SEO.. the way to go!

Many of my blog posts contain very SEO-friendly terms. I also try to title my posts with general terms. Sometimes, the nature of my posts warrant more personal titles, and that's okay. However, I always try to make sure to type some key words as I'm writing a blog post.

I was surprised to find that one of the most-searched terms that leads people to my blog is "best sesame chicken in new york."

Adding personal stories and witty repartee might be essential to an entertaining blog. But remember to think a little bit like the Average Joes and Janes out on their using the Internet. Think of what they might be typing in a search engine that could lead them to your page.

Tags: seo-friendly

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Permalink Reply by Gray Cargill on February 28, 2009 at 10:06pm

Carrie, do you have any articles you can point me to that feature good, practical advice on SEO? SEO is something I struggle with mightily. I've followed some SEO advice I've read on the web without success and am very frustrated with my blog not appearing in the first few pages of Google search results for "solo travel" or "solo travelers" after a year of blogging about solo travel. Most people who come to my site discover it by accident while searching for something I might have blogged about once. And God bless them, I'll take readers any way I can get them, but my target audience--people interested in solo travel--isn't finding me through search engines. Part of the problem might be my post titles--I try to be creative with them--but I can't believe that's the only problem.

And yeah, I get some of those weird search terms that lead people to my site, too. I'll read it and go "Wha--?"

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Permalink Reply by Craig Martin on March 1, 2009 at 6:06am

There's so much demand for those terms in this niche. You'll have to work at it for longer than a year :) Nomadic Matt who's around here does some SEO consulting too.

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Permalink Reply by Gray Cargill on March 1, 2009 at 11:29am

Thanks, Craig! So a year isn't a long time in the blogverse, eh? That makes me feel a little bit better.

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Permalink Reply by Nomadic Matt on March 27, 2009 at 10:21pm

the reason you don't rank high for "solo travel" is because you don't have enough links using the anchor "solo travel"

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Permalink Reply by Gray Cargill on March 28, 2009 at 7:28am

Aha! That's good to know, Matt. Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Gray Cargill on March 28, 2009 at 10:07am

Okay, wait, after looking at my links, I realize I'm still confused. By anchor do you mean tag? Or description? An example of what an anchor looks like would be helpful.

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Permalink Reply by Nomadic Matt on March 29, 2009 at 12:48pm

anchor text are the words for your link

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Permalink Reply by Gray Cargill on March 29, 2009 at 1:25pm

Got it. I'm not playing to my niche enough.

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Permalink Reply by Carrie Williams, Community Manager on March 1, 2009 at 3:43pm

Hi, Gray! Yea, the best thing I could ever do was try to make my post titles very straight-to-the-point. I have a few clever quip, though. I mean, we all think of funny titles sometimes. It is best give a post a straightforward title. This way, you are more likely to appear higher up in the searches.

One of the other things I have been doing is looking at the Google Trends to see what the top searches are on Google. If I feel my website hasn't been getting enough exposure lately, I try to write about something that people are actually searching for. Keep the audience in mind, always and give them what they want! But don't steer away from your personal stories, either. :-)

I also found that a lot of my views are due to a phrase I wrote in one of my posts: "best Chinese food in NYC." You would be surprised how many people Google that phrase! I was surprised about that one. And I wasn't even thinking about SEO when I wrote that. Remember some keywords like: best, top, five-star, budget, cheap, etc. Seems like people are either looking for top-notch or budget-friendly ideas. Not really in-between.

Hope that helps!

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Permalink Reply by Gray Cargill on March 2, 2009 at 7:27am

Excellent advice, Carrie. Thank you so much!

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Permalink Reply by Craig Martin on March 5, 2009 at 3:25am

This article is a must-read for WP users interested in SEO.

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Permalink Reply by Anastasia Ashman on March 20, 2010 at 11:38am

Thanks for this article, Craig. Just a breeze through (must.spend.more.time.on.SEO) and this shocker: "comments dilute keyword density". Good to know for my group blog which is mostly posts with comments, now to address somehow...