Tag Archives: SEO

6 quick reasons WordPress SEO is NOT about Plugins

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OK, WordPress SEO is assisted by Plugins, but if you are expecting them to do the job for you, think again.

SEO plugins are easy to find and they do some great work, for example, All-in-One SEO Pack, Google XML Site Maps, and SEO Ultimate all add to the inherently SEO-friendly nature of WordPress. However, there is more to SEO than just plugins.

Here are some easy basics that you should always keep in mind for your blog posts and SEO Strategy.

1. Good Content and Keywords.

I know, we’ve all heard it before, right? That’s because it’s true. Good content is the basis for good SEO. You want backlinks? Write something worth linking to.
You want Google to take your page seriously? Make sure you are speaking the language it considers serious for the search results you want, i.e. keywords and phrases.
This topic has been beaten into the ground on blogs everywhere, so I’ll leave it at that.

2. Fresh Content.

Search engines love fresh content. This means you need to keep writing. Sometimes life just gets in the way, but you have to keep getting back in the habit. There is a saying I love “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is right now.” If you have some downtime and don’t write for a while, don’t worry about it or give up, just get back on the horse and start writing again.

3. Keep track of what people are reading; on your blog and elsewhere.

Set up analytics both on your blog and with the search engines. It is essential to set up Google Webmaster tools and Google Analytics. Once you see what people are reading you have a sense of why the came to your blog; cater to these people, they are your audience. This doesn’t mean you never branch out, but definitely play to your strengths.

On your blog, be sure and check your WordPress stats for the same information. In this case, there are some plugins that are handy for expanding on that information, the key is to actually use the information they give, and that is up to you to do.

What are people reading elsewhere? That leads to…

4. Do the search that you want to rank in.

Do you want on the first page for “Holistic Life Coach”? Then do a search on that phrase and see what comes up, read some of the articles and pay attention to which articles are getting real comments. I think it is generally a good idea to set up Google Alerts for your search terms. Google alerts will send an email to you with what it finds out on the web according to the setting you give it.

5. Bookmark your WordPress Posts

You’ll want to bookmark your posts on services like Digg, Delicious, Hi5 and StumbleUpon. There are semi-automated services like OnlyWire to assist in the efffort, but you will still have to follow-up on many of the services. Some people complain about it being slow, but I haven’t really had that experience.

6. Be Social! (But not spammy!)

Comment on other blogs that are relevant to your topic. Don’t spam, be social; make relevant comments.

Set up a Facebook Page. If you have a personal Facebook account it will probably take about 10 minutes to set up. After it is set up and has some content, invite everyone you can to it. From here, you can also consider Facebook advertising for your page. I’ve seen the Facebook advertising work pretty well, just make sure you are targeting appropriately and write compelling ads.

Twitter… Honestly, I’m not the greatest fan of Twitter, but there is no denying that it has made some great strides for some people. Here’s a tip that may seem counter-intuitive; promote others more than you do yourself on Twitter. It’s a great way to get attention. Also, once again, be social, don’t spam.

Set up a LinkedIn account for yourself. Most people see LinkedIn as a job search tool, but it is much more than that. Join some discussion groups; make relevant comments and link back to your blog. Be interesting, be social and don’t spam. (Sense a theme here?)

Under this heading I would also add Comment Moderation. Moderate your comments to get rid of spam and respond to the real comments. Keep the conversation going as much as you can.

Image Alt and Title Tags as illustrated by Megan Fox

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It’s the end of the day and I’m basically just mindlessly surfing various websites and I come across the story of Megan Fox being dropped from Transformers 3.Megan Fox from story of being dropped from Transformers 3

Celebrity gossip is not my normal reading, I promise.

Anyway, I’m at the NY Daily News website, reading the story on this big Michael Bay vs Megan Fox brouhaha, and the geek in me decides to look at some code. Earlier today I was explaining to someone how alt tags make pictures visible to the web crawling bots as they index your website, so that’s what I decide to check.

“<img src=”http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/05/20/alg_megan_fox.jpg” alt=”Megan Fox, co-star of the first two ‘Transformers’ movies with Shia LaBeouf, will not be in the third Michael Bay-directed film.” title=”Megan Fox, co-star of the first two ‘Transformers’ movies with Shia LaBeouf, will not be in the third Michael Bay-directed film.”>”

Wow. They went over board. OK, so I bet they have alt tags and title tags automatically generated on their images. While that’s handy, I’m not sure it’s the best idea.

Ostensibly, alt tags and title tags for images are supposed to assist in two instances; helping visually impaired visitors and to have something there when the image can’t load. In other words, for every time there is a reason why someone can’t actually see the image, they can read/hear the text.

You know who else is visually impaired? Website crawlers. Each search engine, Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc…, has little robot applications reading your pages and indexing the information they find but they are mostly unable to “see” visual components, like images and animations. So the only thing they can see is the name of the file (alg.megan_fox.jpg), the alt tag and the title tag.

In the html code excerpt above, they are obviously catering more toward SEO than visually impaired users. (Did you notice how the image name had her name, obviously a keyword for the story?  Good idea.)

While the text is a legitimate recap of the story, it isn’t a very good description of the image. Below, Matt Cutts of Google describes using alt tags.

Note that you don’t want to get crazy with stuffing the alt and title tags with a bunch of irrelevant keyword stuffing. Not only is it obnoxious, it can get you penalized by Google and the others.

