Today I received an email from a friend asking my advice about a comment posted on her website. The comment was from an individual giving her advice on what she was doing wrong with the SEO on her page. AND, advertising his or her services at the same time. Below is my response.
First and foremost (please take to heart what I am saying) you are already doing something right. With zero concern about SEO you are doing well in organic searches. You seem to have a knack for doing something right. We don’t know what precisely. But, you can see the results in the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).
So, in my opinion, you could safely disregard SEO advice. However, if you want to improve your page content generation, I would recommend the following:
Step 1) Generate your content. Say what you want to say with zero regard for SEO mumbo-jumbo. Just get your message on the page. Say whatever it is you have to say. Offer whatever it is you have to offer. Ask for whatever it is you want to ask.
Generation of worthwhile content, expressed clearly, that provides a good user experience should be your only goal.
After your content has been generated, you can consider SEO through the following steps.
Step 2) Handling complaint #1 “you do not use all three H tags in your post”:
H1, H2, & H3 can be used to help organize your page into main topic, sub topics, and sub-sub topics. Personally, I find H1 and H2 easy to apply to almost any page. The H3 level of outlining can be a bit of a pain. Keep in mind, outlining is basically what you are doing with the 3 Hs.
Look at your page. What is the page about? If the page is about “Finding the best vet for your dog” then make sure that is used as your H1 — your top (#1) heading.
Scan through the rest of the page. Typically you will find two or more sub-topics in the page. Make these your H2s. You can do this by simply inserting the appropriate sub-topic as an H2 heading above the paragraphs relevant to that sub-topic. This will help readers find their way through your page. If you want to go further with H3 that is perhaps a good idea. I say perhaps because you did not have the Hs in your page to begin with. If you are not the type of wordsmith that automatically adds headings to your page do not burden yourself with too much detail — fixing the SEO. The more painful the process the less likely you will be to do it well. Another friend of mine uses the expression “Pick the low hanging fruit.” I take this to mean, do what comes easy and gives you a good return on your effort.
Step 3) Handling complaint #2 “you are not using bold or italics properly in your SEO optimization”
Warning: in case it’s missed your attention, everything I say in this article is personal opinion. Some of my opinions others happen to agree with. Some of my opinions others find odd. Some of my opinions others find down-right stupid — by their standards. I recommend you form your own standards and apply them to whatever opinions you happen to stumble across — no matter the source.
In the case, of bold and italics, I say ignore all SEO optimization considerations. Apply bold wherever you feel it cab help draw the reader’s attention to key concepts. Remember that typically only 10% of your page is being read. So give folks a clue and make stuff bold when you feel like it.
As for italics, I recommend following the advice of your high-school English teacher. Or, ignore them. But, don’t get all caught up in SEO considerations for italics.
Step 4) Handling complaint #3 “your keyword must appear in the title, and, it must appear in the URL”
If your keyword(s) do not appear in your title ask yourself the following question: “Does my title tell the reader what the posting (page) is about?” If your title clearly indicates to the potential reader what your posting or page is about, then leave the title alone. First and Foremost your goal must be to clearly communicate to readers what your content is. That is the role of the title. The role of the title is not to trick search engines, the role of the title is not to trick readers, the role of the title is to clearly communicate the nature of the posting’s content.
Since you are using wordpress the URL of your page will almost always be the title. So if the title is handled properly the URL will be.
If you can add your keyword(s) to your title without losing clarity, you really should. It is a good idea to have your keyword(s) in the title. Just don’t let “good ideas” push you around.
Step 5) Handling complaint #4 “You have to optimize your keyword and make sure that it has a nice keyword density of 3-5% in your article with relevant LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing).”
The way to deal with this complaint is to flat out ignore it. Just ignore it. BUT, take the opportunity to re-read your posting. Read the posting from the point of view of the reader — not the point of view of the writer. Look, hear, read with the mind of the reader. This will help you cleanse your posting of unnecessary material. This will help you find and correct typos. This will help you reformulate content for clarity.
In the process of refining your content for clarity, you should automatically find yourself adding your keyword(s) periodically. Since your keyword(s) are supposed to relate to the real purpose of your website, these keyword(s) should be popping up in your postings. If your keyword(s) are not popping up in your organic postings, then you should look at your site and evaluate whether you have the proper keyword(s).
Step 6) Handling complaint #5 “the alt tag must have your keyword(s)”
Sure, look at your alt tags and put keyword(s) — IF it makes sense and helps the clarity of your content. The prime directive is good content that provides a good user experience.
Step 7) Handling the self-serving promotion of the complainer’s automatic wordpress SEO plugin.
I recommend that you never use a plugin that is not stored and downloaded on the wordpress.org website. On the wordpress.org website you have a chance that the plugin is not out and out hacked code — a chance. It is still buyer (or downloader) beware. The kinds of things that can happen to a plugin are the following:
- The maker uses the plugin for SEO spamming of their own website.
- The maker puts a back door into your website to steal passwords.
- The maker puts in code to send email addresses and personal information to himself or herself.
- The plugin be a bad programming job and break your theme.
- The plugin be a bad programming job and break your other plugins.
Basically bad things can happen.
To help avoid this (no promises) use plugins that come from known reputable sources such as wordpress.org
If you are an expert and can determine the health of a plugin for yourself, then you should. If you are a newbie, stick to wordpress.org for your plugins until you learn better. That’s just my opinion.