Todays Question Time comes from my good friend Shah. He runs an adequate excellent blog called Blank Page Beatdown so please be sure to pay him a visit. Before you do, he wants to talk to us all about a little thing called search engine optimization.
I’m going to hand over to Shah now, and please share your thoughts on this topic below. Maybe we can all pick up some tips, I know pretty much nothing with regards to seo writing, and look forward to seeing what all you fine folks think about this subject.
While writing for my own Blog, I’ve never paid much attention to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, as I figured it was technical internetty stuff that I didn’t need to get into. But while writing for other websites and other online publications, I’ve noticed that they put a lot of emphasis on SEO techniques, to further drive traffic and market their posts and content. So I looked into it further, and wanted to use Tyson’s “Question Time” as a place to get some feedback regarding this from fellow Bloggers. Yes, I’m ‘using’ him to reach a bigger audience. Good thing I’m hot. (don’t burst my bubble!)
Anyways… I’ve found that there is a negative connotation in the Blogging world about ‘SEO’, seen as selling out, or abusing the concept simply for more traffic and better statistics on our Blogs. Tagging posts with things like ‘nude Jennifer Lawrence pictures’ or something of the sort. Essentially sacrificing quality of content for better numbers. In a way, they’re not wrong. SEO is more commonly used for businesses online, selling or marketing products or services. So in the world of blogging, where we provide a social service to others or fulfil our own creative urges, SEO techniques may seem contradictory and not worth it.
However, it’s actually a useful tool to ensure that content online, get indexed and categorized accordingly, allowing the people looking for something specific, to find it easier. All this indexing and archiving hooey helps business make money, sure. But it can also help our target audience, better find the content that they’re looking for, that we may be providing. It’s similar to the tags post which Tyson already did a very helpful “Question Time” about earlier, but SEO techniques take it a step further. Everything from the title, to key words in the body text, to the excerpt, can all help Google and other search engines better categorize and index our posts, in order to relay it to people who are searching for it.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we rewrite our entire posts around the keywords alone, it just means doing some extra work beyond writing, that may help that post get noticed better. It takes some time to get more information regarding it. I’m no expert, but I thought this was interesting. Now, this is called “Question Time”, so at some point I’ll have to ask a question. So here it is:
How many of you guys actually know of, use, or keep SEO techniques in mind, when writing or publishing your posts? Do you consider it a worthwhile tool to help drive more traffic to your Blog or Website in a legitimate way? Or does it not matter, and you’d rather let your content speak for itself?
Let us know below, and many Thanks to Tyson for letting me commandeer his segment this week.
If you would like to see all the other questions from this series, please click HERE and check them out!
Head In A Vice 
Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Thanks again for this important question Shah.
I know it’s a vital thing for bringing in people/views/stats but I dont actually write with it in mind. I always tag to keep things in my own order, but I never structure a review with my thoughts on how it appears in a search engine. Maybe I should. I look forward to seeing what other people do (hopefully!!) and will definitely be food for thought in the future. 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013No worries Tyson. It’s something I’ve been looking into, and figured what better way to get feedback and learn something more myself, than through your interactive site. Thanks for the compliment by the way. :p
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Good early feedback already dude! And you’re welcome, hoped you laughed with the crossed out part 😉
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biggreenjelly
/ May 27, 2013SEO isn’t something I’ve ever really thought about. I’d like my posts to reach more people but often find that random phrases or words get just as much attention as targeted ones. I would like to know how to get higher up Google’s pages but wouldn’t want to alter my writing style to do so.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013You seem to be doing alright Tom. Your monthly numbers are flying up! Well deserved after you see 950 movies a week 😉
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biggreenjelly
/ May 27, 2013Yeah, my numbers increase month by month which is nice. But the number of posts helps to keep it up. Quantity over Quality. That’s my motto!
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013LOL – perfect motto!! I have noticed the last month I have barely posted my numbers have dropped. Simple maths, I need to start posting 3 or 4 times a day 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013I’ve never thought about it either. And you’d be surprised at how little changes need to be made to posts, in order to become more ‘optimized’.
For example: for a movie review site, I never once mention the words ‘movie review’ in the actual body text of my reviews. It seems silly now that I’ve noticed it. But. that is basically considered a ‘key word’ or ‘key phrase’ which relates to my post, targets that post according to a relevant search term, and isn’t me whoring out to cram in Google friendly text.
