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First of all, search engine optimization (SEO) was completely foreign to me until 6 weeks ago. So please take this post as it is – a run down from a novice that has just seen SEO success in the last few weeks.
SEO is important to a blog or website, because it effects where you pop up in search engines and how many search engine visitors you will get.
In my case, Budgeting in the Fun Stuff was getting less than 23% of its overall visitors from search engines. That’s not awful, but most bloggers don’t seem to be happy until that number is closer to 33%. Some even strive for 50%-75% or even more.
I personally want as many visitors as humanly possible and really don’t care how many of those are from search engines or not, but I do want to pop up high in search engine results so I can reach out to as many people as possible since I am a blogging addict.
This is how I went from less than 23% of search engine visitors to more than 33% in less than 3 weeks:
My Big SEO Project 2 Weeks Ago
1. I downloaded the All in One SEO Pack plugin. This plugin makes it pretty dang simple to SEO since you just fill in a Title, Description, and Keywords all in one place.
2. I signed up for Scribe Makes SEO Simple. This is software that you can buy monthly memberships to use. When you have Scribe SEO attached to your blog posts, you can run an evaluation of each post and it tells you its overall SEO grade (1%-100%). In that evaluation, it also tells you what you can change in the post to make that grade better. Since I was and am an SEO rookie, I love this program!
The only downside is that it is a little expensive in my opinion. But, I ordered up 300 evaluations in February since I wanted to make Budgeting in the Fun Stuff better and had a whole year of posts to review.
3. I hired a Virtual Assistant (VA) from oDesk. I was looking for someone who would go through 11 months of posts and search engine optimize them for me. It was going to take 20-40 hours and I did not have the physical time to get it done.
Rumana Akter (my VA) was awesome. She filled in all of the All in One SEO Pack info for all my past posts, checked her work with Scribe SEO as she went, and completed the whole task in 25 hours spread over 5 days. I’ve only had to clean up a few things since she finished, but I really don’t mind doing touch-ups since she saved me a weekend or two of the most boring work I could imagine.
I saw an almost immediate jump in my search engine visitors. Within a week of that project, I was getting about 28%-30% of my visitors from search engines and my Adsense ads were getting daily clicks instead of the one or two a week that was the norm to that point.
My New SEO Routine:
I’ve boosted that 30% to 33%-36% a day over the last 2 weeks by starting a little SEO routine on every post now:
1. I write my posts like normal. I don’t look for SEO-friendly topics yet since I usually already have something in mind. I may start using SEO topic searches in the future if I don’t have something else to chat about already.
2. After it is written, I search for the most popular key word(s) that my post would fit. I was using the free version of Traffic Travis but now I have a Scribe SEO Keyword box that is just easier for me to use as long as I continue paying for Scribe SEO.
3. I fill out the Title, Description, and Keywords in the All in One SEO Pack plugin box. I make sure that the title, description, and keywords all include the optimized keyword(s) I looked up as well. This is super important since this is the info that search engines see and display in their results.
If you type in “rubber baby buggy bumper” as your post description, then anybody who finds that post via a search engine like Google will see “rubber baby buggy bumper” as the little blurb in the search results. Try to make the description interesting enough to get people to click through and make sure it contains the keyword you hope to be targeting.
4. I add some internal links. Every post you write should have a link to another post you wrote. In fact, it should contain several. It’s just good business and it gives you a better Scribe SEO score. I try to make sure there in an internal link within the first two paragraphs and every 150 words after that.
5. I make sure the post’s permalink has the SEO title. I attempt to change all permalinks to be SEO friendly from here on out since I’ve heard it helps.
6. I test with Scribe SEO. Once I think I’m completely done, I run an evaluation with Scribe SEO. If I score 85% or higher, I consider myself good to go. If it’s not, I look at the evaluation suggestions and make a few more changes before moving on.
If you don’t want or can’t afford Scribe SEO, that is okay. Just by using the All in One SEO Plugin and following the major tips above, you’ll have won most of the battle. I was just SEO stupid and had been ignoring all of it for a year. As soon as I feel more confident and am scoring 90% and above every single time with Scribe, I will probably give up that monthly expense as well.
I did donate to the creators of the All in One SEO Pack plugin since they kick butt. I also donate to any other plugins that help me out on my sites. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to get anything done since I am the opposite of techie.
That’s pretty much it for me and SEO. I submit to blog carnivals every week or two to get my posts and keyword links out there. I also guest post at least 3 times a month. Commenting and participating in discussions on other blogs every day or two helps build a solid reputation as well. You can see my most recent blogging schedule for all of those details. You can also check out my daily blogging to-do list.
