RSS Feeds: Getting Back Into The Groove
My wife departed on Philippine Airlines flight number 102 last night at approximately 10 pm. She's now at the Los Angeles domestic terminal for United Airlines, waiting on her flight to Phoenix.
The UV SEO Series – Part Five – Keywords
In part one of "The UV SEO Series", I introduced the series. In part two, I wrote about having one website address. In part three, I wrote about internal linking strategies. In part four, I emphasized meta descriptions and meta tags. Today, I'm going to give you some ideas about keywords, keyword density and keyword placement.
The UV SEO Series – Part Four – Meta
In part one of "The UV SEO Series", I introduced the series. In part two, I wrote about having one website address. In part three, I wrote about internal linking strategies. Today, I'm going to emphasize meta descriptions and meta tags.
Website Review: Nomadic Matt's Travel Site
This is an unusual website. I like unusual websites because they're not boring. "Nomadic Matt's Travel Site is far from boring.
Number One without a Bullet
Before I do something silly and completely reasonable and explain the meaning of the post title, I want to impart to you some of my infinite (and often misguided) wisdom. Getting to number one in the search results (SERPS) of any search engine is easy. Getting to number one in the SERPS for a word or a phrase that people are actually searching for is hard, extremely hard. Unless you're working a particular niche, results can be unexpected.
Gain Control of WordPress Meta Information and More with HeadSpace
Those of you who know me, know I wouldn't recommend a WordPress plugin that isn't worth using. HeadSpace is not only worth using, it's worth using immediately.
Stuffing Slugs, Titles and Content with Keywords
No, not that kind of slug! The kind of slug I'm talking about is what WordPress calls a post URL. Lin of "Telling It Like It Is" recently requested an article explaining what keyword stuffing is, but I'm going a little deeper and talking about stuffing slugs, titles and content with keywords. Since I'm not an expert on search engine optimization, I'll point you to a few good places to read about the techniques.
Keyword Stuffing in the Content
If you read Google's page on keyword stuffing, you'll find that keyword stuffing in a bad way will get you into serious search engine trouble. What's the bad way? I don't have a good example of my own, but Matt Cutts posted a great example, "SEO tip: Avoid keyword stuffing", in July of 2007.
You can still stuff keywords and key phrases in the content of a post, but it has to be appropriate and contextual. While there isn't any kind of measuring stick for the number of times you can use them, you can be assured that if it looks spammy, it probably is. You can surround them with "strong" tags (the Googlebot likes it), but making them bold shouldn't detract from readability. I'm no expert, but I've achieved good results for many of my articles.
Keyword Stuffing In Slugs and Titles
Michael Gray recently wrote a great article on optimizing WordPress page titles, post titles and page slugs, but I'd previously read Chris Lodge's advice on how to use the power of the slug to increase search engine traffic. Michael's article was a bit more in-depth.
Brian Clark (not Bryan Clark) asked, "Do Keywords in Post Titles Really Matter?", as part of his series on "Magnetic Headlines" and explained why they do. This is another good article to take your time in reading.
All of these articles tell you how to stuff keywords in slugs and titles, but they don't tell you not to overstuff them. I've actually seen overstuffed slugs and titles, usually on spam and scraper blogs. How long can a URL be? I don't remember the limitation, but it's pretty long and longer than most humans will ever need. The same applies to strings used for titles. Will you get penalized for using irrelevant or repetitive keywords in the slug or title? I don't know, but why take the chance?
Update: See Shorten Your Blog Post URLs So You Don’t Look Spammy to Google for the answer from Matt Cutts.
Conclusion
Like I said before, I'm no expert on search engine optimization, but it seems to me that repeating relevant keywords and key phrases in all 3 places (the slug, the title and the content but not within the slug and within the title) is the easiest way to make your posts rise in the search engines. If the rankings for certain keyword combinations of my personal guide to proper post titles are indicators, I'd say it works extremely well. Check this out:
- Number 1 for "personal guide proper post titles", "guide proper post titles", "personal post titles", proper post titles"
- Number 2 for "personal guide proper", "guide post titles"
- Number 5 for "proper titles"
- Number 6 for "proper post"
I didn't check any more than those. The results sufficiently prove my point. Stuffing slugs, titles and content with keywords works, but only if it's done the right way and if there isn't too much competition.
(Slug image source: Calling all slug stories at OregonLive.com. Badge image source: Paid Links – The Solution at TwentySteps. Okay, so the badge is about paid links, but it's about the same guy and I like it, so there!)
A Personal Guide To Proper Post Titles
In response to a comment left by Lin of "Telling It Like It Is" and the anticipation expressed by Troy of "The Free Website Project", I'm providing you with my personal guide to proper post titles.
The reason I'm calling it a personal guide is because proper post titles are as unique as the articles or posts they represent. Therefore, my guide is not for everyone; it's only for those who don't have a clue to what they're doing. What may be proper for me may not be proper for you.
