Steinar Knutsen » seo

3 Reasons Why WordPress Blog Post Tags Are Important

Steinar — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:50:05 +0000

WordPress tags are are an often overlooked option when publishing a new blog post. Based on some questions I heard this morning, it’s clear that there is some misunderstanding about the use of Tags and why they’ll important to the overall long-term health of you blog.

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3 Reasons WordPress Tags are Important

Tags are similar to the index at the end of a book. They help the reader find specific keywords hidden through your blog. Even better, they help readers find all the posts that are related to a particular Tag.
Tags are great for search engine optimization, since every tag creates a new url or page within your site that Google and other search engines may index.
Tags are also good for creating sub-categories around a niche topic. For example you may have a cooking category and several posts tagged as “breakfast”. Each tag has it’s own RSS feed, so you could use this to either target subscribers or submit your RSS feed to niche 3rd party sites.

How are you using tags?

Year-to-Date Blog Traffic Sources Analysis Illustrates Content Distribution Strategy

Steinar — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 14:21:39 +0000

I check Google Analytics a lot … probably more than most people … like a couple times a day. It facinates me to see where traffic is coming from and what people are searching for on Google that drives them to my site(s).

My website traffic analyses are typically very in-depth, however I just wanted to share my traffic sources year-to-date for steinarknutsen.com to illustrate a couple points.

Helpful Insights from 1st Quarter 2010 Traffic Sources

No surprise, Google is the 1st source of traffic. I blog regularly and do a lot to drive SEO, so this makes sense. Same goes for image search traffic (#15)
Good mix of social media traffic from Twitter (#3), Facebook (#6) and LinkedIn (#13). I participate in all three of these networks regularly at the same level or mix with which I see incoming traffic. This is by design.
A couple new media based sources, including YoutTube (#4) and podcastingnews (#9). I optimize all my videos and have a couple podcasts on iTunes. Podcastingnews.com picked me up from a video series I did on … podcasting!
I comment on other blogs everyday so that why I’m getting good traffic from industry niche sites like Mashable, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review.
My newsletter subscriber count is on the rise, but I only just started sharing info with them on a regular basis; hence, Aweber making the list (#14).

So what?

Well, what this tells me is that my strategy is working. The strategy is to create original content in multiple formats that’s convenient for my readers to consume. Not surprisingly, most of my customers come from Google, Twitter and Facebook. And yes, I’ve even met a client on YouTube!

What do your traffic sources look like? Why and what does that tell you about your content distribution strategy?

Google PageRank Checker – Check Google Page Rank of any Web Page

Steinar — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:05:24 +0000

Google PageRank is a factor that many consider important to search engine optimization and how your site ranks in Google search results. Here’s a site that lets you quickly check:

Google PageRank Checker – Check Google page rank of any web pages.

How to increase your PageRank? Well, that’s one of the great mysteries. Here’s how Google explains it:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

Tactics to Drive More Targeted Search Engine Traffic to Your Blog

Steinar — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:58:05 +0000

If you’re marketing your brand, service, or products online, one of your goals should be to drive more targeted search engine traffic to your blog. An overall increase in traffic is fine, but it really boils down to who is visiting your sight, why they are visiting and what the call to action is once they consume your content.

If you are not speaking to a particular niche, you might find that although overall traffic volume is high, engagement is low.

Here are 5 tactics to drive more targeted search engine traffic:

Use a long-tail keyword strategy when creating your content. Think about what someone might use to find your content in Google and incorporate those phrases into your content. For a more scientific approach use a tool like Google Keyword Search Tool or Market Samurai.
Consistently add new content. Google likes new content and if you publish on a frequent basis, Google tends to index your site more regularly because you’re seen as more relavent. Set up Google Webmaster Tools to monitor the rate with which Google indexes your site.
Add images to your posts and optimize them so Google Images can index them. This not only adds visual interest to your posts but provides the necessary information so people can find your images when searching on Google.
Comment on other blogs and link back to related pages within your blog. Many people make the mistake of only linking back to their home page. Take the extra 10 seconds to link to an individual post instead so that Google has the opportunity to index backlinks to multiple pages throughout your site. Try to comment on blogs that have a high Google PageRank and Follow tags. Again, Market Samurai can help find these blogs.
Leverage your content and RSS feed by submitting posts to Friendfeed, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Technorati and other leading blog indexing sites. Google tends to rank results from these sites higher in search results, thus giving you and edge on the competition.

These aren’t all inclusive, but do you think these tactics would help drive more targeted search engine traffic to your blog?

Search Engine Optimization: Back to Basics

Steinar — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:00:03 +0000

Search engine optimization is the process of implementing on-page and off-page tactics to drive search engine results placement. In other words, the stuff you do to help your site show up on Google.

Long-tail keywords refer to the combination of terms into a phrase that represents your site, your products and services, etc. Think of them as the words that people might use when searching for your website, company or products on Google. Much like any marketing strategy in general, choosing the right long-tail keywords has strategic implications much like choosing the right target market, niche, or micro niche. The more focused you are, the more relevant you are to that audience.

