7 ways to optimise your blog for search engines

If you write a blog, you’re probably aware that one of the benefits is better search engine rankings but are you doing everything you can to get the best results in Google, Yahoo and Bing?

Here are 7 tips on how to optimise your blog plus a link to a fantastic graphic explaining the key elements of a well designed blog.

1. Are you targeting specific keywords? If you haven’t checked the keywords that your target market uses, have a look at the Google keywords tool. It’s not the definitive guide but it’s a great tool and free to use. You just prompt it with your guess as to what your target keywords should be and it generates a list with associated traffic levels.

2. Have you invested  in a decent design? Beauty may be screen deep but a decent layout will create an immediate impression of professionalism and encourage readers to delve further into your content.

3.  Set a blogging schedule so that you don’t keep putting your blog to the back of the ‘to do’ list.

4. Encourage feedback but watch out for link spam. It’s virtually unavoidable. Discussions are to be welcomed and they provide a source of free, keyword rich content.

5. Make sure that you write meta title and description tags for each post. Wordpress provides  an SEO plugin that prompts you to do this. These serve two purposes - they tell Google what the post is about and they appear in the search results pages so write them in a way that’s most likely to attract a click.

6. Enable people to share your content on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in and Google+. You can add bookmarking links too for sites like Stumbleupon.

7. If you can, add some visual content from time to time. It helps to add interest. Make sure you add an alt tag for each image.

And now, have a look at this graphic which explains everything visually.

You might also like to read this post about Google’s guide to basic search engine optimisation.

Gloucestershire, Wednesday:

In a blatant attempt to nudge customers into committing to website builds, search engine optimisation or pay-per-click advertising campaigns before August, Epicado, Stroud’s answer to Chipperfield’s Circus (”shome mishtake shurely, shouldn’t that be Google?”Ed),  is offering up to 20% off any previously quoted website price and any new estimates, if customers buy during July.

Speaking from his executive tree-house, a normally tight lipped Paul Lock, Director of Silly Offers, said “Have we gone bonkers? Yes, pass the coconuts Phil”.

Regaining what’s left of his composure, a clearly deranged Lock continued “We’re about to launch two new websites for Jillie Bushell Associates and ETS Technical Sales but there’s a window before the September pre-Christmas madness. We can’t get enough madness so we thought, why wait, let’s have some pre-September, pre-Christmas madness!’

Doctors advise Epicado customers and prospects to act now. They say Lock could regain his sanity at any time.

Last night the Woodchester based guru was reported to be “enjoying a quiet dinner with friends”.

Can he be serious?

Apparently it’s all about IT. The same goes for SEO. If only.

I don’t normally comment on competitors but this one’s a Gloucestershire web designer and I met the owner last week. Nice chap who seemed to know what he was talking about.

Let’s deal with the creative question first. If there’s no creativity invested in your website design and writing, what do you get? A website that functions perfectly and engages nobody. Creativity is the essence of memorable communication. “Apologies for the long letter but I didn’t have time to write a short one”- Winston Churchill. Pithy, witty and true - that’s creative communication.

“Search engine optimisation  is an IT task”. Ok, SEO involves technical tasks, er, lots of them - site structure (that’s partly about usability but let’s not be picky), internal linking, site maps and more. But none of these tasks is worth doing if the keywords are wrong, if the content is rubbish, if the tags are badly written, if nobody wants to link to your rubbish content, if your content doesn’t engage and if you don’t think creatively about how to get those precious inbound links. In other words, the technical tasks are essential but they’re subordinate to the thinking and creativity that you need to make them worth doing.

I’ll get back in my cage now.