The Very Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Bloggers and site owners everywhere are asking: What’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? I know it’s supposed to increase my traffic, but I have no clue how, or how to use it. Many bloggers have even installed the plugin, All In One SEO Pack, or it’s more advanced counterpart, Platinum SEO Pack. Now, they’re asking how to use it.

Let’s take a look at the box the plugin adds to the post editor. For this example I’ll be using the Platinum SEO Pack. However, the All In One SEO Pack looks very similar.

Here I’d like to point out the components of SEO as “seen” in Google Search Results.

As you can see from the above illustration, the Title section of the SEO plugin will dictate what is show in the bold blue link at the top of each result. Normally, you’d put your page or post title in here, along with some keyword rich phrases you think people would search for.

The Description is what you’ll see just under the blue Title and as it suggests, describes your page or post’s content. Most search engines limit the description to 160 characters, so try to keep it short, while being very specific and informative. Your Description should make people want to click through to your page or post. The example I used above has a very short description. However, it is very to the point and tells us everything we need to know about the tutorial being linked to.

Keywords are what people are using to find your content. They are entered in the SEO box just as people would search in Google or any other search engine. While single words seem obvious, pay close attention to phrases, or groups of words. To get this screenshot I typed in how to use seo plugin. If you are offering information, think of the questions people ask, and how they would type those into a search engine. Separate each phrase with a comma.

The Platinum SEO Pack offers a few advanced features. I’d like to cover one of them here, because a lot of bloggers and small business owners implement affiliate marketing in their sites.

For the most part, you want search engines to follow your links, because linking to other sites and being linked too, increases your rank in search results. However, some search engines (Google included) recognize affiliate links and money-making attempts. The search engines award posts and pages containing affiliate links a much lower rank in search results.

The PSP Meta Index and Nofollow Tags option allows you to tell a search engine to index the page, but not follow/check out the links within the page or post. Select index, no follow if your content includes affiliate links.

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