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biggreenjelly
/ May 27, 2013Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned those words either. I suppose if you just put a bit more thought into the wording you can get the best of both worlds.
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Terry Malloy's Pigeon Coop
/ May 27, 2013I work as an SEO copywriter and it’s a very strange industry as there are no hard and fast rules. Google changes it’s algorithm all the time, which can either help or hinder your site. For us bloggers, we’re never really going to rank on Google for generic terms like ‘movie reviews’ as there are already far too many bigger sites that take precedent. We might rank for more obscure terms that crop up in our reviews and stuff though.
A much better way to move up the rankings is to get links from other sites, and the bigger the site you get the links from, the better. You also need to be looking at using social media a lot, particularly Google+. If you attach your work to your Google+ account, then Google have actually said it’ll appear higher in the search engines. Essentially, it’s all about creating good, worthwhile and original content and getting people talking about it online. There are other things you can do behind the scenes, such as meta tags if you are slightly more clued in on the whole thing.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013This is some great advice, worthy of letting Shah take over already!! Ultimately are you saying my tags on this post are useful or wasted? I did use a nice photo just for you 😉
I use Google+ but haven’t really noticed any difference from it.
Thanks for this Chris, a great insight from you. Cheers 🙂
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Terry Malloy's Pigeon Coop
/ May 27, 2013I did notice the lovely picture, I’d put you at the top of Google just for that! 🙂
Tags are weird ones. They can work but someone has to search for pretty much the exact term, capital letters, punctuation and all. As I see it though, it can’t hurt to use them, just as long as you don’t use absolutely loads of them.
I need to look into Google+ more (I’ll have to add you) but they want to focus on something called Authorship which gives more weight to your content. Not 100% sure how all that works though yet.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Haha, cheers! I kept it respectful rather than nude as Shah mentioned 😉
I only ever use specific tags (except on rare occasions like this) but thats what we talked about in the linked tag post.
Yeah add me on Google+ (link is the image thing on the left sidebar) 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013I use Google+ too, and haven’t noticed much impact on my site through it.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Well then! We got a ringer up in here!
Thanks for the very helpful advise. Interesting. I’ve been trying out ‘keyword tools’ in order to research keywords for things like ranking and competition and all that. Although I find it interesting, I don’t see how it would affect movie blogging sites like ours, as it’s more commercially driven and intended. I do find meta tags interesting though.
However, one thing I don’t know is if meta tags and other SEO tools and have any impact on WordPress.com sites, or are they only available to be implemented on self hosted WordPress.org sites?
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Nostra
/ May 27, 2013I never put any time into it. I will tag my post and make sure the pictures have proper descriptions and alt tags (so if it is a review of a movie I will add that to the picture information), but that’s about it. I do know that you can use goodle adwords to search for the most used search terms for something and add that to your posts, but I never bother doing it. I am quite happy with the current amount of readers and commenters I have and it keeps growing organically….
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013I always forget about the alt tags. Good to see I’m not alone in not bothering with writing for SEO. I’m always looking for new ways to get my site out there though, I’ll have to look into that adwords program you mention.
Cheers Nostra 🙂
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Nostra
/ May 27, 2013I once saved a link which made keyword suggestions, you can find it here:
http://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Thanks for that Nostra, I’ll have to take a look at that when I get some free time. Bound to be very useful, thanks for sharing it dude 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Hey Nostra,
Thanks for your thoughts. Always love hearing from you. I didn’t even do any of the alt tags or descriptions in my pictures before. So that’s one improvement on my end with SEO research, at least. I prefer my site to grow organically too, but considering I’m taking a short hiatus from posting, due moving and all, I’m using the downtime to get a bit more serious about Blogging. Which means finding out about stuff, even if I end up not using it at all. :p
I love your site, so you’re definitely doing something right. 😉
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iloveterriblemovies
/ May 27, 2013I’m new to blogging, so my perspective may be limited, but it seems that for us “independent” content producers, developing excellent content probably should be jobs 1, 2, and 3. Finding a niche, developing engaging stuff to fill it, and expanding on that niche are the things I enjoy most.
There’s probably some role for SEO, but hopefully not one that overshadows maintaining ties to our constituency and providing good content. In other words, using techniques designed to drive traffic to big time, corporate blogs may be counter-productive for small-timers like me, who need to work on the basics of building a brand.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Thats a very fair assessment. I’m all for finding new ways of bringing attention to my site, but first and foremost is trying to deliver quality posts (not always achieved lol) and keeping the loyal readers I do have coming back for more.
