Organic traffic is probably the best thing that has ever happened to webmasters, but to fully take advantage of organic traffic from the search engines, one must optimize for it. Although I won’t guarantee that you will get absolute sudden results, considering that there is a lot more factors that determine your site’s rankings than just on-page optimization, but what I do guarantee, is that it will make your efforts for ranking for a particular keyword much much easier with long term results. Lets start with number 1…
- When thinking of a title tag for your root domain, (example.com) think of words that you can include that you will be commonly using within your post titles as well. Like for Moola Days, our root title says “Moola Days | Ways to Make Money Online,” and as you can see, we continue to use the words ways-to and make money online frequently on various number of posts. This helps to benefit all of our posts to rank easier for those particular keywords none the less.
- Let your links flow anchor text juice and PageRank throughout your web structure. (All your internal pages) This includes any page, whether it be your privacy policy or your about page. Matt Cutts even suggests removing nofollow on your privacy policy pages as well if you had nofollow enabled previously.
- Consider using keyword tools to research keywords that are vigorously searched up that aren’t competitive. You can find great keyword tools that I recommend here.
- Have optimized permalinks. Like what Matt Cutt sometimes does to his blog posts when a title tag is too long, he sums up his permalinks in two to three words. The little things help the most.
- Add alt tags to your pictures.
- Although people say keyword density makes a huge difference, it is only one of the factors. Vigorously using really repetitive keywords that they become disruptive can be very bad in Google’s eyes. Although keyword density is still a factor, using the keyword 4-6 times through out your post will be enough to catch Google’s attention, so don’t over do it. It will hurt more than it will help!
- Use related posts, recent posts, recently commentated posts, or any widget that can help to build a solid link structure, can help to spread the “link love” throughout your site, and better your site’s web structure as well as help the user in their end.
- Have a “Share this” button like I have displayed in every post. Although it doesn’t help in terms of search engine optimization, it helps indirectly if you got some really interesting stuff to say and people love it. This goes to posting great informative posts as well to get natural link backs to help your overall search engine performance.
- Don’t target broad keywords first, you will only see disappoint in the near future. Slim down on keywords that you know you can rank for and build from the bottom up.
- Although, meta tags aren’t considered to be as important as it used to be, it still have some impact none the less. Having great informative meta descriptions that have the keyword you want to rank for one or two times, can be the difference from ranking first or second. A plugin that I recommend to WordPress lovers is the All in One SEO plugin or the Head2Space plugin for easy search engine optimization options.
- Use your bold and italic on your word editor on links that are important. This hints to search engines that this is somewhat of more importance.
- Create a better internal web structure and use h2 on your post titles if it doesn’t already use h2.
- Have an overall summarized introductory paragraph with the main keywords you want to hit in it. The first few sentences are the most vital for the search engine’s end as well as a great convenience for readers.
- Lastly, use common sense. Although you may be thinking, what does he mean when he says use common sense, I mean, don’t do anything that you know will put you in a position to think other wise with the search engines. Stay clean from actions that you know may cause your site discomfort. No one can give you a search engine optimization tool that is 100%. Use both the power of research and your common knowledge to find good keywords as well.
Follow these tips, and we’ll guarantee that you will easier reach your keyword destination if you just put a little bit of effort into it. Anything done to somehow “trick” Google’s algorithm, will most likely only hurt you more than it will help you in the long term. Over optimizing with keyword density or keyword stuffing is bad if you look at it both ways.
In other words, through all Google’s hard work and it’s changes in their algorithm, their one goal is clear from the start. They want websites that give value and they plan on reaching that goal no matter what. If your site gives just that, you are fine for years to come. Any SEO guru can say they know what they are doing, but in reality, they are just webmasters like you, just trying to figure out what Google is up to as well.
