All In One SEO Plugin & Titles
-
When I first started blogging I hired a company to design and develop my website. They provided SEO training which I've followed religiously but now I'm starting to wonder (after researching more and more about SEO) if by following these guidelines I may be placing myself in jeopardy.
I write a blog about desserts. I was told that my SEO title should be different than my blog post title and I should incorporate a few different keywords in the title, write a meta description inserting a few keywords, and also attach 10 keywords, ie here is a typical post:
Dark Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Cherry Ganache - post title
Moist Chocolate Cake-Chocolate Ganache Cake-Chocolate Cherry Cake - SEO title
Find recipe for quick and easy, moist Dark Chocolate Cake topped with Chocolate Cherry Ganache & fresh cherries & other Chocolate Desserts at Grace's Sweet Life.
how to make chocolate cake, best chocolate cake, chocolate cake from scratch, best chocolate cake recipe, moist chocolate cake, simple chocolate cake, easy chocolate cake, homemade chocolate cake, chocolate cherry cake, chocolate fudge cake, chocolate ganache recipe
I've come to realize that I really don't know how to keyword search (not so much how to search for phrases but how to implement them properly) and I'm wondering if there's such a thing as "hiring a trainer or consultant" to put me on the appropriate path for keyword research.
-
Grace:
Arrgh!!!
No, no, no...the advice given to you is all wrong! It's generic and outdated. And it's not appropriate for you
I know because I am an editor and TV news guy turned "web strategist" and SEO guy.
My clients include leading authorities in the nutrition, health, food, and fitness fields. Many are leading authors and experts.
Nor will the generic keyword advice you will find in most guides prove to be especially helpful. That's because you have something rare: the ability to create high quality content for both your own site and other sites.
There is a pretty easy way through a Wordpress plug in of applying one or two key phrases to each blog post, (past and future) while also picking up the headline of the post (which should be especially written with this in mind.)
The meta descriptions should combine general info on your site with specific i nfo on the specific post.
I'm not sure what you mean by "attaching key phrases". Are these meta keywords (don't bother) or tags within WordPress designed to bring up similar posts for readers?
I agree that it all begins with which keywords you are targeting. It sound to me like you may be dividing your focus.
For example, in the SEO title cited, there is no indication of the topic of the blog: Dessert Recipes. You may be getting useless traffic from people who want to buy chocolate cakes from a shop or mail order. And what if I'm not interested in chocolate cakes but pineapple cake? There is no indication the blog may be useful.
Feel free to PM me. I have more than enough on my plate on the moment (so to speak!) but would be happy to talk to you on the phone.
-
Roberto thank you very much for the resource, by the way am I handling it all wrong so far based on the information I provided in my question? I'm trying to get a starting point of what I might be doing right or wrong.
-
Grace,
I would suggest for you to read up on keyword research before you hire somebody. Below are three great and free sources from SeoMoz regarding keyword research and should put you on the appropriate path.
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research
http://www.seomoz.org/article/keyword-research-guide
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-keyword-research-mistakes-you-might-be-making
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Changing URL for SEO
Hi folks, I'm a total newbie so please go easy. I've published 4 blogs on my website and am using the free Yoast plugin to guide me on my SEO. The blogs have been promoted in various places using organic and paid social. However, the more I look into SEO the more I'm realising that I did literally NO keyword research and the keywords I'm using are pretty useless. The question is this: it should be easy enough for my to change the content of the blog, the meta description etc to reflect the new keywords, but what about the URL / slug?. Is there any way to change this without causing me a massive headache or does having my new keywords in the slug even matter? Thanks, Mike.
Keyword Research | | Veevlimike0 -
Which keyword for title
I'm trying to figure out what to use for my title text. It's for a structural steel fabrication company. Adwords has the average monthly searches for "structural steel" and "steel fabrication" identical at 5,400. It has "structural steel fabrication" at 390 which I get that since its longer and a little more specific will have less searches. My question is if I make the title "structural steel fabrication" does google just see it as 1 big keyword or will it rank for "structural steel" and/or "steel fabrication"? What would any of you go with here? All 3 keyword strings make sense for the person seeing the title. Thanks for any advice you can give, Clay
Keyword Research | | clayknight0 -
What are SEO's using for Keyword Research?
