other bloggers/people in your industry.
- There are many services that will do this for you and you will get a quick boost, but the long term ranking is still going to be based on building relationships.
- Comment on other blogs with thoughtful and useful comments
- Use comment love or other services to promote your readers.
- Spend time in twitter and other social media.
- Participate in follow Friday, retweet others, and build community, don’t just share your own links.
- Participate in Stumble, Digg, and similar services.
- Promote others before yourself and people will see you as an authority. This will eventually cause you to get promoted.
- Remember that this is usually a long process unless you happen to go viral.
- There is no good way to force your site to go viral.
Great, practical advice! Everyone wants a shortcut, but nothing works as well as constant attention to the basics.
I might be showing green here but what is the difference between tags and keywords, exactly?
Thanks, is there usually a place in your WP control panel to put these? Because I don’t see one in mine. Do you use an HTML tag to add them?
Sorry, but I’ve been concentrating on content with my blog. Just now getting into this SEO business.