Search engine optimization may sound like a daunting phrase to those of us lacking expertise, but like it or not, adherence to simple elements of this discipline will reap rewards. Search engine optimization for the less informed really means that a site has to comply with certain internal and external requirements set by owners of the major search engines in order for one's web site to show up in web searches. It feels really awful when no one is visiting one's site. I mean no one.
I found The Beginners Guide To SEO this morning and am astonished that Moz is giving it away free. To be honest, I read about five chapters in between writing a post on backlinking analysis on this blog.
PROS
The e - book is:
- written in simple language
- easy to understand
- well organized
- provides the foundation necessary for Search Engine Optimization.
There is a well written introduction which defines the term and also explains that search engines cannot interpret a site unless it is optimized. Moz is careful to explain that sites such as blogs must certainly be optimized for human search as they are the reason for their existence.
An aside - rant and rave
In my opinion, definition of the site structure should play a role in search and this seems to be overlooked by search engine owners. The optimum site structure for search engine crawling should be tested and updated in a relevant manner. When a book is created for example, a table of contents gives the reader an easy navigation map. Tables of content with many sub headings provide the easiest means of navigation.
If by site map one refers to a tree structure as in table of contents, one may well be able to reorganize the structure of site maps if they can be crawled by the search engines.
This is how I implemented a simple silo structure on this blog:
- Start at the About Page.
- This page contains a list of the main blog themes.
- Each theme is hyperlinked to a Page bearing the same name.
- About page lists the main theme How To Optimize Your Blog.
- I created an EXACT matching page called ; How To Optimize Your Blog.
- The post How To Retain Humans And Search Engines On Blogger With Related Posts was then written.
- A label with the same name as the theme was ascribed to the post. The label is located at the post footer.
- The post title was added back to the page How To Optimize Your Blog with a hyperlink. Note that post titles be placed in the relevant area in the list regardless of when the post was written.
- Related Posts widget was added to allow for interlinking. Some proponents recommend adding a link to the previous post on the current post page, but that might be exhausting for a beginner. The Related Posts widget takes care of interlinking pretty well
- I kept the theme consistent throughout in order to make it easy to find content later since there is a list of posts in the table of content. WordPress allows tagging, but since I interpreted labels in Blogger to mean category, I added only one keyword here. I tried to find a blogspot template or plugin that follows the silo structure, but none so far.
- The advantage of using this rigid approach is that only the posts in the label show up when the label is searched. This is a true example of theming.
To implement in WordPress, Pages and Categories should be named exactly alike and the list of posts entered on the Category page. Each link should then point to the respective post. I wish I had known that when I started WordPress.com, because I cannot find many of my posts with that WordPress search engine.
Now this confirms the need for blog and search engine to be married in terms of how they are structured and search.
I recommend:
- On site table of contents structure to allow easy and logical navigation by humans and search engines alike. The silo method makes sense to me. This speaks to the need for software developers to build content management software in a manner that allows the user to readily implement this approach.
- Moz confirms my view in an article on internal linking
- On site index should be designed like an index. Is that the same as a table of contents structure? Sadly, many site maps that I have seen do not make much sense as they simply present the content as it appears or in a chronological order. Are the software designers building comprehensible indices that follow a logical, readable order?
- I am certainly no engineer or expert, but in my opinion, search engine companies, especially the major ones, need to test and test to see what is ideal content organization and lead the way in informing the public about best practices so that themes and plugins can be developed to match. Their own algorithms and crawling patterns should therefore follow the same logical approach. After all, we are here to build a world in which information is presented in an accessible, user friendly manner.
- Finally, I would like to ask Google if Blogger could be optimized with the necessary header tags to allow us to write for the search engines. I would be so grateful. Also the text editor is sadly lacking in features and needs to be replaced or updated.
- Google, is there any way in which widgets can be integrated into the post area of Blogger? In order to make any interesting additions to posts, I have to resort to hours of hunting for relevant tool. Much appreciated. I must say though, that the deficiency does much for creativity.
Oops. Back to Moz
Moz (2015), explains that search engine optimization is:
,,, a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines.
With that said, the e - book contains ten chapters of juicy information to include explanations of how search engine operate, human interaction with search engines, the importance of search engine marketing, how to conduct keyword research, how to grow popularity and links.
Please click on the
The Beginners Guide To SEO to download and read it. You may very well be the two millionth and one person to do so. I believe I was the two millionth. Ha.
