Learn Search Engine Optimization for Results

Ok, well I am going to admit straight up that I am not any guru at SEO. In fact, I found it hard to come to grips with it at times. I have tried to learn search engine optimization for a long time and FINALLY it has starting to click.

 

When I started out online marketing I had no idea about SEO. For a long time, I would write content – good content articles, that seem to just disappear off into the ether.

 

I was becoming demoralized and unmotivated. Knowing that no-one was going to read my posts was gut wrenching.

 

I reckon there would be a few of you out there who will be putting their hands up and singing out “me too”!

 

So WHY is it so Confusing to Learn Search Engine Optimization?

 

What is it that gets us so tied up with SEO?

 

I think it is because at seems unnatural and perhaps we try too hard at times.

 

Picking the wrong focus keywords, or not having access to the best keyword tools in the first place, can make it all harder.

 

There are also too many people telling you too many different things. Who are you to believe?

 

What I have discovered will rock you to the core. It’s incredible, but it’s true.

 

The people who are successful are the ones that know what they are doing! Man, it has taken me a while to figure this out. So you can thank me later! Find the people who are doing well online and learn from them.

 

Ok great, so who am I and why would you want to listen to what I have to say?

 

Quite simply, I am an online marketer whose business is now growing daily. This is because I decided to listen to the right people and stop flitting between one idea and the next. My once “dogs breakfast” of a website now has some cohesive order and an SEO strategy.

 

So, what I want to do is show you some cool basics to learn search engine optimization for your website. Some steps that I have learned and implemented that have helped me to achieve results.

 

Learn Search Engine Optimization for Your Readers

 

Content is King

 

Search Engine Optimization using keywords is not the ‘be all and end all’.  Writing good, useful, informative, engaging content is.  This needs to be your key focus. You are writing for your readers, not robots.

 

I have heard it be told that one day soon the methods that search engines use to rank our pages and articles will change. SEO will not be driven by keywords alone. Your content – articles and website pages – are crawled constantly by search engines. They are looking for relevance, uniqueness and usefulness.

 

However, for now, it is important that you still incorporate well chosen targeted keywords into your content. The best keyword search tool that I use now is Jaaxy. Learn some more about Jaxxy here.

 

Are You Keywords Grammatically Correct?

 

Keywords MUST make sense. They need to be grammatically correct in order for your readers to understand and relate to what you write. A grammatically incorrect keyword phrase, for example, is going to be difficult to incorporate into your text without it sounding unnatural and forced.

 

Not grammatically correct keywords tend to have very low competition and some high traffic. This makes them look tempting to use. However, as I have experienced, your content may just as easily be overlooked by search engines as irrelevant. So don’t fall into this trap.

 

I have learned this lesson from a master – Kyle, the co-founder of Wealthy Affiliate.  Kyle has assisted me on a number of occasions with excellent advice on content aspects of my websites.

 

Using grammatically correct keywords was one of the pointers I have taken firmly onboard.

 

Write Naturally

 

Avoid keyword stuffing. We are told by many people that you have to place your keywords as many times are you can into your articles and page content.

 

Having well placed Keywords is good for SEO. But when it reads funny or changes the meaning of your sentences and headings then you know you are overdoing it.

 

Search engines do not like keyword stuffing and it is treated as spam. Read and re-read you content before you post it and make sure it sounds fluid and natural.

Adding ‘Alt’ Descriptions to Your Images

 

When I first started writing on my websites I didn’t know that my images were going to help my articles with ranking. I knew very little about SEO back then and had no idea that everything on my page was considered content, and therefore affected my search engine ranking.

 

But as I began to learn search engine optimization for my website I realized that I had been ignoring the alt description on my graphics and images.

 

Search engines crawl all your content for relevance and keyword association, Including the graphics and images.

 

Ensure You Have the Best SEO Plugin for Your Website.

 

I have experience with 2 different SEO plugins on my websites. On most of my sites, I have the All in One SEO pack installed. This plugin arrives by default on the WordPress website templates that I use through Wealthy Affiliate. All in One is very easy to use and quite ‘benign’, in that you do not get a lot of feedback from it. This makes it a little hard to pick up any mistakes you might have made.

 

Recently I changed some sites to Yoast SEO. This is also a downloadable plugin that is compatible with the WordPress templates I use.

 

Initially, I had a hard time with Yoast. But the reason for this was that most of my articles and pages where SEO poor. SO I had a lot of work to do to optimize them to the Yoast standard.

 

Now I don’t have any problems using Yoast as it is a very interactive SEO program and gives constant feedback on your progress.  It uses simple green, amber and red signals that indicate your optimization progress. Ample tips and suggestions are offered as well to keep you on track.

 

I do find it a bit frustrating at times and it does sometimes distract me as I endeavour to ensure all the lights are green. But as time has gone on it is second nature to me as I understand why I am doing things.

 

It is worth having a go at both these programs. As I said, I use a mix of both but I prefer Yoast.

 

I would not necessarily recommend changing to Yoast from All in One on a mature site. I’d did this a found I had a lot of work to do in cleaning up to conform to Yoast’s requirements. Better to start fresh with either one on a new site.

Make Spelling and Grammar Easy

 

I know it is not just me. Other people also have trouble with spelling and grammar. So I wasn’t too embarrassed when it was suggested to me that I try the Grammarly program.

 

Whilst I can’t be positive that search engines pick up spelling mistakes, optimizing your articles with correct spelling and grammar will make the whole reading experience better. It helps to keep your content relevant to your topic and therefore more usable to the reader.

 

Once I downloaded Grammarly I realised just how many mistakes it was picking up, and worse still, how many had gone past to the catcher in earlier posts. I simply run the free version at this time. But there is an upgrade version available that has a lot more options and error detection.

 

 

Learn Search Engine Optimization for Your Future.

Grasp the opportunity to learn search engine optimization for your websites as early as you can. I cannot stress how important it is to understand this area of your business.

I use the Wealthy Affiliate University for most of my training and development. You will find that they cover SEO, using All in One SEO, very comprehensively. It wasn’t until I started learning about SEO through WA that I started to get a full understanding of its importance.

SEO will change with time. It has already changed as the search engines evolve and people’s requirements for finding relevant information changes. It is up to you, as a professional blogger, article writer, website owner, to keep up with the changes as they happen.

Please fee free to connect with me, and post some comments below if you have any questions or ideas.