Search Engine Ranking For Bloggers

Every SEO guru out there has different opinions on WHAT YOU MUST DO to rank in search engine results.

I am no bloody guru, but I won’t lie, I am a fan of search engine optimization, possibly because I’ve seen it do marvelous things for past clients and my own blog.

Today, I’m going to share with you a list that works for me. What I find to have an impact on search engine ranking for past clients and myself.

Mind you, I don’t post everyday, so the fact that my blog’s alexa ranking isn’t bad and that I’m listed in search engine results for several of my keyword phrases, amazes some.

Many gurus will disagree with my list below, but, they can kiss my ass.

I’m going to share what I focus on before I hit Publish.

Here’s What I Focus On For Search Engine Ranking

I won’t lie, I don’t pay attention to what’s trending. I usually right whatever is on my mind, a follow up to my last post, something for a category I think is lacking, or info I realized other bloggers can use while I was reading their posts.

Whatever I write:

will have substance (aka will be long, but not repetitive) I try to supply as much insight as I can and give examples. I’ve learned that when I wrote shorter posts, my alexa would rise (which is bad). Also? According to Google’s Panda update of Feb 2011 thin/shallow content will get you penalized from search engine results. Now I’m not saying having short posts is bad, I’m saying having short posts on subjects you want to rank for, won’t work.

will share something someone can benefit from whether it be blog promotion tips, a story/issue fellow parents can relate to, a tutorial, a list of resources – readers have to benefit from it, need to be looking for it.

will be something readers find helpful enough to want to share traffic to a post and the bounce rate affects your search engine ranking. The more people who read your posts and the longer amount of time they spend on your blog affects your ranking positively. Creating content that my fellow bloggers want to share with their fellow bloggers leads to the best referrals possible and a higher rate of traffic.

will have keywords within I tend to write an then look over my post, breaking it up into paragraphs, sections, etc. That’s also when I can “see” what my post is really about. A subtopic of SEO, Social Media, Blogging. I also tend to use pronouns in my first drafting, not caring about whether or not the reader will know what I’m referencing. Hell, it’s a first draft.

For example, this post is generally about SEO. It’s specifically about how to rank in search engine results utilizing seo tactics. I’m going to plug that subtopic, and variations of it, into the Google Keyword Search Tool App or my handy dandy Market Samurai software (this is an affiliate link and this software has a hell of a lot more info and I mainly use it for clients) to find keywords or keyword phrases that can be used in place of pronouns and are searched for often but have low to medium competition. I won’t use all the keywords/keyword phrases I find cause then my post will be pretty spammy, but I’ll jot them down for later.

will have a Title Tag and meta keywords I use All in One SEO plugin for this. Why? I want the title tag to be a keyword people are searching for in Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. However, if I use the same title for my post, it may not be interesting.

For example, if I named this post “How to get on google search” a keyword phrase that is searched for an estimated 74k times a month, according to Google’s Keyword Search Tool, it may turn up in search engine results because the competition for the phrase is fairly low, but who’s going to actually click on that title? It doesn’t stand out at all.

As for meta keywords, keywords I naturally used throughout this post (such as the word Rank) and every keywords/keyword phrase that I found, including the ones i didn’t use in my post, will be listed here, but only the ones that pertain to my post. DO NOT KEYWORD STUFF. Google sees it as a violation and you’ll be screwed. Keyword stuffing is using the same word over and over and using words that don’t pertain to your post but can help you rank.

Side note: Engagement with your posts and how often your posts are shared tends to affect how well your post will rank. With a Keyword Phrase as my post title, my chances of the post being shared are low.

will have a meta description something else I use All in One SEO for. The Meta Description is visible in the search engine results. It’s that little bit of summary found under the post title. It’s what many of us read before clicking on the link.

will have my exact keyword in the url one thing I love about WordPress is that it allows you to change the permalink before publishing and the permalink doesn’t need to match your Post Title. By default it will, but you can change that. One thing I’ve learned from using Market Samurai is, urls with the keywords within still have a chance at ranking on the first page of google even if the website’s url has nothing to do with the keyword. I mean really, how much of a chance do you think After Bedtime Blog has for ranking about anything SEO? Being able to change the permalink and add my keywords into the url is a big help. (You may have noticed that I don’t have many posts for SEO on this blog, however, my google analytics show that I’m being found in search engines for phrases such as “seo blog”.

will have header tags check out Basic Blog Post SEO Tips for info on header tags.

will have the nofollow attribute added to affiliate links my affiliate links aren’t there for the search engine to follow, they’re there for my reader to check out if they’re interested, hopefully buy and help pay for my kid’s braces. Also? If the post itself is a sponsored post or includes paid back links, you’ll want to mark the post as index, no follow if you’re trying to rank for keywords in that post. Always be careful when dealing with backlinks for payment and sponsored posts and read the fine print. You may be going against their regulations by marking the post as no follow.

And once I click publish, I’m heading over to my Sitemap plugin and rebuilding my site map to make sure my new post is included in my sitemap. There’s an advanced step to that,b ut it’s reserved for my newsletter subscribers and will be listed in my first newsletter within the next two weeks. (could be today, could be tomorrow, could be december 1st). Subscribe to the newsletter for that and similar SEO insider tips.

And that’s it folks.

Is there a To-Do listed above that you haven’t tried? Do you have one to add to the list? Please share in the comments section. Plus! Keep in mind, CommentLuv’s installed, so be sure to leave a comment with your recent post URL so I (and anyone else who sees it) can drop by your blog!

Also, will you do me a solid and please tweet, like or stumble this post. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.

Photo Credit: © kbuntu – Fotolia.com

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