So, in summary, a mostly gratuitous picture of Megan Fox, don’t use automated applications on your image alt and title tags, do use image alt and title tags to help with usability and SEO but don’t overuse or abuse your alt and title tags.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-16

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-09

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Your Website on a Bathroom Wall, Low Backlink Quality

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Backlinks are heralded as one of the most important factors in achieving SEO success.  Some backlinks are better than others however.  As an IRW (in real world) example, the image below shows a website url scrawled on a bathroom wall.  In my opinion, this probably isn’t the best recommendation for your website.

Oh, sure, there are advantages; you have a captive audience, low advertising costs, and not much competition for the best-ranking position on the wall.  The downside is obvious though; who wants to be associated with that environment?

website on bathroom wall illustrates backlink quality

(By the way, yes, I did feel a bit odd taking a picture in the bathroom.)

As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad press.  (That saying is wrong of course).  In this case, the attention garnered by this innovative advertising method probably isn’t always going to be good, but the ROI (Return On Investment) is always going to be positive.  After all, no cost was involved, so if even one person visits the website, it was successful.

However, if I had seen the same message on the bulletin board of the same establishment I probably would have been more interested.

The same is true of backlinks.  They won’t harm your page rank or SEO, but a backlink from a toilet manufacturer’s website isn’t going to be that helpful if your website is focused on coffee beans.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-02

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  • seo.onceover.net was indexed by Google just 7 days after being published. See our horn? We are tooting it! http://fb.me/w0lxkOmb #
  • "Lala will be discontinued as of May 31, 2010." Damn. Wonder what apple will do… http://fb.me/xZiIKHWK #
  • "Lala will be discontinued as of May 31, 2010." Damn. Wonder what apple will do… #

Questions from SEO Once-Over to Help You Optimize

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questions about your websiteBefore hiring SEO Once-Over, be prepared to answer some questions.

1. Do you have a Google Webmaster Tools account? Can you provide us with a Google Analytics report? Current website statistics will help us define our work, and help you to see results.

2. How was your website built: HTML, WordPress, Joomla, or other?

3. What is your target market? What kind of customers/visitors are you targeting with your website? Include geographic scope (neighborhood, city, state, nation, etc.) when relevant.

4. What kind of products, services or information do you provide?

5. Do you know what search terms prospective customers will use to find you? These are your keywords, and we may need to work on focusing and clarifying your list.

6. Who are your major competitors and what are their websites?

7. Are you willing to generate new content as suggested? Often the best tool in SEO is good content that people are interested in, not meta-tags or special applications.

With this information we’ll be able to begin helping you get the most out of your website, whether built on WordPress, Joomla, straight HTML or other platforms.

Quick, Affordable SEO for Small Businesses and Personal Websites!

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Not everyone can afford the big SEO companies and of those, not everyone feels comfortable trying to figure it out themselves, and of those, not everyone has a nephew who claims to know all about it.

SEO for small businesses and individualsDon’t worry, we’re here for you!

For just $50.00 and just one hour we’ll make sure you aren’t make any of the major blunders that are keeping you from being indexed by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and elsewhere.

We also have some tips and general information here, so feel free to browse the website and ask questions.  If you’re ready to go, then jump straight over to the Product Page and we’ll get to work on your site!

Description Meta Tag, Not Just an SEO Keyword Stuffing Box

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How to use the description meta tag to drive more traffic to your website.

Suppose you managed to get the number one position for searches (SERPS) on your keyword.  What if you get that position and still don’t get substantially more traffic?

Description Meta-Tag comparison to Gluten-Free Bakery sign

How can that happen, you ask?  Maybe the search result right below yours sells better than yours.  Search Engine Marketing isn’t just about position; it’s also about action.  If you want people to walk in your store, you have to have a good store front window display.  If you want people to actually click on your search result, you have to have a good description.

Often SEO consultants will just use the description tag as another opportunity for stuffing keywords, but it’s really more than that.  The description shows up as the impression the searcher gets of your website.

A good description should contain the keywords your search marketing strategy is set up for, but that’s really backwards thinking.  Instead, concentrate on writing a good description and your keywords will usually fall right in.

Recently I did a search on “stock photography in Albuquerque” and got this result;

Albuquerque Stock Photos and Images. 638 Albuquerque pictures and …

638 Albuquerque stock photos and images. Fotosearch Stock Photography and Stock Footage helps you find the perfect photo or footage, fast!

This is a well-written description.  It describes what I will find at the website, uses first person and has energy.  You’ll notice that it is chock-full of appropriate keywords, but more importantly, it’s a well-written description that makes me want to click-through to the website.

Also, it’s good to keep your description to 160 characters because most Search engines results will cut off more than that anyway.

Finally, it’s important to note that Google will pull text from your content surrounding the keyword being searched if there is no description tag.  Sometimes this can actually be as good or better than a description tag; for example on a page that displays a product catalog.  Most of the time I prefer to control what description is being displayed though.

Instructions for WordPress

First of all, if you don’t already have it, get the Platinum SEO Pack and install it.  Once installed each page, post and the site overall will have section at the bottom for Title, Description and Keywords, and yes, each one should have their own.

If you are unable to or don’t want to install a new plug-in, then you can insert the following in the header.php file of your theme.  This will be a “static” description meta tag, because it will be the same on every page and is dynamic with the content.

Go to Appearance -> Themes -> Editor ->Header (header.php) and add <meta content=”Your description goes here”

Instructions for Joomla

There are several good components for Joomla that handle meta tags for you, but Joomla also has a built in system.  When creating a new article note the options on the right side for “Metadata Information”.  In these fields be certain to add a description for every article.

For the Joomla website as a whole, you will want to go to Site -> Global Configuration and fill in the appropriate field with a description.

Note : I wouldn’t bother with Joomla extensions that automatically create your description for you.  If you aren’t going to take the time to create a quality description, you might as well let Google choose it for you form your content.