Keep up the good work, and thanks for joining in here 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Hey, I completely agree. You hit the nail on the head regarding developing content to fill a certain niche, doing which will automatically bring that niche traffic to a Blog, not to mention a loyal and engaging audience.
SEO is more geared towards corporate blogs and sites, however, I’m trying to see if it has any value for Bloggers like us. Especially given that I was clued in to SEO through an online publication whose topics are a niche market, and the contributors are all volunteers. But you’re right and I appreciate the feedback. More to think about.
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Foogos
/ May 28, 2013BOOM. This guy is reading my mind.
One thing about tagging on WordPress sites, I’ve read that it actually hinders your searchability (not a word?) if you use more than 10 tags per post. For a movie, I’ll usually add the title, any actors or crew I mention, and sometimes the year it was made, more for my own personal archiving than anything.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013I think the 10 tags thing is purely with regards to going in the WordPress Reader as they class you as spam. But I dont know, I know I use more than 10 sometimes, as do others, but I appear in the reader?! I only use mine to categorize anyway. Like you, for personal archiving.
Cheers Foogos 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013Hey Foogos,
I actually read the same, somewhere. Although I heard it was 5 tags. I wonder if there are serious tag differences between WordPress.com sites & self hosted ones on WordPress.org?
I actually do the same per movie review as you. Exactly the same in fact. Thanks for commenting.
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Foogos
/ May 28, 2013Wait. There’s a wordpress.com and a wordpress.org? And these are different things? I don’t know nothing!
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Tyson Carter
/ May 29, 2013Yup, one is self hosted whereas .com does it for us. Or something like that 🙂
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Mark Walker
/ May 27, 2013It’s a good question Shah and I’m eager to see what the comments section brings to this one. Personally, I don’t do it. I only tag with the year of the film’s release as it keeps my site a lot more tidy and allows people and extra search option when looking for film’s from a particular year or decade. I’m becoming less enthusiastic about stats on my site. I just want to enjoy blogging and I’m happy to see familiar faces appear whenever I post something. Any new faces are a bonus but I’m not going to go chasing it.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013When you’ve had 10,000+ views in one day like you then who needs to chase? 😉
Main thing is enjoying it, I know we’ve had this discussion before Mark and it’s just nice to see you writing again. Even when you are wrong and post incorrect scores 😉
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Hey Mark, thanks for the feed back, and always appreciate hearing from veteran Bloggers like yourself. 😉
See, this is one thing I should probably pay more attention to, organizing my site. I rarely tag keeping organization or internal search friendliness in mind. It’s a little different for me, considering I freelance write on top of Blogging, and recently the Blog has been getting me more paid work. So I’m attempting to make the Blogging experience better for myself, as well as the following that I currently have. I usually just wrote at breakneck speed, posted haphazardly, and then sat back. Quantity of posts was more important than Quality at the time for me.
More recently though, I’m making big changes. On top of a visual overhaul, putting more thought into my writing style, more photo editing work, self hosting, etc… The SEO research is a part of that. I’m attempting to make my Blog the priority right now, and prevent it from drifting down the list, while I get overtaken with other writing assignments. It’s a little crazy.
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Ryan McNeely
/ May 27, 2013Honestly dude, this all seems like work to me. I try to avoid that entire concept whenever possible. If I get the hits, I get the hits. It’s nice to see, but it doesn’t keep me up nights.
Oh and hey, congrats on the baby news!
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Fair enough Ryan, that’s cool and echoed by a lot of people I’m sure. Always good to get a variety of views with topics like this. Mainly so I can see how far behind with techniques others use!
And thanks, much appreciated, I can’t wait!! 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Hey Ryan, I know exactly what you mean. It is some work, and it does feel unnecessary at times. I’m just trying to if it has any value in our Blogging community. So thanks for the feedback, it definitely helps.
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keith7198
/ May 27, 2013I pretty lame. I know nothing about SEO. I tag my content (whenever I remember to) and that’s pretty much it. I’m just not that gifted when it comes to my knowledge of those things.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Ignore my previous message….LOL – it showed this was on Erics blog in my WordPress reply bit….weird, and my apologies 🙂
Hopefully this post can help people like me and you learn what these technical things are all about. Cheers Keith 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013It helps when you have awesome ass concepts and innovative topics eh Keith? 😉 You’re one of like 4-5 Bloggers that I’m insanely jealous of. So… damn you!
