Ten SEO Tips for Beginners
I was doing a bit of browsing in Google Reader and I stumbled upon this very wonderful post from Yatot titled, “SEO Tips for Beginners“. As I read the post, I realized that I did not know some of the tips he mentioned so I guess, I’m also a beginner.
In his post, he has mentioned ten (10) SEO tips that can not only help beginners but also veterans alike. Before I start giving my thoughts on the tips he mentioned, let me first define what is SEO.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. I think of it as a race to the top search results in search engines for a specific keyword. I forgot where I saw the post but there has been a study that shows that the people who search are most likely to click the first or the number 1 result they see. For bloggers and websites, this should be the goal of the race. The goal is to have your post be at the number one or the top spot in a search result. Sounds easy?
Well, it isn’t because we don’t have a clue on how the algorithm of search engines work. We don’t know how they rank the results. We don’t know the criteria. Proclaimed SEO experts can only guess on how it really works but since the search algorithm is constantly changing, what they think works today might not work tomorrow. However, even if we don’t know, it doesn’t stop people from trying to know. If you try to search the web for “SEO Tips“, you will find millions of results.
What I’m going to share now from Yatot’s post is the tips he has learned and applied to his own blog that helped him reached the top spot for this targeted keywords. So let us hear his top ten seo tips.
SEO TIP: Put the specific keywords in the title!
A very simple tip but can really help your rankings in search engines. Your post title should be concise enough to tell the reader what your post is all about without having to go through the post itself. For example in this post, my title is Ten SEO tips for beginners. Those who are searching for seo tips are sure to find ten of them in this post.
Note that this can also be used on a technique phrased by Macuha as keyword hijacking but that’s another topic (too much info overload).
SEO TIP: Include some of the important keywords in the blog entry’s paragraph. The closer each keywords are, the better!
Keywords are the words you search in search engines. If you search seo, then your keyword is seo. This tip tells us to be direct and straight to the point in your post. If you want to talk about cats, then start talking about them, on how they eat cat food, how cats take a bath, how cats lick themselves, how cats manage to land on their feet when being dropped. As you can see, the mini topics are all related to cats. Do not talk about dogs first when your topic is about cats.
SEO TIP: Include some of the important keywords in the blog entry’s URL address!
Hmm I think this is a given as most blogging platforms use your post title as the url entry of your post. However, for website developers, this is still a good tip.
SEO TIP: Make the blog entry’s title all visible in the search results page!
I had to reread this twice in Yatot’s blog to understand what this means. In a nutshell, you simply have to write your post title again in the content of your post? Yatot, if you are reading this, can you explain more on the importance of this tip? ^_^
SEO TIP: Don’t forget to put the word “online”!
Hmmm online? I believe that this tip is trying to say that you should make your post “colorful” by adding adjectives. For example, someone is searching for cellphones, you can make your post title “free cellphones” or “cheap cellphones” so that you can irk the searcher’s interest. So aside of using “online”, I would suggest to use “free” as people love free stuff.
SEO TIP: Blog on something that recently happening or happened in the immediate past.
Hmm just visit my post “Blog about current events“.
SEO TIP: Blog on something that will give interest to readers such as gadgets, cellphones, cameras, etc. and write your personal thought on it!
This post is a good example of this post. I blogged about Yatot’s post and gave my personal thoughts on it. ^_^
SEO TIP: Blog on something that stirs up a real controversy no matter how funny or awful it would be! Hahaha!
This is something I want to learn. I’m really not good in writing something scandalous that could make people curious and visit your blog.
SEO TIP: Update a blog entry that you previously wrote if there are follow-up events or happenings, especially if the follow up thingie is a popular genre, pop icon artists, movie or events.
Just finish what you started. Don’t leave your visitors hanging or else they will look for the continuation someplace else.
SEO TIP: Highlight important keywords in every blog entry for google to crawl.
See it in action in some of my posts where I highlight (bold) important keywords in a post. Aside from giving it attention that says, “hey look at me, I’m important”, it also tells the search engines to give it more weight.
So there you have it, ten seo tips by Yatot. Visit his post to see his results with screenshots. I hope you learned something new today. I know I did.
Related Items:
for the benefit of your readers… hehhehe:
“SEO TIP: Make the blog entry’s title all visible in the search results page!”
• This would be something like, if you are targeting on a specific keyword/s, this would mean that everything should be included in the title… i think it’s called “alltitle”… hehehhe like so —> here
“so aside of using “online”, I would suggest to use “free” as people love free stuff.”
• I do strongly agree! everybody loves freebies!
This is something I want to learn. I’m really not good in writing something scandalous that could make people curious and visit your blog.
• The secret is to turn your blog into something more scandalous per se… hahhaha… whatever that means!
yatots last blog post..November 2008 Nursing Board Exam Results (February 2009)!
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
@yatot, thanks yatot for the clarification. hehe
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LOL! Allen, you are too much. You put your ‘keywords’ into the post a gazillion times. Here’s one tip for you – Be original. If your post or page sounds or looks like another website’s page, and links to that site, then that guy’s post gets all the credit, while yours will be ignored.
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:10 am
@Ling, oh Ling, that is why I added my own personal thoughts on it. I liked Yatot’s post that is why I shared it to everyone.
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These are all great tips that are easy to implement. Beginners will love these tips and they will help.
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 am
@No Swap Forex Account, yep easy to implement and they also bring about great results to your blog
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Wow that was some amazing tips, I had no idea that making the keywords bold will attract the Google bots. I got your bookmarked love to see more from you.
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
@Ben | St Paul Law Firm, actually if you “bold” your keywords, it adds more weight. It is similar if you want to emphasize something to your readers. You make it stand out from the rest.
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I like the keeping keywords bold part. However, i’m sure if you do it too much or where it wouldn’t make sense, google will catch on and start penalizing you for it.
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Yup, I did learn something new today. And that is using the word “online” online more.
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
@Discount Furniture, yes, I agree. Those words are the usual suffix people append when searching in search engines.
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Thank you for sharing thse tips. Im still pretty new to this whole SEO thing. It’s nice to have some info in hand. Thanks again
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
@sandra washington, no problem. Go and apply them to your blog.
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Terrific advice! I especially liked the part of about including the word ‘online’. I’m like other new bloggers I would have never thought of that.
David Stillwagons last blog post..job new for older workers March 3, 2009
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 13th, 2009 at 8:30 am
@David Stillwagon, Online, free, freebies, things that people use on advertisements in real life can also be used in blogging. It gets the people going! ^_^
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I appreciate that you were willing to post about this. Do you think that you will do a “Part 2″ to this post? I think many of us would like to hear from you again on this.
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Allen Gurrea (931 comments.) Reply:
March 13th, 2009 at 8:30 am
@Survival, if I can gather enough tips, there will be a part 2. Want to contribute?
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Hi,
I enjoyed going through Yatot’s tips on SEO. What I believe and suggest any blogger and webmasters is not to be too much concerned about all the tips and tricks found on SEO. It is very necessary to know and implement the tips but too much concerned on the topic could produce very low quality reading and reverse effect.
The golden rule I’ve learned so far is:
“Think about your readers – what suits them and what comforts them best”
The rest will be fine!
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