Blogspot SEO -2022

 

HTML Code & Search Engine Success Factors

These elements in the Periodic Table of SEO Factors encompass the HTML tags that you should be using to send clues to search engines about your content and enable that content to render quickly.

Are you describing movie showtimes? Do you have ratings and reviews on your e-commerce pages? What’s the headline of the article you’ve published? In every case, there’s a way to communicate this with HTML.

Tt: Titles

HTML titles have always been and remain the most important HTML signal that search engines use to understand what a page is about. Your titles convey what your pages are about to users as well as search engines, so it’s important that they are unique and descriptive.

Titles are specified through the HTML title tag. This is typically what shows as the clickable link in a search result. Your titles should be concise, accurately reflect your page’s content and feature the keywords you wish to rank for — without keyword stuffing (a Toxin).

There might be times when search engines opt to present searchers with another title if they deem it more appropriate and descriptive. To increase the odds of the title you created getting shown to searchers, consider the terms you want your page to be found for, then use those terms in an accurate, unique title.

[Pro Tip]

“In most cases, Google will use the title in the meta description for their snippets, but sometimes they don’t and we’re seeing that if they don’t like the title for one reason or another, they would pick the H1 [instead]. 

A page can rank for a lot of different terms and when somebody’s searching for something, that title might not be a good fit . . . That’s the main driver for Google to be overriding what you do on the titles and the snippets — because the snippet that is going to come up is not going to be a great match for this specific query.

That’s why the idea of ‘Oh, you have to have exactly the same title as the H1,’ makes no sense. It’s better to have them different so that you’re giving Google a better backup. So, when users search, Google can use the title, but if they’re searching for secondary terms — because a page can rank for hundreds of keywords — they can use the H1 as a backup.” -Hamlet Batista, CEO and founder of RankSense.

Ds: Descriptions

The meta description tag is an HTML element that can be used to suggest how you’d like your pages to be described in the search listings. Descriptions to appear below the headlines in the search results. 

Although it is not technically a ranking factor, it’s a “success” factor. Adding a well-crafted description can help entice users to click your result over the others on the page.

As with titles, the search engines may not always pick the description you provide. 

“I think we have a very similar approach to Google in the sense that we will pick something that is not your official description if we think it better represents your document or your page,” says F Dubut, senior program manager lead for Bing.

“My top advice would be, if you want your own title and your own description to be used in the search results, make sure that they are really representative of what the document is about.”

“Don’t try to go out of your way to even just slightly misrepresent things,” Dubut advises. “If we think your title and description, as written in your meta tag, are not 100% accurate of what your page is about, then that’s when the system is going to look very closely at other parts of your document and going to extract a caption that it thinks is more relevant.”

St: Structure

“Structured data gives search engines a better understanding of the content on your page,” Jessica Bowman, owner of enterprise SEO consultancy SEOIn-house, explains, adding, “For users, it enhances the listing to give them more insight into what’s available on that page. From a brand perspective, it gives eye candy.” 

Structured data is a code format that lets you tell the search engines what your content is about in their one “language.” Specific schema markup (code) can make it easy for search engines to digest and understand the page content and structure. Bowman says SEOs need to master how to properly implement schema on their sites wherever appropriate.

The result of structured data often translates into what Google calls a “rich snippet,” a search listing that has extra bells and whistles that make it more attractive and useful to users.

“Structured data are tremendous for search results, because your result can be filled with rich media, images, pricing information, ratings and so on — and in a carousel versus just the blue link,” says Detlef Johnson. 

For example, let’s say you run a music publication. One of your articles is a review of Taylor Swift’s album 1989. Using structured data markup, you can inform search engines that you’re referring to an album and not the year 1989. 

Although the use of structured data is not a direct ranking factor, it may yield some advantages on the search results page. Compared to standard search results, rich results offer additional information or functionality that may be more attractive or useful to users. Rich results often appear prominently on the results page, which can increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your content. 

There is concern that rich results eliminate the incentive for users to click through to your page, which limits marketing opportunities. All other factors being equal, a rich result is still more likely to get clicks than a standard result.

Hd: Headings

Headings are a hierarchical way to organize and identify key sections of your content. A page will typically have a headline. Behind the scenes, in the HTML code, the headline is wrapped in an H1 tag. This page has a headline and several sub-headings to break up the copy into sections. Those sub-headings use H2 tags, the next “level” down from H1 tags. 

Wrapping your headings in header tags is what generates the special formatting. For example, the name of this section, “Hd: Headings” is wrapped in an H2 HTML tag, as follows: <h2>Hd: Headings</h2>.

“You have to first think about the experience of the user — how do headings improve it?” Hamlet Batista, CEO and founder of SEO platform RankSense, says. “If you just put a blurb of text from start to finish, it’s going to be very difficult for the user to read and follow it. That’s what the purpose of headings are: to make sure that you can quickly scan the page, understand what it is about and even know whether you want to spend the time to read it completely.”

Using multiple H1 tags (or none at all) is not going to trip up Google’s algorithms, Webmaster Trends Analyst John Muller has said. However, he also notes that having clear, semantic headings is useful for search engines to understand pages and makes your content more accessible to users. 

It is good practice to use keywords your H1s and H2s to give search engines a better idea of what your page is about. Do not spam your headings with keywords. Use them to make your content easy for users and search engines to navigate.

CLS: Content Shift

As Google has removed the AMP requirement, we’ve gotten rid of that element and added two new ones: Image ALT (ALT) and Content Shift (CLS). Content Shift (CLS) focuses on the elements of visual stability. Cumulative
Layout Shift, which is part of the Core Web Vitals and overall page experience update, refers to unexpected changes in a page’s layout as it loads — it’s annoying for users at a minimum and can cause real damage depending on the severity of the shift and content of the page.