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keith7198
/ May 27, 2013Me??? Get outta heeeere!
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013I hope I’m number 1 on that list Shah 😉
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Todd Benefiel
/ May 27, 2013I’ve got a small group of friends and family who follow my site, and I’m not out to rule the world with it, so besides not even knowing what SEO was, I don’t think I’ll be using it. I just want to keep things simple, and the tags I use are about the limit on how ‘out there’ I want to go. Like Mark said a few comments above, seeing new faces is cool, but I don’t have the desire to hunt them down.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013I only follow you because I thought you WERE out to rule the world Todd. False advertising 😉
Thanks for the input though my friend, nice to see what motivates people and how important stats are. I’m in the middle. Intrigued but clueless 🙂
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Todd Benefiel
/ May 27, 2013Ha! And that’s why I follow you, Tyson…you intrigue me with your cluelessness! 😉 Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a planet to overtake…
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Glad my cluelessness intrigues you, and good luck with your planet overthrowing. Hopefully they love Silver Linings there and lock you up 😉
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Huh… so NOT wanting to rule the world is working for you eh? Well… to each their own I guess.
Thanks for the feedback Todd.
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Todd Benefiel
/ May 27, 2013Nah, I found the whole world-domination thing to be too time-consuming!
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013LAZY 😉
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sati
/ May 27, 2013I know almost nothing about SEO 🙂 I tag my reviews and stuff to make it easier for the people to find while they are already on my site. I noticed that writing about rare things brings tons of traffic because when someone searches for little known movie there is only so many results, I have few posts on rare horrors that got a lot of visitors each week.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 27, 2013Rare stuff is great for unique views. My obscure movies still get random searches each week. Like you say, that’s the benefit of writing about films most other people don’t bother with.
Thanks for joining in Sati 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013This is true. Also, recent and upcoming topics help drive the traffic as well. I notice my Preview posts for upcoming movies do better than Reviewing movies from 2 years ago, which is old news by the time I get to it.
I wonder how the stats look for people who Review a movie like 2 days after it releases. Hmm…
Thanks for the feedback Sati.
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Dan Heaton
/ May 27, 2013I know a little about SEO, but I don’t consider it when doing my posts. I feel like there’s plenty of room to grow through getting more involved in interacting with other bloggers and the community. Plus, I’d rather focus on making the content better. If I was hoping to turn the blog into a business venture or use it to get noticed, I can see the benefit in focusing on SEO. Since that isn’t the case, it isn’t really a priority.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Hey Dan, you make a lot of sense. I’m currently in the process of bettering content, myself, the site itself and everything else in my non-Blogging life as well. So your feedback is appreciated.
The consensus seems to be towards SEO not being a big deal. Interesting stuff indeed.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013I certainly try my best to interact with a community, so SEO would always be a pleasant side quest. Interesting to learn from people discussing it though. Thanks for joining in Dan 🙂
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Fogs' Movie Reviews
/ May 27, 2013I dont know enough about SEO, but I definitely need to start studying it and seeing what I can do. There comes a time when you hit a ceiling via quality content and visiting other blogs, and you need to turn elsewhere to continue to grow…
Right now I just tag as best I can and use the google author tag frequently. My blog is linked to my Google+ page, as well.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Thanks for the comment. I think you’ve articulated best why I’m looking into this. Not that I’ve hit a ceiling interacting with others or even my content. I probably should be visiting others’ Blogs a LOT more frequently than I do now. But I guess I figured that before relying on the community, I better cover all the bases of what I, myself can do by myself, to enhance my Site.
Glad to see some are just interested in it as I. Lotta different ways to Blog, and love seeing peoples’ successes with their techniques.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013I’m still lacking in knowledge about things like a google author tag. Although I have got you in some kind of circle on google+ Fogs 🙂
I figured if one man was all over SEO it would of been you LOL 🙂
Thanks for joining in buddy.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013Google what tag? Must. Google. This!
I find Google+ tedious and not nearly as interactive as Facebook. I can’t believe I just defended Facebook. *face palm* Am I saying ‘face’ too much? 😐
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ckckred
/ May 27, 2013Nice question. I don’t know to much about SEO unfortunately, which I should probably change. I just try writing many tags for my posts.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 27, 2013Thanks for the comment. I do tags too. Just wanted to see if there’s anything else I can do to enhance the site.
