Tim AKA @sogeshirts is one of the nicest, most supportive people I have met on Twitter. He retweets just about every tweet I post about a new piece I have on Letters For Lucas and owns a clothing shop called Soge Shirts. He is responsible for this awesome tank top I wore during BlogHer ’11:
When Tim asked if he could guest post on my blog on the topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I was all for it for a couple of reasons: 1). I get very twitchy when it comes to SEO because I don’t really know the first thing about SEO and should and 2). Tim really knows his stuff.
Read and learn, friends….and please ask any questions you may have in the comments section. Tim can surely answer them!
Why going after keywords with low competition can lead to big traffic
Search Engine Optimization is a very competitive industry. If you are lacking traffic to your blog or Website you may be making the mistake of trying to rank for overly competitive keywords which people are paying big money to keep their rankings. Instead it may be better to go after smaller less competitive keywords or phrases that you can rank for fast. If you can rank for many small keywords or phrases with low competition that relate to your blog or Website you can start getting some big traffic. All those small keywords and phrases can add up to even more organic traffic from Google and Bing than the one big keyword you were targeting and not getting results for.
The key to trying the strategy of going after phrases and keywords that have low competition and a decent number of searches is good quality research. Use the Google Adwords keyword tool to do your research. If you have a Google Adwords account you can get 800 related keyword ideas for any term you enter in. You will also be able to check the number of exact monthly searches for the term and the competition for each by hitting the exact checkmark on the left side instead of broad.
Once you find some keywords or phrases that relate to your blog and have decent monthly searches and low to medium competition you can start ranking for those keywords. I advise picking 50 or so keywords or phrases to start targeting so that you get a good idea of how ranking for 50 different keywords can add up to good traffic while at the same time not have to do research for awhile.
One thing to note is that you won’t be able to rank for all these keywords overnight. It will take time. Also I’m not saying to not go after the big keywords with high competition either. I just think it’s best to start getting some organic traffic before going for the big time words that take quite a long time to rank for.
To rank for your small keywords or phrases you can use those keywords and phrases in the titles of your blog post or start building anchor text links for the terms you want on guest posts on other blogs. If you do blog commenting you may notice that some blogs offer keyword love in which you can put the term you want to rank for in the name box while linking back to your site. This will definitely help you move up the rankings for those small keywords or phrases and quite possibly on the front page of Google or Bing. Can you imagine eventually having 50 keywords all delivering 5 to 10 hits a day to your Website or possibly more? That traffic can really add up.
In addition to Soge Shirts, Tim is a social media consultant for Interactive Music Teacher. You can follow him on Twitter at: @sogeshirts
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Awesome advice, Tim. SEO is still a big hurdle for me, I tend to just focus on the writing, not so much the stats. But I understand it’s necessary to grow the blog.
I REALLY want that tank top.
Three sentences into this I wanted to curl up and suck my thumb 😛 OK, not really. But SEO remains so far over my head it is not even funny. I know I need to learn it but it honestly makes my head feel like exploding.
The main question I have after reading this is where do you put these keywords?
Good advice on the long tail keyword strategy Tim.
First off I want to thank Tonya for letting me guest post. Thanks so much Tonya!
@Alison Focusing on writing for the most part will get you where you want to go. If you decide to use a keyword term you only want to use it in 3 percent of the post. So just pepper it in a few times and write normally.
@Rachel- Thanks you would definitely rock it just like Tonya rocks it!
@Stephanie- Great question. I would put the keywords in the Title of your blog post, also in the first paragraph, and one more mention in the last paragraph.
Just use whatever keyword you want to rank for a few times in the Title and first paragraph of the post. If it doesn’t feel right to put it in the title just sprinkle it into the post one additional time instead.
@Jessica- Thanks a lot!
I finally made it to the first page for VLCADD (my son’s disorder). That was HUGE. I really think it was the anchor text links. I’m on blogger, so SEO was/is a challenge.
How do alt txt tags with images work? I hope I’m referring to it correctly.
Hi Dana good question! Alt text tags are another way to use keywords when describing an image. So for example you may have a picture of a wine bottle and the picture is stored simply as a winebottle.jpg but you want to actually have it described as a delicious pinot red wine. The normal alt text tag before the change would look like this.