“Have you ever been reading an article online when something suddenly changes on the page? Without warning, the text moves, and you’ve lost your place. Or even worse: you’re about to tap a link or a button, but in the instant before your finger lands—BOOM—the link moves, and you end up clicking something else! Most of the time these kinds of experiences are just annoying, but in some cases, they can cause real damage,” said Philip Walton, Engineer at Google, and Milica Mihajlija, Chroiumum Developer. To provide the best user experience, Google recommends a CLS score of 0.1 or less.

ALT: Image ALT

Known by many names (ALT tags, image ALT, ALT descriptions, etc.), Image ALT text is HTML that describes what an image is and what it’s on the page for. While many SEOs use ALT text to help with image search, the main purpose of these image descriptors is accesibility.

“ALT text is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen. This text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website,” explained Braden Becker for Hubspot.

While it can help with your SEO, the key for image ALTs is that it provides a positive user experience for users of all ability levels. It’s not a requirement in terms of being indexed and ranked, but it should be a part of any SEO’s audit to-do list.

Sc: Schema

Another new addition to the HTML section this year is Schema (Sc). Schema “is a semantic vocabulary of tags (or microdata) that you can add to your HTML to improve the way search engines read and represent your page in SERPs,” according to Moz’s SEO Guide. It’s not just for Google, either. Many search engines use Schema data to help them interpret content on the web: Bing, Yandex, and more.

There’s lots of discussion about whether structured data like Schema improves rankings, but most SEOs agree that, at a minimum, it does help with more comprehensive rich snippets. As many SEOs are implementing and experimenting with Schema nowadays, it’s become table stakes for most industries

Blog SEO

What Is Blog SEO?

Blog SEO is the practice of optimizing a blog’s content, site architecture and HTML code for search engines. Common tasks associated with blog SEO include on-page optimization, installing plugins, improving page loading speed and internal linking.

Why Is Blog SEO Important?

Search engines are a super important traffic source for blogs.

In fact, a recent survey of over 1000 bloggers found that SEO was their 3rd most important source of traffic (just behind email marketing).

you optimize your web pages — including your blog posts — you're making your website more visible to people who are using search engines (like Google) to find your product or service.But does your blog content really help your business organically rank on search engines?

In this article, you’ll find the answer to this question and more. Get ready for an in-depth exploration into the world of blog SEO, the factors that affect it, and tips to start optimizing your blog site for the search engines.

If you have a blog, chances are you already understand the importance of business blogging and its SEO benefits. But do you know how to optimize your blog posts to make them more search engine friendly?

The truth is, many bloggers fail to take advantage of the enormous marketing potential of their blogs. In fact, a recent study by blogger.com shows that although roughly 60% of businesses have blogs, 65% of those blog owners haven’t even updated in the past year! By providing fresh, relevant content and performing basic blog post optimization, you can take advantage of the many benefits blogging offers.

Benefits of Blogging for Business

In case you aren’t familiar with business blogging and how it can benefit your business, here are some quick points to consider:

Blog posts will drive traffic to your business website, resulting in more leads.

Blogging helps you build links, leading to better rankings in search engines.

You can reuse blog posts for your Google My Business profile and social media platforms.

Blog posts have long-term benefits for website traffic.

Blog posts are the most effective form of content (above email, ebooks, and white papers).

If you run a small to medium-sized business, you can’t afford to skip this easy opportunity to bring in more traffic and interested leads to your website!

Optimizing Your Blog Posts for Search Engines

Here are six easy search engine optimization (SEO) tips to help get your blog noticed.

1. Do your research. Keyword research is essential for on page optimization. Chances are you are naturally including keywords without realizing it simply by providing valuable content on a topic. However, there are a variety of tools and techniques for finding related keywords relevant to your blog post that you may not have considered. The Google Adwords Keyword Tool and semrush.com both offer great tools that allow you to find keywords related to your topic and even spy on your competition to see what words and phrases they are targeting to bring traffic to their sites.

2. Utilize keywords throughout your post. Once you have targeted a couple of valuable, relevant keywords, it is important to place them where they will have the most impact for humans and search engine crawlers indexing your content. Try to include them in the following places:

Title

Headings and subheadings

Introductory sentence

Concluding paragraph

Anchor text (text you hyperlink to other related pages on your site)

Title tags and meta descriptions

A word of caution: Don’t engage in keyword stuffing, which is the act of filling your content with so many keywords that it becomes difficult to read. Not only will this irritate your blog followers, it will also get you penalized by Google. A couple of strategically placed keywords will do the trick.

3. Optimize your images. Whenever you upload a photo to your blog, be sure to include keywords in the file name and fill out the alternate text field with a brief, keyword rich description of the photo.

4. Reference others with links. When you mention another blogger or article in your blog post, include a link to the information you are referencing. Not only is it good blogging etiquette, but you may also get lucky and receive a link back. Quality links are a valuable commodity for any site looking to rank higher in search engine results pages.

5. Give readers the opportunity to subscribe to your blog. Include prominently placed RSS or Feed Subscription Buttons and offer viewers the ability to subscribe to your posts via email when possible. This allows your blog followers to have instant notification of your latest posts without having to periodically check your site for new content.

6. Use social media to broaden the reach of your blog posts. As a small business, you may be utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social media sites to create connections with potential and current customers. Why not promote your blog content on these sites for even more web exposure? Free programs like Hootsuite make it easy to post links to your latest blog post on all of your social media sites with just a couple of clicks. You can even schedule your posts ahead of time!

By following these simple SEO tips, you can encourage higher rankings in SERPS, increased web traffic, and higher customer conversion rates.

Too busy to keep up with your blog optimization? We’ve got you covered. OpenVine’s search engine optimization experts can help you get more prominent positioning on search engine results