Glad to see you’re interested. Let us know what you find out.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013Ditto, but hopefully you can pick up some tips like I am from these experts 🙂
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Nick Powell
/ May 27, 2013I went too long without using SEO and then I figured why catch up and try to use it? So I have a few plugins that do this and that (I think), but it really is a realm I haven’t ventured into yet. I probably should. As for tags, they look ugly so I don’t use them either lol.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013Yeah I believe WordPress does it for us without the need for plugins. Playing catch up is boring right!? 😉
LOL – tags being ugly. I prefer them on this theme I have, more hidden and smaller. On some themes they look terrible and overwhelming.
Thanks for stopping by as always Nick 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013Hey Nick,
LOL at ugly tags. Stupid tags. But yes! Plugins! One thing I’m looking forward to when I self host. Pretty plug ins. Love your site by the way.
Thanks for the comment.
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Garrett
/ May 27, 2013So glad you did this post now. I’ve been meaning to look into SEO for a little while now and reading this and the comments so far is really helpful. I do agree with what Sati said earlier that posts about rare things brings in a good amount of traffic. My review for Roman Polanski’s Carnage, which is kind of a lesser talked about film and recent one as well, has gotten more views from Google than any other review on my site so far.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013Thats great about your Carnage review Garrett. Weird what gets most views, The Strangers is far and away my most popular piece. Most recent it would be The Tortured. 2 films I didnt really like lol.
Glad this is helping you, certainly lots of opinions for people like us learning this SEO stuff. Cheers dude 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013Hey Garrett,
Good content is always better than any thing else on a Blog, in my opinion. So I agree with you and Sati both.
Thanks for stopping by. Glad I could help.
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Marc Winger
/ May 27, 2013Major generalization of the tag words & phrases works for me. Also, as was mentioned, keeping in mind when a post is being written, the words used, not so much for artistic diversity but for content with words & phrases that are used by the public to identify concepts, current events, etc. Overuse of a thesaurus is a mistake, except when trying to find a different word, meaning the same as a previously used word. Blogging IS self expression, but each of our intents are different. I don’t write to serve the “blogosphere”. I write for my own agenda, aiming at the general public. The result is a lot of hits, Not so many from the walled garden of WordPress, but mostly from the internet as a whole. I may not get as many comments & likes as many on WordPress, but I am more than satisfied by my actual hits from the rest of the planet. SEO is definitely important. But if you tag & insert content with words & phrases that have no relation with your post, then you’re going to get a one time hit, p!ssing the visitor off, so they never return. If I write about hypocrisy & snails, but tag with with “nude & brad pitt”. This would be dishonorable & a mistake. Spammers & ad people push this stupidity because they rely on single hits for their statistics & the gamble that some rube will click a link on their site/post. Stick with honesty. Decide who you want to entice to visit & tag correctly, but not overmuch. Overkill is also an issue.
This is all what I have found, ironically (in respect to this comment) from spammers & ad people. Pay attention to the tools that WordPress gives you. Look at the search engine terms that have brought people to your site, look at the links that are clicked on your blog. These can be found in the statistics. Don’t be upset if you don’t get the comments & “likes”. Those are irrelevant & only peripherally important on WordPress. Most people around the internet, do not comment & the only “like buttons” are on blogging sites (I’ve disabled mine), Facebook & a few other services. It’s nice to interact, but your goal should be to reel in hits. Always. However it is, that you do it, is acceptable if you’re honest. Chin up, guys. Tyson has found his modus operandi, you can find yours too. I found my own way, it’s not an uphill climb. Focus on your site hits & keep your own counsel.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013As always, excellent advice Marc. Thank you, nothing I can really add to that……although I thought you must of disabled your ‘like’ button. I always use it to show people Ive read their post, if I cant add to the conversation with a comment.
