Last week I promised a post about tagging, today I deliver. Even though successful tagging may seem like a complicated formula—one part magic and two parts luck—it’s more of a game and not nearly as difficult as you may think.
Tagging, sometimes called labeling, is closely related to key words. If you missed last week’s post on key words you can click here to catch up.
I used to be rather lacadaisical about tagging until I accidently stumbled on success. . .then I was hooked. This picture is a screenshot of where my blog post about Facebook showed up in a Google search. Just FYI, it's number 3 out of about 237,000,000. Not bad.
Warning, Brief Geek Content
To understand how tagging can help your blog post get found (or lost in the sea of other blogs) you do have to understand a little about search engines. Search engines crawl the Internet searching and sorting all the information. In the simplest of terms, the more your information about and on your page matches up, the higher you rank.
Now, for those of you who truly understand search engines, you know this is way over simplifying the concept. Lots of other things come into count when your post is ranked, but tagging correctly will get you way on down the road!
Here are some of the basics of how to tag successfully.
- Start with your title. Like I said last week, make certain your title is literal.
- Repeat key words throughout the blog post. Don’t overload your copy with words. Always make sure the writing is good. Think of it as an exercise in focus!
- Re-use your title in the first couple of lines. It doesn’t have to be an exact repeat of the phrase, just be sure to include the key words.
- Tag with phrases, not just words. This is something a lot of people miss. When you tag (or label) your post, use your entire title. Then, if you have room, you can also include individual words. Think of it this way, when you enter something into Google’s search box, do you enter just one word or a phrase?
Like Shellie Braeuner reminded us in the comments of last week’s blog, you can also use Google Adwords to help you make wise selections for key words.
I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I spend almost as much time on my title and keywords as I do on composing a blog post. And it's paid off time and again. This post on using headline techniques with social media is number 3 out of about 151,000,000. Like I said, it can be totally habit forming!
So what successes have you had in the blog-o-sphere? What questions?
Don’t forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie
