Blogging is one way of building links to a website. By producing original, refreshing, and timely content, visitors tend to stay longer in your blog and eventually bookmark it for future reference. There are numerous blogging websites and platforms available on the Internet nowadays, from LiveJournal to Blogger, from Xanga to the all-powerful WordPress. Today, small businesses should prioritize building a blog, preferable on WordPress because of the website’s powerful blogging features. Additionally,WordPress can also create aesthetically-pleasing websites through a simple platform where all kinds of content can easily be managed.
To optimize blog posts for SEO, Sue Reynolds of Carmine Media gives some helpful ideas to get you started:
1. SEO WordPress plug-ins – websites and blogs hosted by WordPress have the option to download the many tools and plug-ins available to SEO users. One such plug-in is the All-in-One SEO Pack, very user-friendly and perfect for SEO. The All-in-One SEO Pack even includes fields that show how Google displays posts which bloggers can maximize for SEO purposes.
2. Title, Header, and Images – In WordPress, the URL of the post often contains the title which is why important keywords should be placed on the title for search engine crawlers to easily find and index the post for SEO purposes. Additionally, the formatting options are also read by the search engine crawlers so header tags should contain relevant keywords as well. Finally, for images, this can be optimized by filling in the “Title” and “Alternative Text” field so search engine crawlers can read the text of the image since they can’t read images directly.
3. Formatting Styles – A text that is bold, italicized, or underlined also affects SEO. These should be texts that are emphasized, which are therefore important, and search engine crawlers recognize these, placing higher importance on texts written this way.
4. Internal linking – Linking to posts located within the blog will increase a blog post’s traffic and add credibility to these posts. Additionally, visitors will stay longer if they are directed towards posts that could further assist them. The anchor text should be a relevant keyword, otherwise the search engine crawler will not recognize it.
These tips ought to get you started with a WordPress blog optimized for search engine optimization. Again, producing content that is original and timely without appearing keyword-stuffed is one of the best methods of link-building and adding relevance to your website.
