Improve your blog’s SEO

image credit: seo-vip.net

How to improve your blog’s SEO

This post is a little different to my usual posts. Recently I have been learning a lot about SEO, so I thought I would post some helpful tips on how to improve your blog’s SEO

If you have a blog, read blogs, follow people (who write blogs) on twitter etc. then most likely you would have seen people talking about their blog’s SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’. SEO is basically there to measure or improve your blog’s visibility on internet search engines. If you blog comes up on the first two pages of a search engine, you are doing well. According to Optimisation Australia- “93% of users don’t look further than the first 2 pages of search results” and “85% of all people find websites by using search engines”. If you have little or know information of how SEO works, then getting your blog to appear in those first two pages, is easier said than done.

With some helpful tips, I will show you how to improve your blog’s SEO and attract more views to your blog.

New wordpress SEO plugin- Currently there is a SEO plugin available to self hosted blogs that use wordpress.org called WordPress SEO by yoast  it uses on-page content analysis (where you edit your posts) to ‘check’ if you have the best optimisation possible. I have been using this plugin for over a week now and I think it’s great! How it works- you choose a ‘focus keyword’ or phrase that you want your post to be found by. WordPress SEO will pick up where that focus keyword or phrase appears in your post. Above the ‘publish’ button there is a dot. This dot will appear as one of three colours. Red= your post will be hard to find on search engines and your focus keyword needs to appear more times (and places on your post), Yellow= Optimisation is OK, but could be improved and Green= great SEO, it will be easier to find your blog on a search engine, your focus keywords appear throughout (including in the post url and title) and your post is easily read.

 For bloggers that don’t use wordpress.org– I will explain further…SEO is all about keyword placement and how many times (and where) that keyword or keywords appear on your blog post.

Here are a few tips (with examples) on how you can improve your blog’s SEO  –

(keywords highlighted in bold letters)

1. Place the keyword/s in the title

eg.  ‘Mascara Monday: Australis Lash Length Extensions Mascara

2. Place the keywords in the post’s URL

eg. http://www.cottoncandydiva.com/2012/03/27/mascara-monday-australislashlengthextensionsmascara/

3. Placing the keywords in the first paragraph of the post-

eg. “Australis Lash Length Extensions MascaraLash Length Extensions mascara is the newest addition to the AustralisMascara All Sorts’ range, it has a thin brush to reach and separate every lash, with ‘fibers’ that attach themselves to your lashes, giving the appearance of longer lashes”.

4. Place your keywords a few times throughout the content (but not too many times or it will be overkill) the wordpress plugin suggests using it in about 4% of your overall post.

5. Having a creative title for a post that doesn’t tell you what the post is about, won’t be any help to your SEO. The simpler it is, the better.

eg. someone is searching how to create a smokey eye look, here’s the blog post titles

– ‘How to create a smokey eye look, using grey eyeliner’ This title is too wordy and it will be harder to find on search engines because the keywords are not together.

-‘ Grey smokey eye tutorial’ This title is simple, straight to the point and would be found more easily if your focus keywords are ‘grey smokey eye’, as all the words appear directly after each other.

 

Tip for choosing the right keyword/s: Put yourself in the shoes of the person that is using the search engine. What do they want to look for? How would they describe what they are searching for? Not everyone knows phrases or beauty ‘terms’ used by bloggers. Type in what you would search for. Then simplify it, use less words…And there is your keyword or key phrase.

 

I hope this post has been helpful, I would love to hear your thoughts

xoxo Cotton Candy Diva

 

My Christmas wishlist

I know this post is a little self indulgent….a little? OK it is totally self indulgent, but I would like to share two lists of items that I’ve had my eye on for a while or have seen recently and loved. Here is my Christmas wishlist

Why two?..One is a list of items that I can (and might buy for myself) or that I may hint at my family to buy me for Christmas. The other list will be of items I would like, but will only dream of them because they are a little too extravagant.

List #1

1. Mariah Carey Lollipop Bling Trio Set $39.99, from Chemist Warehouse– This was something I had wanted last year for Christmas, but it was $99! The trio consists of the 3 lollipop bling scents that were released last year. ‘Honey’ (Yellow), ‘Mine Again’ (Red) and ‘Ribbon’ (Blue/pink) all 30ml bottles. While I love all the scents, it was the cute ‘gumball’ packaging that won me over.

2. Salt & Pepper Nutcracker Footed Cake Plate 12cm with Glass dome $17.95, from David Jones– I am pretty sure, 99% sure that I will end up buying this myself, it’s so cute and I already know where I would put it/do with it. I have this white tea tray on a stand that I purchased a few months ago, I would put the cake plate on that and I thought it would look great with some (my favourite) Macarons on it.

3. Hello Kitty Giant Pez dispenser $17.99, from Priceline-As soon as I saw this in Priceline, I wanted one…I’ve always loved Pez and have never seen giant dispensers before. They come in a box with a few packets of (regular sized, I wish they were giant too) Pez candies. There are also Buzz Lightyear and Spongebob ones available.

4. ‘Above’ Fuchsia wedges $39.95 from , Spend-less shoes– Wait…that’s right I already bought these and even though I have, I thought that they deserved a mention. If I hadn’t already bought them, they would be on this list anyway. I loved the colour and they are supper comfy on…though, that may change after I’ve worn them for a whole day.

5. Anything from the Lindt Lindor range especially the milk chocolate or white Lindor– What can I say…Lindt Lindor is my most favourite chocolate ever! It’s so smooth and creamy, a little piece of heaven!

List #2

1. Coral Blush and Cream Stripe, Striped Bow Skirt $69.99 from Forever New– I love this skirt it is so pretty and feminine. At $69.99 it’s not that expensive, but it’s not something I can afford right now.

2. Sanyo VPC-GH1 Pink Digital Video Camera $299 from Camera House– While I am hoping to get a HD video camera after/for Chrismas, this is a bit out of my (and Mum & Dad’s) price range I love that it’s baby pink, it fits with ‘Cotton Candy’

3. Coco Chanel Mademoiselle Eau De Purfume 100mls $234 from Myer– This is one of the perfumes that I love, but will most likely never own…unless i win a lottery or get rich some how haha

4. A pair of Christian Loubutin shoes, ‘Discuita’ $1295 from David Jones– I did say extravagant! Yes they are really expensive for one pair of shoes, but nothing can compare to the design and trademark red sole of a pair of Loubuitins!

5. Tiffany & Co. Shopping bag charm and Chain $305 for the charm and $70 for the chain, from Tiffany & Co.– As a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn and the movie Breakfast at Tiffanys, it’s only natural that I would want something that comes in the famous little blue box. I love this little shopping bag because it’s cute, is the trademark blue and serves as a kind of memento of shopping at Tiffanys.

What would be on your ‘extravagant’ wish list?

xoxo Cotton Candy Diva

all images that appear in this post are copyright by the stores/websites in which they appear on.