Tips & Tricks for SEO: Keyword Success

What is SEO and how do we get better at utilizing it? Search-engine optimization is a process used to maximize the number of visitors to a website by structuring the site so that it appears in the top results of a search engine. The keyword here is optimize. Here is a list of steps I take to optimize my websites:

SEO Success List

  • Download the Yoast Plug-in

Yoast is a plug-in  for WordPress that is currently the most comprehensive SEO software available. It connects directly with your WordPress page and allows you to see immediate results on content you create. Not only does it tell you what is right or wrong, it also lets you know possible ways to fix your errors. So if you use WordPress this is a must have plug-in.

Keyword Specifics

  • Think of your Keyword first.

This will allow you to work in the word as you write your content. It is very important to place your word throughout the content naturally and frequently. Previously it was easy for people to simply copy and paste the keyword a select number of times throughout the text, however google caught on to this.

  • Keyword placement

Place the word you chose in the URL, in your image descriptions, and at the beginning of your content. This coincides with choosing your keyword first and allows for crawlers to utilize it from different aspects of your website.

  • Always use a different keyword

Assuming you have more than one post on your website, the keyword should be unique. This is to be sure that a crawler finds your content based on the keyword and only the content you mean for it to be attached to. If you have two or more posts with the same keyword the crawler will take whichever it comes to first, meaning it could find something old or less important than what you wanted it to find.

Image is important

Keyword Relevant

  • Add relevant images to your post

Having images in your content is good for design, but also good for structuring and tagging. Be sure to choose an image that will have an alt attribute and the other images are assigned empty alt attributes.

  • Create a Sitemap

A sitemap is a list of pages for your website. The type you will create is a structural listing that allows web crawlers such as google to access your more important content at a quicker rate than your other content.

  • Use alt text

Google places high value on alt text/tags for determining what is on an image and to determine the text around the image. This goes back to ensuring that you have images in your blog. Also, that those images have an alt tag with your focus keyword.

Follow these easy steps to optimize your search-engine optimization for success.

 

Written by: Jacob Cromwell