What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is about improving your page ranking with search engines, whether it is a website or social media. And it isn’t as hard as it sounds. Just being yourself while being aware of how others perceive you will take you most of the way there. Learning a few tricks to make you more visible will give you a recipe for success.

Why do you Blog?

It’s ok to be known as the cat blogger.

Not everyone wants something from blogging. Some people just do it for fun. If all you want to do is have fun then, congratulations, you’ve got it! Having fun is the most important thing after all.

Most people blog because they want to get a better page rank on Google. WordPress is a great platform for blogging. WordPress takes care of 80 – 90% of the mechanics of SEO.

If you have a WordPress Blog Matt Cutts, head of the webspam team at Google, recommends the following plugins:

• Akismet
• Cookies for comments
• Feedburner
• WP Super Cache

How does Google Work?

The simple answer is, the higher your page ranking:

• The faster you can be found
• The deeper Google will crawl your site
• The more often Google will visit your site

Page Rank

No really… it is the number and importance of links pointing to you.

If you have 5 links and your friend has 20 links then your friend ranks higher than you, right?

WRONG! If your links are from the NY Times, LA Times and CNN.com and your friend’s links are from his 20 buddies from college. You rank higher than he does.[/su_box]

Be Relevant

Suppose you’re looking for a random thing like “attention deficit disorder“, and you decide to blog about it. Even though it is an important topic, if it isn’t relevant to your site then it won’t help improve your ranking.

How do you become Relevant

If you don’t LOVE IT, don’t write about it.

If you’re not GOOD at it, don’t write about it.

If you don’t have anything to SAY about it, don’t write about it.

Google Wave launches and you write… “Will Google Wave take over the road? I don’t know…” then include the press release.

You need to talk about something you CARE about. Write often; write every day and you will get good at it.[/su_box]

Keywords

Here is a good example of how to use keywords and keyword research. Suppose you want to write an article about flash drives. What words would you use? Flash drives are known by many other names; USB drive, thumb drive, flash drive.

Hey, buy a flash drive. I was using this thumb drive which is really cool and it works via a USB”. Your goal is to use your keywords in a natural conversational way. For those in technical fields be careful in your use of jargon. Make sure you translate the jargon into words that most people can understand because they will use everyday terms to search for your information.

FAQ pages are a great way to incorporate search terms into your website.

Use keywords that people looking for your product will find, even if there is high competition.

Website efficiencies

• Make sure your blog uses the post title in the blog page link
• Use <H1> tags that contain your keywords
• Use categories that use your keywords
• Do not change the link URL once your post has been published
• Do not overdo the use of your keywords
• Make sure you spell correctly

Reputation

So, how do you gain a good reputation? Be interesting! The more you write, the better you get.

It’s the “Katamari” principle. In the game of Katamari, you play a prince and he has a “Katamari” that rolls up stuff. He can roll up small things, then larger things, eventually, he is rolling up really big things. The trick is to start small and continue to grow and reach and roll up bigger and bigger things.

• Provide a useful service (like a lawyer who writes about the legal aspects of Ad Sense)
• Do some original research (research Google Analytics to find your most popular posts and write about them again with new content)
• Give great information (like LifeHacker who solves everyday problems)
• Find a creative niche. (like OneSentence is about telling your story, briefly. Insignificant stories, everyday stories, or turning-point-in-your-life stories, boiled down to their bare essentials.)

Podcast or Video?

People often wonder if it is better to do a Podcast or a Video. Matt Cutts says… Go onto Hot or Not. If you score better than 5 you should do a video, if not you should do a podcast.

Have Fun!

When you’re writing about something you love it is hard not to have fun.