a "first steps cheat sheet" for people who've got a weblog or website, "but never gave search much thought". They describe it as a "short how-to listing with basic tips on search engine-friendly design".
It lists things yous tin do which may "help Google inwards add-on to others meliorate sympathise the content inwards add-on to increase your site’s visibility".
You tin honor it here. (It's a one-page PDF file).
The Webmaster Central post where it was announced said to "read it, print it, component it, imitate inwards add-on to distribute it" - thence I'm going to tell yous how the points listed apply to Blogger users.
One caveat: As I've explained previously, SEO (aka search engine-friendly design) is totally irrelevant for some bloggers. Unless yous know that beingness institute inwards search-engines is important for your blog, inwards add-on to thence please don't waste materials materials whatever to a greater extent than 4th dimension on this.
But if yous do depend on Google (or Yahoo, Bing, etc) to choose visitors to your blog, read on, inwards add-on to thence these are the showtime things that Google suggest yous should shout out back about.
I've divided them into iii sections:
- Looking practiced inwards the search results
- Helping Google to sympathise your pictures
- Update inwards add-on to maintain going.
Looking practiced inwards the search results
Blog address
Make for certain that your blog's URL is "descriptive inwards add-on to easy-to-read".The URL is the blog's website address: you selection out it when yous showtime pose the weblog up, but yous tin alter it over in i trial again after if yous involve to, using Settings > Basic > Publishing inwards the Blogger dashboard
Many people recommend using a custom domain because it await more professional person someone inwards add-on to similar a real website. But the same "descriptive inwards add-on to tardily to read" guideline matters fifty-fifty if yous business office a blogspot.com address.
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| An trial search-engine results page - if your weblog looks practiced here, inwards add-on to thence it testament acquire to a greater extent than visitors. |
Overall weblog entitle inwards add-on to description
Your weblog Title should "Describe your ... [blog very] concise[ly]."Your blog's Description should "Describe your ... [blog] inwards a concise, informative phrase."
You tin edit these under Settings > Basic > Basic inwards the Blogger dashboard.
I ordinarily build the entitle check the blog's URL (viz / / Blogger-hints-and-tips) - but it tin alive on a picayune longer, maybe virtually five words.
Blogger lets yous build the description upwards to 500 characters long, but I ordinarily recommend less than this - a maximum of 160 is better.
Post entitle inwards add-on to descriptions
Each post inwards add-on to page needs a entitle that is concise inwards add-on to informative.
You pose the entitle inwards the Post-editor, when yous are showtime writing a post. And yous tin alter inwards add-on to thence after yesteryear times editing the post over in i trial again after it has been published.
Some people suggest using a catchy phrase that people are in all likelihood to component on Facebook, Twitter etc for the showtime calendar calendar week after yous free a post, inwards add-on to in addition to thence changing it to a to a greater extent than descriptive phrase (which looks meliorate inwards search results) after that.
Post descriptions
Meta descriptions are page summaries which are ofttimes used yesteryear times search engines to describe your weblog on the search-result listings.
- Going to Settings > Search preferences > Meta-tags inwards the blogger dashboard.
- Choosing the choosing "yes" radio button
- Putting the overall summary for the whole weblog into the text field. (I recommend the same 1 from Settings > Basic > Basic) into the text field
- Clicking Save changes
Once Descriptions are turned on, at that spot testament alive on a Search Description entry inwards the right-hand Post-settings expanse each 4th dimension yous edit a post. Write a small (160 characters or less) unique description for each post into this.
Help Google sympathise images
File names
Before yous load a motion painting to your blog (or to a photo-hosting service similar Picasa-web-albums or Google+ Photos), give it a short, descriptive file name.For example, I precisely made the covert shot that I used inwards the previous section, inwards add-on to called the file "seo-basics-meta-description-field-blogger-post-editor.png"
Tagging
Google's canvass precisely says to Use an “alt” inwards add-on to "title" tag to describes the picture. I've described this inwards exceptional previously - see Telling Google, inwards add-on to visually impaired people, virtually your picturesYou tin also business office the "add caption" feature (on the tool-bar when yous hover over the motion painting inwards the post-editor) to add together together a small caption describing the picture.
Put information inwards text, non precisely pictures
Look over in i trial again at the motion painting that I used inwards the previous section. When I was making it, I spot the 160-characters-long proposition right inside the picture. This is useful for readers who run into to a greater extent than exceptional inwards the photos than the text. But it's no practiced for search engines: Google is clever, but it's nonetheless non clever enough to extract reliably the important from text yous ain got photographed.So I made for certain that the 160-character advice was inwards the text, as practiced as inwards the picture.
Update inwards add-on to maintain going
Lots of people start a blog, inwards add-on to in addition to thence acquire discouraged because it's non successful at nowadays away.
But this is a big mistake. Domain age, ie how long yous ain got had the website address for, is 1 chemical ingredient that search-engines choose describe organisation human human relationship of. Even if yous don't acquire many visitors inwards the showtime year, the fact that your weblog has been going for a yr inwards add-on to yous are nonetheless posting to it makes it attractive to Google.
So Google's final while of advice is to keep going, inwards add-on to to free new posts on your blog on an on-going basis.
Influenza A virus subtype Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 few final words from me
Google's advice is a practiced starting point. The bottom of their cheat-sheet links to various other practiced sources too:- Google SEO Getting Started guide (a much longer inwards add-on to to a greater extent than detailed version of the cheatsheet)
- Webmaster Academy (a series of instructional videos)
- Webmaster Tools - an online utility that yous tin business office to stair inwards add-on to diagnose SEO issues with your site.
These resources are all practiced - but they aren't targeted to Blogger users, thence sometimes they recommend changes to things we cannot alter (eg URL-structrue), or they entirely explicate things inwards non-Blogger ways. So read them, but don't acquire to worried if yous cannot spot all their advice into practise. SEO is 1 of those areas where fifty-fifty doing some of what is recommended tin assist a lot.
There are virtually a zillion websites offering SEO advice likewise - precisely google inwards add-on to yous testament honor them. Look for ones that are up-to-date (the SEO "rules of the game" alter often), inwards add-on to ain got lots of positive comments.
Keyword: You testament run into lots of SEO advice virtually keyword research. Google do ain got a gratis keywords tool - but it looks similar it's going away - thence don't acquire hooked on using it. Overall, my advice is to ignore this for a actually long 4th dimension inwards your blogging: focus on writing content that your blog-visitors testament wishing to read, describe it inwards interesting ways, inwards add-on to the keywords testament await after themselves.
Related Articles:
Telling Google, inwards add-on to visually impaired people, virtually your pictures
Using Blogger to build a real website
Editing a blog-post that yous ain got already published
How to spot a motion painting into a blog-post
Introduction to Picasa inwards add-on to Picasa-web-albums