A burning question for every blogger is “How do I improve my SEO so the search engines will rank my content?”
To help answer that question, first, I’ll describe a WordPress plugin called “SEOPressor.” This is a paid plugin costing $47. Then I’ll share Brian Clark’s tips on how to create compelling content for the search engines. Brian discussed this topic in a segment on “International Freelancers Day.” As most of you know, he’s the founder of “Copyblogger,” a hugely popular site about blogging.
SEOPressor
When you write a blog you “tell” SEOPressor your keyword for that post. Then the plugin will rank your use of that keyword against several criteria. Your score will be “0” until you enter your keyword. Among other things, the plugin will tell you:
You do not have H1 tag containing your keyword
You do not have H2 tag containing your keyword
You do not have H3 tag containing your keyword
SEOPressor will automatically bold your keyword
SEOPressor will automatically italic your keyword
You do not have enough keywords to underline
Please add rel=nofollow to your external links
As you begin to make these changes, your SEO score will go up. The goal is to get more traffic from search engines. I’ve just started to use this tool and began to see my score rise the first time I tried it.
How to Create Compelling Content for Search Engines
Brian Clark had a great many tips, but I have space to share only a few that will be helpful to bloggers. He suggests creating content that people can bookmark, such as a 10-part tutorial. The key is that the tutorial should have a landing page with links to each of the 10 parts. Google will index the landing page that leads to each part, raising your rankings. He also reinforced what most of us know, to have your keywords close to the front of your title.
Your blog should be at least 300 words in length. People talk about links to other sites, but he said it is essential to link to content in your own site as well, with a link at every 120 words of content. Guest blogging on other sites – especially authority sites will help build those precious links back to your blog. Something I didn’t know – if you can get three tweets of your blog post, your content will get indexed faster.
And finally, he discussed the frequency-density ratio. He cautions against keyword stuffing that will get you in trouble with Google. The ratio is 5.5% of keywords frequency to density, that is, the length of your content. So if you decide to try SEOPressor, keep that in mind.
Tags: create compelling content, Guest blogging, improve SEO, search engines, SEO score
