Stop the Green Light Panic: Reducing Your

SEO Anxiety

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Meta Descriptions

• Absolutely necessary

• 150-160 characters (w/spaces)

• Don’t just use your first sentence, write something unique.

• Primary keyword is best, but don’t angst over not getting it in proper.

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Images

• Very beneficial, but only when they are relevant.

• Make sure you are using alt tags that are descriptive of the image.

• DO NOT USE ALT TAGS AS KEYWORD STUFFING OPPORTUNITIES

• Ideally the image is related to your keyword and therefore it will be natural to have it in the alt

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Flesch Reading Ease

• The Flesch readability score uses the sentence length (number of words per sentence) and the number of syllables per word in an equation to calculate the reading ease.

• Lower is better, but consider the education level of your target audience.

• Adjust based on readership and the content you are presenting, not this metric.

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Keyword in URL

• Very important

• Use WordPress’ automatic slug generator and editing tools to your advantage.

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Outbound Links

• Beneficial, but not critical for all sites.

• Outbound links basically give your site more credit as a reputable source.

• If your page doesn’t lend itself naturally to outbound links, don’t force it.

• If you use outbound links, make sure the destination is reputable (i.e. no malware/spam sites, .edu or .gov are best)

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Keyword in Sub-heads

• Very beneficial

• H2s are your friend, use them!

• Not all sub-heads need the keyword/phrase if it doesn’t make sense or is too repetitive.

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Keyword Density

• 5x keyword in 314 words is overkill.

• Shoot for at least once in the sub-heads and 1-2 times in copy this short.

• Try variations of your focus keyword rather than repetition:

Focus: best 90s songs

Variations: best songs of the 90s, best songs from the 90s, top 90s songs

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Page Title Length

• Listen to Yoast

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Keyword Use in Title

• Listen to Yoast

• Try to get it in the front, but if it doesn’t read properly, forget this “rule”

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Content Length

• 300 words is the barest minimum.

• Short content can be appropriate for things like short lead-ins to on-page video.

• A ‘short’ blog should be 500-600 words.

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Unique Focus Keyword

• Good for sites with a little content, but when you start building up a big blog roll, you’ll need to reuse some keywords.

• Duplicate keywords when they are ones you really want to focus on and speak to your core site purpose.

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First Paragraph

• Absolutely necessary

• If you’re not putting your focus keyword in your first paragraph – your first sentence even – why is it your focus?

What are your SEO frustrations?

Lisa MelegariCalico Content

www.calicocontent.com@calicowebcont