If you cruise the internet, you may have come across this acronym. You may have thought it wasn't relevant to you, your blog, or your search for ancestors. It is, in fact, important. SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization", and no, its not scary.
What is it, exactly?
If you want the technological jargon, you can read all about it on Wikipedia. This is my take, my version of that information, but into language I can understand.
Simply put, SEO is the way a search engine reacts to a website and lists it in your results page. For example, if you do a search for "genealogy blogging", you will see www.geneabloggers.com is almost always at the top of the list. How does that happen? Well, site creator Thomas MacEntee has done an amazing job of providing search engines with the proper search terms, so people find his site first and easily. (He may have other tricks up his sleeve, and probably does, but I know he is doing this, and doing it well.)
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| Chrome search results for "genealogy blogging" |
"Brown + Nebraska genealogy"
This is essentially universal. Yes, there are other ways of conducting a search. But, think about when you are looking for a recipe. You might search for "spaghetti recipe" or "world's best spaghetti". You don't always use a complicated search pattern to find what you are looking for.
Applying these terms to your unique blog or website allows the search engine to identify what your site is about and related to. It makes it easier for the search engine to find topics on your site and match those topics with the search terms that people use in simple searches.
Why should I do this?
Simple. You want people to find you. Don't you? Are you writing your blog to find other relatives? Well, they search for surnames, locations, photos, etc. Lead them to you with the right terms. Are you writing about your business, or general methodology? Great! Use the applied terms to communicate that's what you are writing about!
Don't care if anybody reads your blog? Ok. You can still read the rest of this one, though.
- "Why does it matter if your site is at the top of the results page or on page 42?"
Wouldn't a dedicated searcher find it either way? Well, yes and no. I recently read that the average user in the U.S. only looks through the first two pages of search results, then either adapts the search terms or stops all together.
- "So what? Genealogy is reportedly the second most popular hobby - they are still going to find it."
Eventually, yes, they could. No built in guarantee on that one. Imagine that this long lost cousin finds you today, or finds you in five years. What have you missed out on? What kind of relationship could you have developed with this new branch of the family in that time? There is a whole series of "what if's" here, and my favorite one is this: "what if long lost cousin's grandmother is still alive today, but dies next year?" Think about that for just a minute.
Convinced yet? Ready to start? I hope so.
How do I do this?
Caroline Pointer of BloggingGenealogy.com recently posted a great little piece entitled Want More Cousins to Visit Your Genealogy Blog? in which she introduced us to "Cousin Awesome Sauce", and using "alt text", which allows you to "'tell' the search engine what the image says..." (Read the full post, it's worth it, I promise.) So, start with that. Create a way for your images to be identified with the text you are producing.
Once you've got your feet wet, take a look at Search Engine Optimization: Step By Step on the About.com Web Design / HTML page, by Jennifer Kyrnin. It's a visual - yes, visual - instructional post about how to do this, and gives a more technical look at why you should. She makes it pretty easy.
Do not overlook this! This little tidbit from the step by step guide I just told you about is priceless! Use Adwords from Google to identify the best, and most common, search terms for your blog. Ms. Kyrnin puts this in her tutorial, but I want to point it out specifically as a really useful tool for this process. Just putting my blog and my webpage through that one tool, I learned a great deal. It proved to be incredibly useful.
Have other ideas? Know something about SEO that I don't? Well, that's likely. I'm just starting to educate myself on this particular road to internet usage and success. If you have a great resource you have used to improve your site, I'd really like to see it. Please leave a comment.
In the meantime, here is a great graphic to explain the process just one more time. And one more tip: look on Pinterest. There are numerous "infographics" to help understand SEO.
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| http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6442/12-Amazing-SEO-Infographics.aspx |
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ReplyDeleteThose are some great suggestions. Here are a couple you also might want to try.
ReplyDelete* Title of the Blog Post - When you write about something you want others to find make good use of the blog title. Try a Google search for the following terms and see what comes up on the 1st or 2nd page of results ("Free newspaper archives", "Photo Genealogy Blog", "town reports in genealogy", "draft registration card and genealogy"). Click on each link in the first page and if it's a blog see what title they used.
* Make sure the content of your article is relevent to the title to keep your readers engaged. The search engines will look for relevent keywords in the article and if it doesn't find the term enough or if it finds too many, then it will hurt your ranking in the results.
Regards, Jim
Hidden Genealogy Nuggets
Thank you, Jim, those are both great suggestions! I was really trying to focus on SEO's specifically for this post, rather than the broader spectrum of "how to get more readers on your blog." However, I'm sure that your comments will prove helpful to many. Thanks so much for reading! ~ Jen
DeleteAll these necessary to gain exposure? What about those who don't have the time for SEO and instead focus on their clients? Would it mean they're invisible on the web? Great post!
ReplyDeleteAre they necessary? Well, no, if you mean in a "life or death" situation. I still think they are good idea, however. Remember, too, that once you go through this process of creating SEO's for your site, unless you dramatically change your blog at some point, you really don't have to do it again. You could, based on what key terms are trending (and that's a good idea, too, to stay on top of the whole game), but again it's not absolutely necessary to do this every time you post, or every month. I know bloggers that have been successful, and only review their SEO every 6-8 months, so its really about finding the magic equation that works for you. Additionally, if you want to, but don't feel like you have time, you could outsource this project and have someone else do it for you.
DeleteNo, it doesn't mean you are invisible, just harder to find. Meaning, it depends on what people search for. If they run a search for "Ancestral Breezes blog", they're going to find me, for sure. If they run a search for "Colorado genealogy blog", I might be on page 2 or 7 or 379. It depends on how they formulate the search. The more keywords you attach to your blog, the more likely they are to find you.
Thanks so much for reading, and for commenting. Those are great questions, and if you have more, please feel free to contact me either through this blog or my other social media accounts. Best of luck, Kenneth! ~Jen
Thanks for this information, Jen! It's really helpful. I've done a little bit of SEO, without understanding it very well, and appreciate that your explanations are nice and clear. I'm going to follow up on your suggestions.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it, Shelley, and found it helpful. I hope it works for you, and improves traffic on your site. Let me know how it turns out! Thanks for reading, and commenting! ~ Jen
DeleteThis is such important information! I knew in general that people could affect how their sites came up on search engines . . . but I did not know how! I've copied the relevant websites you listed, and your blog. I knew that "tags" were kind of important, but otherwise I have not paid enough attention to this, except to get Caroline's advice on Alt Text for photos. You give a complete, clear explanation. Thank you so much, Jen!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Mariann! I wasn't all that sure when I posted if it made sense, or if I was writing in circles, but it does seem that I did a decent job of it after all. Glad you are able to make use of it! Thanks for reading! ~Jen
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