Please keep in mind that nothing happens overnight. It has taken me a full year posting daily at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff just to get where I am at an Alexa around 33,000, a MozRank of 5, and a Pagerank of 3. SEO is just one part of the blogging whole.
Good luck!
What did I miss? What other SEO tips do you have for us?
I’m very impressed at how quickly you are learning and taking action on you’re learning.
It’s also refreshing to see that you don’t beat yourself up (at least publicly) too bad when you realize a mistake. You simply take action to correct it and move on.
You’re going to be blogging full-time in no time.
@MikeS, thank you so much! Double thanks for being a supporter from the beginning!!!
Whenever I look at my site statistics and traffic I think of your post about Google Analytics only working on your home page. I still don’t understand all of the nuts & bolts of SEO or the analytics but I am slowly learning. After reading this post I downloaded the All in one SEO pack and installed it on my site. Although I’m not sure how everything works just yet it is installed. Thanks for providing this information.
IPA @ investmentpropertyasset.com recently posted..Rent Payment History on Your Credit Report
Nice post Crystal! I am about in the same boat as you, and am eager to hire a VA to get my old posts optimized. Thank you for the information!
@IPA, let me know if you have any specific questions about the All in One SEO Pack! Just email me at budgetingfunstuff*at*gmail*dot*com.
@Amanda, good luck! Make sure you have a way (like Scribe or something) for them to check themselves. Rumana did great with Scribe but kind of crappy when we ran out of evaluations…
SEO rookie? You are an SEO ninja now Crystal!
Thanks for sharing!
MoneyCone recently posted..Had You Bought Apple Shares Instead Of Apple Products…
Hi, have your run into the SEOPressor Plugin. It’s $47 for a single license and it reminds you as your writing your article to not break any SEO rules. I was thinking of buying it, but am not sure it’s the right next step for me. I’m a little bummed that my pagerank is still 0, so I’m obviously doing something wrong and I need to take some action.
Crystal, ARe you going to do an update periodically on your efforts? I think this was extremely informative! Thanks for the info.
Barb Friedberg recently posted..BOOST FINANCIAL LITERACY March Contest
@MoneyCone, hahaha, thanks!
@First Gen American, no, you aren’t doing anything wrong. Google PR is just plain silly – it updates irregularly and noone knows how it determines anything. Everyday Tips and myself started within the same month and she is way better at SEO than I am (her search engine traffic is 10-15% higher than mine), and I have a PR3 at BFS and she has a PR1. Google PR sucks. If you must judge your site, do it based on MozRank. Here’s my post about it: http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/moz-rank-the-preferred-ranking-system/
@Barb, I update my number of overall visitors every Sunday at BFS and all of my stats (including my blogging income and the number of search engine visitors) at the beginning of every month. You can find them in this category: http://www.budgetinginthefunstuff.com/category/blog-statistics/
Interesting stuff, especially hiring the virtual assistant! How did that go? Weren’t you a little nervous giving them access to the site?
Invest It Wisely recently posted..Weekend Reading- Oil Edition
@Invest, oh definitely, but I did only search for VA’s with more than 100 hours experience and stellar reviews. Sometimes you just take a shot.
As always, I have learned something new in reading this post. I didn’t know the trick about including an internal link within your posts. Thanks for being so open with your knowledge!
Denise @ The Single Saver recently posted..Tip of the Day – Sunday
Thanks for sharing. Will be using wordpress soon. This is quite helpful.
Noypi recently posted..American Idol 10 says goodbye to Ashton Jones Thia Megia saved!
@Denise, no problem at all, I like sharing!
@Noypi, good luck with WordPress!
Hi Crystal – this may be a dumb question, but is there a way these plugins can pull frequently used words in your post automatically? Or is there another plugin that could do that?
@Amber, I don’t know of any plugin that will pull keywords in automatically, but I do use Automatic SEO Links to automatically add certain hyperlinks to certain phrases.
Finally, an easy to follow article on SEO! Im not a techie myself so this is quite helpful. Im going to download the plugin right now.
Justin @ MoneyIsTheRoot recently posted..Frugality…Can Your Health Afford It
@Justin, I’m glad I’m not the only non-techie blogger, lol. Good luck!
Hey Crystal, Thanks for steering me here….just what I was looking for to learn about Scribe. I’ve got another new idea in the works as well and will have some questions for you about your VA soon too!
Car Negotiation Coach recently posted..5 Overused Negotiation Strategies
Oh my it’s like a whole different language! Better get swotting!
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