Why SEO Is Important?

Most website owners know that search engine optimization (SEO) is important because it drives a lot of web traffic, but aren’t quite sure what to do, or not do, to get the desired results.

That’s in part because there is a fair amount of misinformation about SEO, and also because once you do start learning about it, it can seem like a daunting process.

The key is that SEO refers to search engine rankings that people actually click on.

Just getting on page 1 of a Google search isn’t enough.

The information displayed on the search engine results page needs to be compelling and useful enough for a human being to want to follow the link.

Here are some useful tips you need to know to maximize your search engine ranking:

 

Tip #1: SEO Friendly Images

Search engine traffic from images is extremely underrated.

WordPress has some great tools built in for optimizing the use of images for search engines, but they often go unused.

The thing to remember is that search engines cannot “read” images.

All images should have ALT and TITLE attributes defined.

Use the built in functionality in WordPress for attachment pages, rather than having images open in a lightbox or in their own page.

Attachment pages combined with the All in One SEO Pack create excellent SEO for images.

Image filenames should have a relevant name, ideally with a keyword in it.

Tip #2: SEO Plugins

Using additional tools, such as SEO plugins, can help you maximize your search engine rankings as well as your site’s usability for human visitors.

The All in One SEO Pack is the most downloaded SEO plugin from the WordPress repository.

The All in One SEO Pack allows you to control all your meta data on individual pages and posts, as well as having site-wide default settings.

The Scribe SEO Plugin is another useful plugin.

It helps you identify and focus on keywords with an integrated keyword suggestion tool, create reader-focused content, and has link
building tools to help you get incoming links as well as build links within your own site.

Google XML Sitemap

A sitemap is used by search engines to index all the pages, posts, content and content meta data on your site. It even keeps track of when the content was last modified and identifies what are the most important parts of the site.

This is important because you want your site to be easily and accurately indexed by the search engines.

This is how the search engines determine what your site is about, how relevant it is for a particular search term, and what parts of the site are most important.

Tip #3: Meta Descriptions

Basically, meta data serves two purposes:
- tells search engines what your site is about
- shows up in search results, which tells people what your site is about

The meta description is what people see and helps them determine whether or not to click through to your site.

Tip #4: Keyword Placement

Content is the most powerful tool you have in your search engine optimization strategy.

Relevant content, optimized for keywords, and published frequently can shoot your website to the top of the search engine results.

Many beginners are tempted to place their keywords in every single sentence.

That generally creates an article or page that’s extremely difficult to read. Instead, write your content and then go back and position your keywords.

Make sure to sprinkle other relevant keywords throughout your content as well. A good test is to read the content out loud.

If it sounds awkward, you’ve probably over done it.

Use your keywords strategically.

There are a few prominent places to position your keywords so they’re recognized by the search engines.

These locations include:
Your headline
Any headings or subheadings in your content
The first and last paragraphs of your content

Consider using one primary keyword per page.

You can keep it simple and optimize each webpage for one primary keyword.

You could include a couple of secondary keywords that might be extensions of the primary keyword.

However, trying to incorporate too many keywords into one page diffuses the results.

Tip #5: Linking Strategy

You’ll start with creating two different types of links – Internal and External.

One thing to know is that every time you link to a page, post or other site, you are passing “SEO juice” from every single page or post you are linking from.

If a page or post isn’t important to your SEO strategy, don’t link to them.

Internal Links are cross links within your own site.

For example, one blog post may contain a link to another blog post or page on the same topic.

Developing internal links is a great way to teach the search engines of the relevancy of your site, as well as assist the human reader in finding valuable information.

Just make sure that you are linking to related posts and pages.

You may want to select a few pages to focus on to start with.

DO use a keyword as your link.

Having a link that says “click here” does nothing for your search engine efforts.

External links are when you link from your site to another site.

While there are lots of sites you like, don’t link to all of them from your sidebar.

This just gives away your SEO juice to the other site.

Use external links sparingly and strategically.

 

*A note about Social Media and Linking..

While the links back to your site from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn may not do anything for your official search engine results, they can do a lot for sharing useful information and driving traffic by bringing people to your site.

The more useful your information, the more likely people are to pass it on to others.

There’s nothing like word of mouth advertising.

Just remember to use social media as a place you can “give back” as well.

Don’t think only of driving people to your site.

Share useful links and helpful information from other people and sites.

You’ll be seen as a true contributor of value, and therefore be considered more trustworthy.

There you have it, just a few tips on how to get the most out of SEO.

If you liked this post, please share and leave me a comment on how you enjoyed this post.

Thank you,
Joan Harrington