Blog Archives
Are you missing out on this SEO tip?
Optimize Your Website Images
Did you know that Google’s results rank images?
But there’s a catch!
Search engines cannot see images so you need to do a little work to optimize them.
Use Alt Text
Alternative text or Alt Text is used by Internet browsers to display a description of an image. It is also used by people who are visually impaired. Don’t ignore this option when you are including images on your blog or website.
Use Captions
Always caption your images, keeping the caption brief but as descriptive as you can. Make sure you make use of your keywords.
Similarly, when uploading your videos on YouTube, make sure you insert targeted keywords for your business in the video title and description and include a hyperlink back to your website.
Why you should pay attention to your permalinks
A permalink is short for “permanent link” which means the address or URL to a post or page on a blog that can be bookmarked in a browser.
The idea of a permalink is that every page and every post on your blog has a corresponding, permanent link that can be bookmarked and indexed by search engines, which of course is what you are looking for in terms of your blog or website SEO.
The problem is that sometimes the default permalink may end up looking something like
www.socialease.wordpress.com/?p=106
It is not clear from this permalink what the page or post is about, so it is harder for search engines to index it.
Now compare the above example to the permalink for this post:
http://socialease.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/why-you-should-pay-attention-to-your-permalinks/
So, whenever you are publishing a blog post, do check your permalinks* and ensure that it is clear to readers and search engines what the post is about. It’s a simple SEO tip, but an effective one.
* If using a self-hosted WordPress blog you can change your permalinks under the Settings tab
How to SEO your headlines
Do you remember in an earlier post when I explained the importance of headlines for grabbing attention?
I wrote that users will decide to stay or leave your website or blog in 8 seconds or less – so it makes sense to draw in readers with a great headline.
Today let’s look at headlines again, but this time from an SEO perspective.
The title of your blog post is one of the first things Google sees when indexing your site. And let me add another SEO tip here - Google will take the first words of that title as your most important. So it’s worth your while thinking carefully before you write that headline.
Use my earlier tips on how to maximise your blog’s SEO with keyword questions to find the most sought-after keywords for your subject, then include those words in your title.
Simple when you know how!
