May 2, 2011

How to SEO your WordPress Posts

Gary Eckstein Search Engine Optimization 3 how to, seo, tutorials, WordPress

Many of my WordPress and SEO clients ask for assistance with what should be filled in for WordPress Blog Posts. Here then is what I usually advise:

Maximising WordPress Blog Post SEO

The following guidelines for creating WordPress Post content havs been produced with reference to the excellent Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. This article assumes that you are using WordPress and the ‘All in One SEO Pack’ Plugin.

WordPress Themes display the various elements of a Post differently however these guidelines aim towards creating effective SEO Posts with options applicable to most Themes.

Keep in mind that Search Engine Optimization is about far more than merely structuring Posts correctly. Structuring Post content however should be part of any SEO strategy.

Essential WordPress Post Content

The following image shows content that must be considered, at a minimum, for SEO purposes. The table below the image describes what to fill in for each field.

	Item	Comments
1	Title	Enter a descriptive, unique and brief title for the Post.
2	URL	Enter keywords for the URL separated by – e.g. strategy-training-2011 (try to keep the full URL to under 64 characters).
3	Media	Media is not covered in this guide as each media type may be enhanced via various differing meta-data.
4	Body	Enter well formatted text here written in natural language (don’t try to ‘fool’ the Search bots by keyword-stuffing and other manipulative techniques as the Search Engines are able to identify this). Remember that if you have headings in your text then format the heading as a ‘Heading 1’ or ‘Heading 2’ etc. The body may also contain video, image, sound or any type of media but guidelines for the various media are not covered in this article.
5	Category	Choose a single category. Think of a filing cabinet; what would the folder be called if you printed your Post and filed it.
6	Tags	Enter a few tags that describe your content. For example if your Post is about comparing car insurance your tags may be; cars, insurance and comparisons.
7	Excerpt	Paste into this section the same text you’ve entered into the ‘All in One SEO Description’ (see item 9 below).
8	All in One SEO Pack Title	Enter a unique alternate title for your content. In item 1 above you entered a title and here is an opportunity to provide an alternate title of up to 60 characters. If, for example your title at item 1 was ‘Roast Chicken Recipe’ you may put something like ‘How to Make a Tasty Roast Chicken’ in the ‘All in One SEO Pack Title’ field.
9	All in One SEO Pack Description	Add a relevant and unique description of the Post content. Keep this to a maximum of 160 characters.
10	Keywords	You may enter some keywords here. The major Search Engines have ignored this meta-data for many years but some people still think it is worth entering keywords.

 

The image below shows where the items in the table above show on published Posts on my Website (some meta is only viewable in the HTML itself):

It’s important that adding the elements as described above is performed for every Post created. Keep in mind that the items above are there to help Search Engines and people understand your content better; SEO is not about misleading Search bots or people but rather about describing content in the best and most relevant way.