Thanks again for sharing this 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013I do the same with the ‘like’ button. Sometimes I like the post, but have nothing to say. And I prefer not to comment with generic ‘good job’ or other pat on the back stuff.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 29, 2013I dont mind some of the generic comments, just shows Ive read it so I’ll drop a ‘good job’ now and again. Sounds condescending when I word it like that…….not meant to! 🙂
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Marc Winger
/ May 28, 2013I thought long & hard before disabling the “like button” on my site. I decided to go for it, since WordPress users can hit the “like” on the up top WordPress navigation & the feedback I was getting from users outside of WordPress was of annoyance that in order to hit the button which is in front of their faces, they need to sign up to WordPress. So I’ve opted to integrate my site design as a website on the internet, not a blogging site on WordPress. I do appreciate & receive “likes” from those, like yourself, who realize there’s more than one way of doing things. 🙂 (I cannot annoy my readers with a like button.)
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Tyson Carter
/ May 29, 2013I dont mind annoying mine, never really thought about removing it. Shows I need the false popularity feeling lol. Thanks for clearing your thoughts up though, always good to hear why people do the things they do on their sites 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013Thank you so much for your input Marc. A very well thought out and detailed comment.
You hit on some very important points. “Be honest” I think is the most critical of all. The tags and all this meta work, must be relevant to the content, and not misleading solely to get those single few hits. As much as I like the hits, my main intention is really creating good bodies of work that encourage discussion and conversation. Nothing I like more than a good discussion. If one person comments, I consider that post a success in engaging the reader. Hits are also important to me. I’ve established and noticed my own site’s traffic increase of decrease due to certain trends. It’s all still a learning process for me… hence this question as well.
Thanks again for the awesome advise and feedback! Much appreciated!
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Kim @ Tranquil Dreams
/ May 27, 2013I’ve heard about it but I’m not very familiar with it. I’m not really great with computers but it has been something that has crossed my mind to look at, just been postponed of late. Right now, I just implement tags and hope that it’ll get viewed. 🙂 Good question though. Its definitely something to think about!
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013I’ll always check your work Kim, tags or seo or neither 🙂
Thank you, and hopefully you can pick up some tips like I’m trying to 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013I cross my fingers and refresh the WordPress app on my phone every 5 minutes checking the stats. Yes, I’m vain and need validation from strangers.
But I usually do the same. Am trying to extend my Blogging techniques further with this research. Let’s hope it helps. *crosses fingers*
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Tim The Film Guy
/ May 27, 2013I try to use relevant tags and I think I have a Google optimization thing going but other than that no tricks for me 😀
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013Is that the google author link up in the WordPress settings? I have that matched up, never noticed a difference lol. Cheers Tim 🙂
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Tim The Film Guy
/ May 28, 2013Yeah that’s the one
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013Thanks for the comment Tim. I’ve done the same, but like Tyson, don’t notice much difference.
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biggreenjelly
/ May 27, 2013As someone who writes a fair bit about films from close to a century ago, I find that the best thing to do is to share them with communities who are interested in that area. If I post a 1915 Chaplin film and just leave it, it will get a fraction of the traffic as if I post it on something like silentcomedians.com. Targeting content in that way helps to leave it in places where like minded people are more likely to stumble upon it.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013I’ve never really thought about leaving reviews on other places. I did start to with IMDB but gave up. Nice tip Tom, cheers mate.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 28, 2013That’s actually very good advise. I’ve started to leave links of mine and others’ work on Facebook groups, Redditt and other places. Any other resources I might be oblivious to?
Thanks for the comment Tom.
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biggreenjelly
/ May 31, 2013I don’t use redditt and it’s only really my silent comedy reviews that I put in silent comedy forums. If you review a niche area like that then it’s really the only way to get your writing to people that might be interested. If there’s a specific area that you write about then it’s a good idea to try and seek out like minded people to read it.
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theipc
/ May 27, 2013I usually just tag a post with something I hope is funny and then some of the players in the movie, like the director or the actors. I’m not in this to get 1,000,000 hits a day – I like the community. So if I tag something with “BOOBS, (DIRECTOR), (ACTRESS), (ACTRESS), THIS MOVIE ROCKS MY LAME ASS” – I hope people like it. I’ve had some directors and actors check out my site but nothing like Head In a Vice gets : )
Whatever it is – I don’t try too hard : )
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013You do use the most fun tags! Hey, I use my powers for good and got you a date with that Dr Who lady (kind of).
Thanks for giving your input buddy, always appreciated 🙂
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mikeyb185
/ May 27, 2013I’m new to all this and I’m not great with computers and stuff but I really enjoy writing. So I have thought much about SEO and feel like it’s dishonest to stray too far away from your subject when tagging a post. There needs to be a middle ground.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013Definitely a middle ground. It was more discussed on the linked Tags post, but whilst it can bring more views using crafty tags, as you say it can feel dishonest. To each their own I guess.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013Hey Mikey,
I definitely agree. It’s misleading to tag a post with irrelevant words or phrases. I think context and relevancy is super important when it comes to tagging.
