Now, I’m not going to tell you again that you first need to write excellent copy. Everybody says that. I’ve said that. And more importantly, you know that if you don’t attract your visitors with your content, you won’t have a chance to convert them to customers or clients. Right? Enough said. On to the optimizing strategies.

Where did I get these tips?

Most of the tips included are optimization strategies used in web content articles I’ve written. I learned about how well they worked by listening to the number crunchers’ analysis of the ROI from optimization and other efforts.

I read about them at SEO sites. And, I watch how other successful people do it. The bloggers who apply these practices say that their traffic is raised which helps them to build their community. I’ve picked the actions that cost time only, for now. In another post, I’ll discuss the ones that cost.

Finally, I’ve learned of them from using them on my own blogs, though rather sporadically. Since I’ve decided to use it regularly, (at least here on my work blog), I thought I’d share with you some of what I’ll be using, as well as what I may try later.

How do I get started with SEO?

1. Use good keyword tools to find the best words to attract readers. These are two free tools that do the job well. And you should know that Wordtracker has a nifty little plug-in for Firefox.
   • Wordtracker’s free tool
   • Google External Keywords tool
2. Decide on the best keywords and use them in your content. It may be that you don’t select the top ranked words. Whichever words you choose, incorporate them into your website in the following areas, but don’t go overboard. You don’t want to get into keyword stuffing. Use your keywords about three times, in the following several of the areas:
   • in the body of your post
   • in the anchor text
   • in your post title*
   • in a bold or title heading (h1 or h2 title tags)
3. Use your keywords in all the following area:
   • in your multimedia ALT tags*
   • in your meta tags, and title text*
   • in your meta description
4. Use analytics tools to review the results of your SEO efforts, and adjust accordingly. Yes. Google does have a free tool for that too. Try out Google Analytics. It takes a few steps to get it installed on your blog and a little while for it to collect enough data show any measurable outcomes.

These are the tools and practices that I use, which are not unique to any blogging platform.

* The last two I want to share with you are plugins in WordPress that will allow you to manipulate your meta tags listed above.

SEO Tools in WordPress

The WordPress tools I use are very popular, right now. And that’s a good sign. These plugins allow you to manipulate your meta tags. The plugins are All in One SEO Pack, and Headspace2.

The first is All in One SEO Pack, which is what I’m currently using. It gives you control over your meta description and tags. You can take a look at this SEO Tutorial Video to get a good overview of how the plugin works.

The other WordPress plugin is called Headspace2 SEO. It is a powerful tool that has global features, similar to the other tool. And, I found a really excellent video, Headsapce2 SEO Tutorial Video, that will show you a lot about how the plugin works.

So why do all this?

The whole reason behind the development of SEO practices is to improve traffic to your site. Think about it: Your site is your store and you can’t sell anything if you can’t get the people through your doors. Or in this case, you have to get them to your site. Enter SEO practices, the great attractor. The power is yours to wield! Use it wisely.

Now, what did I miss? What are the best practices you use to attract the audience you want?