SEO: What is it and why should I care?

What is SEO and why should I be using it on my blog?  I hear this question… a lot 🙂

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s a process of preparing and creating your blog or blog site in the best way possible to attract search engines like Google so that your site ranks in the search results whenever your target audience is looking for a particular service or product.

A lot of people are intimidated by SEO and think it’s a complicated process but it doesn’t have to be. There are a lot of great plugins for WordPress that help demystify the SEO puzzle. The WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast is a great tool that I’ve been using recently with a few of my clients and it really helps make SEO easy-peasy.

Basic SEO Principles

Even though there are plugins that take the guesswork out of SEO, you should still have a basic understanding of SEO Principles.  Here are the key elements to consider when optimizing your WordPress blog:

• Keyword research: The keywords you use on your site, in every thing from the page titles, post headlines and sub-headlines and even the words you choose to italicize or embolden play a key role in your SEO optimization strategy. I’ve written about the importance of keywords below.  Start with Choosing Your Best Keywords and let me know if you have any questions.
• Page name: The actual page name of the page itself plays an important part in SEO. Having keywords in your URL permalink is key to helping Google determine if this page speaks about a particular topic.
• Post title, post headlines and post formatting: Including your keywords in the H1 or H2 header tags or even strategically highlighting keywords by making them bold or italic helps rank your post for a particular keyword.
• Post tags: A great place to include keywords!
• Blog categories: An often overlooked area in SEO optimization is the title and slug you select for your blog categories.
• Images: Including your keyword in the image file name and alt tags is another great way to incorporate keywords into your blog posts

By keeping these basics in mind and installing the WordPress SEO plugin, you will be able to gain additional exposure in the search engines.

Have questions or want to share advanced strategies?  I want to hear from you!  Just comment below 🙂