Thanks for the comment!
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Morgan R. Lewis
/ May 28, 2013I used to work SEO, for one of the “black pits of hell” companies that really stain your soul. You name an internet advertising or traffic-driving technique, they had their hands in it. They worked with Doubleclick, Overture, any paid advertising, any paid-inclusion search engine, and would do their best to get the non-paid search engines to serve up their clients’ pages first and foremost. They even assigned me to try and engineer a simulacrum of Google’s Ad Words the first week I was there.
Let me tell you right now: The only way to win at SEO is to play it honestly. Any reputable search engine, such as Google — and nobody with an ounce of sense is using a non-reputable one — is filled with people who are well aware of the SEO gamesmanship and are actively working against it. They want their search results to be relevant, they don’t want them to be somebody who has been attempting to manipulate it. Any trick you learn, they’ve learned to, and they’re skewing their algorithms against it.
You want to do well? The only way that works in the long run, the only way that they won’t penalize you for, is if you design your site with people in mind, not search engines. Emphasize the parts that a person would find relevant. Put the title of the film in your headline. Italicize titles in the text. Keep your tags directly relevant to what’s in the text. In all ways, ask yourself, “How would I use this if I were just a visitor?” If your SEO technique doesn’t directly help a user, it’s not going to boost your rankings in the long run, and will likely sink it. So really, if you’re not thinking about it… you’re probably ahead of the people who are.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013Wow, excellent response Morgan, very helpful and informative. Thanks very much, lots to ponder there, and again these posts really are useful 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013Hey Morgan. Very well said! So ultimately, thinking of content + audience loyalty first, is automatically resulting in the benefits of focusing on SEO tehniques anyways. That’s brilliant and very well put.
That actually makes sense as well. Essentially a user friendly site, relevant content, and being true and loyal to your readership, will bring in the success without technological bells and whistles. Thanks so much for the comment. Love the last line of what you said!
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Morgan R. Lewis
/ May 30, 2013Thanks, Shah. That’s exactly it: Google, etc., try to build their search engines to be as “human” as possible in how they value things. So anything that would get you to say “that’s not really what I’m looking for, it’s just someone throwing in random stuff” is something they’re trying to de-prioritize in their results.
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Bubbawheat
/ May 28, 2013I don’t put a whole lot of time into it, aside from tagging pretty much all of my posts with “movies” so I get lumped into WordPress’s “Movies” category, though I don’t really see any traffic from it anymore unless they’ve just changed the way they track that referrer. I often even avoid using proper picture alt tags in favor of putting in an additional joke for those who actually read the mouseover text. Though surprisingly enough, two of the most frequently searched pictures that show up on my search term list is “Mystique feet” and “Bolt map” or some variation.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013I quite often search your site for Mystique feet 🙂
I use Movies & Movie Review for WordPress tags, but nothing specific for SEO. Thanks for sharing Bubba 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013Hey Bubba,
Interesting. I never noticed any referrers from that. Granted, I haven’t been thinking about tags until very recently. I usually make my picture joke in the caption. I need people to see my funnys. 😉
Thanks for the comment!
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Bubbawheat
/ May 30, 2013I also make a joke in the caption, and then I sometime make a second joke in the alt text.
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Armando Dela Cruz
/ May 28, 2013SEO is familiar with me (I’m a freelance writer when I’m not blogging). A lot of clients request it, but I don’t worry much about it, I tell them. SEO needs to be niftier than your niftiest can get. It’s not always that it comes successful. I advise my clients that quality is most important. You can have the strongest SEO, but if your content is craft, you end up either trolled or left in the shadows once again. Same with my blogging (especially that I run a movie blog), I don’t ever care much about SEO. WordPress has already a strong community of bloggers and they will make up for that “traffic.” Plus, as a writer I feel it’s a mortal sin to commit grammatical crimes for the sake of inserting the most ridiculous of keywords! Nice question. 🙂
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Armando Dela Cruz
/ May 28, 2013*craft = crap. Stupid typo. -_-
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Tyson Carter
/ May 28, 2013Great answer Armando!! Thanks very much, very insightful 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013Hey Armando,
I’m a freelance Writer too, and I stay away from Content creation jobs which focus on SEO driven ‘buzz words’. I know what you mean about the ridiculous keywords for sake of SEO. It’s one of the reasons I stopped. However, I meant SEO more in mind with what would compliment our movie blogs and existing content. Not going out of your way for SEO, but keeping it in mind when writing. I still think it may work, although in a very limited capacity. Similar to categorizing and tagging our posts for organization, if nothing else.
