Search Engine Optimization is important, but search engines can be seemingly harder to please than a high school girl at her sweet-sixteen party. We’ve discussed periodically on this blog some common SEO mistakes and more mistakes that can cost you valuable search engine rankings. We’ve also outlined a brief do-it-yourself SEO combination that can help increase those rankings.
Well sweetheart, I couldn't get you Milli Vanilli, but here's the collected works of John Denver yodeling in the shower. Happy 16th!
While link building and expanding your social network are great for SEO, those things are really meant to compliment the SEO driven content that you’re pumping into your website. This article contains 5 easy tricks that you can start doing right now to begin getting better SEO results.
1. Use proper anchor text for links
The first thing you can do to help make your links more relevant is to describe them properly. While it may be quicker (and lazier) to simply put “Click here” for a link, it is much easier for search engines to index links based on the text being presented. As you can see above in this article, we’ve linked to our previous posts on SEO mistakes by telling you what you’re getting. And while we’re on the subject of links…
2. Use internal linking when possible
Once again this is demonstrated by our above links to previous articles. As you increasingly build up new content in your website, you can begin linking back to older archived material for reference or for new updates. Not only does this help increase linking for SEO purposes, it’s a great way to help recycle content.
3. Use search engine friendly permalinks
Most Content Management Systems have permalink settings that allow you to choose how you want your page links to be archived and displayed in the browser. They can show things like the date or the title of the page, or a long string of numbers filled with ampersands, question marks and Batman symbols for security. While those long cryptogram-like URLs look intimidating, they also make it tougher for search engines to identify what the page is about.
Which one is easier for YOU to read?
4. Use sticky posts
Sticky posts are great for indicating what content is important on your site. You’ll notice this often on forums. A sticky post is usually an important topic of discussion that stays at the top of the list of articles. It can retain importance over even new content. This means that if you have older content that you feel is still popular or important, you can still keep it at the top of the heap for search engines to see first.
5. Use tags and categories
Tags are essentially a series of keywords that helps describe the content on your page. Tagging is not only great for metadata but also for your own internal searching. If someone is using the search function on your website, by having your articles tagged they are much more likely to receive better search results. In addition, your content can be navigated much easier by having it categorized properly and not just lumped all into “Site News”.
These 5 easy little tricks can help give your web content a serious boost for search engines. If you’re having problems identifying the capabilities of your CMS, contact Point Click Media.
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