Three SEO Tips that You Can Use Today

If you’re just beginning to build a business or blog online, the term SEO is probably more than a bit confusing and intimidating. Keyword density, meta everything, SERPS…what does all this mean? And how can you ever figure it all out on top of all the other tasks that come with establishing an online presence?

Don’t worry, over time it will become like a second language to you, but in the meantime, here are three simple SEO tips that you can put into place today without having to call in an expert. The best part? They are all things that you’ll want to do anyway to make your site more useful and inviting to visitors.

1. Use keywords in your title. You might be pleased with the oh-so-clever headline you dreamed up, but if it doesn’t tell potential readers what your article is about, they’ll probably skip over it to read the article that they know will be useful to them. Likewise, search engines are paying attention to your title when they crawl your page to look for clues on how to index your page.

For best SEO results, use your keyword as close to the beginning of the title as possible. This doesn’t always make for the most elegant or compelling title, so check to see if your blogging or content management software will allow you to use a different title in the title tag than what is displayed as the headline to users.

2. Look for opportunities to guest post (writing an original post on someone else’s blog). Even without the SEO benefit, guest posting is an excellent strategy. It gives you exposure to a new audience and is a good way to network with fellow site owners in your niche. Running guest posts on your own blog will also increase your site’s reach and build new relationships.

Nearly all site owners will allow you to place one or two links in your byline with the anchor text of your choice as long as it doesn’t come across as too spammy. Instead of using your site name as anchor text, consider using a keyword rich description that links to a relevant page in your site. This will give you a small SEO boost and give readers a better idea of what you write about and what services you offer.

3. Make smart use of social networking and social media. As search engines grow more sophisticated, they are paying increasing attention to what users are sharing on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The effect is still relatively small, however when coupled with the traffic that these sites drive, it’s well worth putting the effort into expanding your networks and encouraging readers to share your links.

Social sharing sites like Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon can drive huge amounts of traffic to your site in a short amount of time. The SEO benefits vary by site, but are amplified by other people finding your content and linking out to it from their own blogs, on other forums and on social media.

Before you begin sharing your posts on these sites, do take some time to participate and learn the site’s culture. Don’t spam the site with links to all your posts; only submit your very best content. Not all types of content will do well on each of these sites, so don’t be discouraged if you find that you can’t get any leverage. 

Jacob Maslow has been selling online for 10 years and frequently guest posts to get links for Melissa and Doug toys and allergy bedding.