How I Make Webs and Blogs Visible On Search Engines
Maryan Pelland
Blog SEO
You might have heard the term SEO, or search engine optimization. It’s simple to get your website or blog noticed online. Personal websites and blogs are pretty much ubiquitous now --everyone has a web presence from grandparents to school children and from corporations to entertainers. I got some awesome tips on how to make my sites and blogs visible (SEO) when I took a webinar (online seminar) with the Poynter Institute’s NewsU for journalists.
Designing and building a Web site or blog can be as easy as dropping content into text editors like WordPress, SubText, and Blogger.com or as complicated as designing from the floor up in a program like Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS4. This article is for baby boomer readers, interested in SEO, who have some experience with blogs and Webs -- at least enough to know software and basic terms like URL.
I have several webs and blogs – some for business and some for personal use. I’ve spent a lot of time on them and it’s important to me that people are able to find Maryan Pelland’s writings and read what I have to say. I learned some tricks from the webinar presenter, Eric Ulken and from other sources.
1. I created a landing page for my websites that’s a named page, with its own URL. This serves as a kind of searchlight for readers and search engines. It will contain an article with logical, frequent use of my keywords. It gets its own web address. I use Adobe's Dreamweaver, the new CS4 version, to build my sites. It's very intuitive and packed with tools for upper beginner and beyond users. Adobe sells it separately or as part of web design software packages.
2. On web pages and blogs, I choose a URL that contains at least my most important keyword. Like “digital” or “grandparents” or “women.” Something that suits my writing goal.
3. I write good articles in my blogs that give readers something to think about or a piece of new info to take away. Good content is the best way to get noticed which is the best SEO (search engine optimization) you can find. Then, I use my keywords as often as I can. For example, I try to avoid pronouns. See the first paragraph above and notice where I used key nouns when I could easily have resorted to pronouns.
4. I write a blog headline for each post. The headline will contain keywords and convey the main topic of the post. In print publications, catchy headlines rule and wordplays are admired. Online, plain speak and keywords get your blog noticed by search engines.
5. I link my article to outside resources. I encourage outside sites to link back to me when it’s appropriate for them.
6. When blogging, I use commercial blog sites like Wordpress, Blogger, Blogher and so forth. They’re free. They have all the background bells and whistles built in and they don’t require me to program anything.
If, like me, you’re fascinated by blogging or you need a website of your own, a little homework online and a bit of practice gets you up and running. And like I said, I want folks to find me online and share my ideas with me. I found it’s pretty easy to get myself out there. I can invest a lot or a little time and energy and imagine how cool it is to get an email or comment from a reader in, oh, I don’t know…Bangladesh?