SEO – Everyone in the web world has heard of it. But do you even know what it is? Well, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. But here is the real question – Do you know what it is?
What is SEO
SEO is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” That really doesn’t tell you anything does it.
SEO can be very confusing. And to be honest I learn something every day about it. But, today, we are going to be focusing on just a small part. An easy task for you to get started with. And it is something that a lot of new bloggers overlook. Keywords and Alt tags on pictures.
Now, I know I just said that it is just a small part that we are focusing on, but really Keywords are a very big part of SEO.
KeyWords – The Long and Short of It
Keywords are simple words that are the subject of your blog. Like this blog, my keyword is SEO. Now, I know there are a million different blogs out there that use that exact Keyword and I am just a small fish in that gigantic pond. But it is the keyword that best describes this post
Definition of Keyword
Key·word/ˈkēˌwərd/noun plural noun: keywords
- a word or concept of great significance.”homes and jobs are the keywords in the campaign”
- a word that acts as the key to a cipher or code.
- an informative word used in an information retrieval system to indicate the content of a document.
As you see above a keyword gives a lot of meaning to your post and that is what people search for when they are looking for something on the internet even on my favorite Pinterest. When you go to look for something on google you put in a simple word or phrase. Like “how to blog” those phrases are called long-tail keywords. There are many other keywords in this post. But my main one is SEO, long-tail keywords, and alt text.
How do you use them?
This is where it gets a little more confusing. But really it is all about research. One of my favorite things to do. There are some great tools out there to help you out. I have some favorites that I use to research. Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest, Google’s Keyword planner are two of the big ones. But I have more. I use Pinterest and Youtube. I know sounds weird. But both of those are two of my absolute favorites.
I know you may be asking how can you do keyword research on Pinterest or Youtube? But really it is so simple and gives you so much information. I want you to go over to Pinterest and I want you to type in something you are looking for a subject such as “How do you do Keto”.
Look at the list that came up for that little phrase. Those are long-tail keywords that you can use on your blog post. It is fun to do and find all the great things that people are actually looking for. You can do the same thing on google and on YouTube.
This is YouTube and looks at the great keyword options for a keto blog. This is great for all bloggers. You find the information for what people are looking for. It gives you the questions in which people are searching for answers. Play with it and learn while you experiment with your questions or your topic.
Now onto Ubersuggest. This is a great resource for all your website needs it. It gives you so much information. It gives you other blogs that write on the subject you are writing on. Articles that you can use for your research, also ones that you can backlink to. But it can give you the difficulty of getting ranked with that keyword.
Keyword for SEO in Image Alt Text
So how and why do you use them in pictures? That is where the alt text comes in. What is alt text?
“Alt text is used to describe to search engines what the image is showing, allowing search engines to give users better results when performing an image search. Alt text is a great place to include your main keyword to improve your image search ranking for that term”
https://www.yola.com/blog/what-is-alt-text-and-why-do-your-photos-need-it/
When you are using alt text on your pictures use the keywords that you are using for your blog post. If you are using a keyword like Ketogenic Meal plan then incorporated that in your alt text on your pictures. Also, use other keywords such as Ketogenic Diet, Keto Diet and if you are using a food picture like Lasagna use Keto Lasagna, this way it optimizes your keywords and gives you more or your keywords on your site to be ranked on the major search engines.
But I want you to remember this don’t overuse keywords. Don’t use them for every blog post you do. The search engines will penalize you for that. And don’t stuff your blog posts with keywords that don’t have anything to do with the post you are writing just because you see they are popular in your niche. You want your post to flow naturally. Work your keywords in to flow smoothly and sense.
So How Do You Use Keywords
If you look at his blog post my keywords are easy to see I use the word SEO, and Keywords and Seach Engines on this blog post. Now, if you go into Google Keywords you will find that I have long-tail keyword also. That short phrase right there is a keyword. It will slowly start ranking on Google. I don’t have the search engines actually ranking this site yet. But my other blog ranks for Keto and Speed Keto. But that is after six months of working really hard on it.
When you are researching your blog post go to each one of those Keyword planners I mention above. Also use Pinterest, YouTube and just type your subject in the search bar of your google or chrome search bar. Write down what comes up. Those all are all long-tail keyword results. I’m a little nerdy with keyword research, I do a whole spreadsheet for each of my posts in either excel or google sheets, but you can just use a notebook which is another place I record them.
Now look on Ubersuggest and check where they rank. Use the ones that are in the middle not high competition and not low but the medium. Pick the 5 that fits the content that makes the most sense and weave them into your content so that flows effortlessly and doesn’t sound like you are just sticking in there.
Where Do you Use Your SEO Keywords
The best places to use your target Keyword
- Title of your post
- First sentence or paragraph of your blog post
- In the headings of your post
- Use it at least once per section of your post
I will go more into detail about this as this blog grows but try those simple tricks and see how your rank slowly grows.
So the top mistakes that new bloggers seem to do:
- Overusing keywords
- Not using keywords on there images alt text
- Stuffing keywords where they don’ t need them
- Not researching their keywords
So if your not sure what to blog about or even what you’re going to blog about check out this post, it will help you find your passion also pick up your #166 Niche Ideas.
Now, remember this is a very basic article on SEO. There is a lot more to SEO than just finding keywords and I will delve into SEO more. But this gets you started so that you are using SEO from article number one that you put on your blog site. And it doesn’t matter what type of site you are doing, whether it be a book review site, or makeup, or travel you want to work SEO into it.