I see and get questions all the time about “how do I make my site show up in the search engines when my user searches for something in my genre?” This is a tough one so here are 8 ways to get your site to show up in the search engines (SEO).
1). Ensure that your photos have an Alt tag, its one of the fields in WordPress when you import a photo. Use a proper description. This is not only good for SEO, its also good for the sight impaired site readers as their equipment will read the alt tags and tell them what the photo is all about. To do this, click on the “Add Media” button in your WordPress editor, then upload or select the image in question. You will see a label called “Alt text” under the “Captions” area. Enter your Alt text there, then wen done filling out the other fields click on the “Insert Into Post button.” and voila you are done. If you are a html expert, you can also just add the following to your html code to your image code.
alt=”How to enter Alt text on an image”
2). Use descriptive names for your photos. Don’t use ‘img43245.jpg’ It’s pretty funny to do searches on filenames; try “dsc9875.jpg” to see what I mean. This some of the filename structure of the various cameras out there. Most people just upload photos using the name the camera software gave them. Don’t do that be descriptive of what’s in the photos. As an example, the photo above filename is “Howtoenteralttextonanimage.jpg” since is describing how to enter alt text on an image. Get the picture?
3). Use an SEO plugins. There are a few out there, I use Yoast SEO Plugin. Just fill in the information requested for each post. i.e. the focus keyword(s) and meta description. The post will give you indications of how you are doing SEO-wise. It also has a SEO Check link that will tell you how you are doing Good or Bad.
4). Use the focus keyword in the title of the post. Ensure that you structure your title to include the focus keyword you would like people to find your post when they search.
5). Use the focus keyword in the first paragraph of the post. This is a great way to tie in what you have used in the title into your story and helps with the search engine juice as well. Don’t make it awkward, just make it blend in. You can see how I’ve done it in this post.
6). Don’t spam your own post, but mention the focus keyword in your post a few times. It’s important that you mention the focus keyword throughout your post. but don’t make it look like you are doing it. Make it part of the sentences and it should be natural.
7). If you can refer to other posts on your site in the post you are writing. This not only helps with onsite SEO (the other side of SEO), but it also helps with bounce rate since people will stay on your site longer as you have content they like to read that are related. You don’t have to do all this yourself, you can get a virtual assistant to do this for you.
8). Write copy that covers your topic, at least 500 words. Give the users examples, photos, step by step directions as people do like that. Your post can be as long as it needs to be just keep it interesting. I wrote a post for my other blog which gives travel tips in the brand loyalty space. The post talked about how to find affordable fares without going broke. It is about 6,120 words. It took a while to write, but I wanted to fully address the topic. Its one of the most viewed post on that blog to date. Did you see how I mapped out this post, giving examples, links, images, step by step instructions? That’s the idea.
So what are some of your ideas to enhance SEO on your site?