On-page optimization refers to the activities to incorporate on your website to drive search performance. This may include proper coding, the content itself, a site index, the frequency with with new content is published, etc.

Off-page optimization is the collection of activities you execute outside the scope of your site to improve indexing and drive traffic. This may include submitting your site to search engines and other directories, submitting your RSS feed to 3rd party sites for syndication, commenting on other blog posts with high PageRank to drive inbound links. The list goes on.

What do you think? Are your SEO tactics driving more, higher targeted visitors to your site? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Optimize your WordPress Blog for SEO and User Experience – Joost de Valk (Video)

Steinar — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:37:56 +0000

Another great video from Joost de Valk “Yoast”, including some useful advice on strategies to optimize your WordPress blog for SEO and user experience.

In particular, Yoast shares some very helpful hints for Analytics, Automation, RSS, Commenting and Plugins. Hope you enjoy.

What tips do you have to share to optimize your WordPress blog for SEO and user experience?

How to generate inbound links with videos for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Steinar — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:04:49 +0000

Let’s discuss how to generate inbound links with videos for search engine optimization (SEO). Most folks don’t understand how video seo works and once you do, it can serve as a powerful means for driving traffic to your site.

Let’s use YouTube as an example. Here are the steps to optimize your video for inbound links (or backlinks).

Use you keywords in the Title (1st words if possible)
Use your keywords in the description
Use your keywords in the tags (use dashes to keep phrases whole; e.g., “real-estate-strategies”)
Put your url as the very first item in your description. For example, “htttp://www.mysite.com”. You must include “http” to make the link active.
Set up a Google Alert for your video title to see the the video spread and inbound links proliferate.

PRO TIP: Instead of uploading directly to YouTube, sign up for a free account at TubeMogul, which will syndicate your video to dozens of the leading video sharing sites.

For a good example, check out my Construction Site video on YouTube (over 250,000 views) or watch this quick tutorial on videos seo strategies:

What do you think? If you’re publishing video will this help generate inbound links?

13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly

Steinar — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:16:16 +0000

Below you’ll find 13 steps to make every blog post most SEO friendly. These steps leverage keyword research, social media, meta tags, and inbound linking strategies to optimize on-page and off-page tactics.

These steps are considered white-hat and assume your blog is already setup with a structure (code, tags, plugins, etc) that facilitates SEO. For example, you might consider WordPress with the All-in-One-SEO plugin, which helps you control meta tags, spiders, and rss to make the most of these SEO tactics.

13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly

Preparation
__ Identify your long-tail keyword phrase

On-Page Post Optimization
__ Include keywords in title
__ Include keywords in first 70 characters
__ Include keywords in at least one other place within post
__ Bold keywords throughout post
__ Include keywords in title, alt, and description of any images
__ Include keywords in tags or categories
__ Include keywords in Keyword meta tags
__ Include keywords in Description meta tags

Off-Page Post Optimization
__ Post to Digg with keywords
__ Post to Delicious with keywords
__ Post to StumbleUpon with keywords
__ Post to Twitter with keywords
__ Post 3 meaningful comments on other blog with keywords in your anchor text-based link

There is more you could do, but this is a good start.

What do you think? What other tactics do you use to individually optimize your blog posts?

Leveraging events to drive SEO traffic to your blog (Audio)

Steinar — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:42:23 +0000

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Upcoming events are a great opportunity for you to leverage keywords related to that event and drive SEO traffic to your blog.

If you can, research an event within your niche and identify 2-3 long-tail keyword phrases that a potential reader might use to search for information on Google. Write a few blog posts about the event and use these keywords in your title, post text, meta keywords, and meta description. Follow up your post with a link in Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and your other favorite social media and bookmarking sites.

In my experience, if there is little competition for the event I can usually score a top 3 position in Google if I choose my keywords correctly. There are several tools to conduct keyword research, but I suggest starting with Google Keyword Tool to familiarize yourself on the topic.

Although events come and go, the benefit of optimizing for them is the ability to attract new followers within your niche. Give it a try – it’s actually a bit fun.

What’s your experience leveraging events to drive SEO traffic to your blog? Any success or other tips to share?

Evidence that YouTube Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Works (Video)

Steinar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:50:43 +0000

YouTube search engine optimization (SEO) is an often overlooked element that can drive significant views and traffic back to your website.

Setting up a search engine friendly video is very simple and only take a fraction of the time required to actually shoot, edit, and publish the video.

Keywords are critical in your title, description, and tags. In this video I provide an example of a video I uploaded 2 years ago, which continues to get a steady flow of viewers now topping 250,000.

The link in my description feeds these viewers back to my website of choice (another feature that 99% of videos fail to incorporate).

Why don’t people optimize their videos? What do think? Seems like good sense but it’s so often overlooked.

The video referenced in this article is the 1st video in this YouTube Search.

Deep Links for Search Engine Optimization

Steinar — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:36:47 +0000

It’s still shocking that many newbies don’t understand links. You don’t need to link to a lot of Web sites. You need a lot of good Web sites to link to you. And, it’s best if you can manage to get some of those links to include — in some fashion — the keywords that describe the page they’re linking to.

