What are the secrets to great SEO? There really aren’t any! We know you were hoping we were going to open the big vault of search engine optimization secrets, but in reality — getting your blogs and website found is a concerted and diligent effort.
SEO can do a LOT for your business, but you need to know how to care, feed and grow it.
To improve your website copy and its searchability you need to know:
- What terms are people using to find you
- What terms do you want to be found for
- Do you want to use local search or are you an online business so location doesn’t matter as much
The Secrets To Great SEO
Let’s start with your blog:
- Optimize the title. Make the blog title be something people would search for. This blog post title for example is searchable. If I’d written: SEO is a secret that can get your blog found…What? First of all it’s too long. Second it’s not a search phrase that someone would use intuitively.
- Use tags in your post. Use an H2 tag with your blog post in the body of the content. The H2 helps your blog rank in a search and it also breaks up the text and makes it easier for your audience to read.
- The optimal length of a blog post title is a topic that is debated. Some say it should be 60-100 characters (including spaces) or six words (six words is easy to read on mobile).
- Long-tail keywords should be in the blog (in this one it’s great SEO)
- Use a tool like SEO by Yoast as a way to help optimize your content for search.
- When you add an image, use alt text tags. Use the blog title and a meta description of the image. For this post, for example: Alt text could be: Great SEO; the image title could be: SEO secrets; the meta description could be: Word game tiles spell SEO – Secrets To Great SEO. These steps can boost searchability.
- Focus on long-tail keywords. For example. This title could be optimized by “secrets to great SEO” a long tail keyword could be “secrets to great SEO for swimming pool contractors.” You’re making the title specific and if the swimming pool contractor wants to know how to amp up his or her SEO, he would likely add “swimming pool contractor” to his or her search.
- Make the post long enough. Post length again is a hotly debated concept. They should be AT LEAST 350 words. Some people believe consumers want LONG blog posts — in the 2-3,000 range. Others feel that shorter is better because readers are busy and are consuming your blog on their phone or tablet. You need to test it for yourself until you hit on the right combination.
SEO is an ever-moving target. If you’re focusing on your business and your core competency you may want to outsource your blogging and social media and SEO tasks to an experienced professional. Give Rex Richard a call or contact him through his site, or leave a comment on his blog — he can help!