Hey folks, I just wanted to find out what everyone is using for keyword research now that the Google Keyword Tool has been retired. I know there is a form of it in Adwords, but something a little more usable than this. Cheers,
Keyword Research | | Andy.Drinkwater
Andy0 -
How Can I Rank My One Keyword ?
I read many places about never use the same keywords/anchor text this will consider as spam by google, so i want to know if suppose my main keyword is Indian bridal sarees than how can i give rank to that keyword, should i use the same exact keyword but in different format like bridal indian sarees or indian bridal sarees shopping something like that. Should i use LSI keywords in that keywords. Please help Second, I also read some people saying they use 70% primary keywords and 30% LSI or generic words, so that mean if i have 10 articles so in 7 articles i have to give primary keyword and the rest of the 3 will be generic. Kindly please advice this also.
Keyword Research | | chandubaba0 -
SEO without SEM, Social networking and advertisements
How i can ranked better without performing SEM, social networking or online/phone/sms/ paper advertisings. My business is regulated by a government watchdog which has imposed the above rulings. My keywords has pretty high competition like 65% difficulty and above.
Keyword Research | | mavvy0 -
Are mutiple parts (volumes) of an article bad for SEO?
If i have a lengthy article which I decide to split into two separate articles E.g part 1 and part 2 but I target the same keyword in both articles, is this bad from an SEO point of view? For example, if I publish an article about 'healthy snacks ideas' and call the first article 'Healthy snack ideas part 1' and the second article 'Healthy snacks ideas part 2' in order to differentiate between them, would these two articles effectively just compete against one another? Is using part 1 and part 2 in article titles bad practice? Essentially what I am wondering is should you never ever have more than one article that is targetting the same keywords or should I just target slightly different keywords for each article even if they are very closely related?
Keyword Research | | simon_realbuzz0 -
Can I get your input on keyword usage in the title tag
Hello fellow mozzers! I've been struggling with my title tag and would like to get your opinion. We provide IT services in the Los Angeles area. I've been doing keyword research for the past week and found about 400 keywords from various sources. I then looked at my top 5 competitors on Google and analyzed their homepage title tags, the most common keywords that they use in their title tags are: IT Support Los Angeles
Keyword Research | | igor.pinchevskiy
Computer Support Los Angeles
Network Consulting Los Angeles
Network Support Los Angeles
IT Services Los Angeles Since it is recommended to have your title tag under 70 characters I've compiled the following title tag for my home page: IT Services, Network Consulting, IT and Network Support in Los Angeles which is exactly 70 characters, however my company name is an additional 9 characters, I think it would be wise to include in the title tag of the home page however I can't decide if I should exceed the limit by including the company name to the title tag or should I remove something from the title tag and then add the company name? 1. What do you guys think, is that a good title tag to use as is? 2. Should I add the company name without removing any keywords or remove a keyword? 3. I'm trying to target local traffic since I can't compete with the big dogs yet, so I want to be in the SERPs when someone searches IT Services Los Angeles, IT Support Los Angeles, etc... Do I need to add Los Angeles after each keyword, or I can use a single instance of Los Angeles like in the example title tag that I have? 4. For the other remaining 400+/- keywords I want to use some of them to create static pages and some for blog posts, is that the way to go? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!!!0 -
Homepage Title
What would be the best Title of your Homepage if your top 3 keywords would be: taxi service Seattle (5400 exact searches) Seatle taxi (4400 exact searches) Seattle taxi service (1900 exact searches) Would you go for all of them or just the one with more searches? I guess you can target them all on one page being almost the same but what is the best strategy to apply in this case to get the most out of it? Do you take into account the broad numbers of searches which are different from the exact numbers? Tools I used:Google sktool Thanks for reading!
Keyword Research | | echo10