The response from my last post was pretty good, so I am doing a follow up with some real basic SEO tips. Keeping these 10 things in mind while you are creating new pages will help tremendously in your quest for SEO supremacy. If you have questions about any of these please post back. If you are unfamiliar with some of the terminology, use this site to look them up. Sorry I could link each essential SEO term individually but I don't have the time. If any of you know a quick way to make certain terms in my blog linkable to a definition, please advise.
One thing to keep in mind: These are tips to keep in mind while writing natural, compelling content not quick fixes to be used for spamming. Authors using this concept will get better ranking than authors that look to exploit loop-holes. If you are getting away with it, STOP (Google will eventually get you).
Here Are The Goods
Make sure the main keywords that are in your meta tags are included in you title tag. Doing this will help search engine spiders determine the subject matter of the page. Just be careful that the title tag is a clear well written sentence and not just a list of the keywords.
As you are creating your page, be sure that the keywords that appear in the content of your page are linked to other relevant pages on your site.
Be sure to include the text in your title tag in the body of your page. Again, a clearly written (concise) sentence that includes your keywords. Using the h1 tag will help you here too in two ways. The search engine spider will like to see that you are not hiding the meta data from your user, the h1 tag is usually a very large, prominent formatting of the text. Secondly, it helps with usability. When the web surfer sees your page come up in the search engine as a result of some keyword he or she typed in, the surfer is reassured they are in the right place as the large title on the page will directly relate to the keyword entered into the search engine.
Do not duplicate ANY of your titles on other pages. Make sure each page has a unique title. Having several pages with the same title may cause a search engine to flag it for duplicate content, a big no no.
As I stated in my other post 6 things that are sure to get you banned from Google, DO NOT STUFF THE META TAGS WITH MEANINGLESS KEYWORDS. If you are going to use this tag at all, make sure you are using keywords that are included in your writing. My experience is that this tag is pretty much ignored anyway. I myself take the time to enter keywords because it can't hurt (if done right). Stuff the meta tag and you are sure to pay the price.
Do not mess with link farms (also in my previous post), Google especially cracks down on this. If you are unclear what a link farm is, check out the SEO Glossary I posted above.
Be very careful with doorway pages. If you are unclear about them, don't do them. I don't even like using the words Doorway Pages, because Doorway Pages refer to a page that was built for a search engine spider and nothing else. Google and other search engines are refining their ranking criteria so that content appeals more to humans than algorithms, so when writing, keep the human in mind not the spiders. I try build pages that are easily read by humans that contain content that is relevant.
Since the title encapsulates the true content of your page, try repeating the title once in the content as a link to an outside source (open a new window of course). Make sure the source is reputable and helpful to the user. Double the effectiveness by getting that source to link back.
Use images on your pages. If you have the ability to name the images, name them using words that related to the content and the image i.e. hudson-valley-real-estate.jpg. Then use the alt tag within the image to thoroughly describe the image. This helps search engines, text browsers and seeing impaired users.
Lastly, submit to the search engines yourself if at all. It is like that if you link properly, the search engines will find you. If you want to submit to a search engine, do not use a service or software. Submit once and leave it alone. Resubmitting is almost never good.
28 Comments on 10 Basic SEO tips for authors just starting out
Thanks for the follow up post. I have a question on #2. When you say be "sure that the keywords that appear in the content of your page are linked to other relevant pages on your site." do you mean past blogs or do you mean your main RE website that is not part of AR? Thanks. I am over in Rhinebeck so we are practically neighbors!
Actually both will be helpful. You see, search engines look to qualify your page as being an authority on the topic you are writing about. When you link to other things that you have written (be it on a blog or your website) it helps to demonsrate your expertise on a given topic. Linking two relevant pages together in your website, qualifies your website as well as your page as being an authority on some level.
That's the biggest thing to remember Carolyn. It is so easy to get wrapped up in SEO and and our position among our competitors that we tend to forget about the user. Let's not forget the main objective is to sell real estate right?
Thanks for the tips! I wise person told me to just get out there and do things for the right reasons and you'll see the rewards. We have to write for our readers, not our spiders..
Great post... i did not know that Google looked into so many things when it came to posting. This will provide me a bases on what to do for my next post. thanks again.
Hi Lou - Thanks so much for this post. I am glad that I found it. As a novice, I am having a little trouble distinguishing between Titles (which I believe that I should go and change because I think many of them are duplicates), title tags, h1 tags, and meta tags. I am getting there very slowly. Thank you for the assistance.
@Don, you are very welcome, I am trying to find some time to write more. Stay Tuned.
@ Steve
A title tag is a mark up for information that DOES not show up in the content portion of your page. It does show up in the title bar of your browser. If you view the source of this page (right click -> view source in IE), you can see the title tag in the code. It looks like this:
<title>Real Estate Blog - 10 Basic SEO tips for authors just starting out</title>
You can see the product of this tag in the title bar at the very top. It reads: Real Estate Blog - 10 Basic SEO tips for authors just starting out . . .
Meta tags are tags that are also hidden in the code and are not displayed in the content area of a page. The are commonly used to describe the page and identify keywords used on the page. If you view source on this page, it looks like this:
<meta name="description" content="Basic SEO Tips to Get You Going The response from my last post was pretty good, so I am doing a follow up with some real basic SEO tips. Keeping these 10 things in mind while you are creating new pages will help tremendously in your quest for SEO supremacy. If, " />
<meta name="keywords" content="google,seo,search engine optimization,meta tags,search engine submission ActiveRain, Real Estate, agents, Network, Real Estate Agent, Mortgage, realtor, social network" />
An h1 tag is a tag that is used to mark up the size of the text and is commonly used for putting a title in the content section of a webpage. Search engines like h1 tags because of their common use in titling content. On this page (at the top) the h1 tags are used to display text that reads: Basic SEO Tips to Get You Going. If you view source it looks like this:
THANKS for sharing the motherlode. SEO is a constant issue - my OLD web site fared much better in the search engines. I had a new one designed with a new main address a year ago, but still using the old domain name as a forwarding address. It's taken FOREVER and I'm still nowhere near where I used to be. I have asked my web designer to check into your article.
SEO continues to be my Achilles Heel.. so anytime I find something I can actually UNDERSTAND, I truly appreciate it. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise!
Lou, you're da man! Thanks for excellent info. I wonder about placing a metatag inside a blog entry in the html code. What about that? You know a hidden metatage that we have to insert with some html code inside the code in the individual blog entry? How do we do that? I have a blog at Sequim Real Estate Blog.
Lou Lynch
;)
;)
Thanks for the follow up post. I have a question on #2. When you say be "sure that the keywords that appear in the content of your page are linked to other relevant pages on your site." do you mean past blogs or do you mean your main RE website that is not part of AR? Thanks. I am over in Rhinebeck so we are practically neighbors!