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Part 4 : Content, Keywords and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Some people tend to think that, when they create their blog, suddenly the whole world just pitch up and start reading it! Well, that’s not really true….at all.
What you type, how often you type, the relevance and credibility of your content are important factors in determining a successful blog that will persuade others to come back and read your posts. BUT it’s the search engines that you should worry about and times have changed since simple little ‘meta-tags’ used to do the trick. Nowadays, search engines are all about link-tracking, page ranks and quality meaningful content.
If you’re starting a blog for your students or colleagues at work, then your content is not necessarily the most important thing as your audience is quite small and the purpose of your blog is limited. If you are aiming for a wider audience, then the content you choose to place on your blog must make them want to come back regularly! Think about what you want to blog about and the purpose of your blog – that should decide what kind of content you want on your blog.
If your blog is for a wider audience, then pay attention to the words you are using in your content. Think about what people would be searching for before they find your blog. For example, if your blog is about Grade 10 to Grade 12 Life Science, then use phrases and keywords from the curriculum and from work that you would teach to your students. Don’t rely on people magically finding you by typing in your blog address, it is very unlikely that that would ever happen!
Intersperse the words and phrases over your page in different paragraphs. Use your Heading1 – Heading3 formatting to place importance on titles and sub-titles.
As an example: Don’t write ‘As a teacher”…rather write “As a Life Sciences teacher to Grade 10”
Being listed higher up the index on a search engine is one of the easiest ways of being found online. However, it is not an exact science and it’s important to know how certain search engines work so that you can make sure that your site is search-engine friendly. The most important tips I can give you are these:
- Use descriptive page titles
- Use heading 1 – 3 in your content to show main titles, sub-titles etc.
- Repeat phrases or keywords over the page but not too much so that it’s too obvious!
- Write meaningful, relevant content broken into legible chunks of information
- Link to other sites/pages that relate to you and try get others linking back to you
Here is a document from Google called The Search Engine Optimiser’s Guide. It’s quite in-depth (perhaps a bit much for the purpose of this course) but makes good reading if you’re really getting into blogging and trying to get your site accessible and popular online.
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