For example, if I’m linking to Search Engine Watch, I would want to link using the words “Search Engine Optimization News” within the anchor text of the link. If I wanted to “deep link” (that is to say, link deeper within the Search Engine Watch Web site), I would link to the Promotion & Link Building page using the words “Link Building Resources.”

via Top Signs Your Site Isn’t Ready for Prime Time, Part 2 – Search Engine Watch (SEW).

This strategy is so critical. I would also add that not only do you want to use your keywords in this deep linking strategy, but you should also link from sites that have a high PageRank.

For example, you could generate dozens of inbound links from sites with a Google PageRank of zero and your efforts would yield very little in-terms of SEO. Whereas one link from a .gov or .edu site with high PageRank could significantly improve your rank.

To lean more about PageRank, check out Wikipedia on PageRank

To check the PageRank of any site, check out prchecker.

Optimizing YouTube Videos for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Steinar — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:31:09 +0000

YouTube.com is the second most searched site on the Internet, next to Google, so you might conclude that it is the second largest search engine. It so happens that Google owns YouTube so the implications are something to be well understood and taken seriously as YouTube relates to your Internet Marketing strategy.

As the largest online video sharing site, YouTube is home to everything from Obama’s weekly radio address to corporate sponsored informercials and people showcasing their musical talent. The list goes on and anything you can imagine can be found on YouTube. It’s free to sign up, free to upload videos, and free to view videos. Honestly, there’s nothing stopping you from taking advantage of this great medium to communicate and engage with your market.

The fact is most people do not understand how to properly optimize their videos for search engines and thus most video get very little attention.

Keywords

As with any search engine optimization strategy, keywords are critical. Think of them as the combination of words or phrases that people search for on the Internet. Since YouTube videos are frequently indexed by major search engines, it’s important to understand some simple steps to make your videos more search engine friendly.

It so happens that you can also call out these keywords in a special Keywords section with every new video you upload. Here’s your chance to thoroughly differentiate your video from the pack.
Titles

The title of your video needs to include two things: 1) your keywords and 2) something to hook viewers as they scan through a list of titles. If you fail to include the right keywords, search engines will ignore your video and if you fail to use a catchy title viewers will ignore your video.

For example, instead of using a title such as “Great House on 1.3 Acres!”, you might get better results with “4581 Morgan Creek – House for Sale in Roseville, CA”. The first example would be fine if the video was for a specific client, but the second video will ultimately draw more viewers since it names the city and uses the keyword phrases “house for sale” and “Roseville, CA”.

Descriptions

The second most overlooked section of posting a video on YouTube is the description field. When search engines index your video, the description field is a key element.

First and foremost, if you have a URL that you want visitors to visit, put that as the first item in your description. By default, only the first few lines of the description are displayed above the fold, so you want your URL to be right there at the top in the most obvious position so viewers click on it. Be sure to format the link correctly so it’s an active link using “html://www.mysite.com”.

The description field is also a great place to pack in your keywords and keyword phrases. Take care not to overdo it – strive for something that makes sense and gets the point across, but still incorporates the keywords where possible. An extra bonus is that YouTube cross-references related videos and people are more likely to find your video if you follow these general guidelines.

What’s you experience with optimizing YouTube videos? Any tricks you’ve learned?

How Web 2.0 Affects SEO Strategy

Steinar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:23:10 +0000

Funny to find this article from May 2007 … so many small businesses still fail to understand the very basic strategies of Internet Marketing. Not you of course – those other guys.

Some Web 2.0 content management systems, such as blogs and wikis, are primed and relatively optimal for search engine visibility straight out of the box. Google, in particular, seems to adore blogs. Blogs and wikis have essentially replaced outdated forums, third-party product reviews, comments in guest books, and user groups because specific elements inherent to blogs and wikis are naturally search engine optimized. They’re textually rich, extensively interlinked, frequently updated, and rooted in semantic markup.

via How Web 2.0 Affects SEO Strategy – ClickZ

Posted via web from steinarknutsen’s posterous

What are the best resources for a beginner of SEO ?

Steinar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:22:37 +0000

Q: What are the best resources for a beginner of SEO ?

via Discussion: Search Engine Land | LinkedIn

I recommend SEObook.com, SEOmoz.com and SearchEngineWatch.com. You can also take a professional course, such those offered at SempoInstitute.com.

If you really want hands-on training, identify a niche, conduct keyword research, and build a traffic generation strategy. Maybe set up a free WordPress or Blogger account to test various tactics you learn along the way.

At that point, you might need to consider leveraging communities or building your own and implementing a conversion strategy. Depends on your objectives – which you should clearly understand before launching an SEO campaign.

Learning the basics is pretty straightforward. The toughest part may be identifying the right long-tail keywords – if you don’t know how to do this you could potentially waste a ton of money and time with both SEO and SEM especially.

Becoming truly proficient at SEO takes time, so have some patience and learn one new tactic everyday.

Hope this helps,
Steinar

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