As part of the Sensei/Grasshopper contest, I'm helping out my good friend and colleague, Joanna Cohlan. Joanna is a decoratior and has been a mentor to me for many things, so the least I can do is share some SEO learning with her.
I'm no expert, but I keep learning as I go along. Recently, Joanna got a website makeover, and she now has a wordpress site. The site is fairly new and Joanna has just started to blog on there. I'm hoping that this will help give her a boost and accelerate her web presence.
1. Key words & target audience: First, we discussed the importance about this...that people are searching for things, not blog posts. They usually either have a question or are looking for someone to help them do something (or a place to buy something). So think about the types of customers you work best with and the types of things you excel at (i.e. your target audience and your niche). Think about the questions they have. And, write about them. We started to jot down a list. These are the types of things where Joanna is expert, provides unique value and enjoys doing. So write about those topics and those questions. And, everything starts from there. This is what you want to get found for.
2. Write blog posts targeted with these key words. It all starts with the title. Don't worry about being fun or clever or cutesy. Make it straight forward. It should be similar to what a person would type into google. Key words should be towards the beginning...I've heard that google only reads the first 70 or so characters, anyway. Then, include those key works/phrase in the first line. Personally, I think it's much better to mix up the words a bit (rather than repeating the title). This makes it much more readable (and ulitmately google likes that, too) and it also accounts for the fact that different people type in different key words. Then, add the key words to the last line. Sometimes, I will just copy and paste the title or the first line there, since those are usually good summations of your topic. Then, use the key words in the post once or twice in the text (but not too many times...it needs to read well). Then, add 2-3 pictures (more is fine) and use the alt tags/title lines with the key words. I advised Joanna to mix up the words here (e.g. don't just copy and paste, but maybe switch the order or use synonyms - e.g. decorate vs. design or for geography sometimes Chappaqua NY, other times Chappaqua New York...you get the idea.
3. I then shared a cool wordpress plugin called Yoast. I just started using this in December, and it's awesome (thank you Michael George for the suggestion). First, it let's you know how effective your SEO is for that post (based on the key words you select), and second, it gives you tips on how to improve it. Essentially, it helps you learn better SEO techniques. Also, it enable you to see and select the words that will show up on google search (and this can lead to higher click through rates). I highly recommend it, and wish I knew about it sooner. (if you have wordpress, go to your plugins and select "find new" and if you type in Yoast, it should come up).
4. We looked at Joanna's site for a few areas to improve. It did seem that her blog was detached from the rest of her site, but I believe her web designer has fixed that. There was also a glitch so that Google Analytics was no longer working, after the conversion, so the web designer fixed this too (can't wait to see the data to what we can learn from it, after she's had it for a month). I also showed her the "WP author" plugin and we set that up so she has a footer on all of her posts that explains who she is and how to contact her. She still needs to set up Gravatar to get her picture in there. This helps with authorship. I tried to set this up in Google Plus for her, but not sure if I did it right. It's been so long since I last did this. But, she can do a google search for this and make sure it is set up right.
5. While we were at it, we did a brief lesson on Pinterest and Google Plus. But, Joanna's priority should really be on her blog and getting some serious google juice on that. From there, she can expand to new frontiers.
I can't wait to reconnect in a month or so to see the progress and the impact. Oh, and thx Joanna for a great lunch. I forget that stuff you made me, but it tasted good.
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