We had a great turn out on Tuesday night for the Virginia Bloggers SEO Seminar with Key Web Concepts! Ashley was the perfect liaison between Key Web and Virginia Bloggers and the event turned out to be so much fun!
Saison Market (a new market attached to Saison restaurant) graciously offered to host us. They provided us with some really delicious food. There was no room for boring food! The pimento cheese with kimchi was my personal favorite.
Gavin, one of the awesomely-smart guys from Key Web Concepts, did an amazing job breaking down the (somewhat confusing) topic of SEO for bloggers and I thought I’d share some of the takeaways! I am far from an SEO expert, so I’m not pretending to have all the answers, but I’m eager to learn more!
SEO Tips for Bloggers
- Link to other relevant sources! If you know the basics of SEO, you probably know that when people link to your site, it helps your ranking. But did you know that linking to other relevant sites can also help? It’s almost like paying it forward 😉
- Headers aren’t just for looks. Not going to lie, I thought the difference in header text was just for aesthetics, but it’s actually like a hierarchy of your content! It gives the little search engine “crawlers” a way to determine what’s important in your post.
- It’s not all about keywords. That’s an “old” way of thinking. Metadata (as in, your URL, title, & description) are much more important. It’s good to know where to focus my efforts!
- Don’t let text go to waste. Tag your photos, both in the description and alt text, with information related to your post. Your header, your link, and obviously your content all play a part in creating searchable content.
- Consider the bounce rate. How long someone stays on your page can have an impact on your search ranking. Think about how to break up your content so it’s bite sized and people will stick around to read it. Think about when you’ve googled something and landed on a page that was just solid pages of text. It seems too difficult to find your answer, so you click back and try something else. Headers, bullets, and numbered lists can make it easier for people to stay and digest your content.
P.S. A couple of people e-mailed me saying they missed the announcement. Please make sure that you’re subscribed to the blog via e-mail, which you can do by adding your e-mail address to the box on the right hand side bar over there —>
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Thanks to Key Web Concepts, Ashley, and Saison Market for making this event happen!
–Liz
Really cool tips for bloggers! I found it so useful. As a starter I am so keen on learning about the bloggers experience and their way of work to get engaged!