How to Get More Google Traffic to Your Blog For Free-Part Two

Posted on November 4, 2010


This is part of an ongoing series titled “How to get more Google traffic for free“. I published the first post, “How to get more Google traffic for free-Part 1” on Monday but wasn’t able to publish the second one on Tuesday as I had promised since I have been overly committed with preparation for my graduation from the campus this December. I am really excited about it and will keep you updated on the progress, plus share with you photos from that event. In the meanwhile, enjoy these tips on getting more Google traffic for free.

1. Make your URLs search engine friendly

It is absolutely critical that you use seo-friendly URLs for your blog posts. By default, WordPress URLs (that is, permalinks) are not so search engine friendly. The posts are identified by a sequential, dynamic number placed after the domain name of your blog such as this:

http://internetwealthlab.com/blog/?p=102 or http://internetwealthlab.com/?p=102

While there is no problem with this, Google or any other search engine can’t immediately tell what your blog posts are about unless they first crawl/spider the content on the post itself. To take care of that, you need to change your permalink structure by following these steps:

-Login to your WordPress control panel (dashboard)

-Click on “permalinks” under “settings”

permalink structure

You normally have four options for permalinks which are Default, Day and Name, Month and Name, Numeric, and Custom Structure. Choose the Custom Structure radio button and add /%postname%/ in the text field as shown below:

wordpress permalink structure

For the above permalink custom structure, my blog post permalinks looks something like

http://internetwealthlab.com/blog/4-easy-steps-to-get-your-first-website-online-in-one-day/

This helps my blog posts have a better chance of being shown in Google search results which is something that should really excite any serious blogger or marketer.

2. Optimize your blog or site

Know your keywords and use them for your posts. Use the keywords in your blog titles, headings, and Meta tags. While there is a considerable debate as to whether Google factors the Meta tags anymore, it is still a wise idea to place the keywords in there just in case other search engines still do.

For each blog post you write, you should choose one, specific keyword depending on your keyword strategy and use it in your title. The idea here is to write catchy titles that are interesting to the readers while optimizing your blog posts for the search engines.

What about your blog posts descriptions?

The key with Meta tag description is to write for the search engines as well as the target audience. Potential visitors to your blog judge your website based on the description they can see in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Even if you have the best content but your descriptions can’t entice your readers by making them believe you have what they are looking for, high chances are that they won’t click through to your website.

As part of your blog posts optimization strategy, you should therefore craft a nice SEO optimized description for each blog post with the keyword you are trying to rank for appearing at least once. Answer the reader’s questions in advance by explaining what the blog post is all about. The All-in-one-SEO pack plugin makes this a total breeze and I always use it for my blogs.

all in one seo pack

I am just about to dart out of the door and head to campus for clearance with the school. I will keep you updated on the progress. Also, be on the lookout for the next post in this series called “How to get more Google traffic for free” tomorrow.

All the best
Kevin Njoroge

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