Thanks for the comment. Nice to know there’s other Freelancers running their own Blogs. 😉
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Niejan
/ May 28, 2013Interesting question. Frankly, I do keep SEO techniques in mind when publishing an article. I think it’s an effective method to attract more (unique) visitors to your website / blog. The thing is that there are two versions of the technique, white hat versus black hat optimization. And as long as you use tags which are relevant to the topic of your post, SEO is something to embrace and to use with every post. Search engines like Google are fully aware when you go ‘darkside’ with SEO and consequently take action against your Blog / Website.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013Hey Niejan,
I agree with you completely! One of the reasons for this post was to see if there was a way to use SEO in a complimentary manner with my Blog / Site. I think you said it wonderfully, that done honestly it can be successful.
Thanks a lot for the comment!
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Brian @ Hard Ticket to Home Video
/ May 28, 2013I add “ass massage” to every post since that seems to generate hits.
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Tyson Carter
/ May 29, 2013Those are hits just from Eric though, is that all you want? 😉
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013You may have even more success by adding ‘ tits ‘ at the end. It’s confusing, intriguing and quite possibly, freaky.
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r361n4
/ May 29, 2013Not going to lie, I use some questionable tags in pretty much every post but I stand by them for the most part in their effects if not necessarily the tags themselves. If a particular tag brings in 100 extra people and even 1 of those people end up being interested in what you have to say, that’s another follower you wouldn’t have had before. I never write about seedy stuff like that so I don’t feel it compromises my integrity. That being said, most of my tags aren’t “dirty” so much as they are specific; i.e. “The Bartender in Hope Springs” or “Dentist Cart in Django Unchained”, Those ones end up bringing in most of the traffic anyways, so I try to cast as broad of a net of specific tags as possible to bring people in 🙂
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Tyson Carter
/ May 29, 2013Your tags always make me laugh. Plenty of nudity and random ones, but as you’ve explained to me before, there is a method to your madness. 🙂
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013Very interesting. It’s still amazing to me what kinds of things work, and what doesn’t. Very cool to hear your innovative use of tags, and your succeess with it. Maybe I’ll try a similar experiment for a post or two.
Thanks for the comment!
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atothewr
/ May 30, 2013Great post, thanks for the tips.
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Shah Shahid
/ May 30, 2013Reblogged this on Blank Page Beatdown and commented:
I comandeer Tyson Carter’s Question Time feature over at his Site: headinavice.com.
Check out my thoughts on SEO and let us know if you think it relates to casual blogging, or is a waste of time?
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iloveterriblemovies
/ May 30, 2013Enjoying this conversation. I’ll just make another plug for the creation of high-quality content being my top priority, and that my own ability of being creative with my subject matter is my (or anyone else’s) comparative advantage in drumming up a decent-sized and sustaining constituency. This seems especially true if, as someone mentioned above, that industry has pros who are gaming out SEO strategies that will find out–and counter–anything I would be able to come up with as an amateur.
I also think it is very tempting in conversations like these to make too much of a fetish about constituency-building, page view metrics, etc. What gets missed, IMHO, when we focus too much on the “business of blogging” is the intrinsic joy of taking an idea and pushing it, making it into something others might enjoy, publishing it on our own terms. In other words, valuing climbing the popularity ladder as evidenced in various kinds of statistical measures–and trying to influence that in all sorts of ways–over the substance of our topics and content, and the thrill of knowing you just published something for the world to find,
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Shah Shahid
/ June 1, 2013Very wise stuff. I completely agree, again. You’re right. Ultimately, Blogging was meant to be self expression. It’s only that with new media, some Bloggers have risen to fame and ‘success’, so other may feel like Blogging as their gateway to similar situations, focusing and prioritizing the ‘hits’ and number game as a form of some limited fame.
I do that. But I truly enjoy the back and forth and interactivity that Blogging or online publishing provides me, versus the printed word journalism.
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