Here’s Why Search Engine Optimization Is So Important
If I’m being perfectly honest, I still don’t really understand what SEO is.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through search results. If you typed “theme parks” into Google, I guarantee that Walt Disney World would be the first search result. This article explains that SEO works by “using a crawler that goes out and gathers information about all the content they can find on the internet.” Then, like every social media app, Google and other search engines use an algorithm that correlates with your recent searches and the data that is found. That’s pretty much the basic definition, but let’s jump a little deeper.
Keywords Are The Key To Success
Being specific is like The Golden Rule for SEO success. If I wrote a blog post about books I read because I liked the Harry Potter series, I would want to have a specific keyword phrase. Using “books” as the keyword phrase would not make my blog post successful because I would be competing with millions of other search results for the top spot. Therefore, my keyword phrase should be something along the lines of “books to read if you like Harry Potter.”
These longer and more specific phrases are known as longtail keywords. Longtail keywords allow other people who are looking for your specific topic to find you and your blog. To learn more about longtail keywords, check out this article.
Links Will Link Others To You!
Integrating links to other articles in your blog posts is a great way to lead people to your other content. This is called internal linking. The purpose of internal linking, in summary, is to aid in website navigation and strengthen the overall search-optimized value of your website. But how do you even begin to internally link?
Start by creating some killer content. In order to create a ton of internal links, you have to have a ton of pages to link to! The more links to the more places, the better your internal linking strategy will be. There’s more to learn about internal linking strategies here.
Mobile Friendly SEO Is Your New Best Friend
Have you ever caught yourself skimming articles on your phone more than on your laptop or tablet? There’s a reason for that; studies have shown that people are more task oriented on their mobile devices they always have, like cell phones. Because of this, your content should be snackable, a phrase used in this article meaning that your content should be easy to consume in small pieces.
A few ways to create snackable content is by keeping it short and big. I’m talking 10 words or less and 18 point font. I don’t know about you, but my ADHD gets heightened when I get to reading Buzzfeed articles. I’m drawn in by the big font and three word title. With roughly 85% of the American working class going undiagnosed with ADHD, this is definitely going to work out in your favor.
SEO can be intimidating at first, but it’s nothing to stress about! I’ve done the research for you, but read the links and test it yourself!
