The Importance of Good Search Engine Optimization Darlene started writing a blog a year ago. She faithfully writes a new post every week in which she talks about her work as a fitness trainer. She offers a lot of valuable training tips in her articles, and the people who read her blog comment on how informative it is.
The problem is that very few people reading it. And the reason is that Darlene doesn’t understand the importance of good search engine optimization.
What is search engine optimization? Search engines like Google and Yahoo! help people find information online that is relative to the search inquiries they make.
When you do a Google search for “tips on how to slim my waist” you want to be sent to a website that will give you good advice on how to go about trimming your waistline. You don’t want to be sent to a website that has information about different types of diets, but no specific information on reducing waistlines.
The search engines want to send people to sites relative to their requests. So they scan websites and search for relative keywords or phrases.
The scanners they use, called spiders, are not able to actually read websites with understanding. But they are intelligent enough to look for keywords and phrases. They will also check to see if the article being scanned uses additional related words or phrases.
Now let’s see how this works. Darlene has been in the habit of giving her articles titles that have nothing to do with the subject she is writing about. For instance, she recently wrote a really compelling article about how she helped a client get rid of the flab under her arms. The trouble is she named the post “Working with Mary.”
Do you see the problem? When the spiders scanned her title they had no way of knowing the article was about reducing flabby arms. If, on the other hand, she would have named her article: “How to Get Rid of Arm Flab” she would have had a much better chance of showing up in Google.
Now titles alone do not make up good search engine optimization. It is also important that Darlene’s article delivers the information promised in the title. The spiders will check to make sure the keywords, in this case, “get rid of arm flab” also show up in the body of the article.
In addition, these spiders are sophisticated enough to understand that Darlene’s article is about physical fitness. Therefore they will look for related words or phrases. They will check for words or phrases like “exercise”, “physical fitness”, “work-out” and “diet.”
As long as an article is written about the subject of the title, there should never be a problem with relative words and phrases. They will be used naturally if the article stays on the subject.
Using good search engine optimization is one of the best ways to make your blog stand out in the search engines. Don’t make the same mistake Darlene made — make sure people can find your blog or website!