With the changes to get your keyword in. It looks like this.
So you just make a quick change in the html code in the alt section for whatever keyword phrase you want your image to describe. Hope this helps.
Also having alt image texts with keyword descriptions helps the visually impaired and will give you a tiny boost in the search engines as well so it is a good idea.
This is helpful. Did you know it was going to turn into a Q&A? 😉 One from me – what’s the scoop on using those terms in your actual title vs the SEO title (eg if using an SEO plugin)?
Hi Robin. If you are using an SEO plugin you don’t need to use the terms in the actual title as the plugin alerts the search engines to give credit for those terms.
Wow, that’s a ton of great information right there! Whew! Interesting stuff indeed! 😉
Hi there to all, how is the whole thing, I think every one is getting more from this website, and your views are
pleasant for new visitors.
Models who want to work at Italy’s most prestigious fashion shows will have to provide a medical certificate, along with proof of age, according to the code. But regulation is voluntary and without direct enforcement.
You don need a car; but if you planning on staying in this city for any significant period of time, you want a car while living here.
“Ayu, dulu semasa arwah tok masih hidup, dia ada minta supaya salah seorang anak ibu disatukan dengan salah seorang dari anak Makuda Saerah. Dan sekarang Makuda Saerah datang nak tunaikan permintaan arwah tok dulu. Ibu dengan ayah dah setuju pun. Bulan depan majlis pertunangan. Ni cincin tanya yang Makuda bawah minggu lepas.” Pn Sariah menerangkan oanjang lebar tentang wasiat arwah ibunya, sambil tangan kanan menolak sebentuk cincin kearah Ayu. “Ini cincin merisik, hujung bulan depan InsyaAllah majlis pertunangan pula. Ayu balik cuti ya.”
“Sabar la Sya, Mel tak ape-ape ni! Iqin cuba mententeramkan Sya”. Dia sendiri hairan kenapa Mel boleh terbaring di sini sedangkan tadi Mel kelihatan ok saje…
“Eh budak nih! Ke situ pulak dia mengarut! Abang, tengok la anak abang nih. Menjawab bukan main…”,
Oleh : Nabila Zaini
?? Oi ! Berangan dapat jumpa jejaka idaman lah tu???? ujar kak long aku yang sedang bersandar di daun pintu dengan pandangan yang sering membuatkan aku menyampah tiap kali dia bercakap pasal lelaki ! Jumpa aku tengah berangan sikit je, mesti ada benda yang nak dikenakannya. Mungkin kerana umur aku yang sudah hendak mencecah ke angka 26 ini yang membuatkan dia asyik galak menyakat aku.
“comel sepupu mu ni ya. Kak ore besut tapi sama jah kecek kelate gok tapi dah kahwin orang sini dah jadi orang penang la”,bicaranya ramah.
“Naik ajelah, bukannya ada orang lain pun.”
Hampir sejam mereka berbincang tentang aturan projek terbaru syarikat dan berbincang untuk pengambilan baru legal consultan yang akan di letak bawah seliaan Dannia dan Zarul.
Anyway, seronok gak dapat kenal ngan minah ni. Dia pun jambu gak, tak kalah sepupu dia tu!
“faham cikgu!.”
“ aduh, sakitlah. Apa ni, weh korang memang nak tengok aku masuk hospital semula ye. Dah tak sayang aku lah ni?” Sofea membuat muka serius tanda dia benar-benar bermaksud dengan kata-katanya.
Aira memasuki kamarnya lalu mengunci pintu. Dengan langkah yang longlai, Aira menghampiri katil beradunya. Sekilas, matanya terhenti pada sebuah frame gambar yang diletakkan khas di meja sisi katilnya. Dicapainya lemah gambar tersebut. Kelihatan seorang kanak-kanak tersenyum gembira dikendong seorang jejaka yang tampan. Mereka berdua kelihatan mesra sekali.
Intan: Sakit otak punya orang!(sedut air dalam gelas sampai habis, rambut yang terjuntai di dahinya ditiup kasar..)
Dia dah geram gila. Siap membebel depan mamat tu. Tapi sebenarnya mamat tu dah cabut da. Sebab ada sesuatu kat belakang Intan.
lebarnya…
“sa..saya tak tahu nak cakap apa” balas Sofea.