I had been meaning to post about how SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can help you and LeoFinance get more search engine traffic to your posts for awhile now. But after reading @agr8buzz's post on "How to Grow Traffic Through SEO" I figured now would be as good as anytime to make this post.
What Is SEO and Why Is It Important?
Search engine optimization is a technique used to improve the search rankings of a site or page in an attempt to get more free traffic via search engines. As you probably know, Google is the big dog in the search engine world and ranking well on highly searched topics can generate massive traffic. If (or when?) LeoFinance makes it into the top 10 for the search term bitcoin it would drive thousands and thousands of new visitors here every day.
The techniques have evolved over time as Google is constantly changing what they are looking for when they rank pages. What may have gotten you a top 10 ranking today may well get you penalized tomorrow. It is a fast changing game but some key factors have remained consistently important. These include on page factors (like the title, headers, out links) as well as off page factors (number and page rank of links from other websites and pages, rank and relevance of back-linked page to keyword, etc.)
My SEO Experience
To be honest, most of my SEO experience is rather dated. In the late 90s through mid-2000's I had a number of websites where I had a fair bit of success with SEO. I came very close to quitting my day job to do it full time. I still remember my buddy marveling about the money I was making giving away free computer wallpapers.
Then in one update Google removed nearly all of my pages from their searches. I went from earning $700/day to earning $100/day over night (thank you Yahoo! search for keeping me in the game for so long, may you Rest In Peace). Truthfully, much of what I was creating in the 2000s was little more than search engine spam so I didn't deserve to rank well and likely deserved the bans.
I adjusted, Google adjusted, and around and around we went. It became harder and harder for me to keep up and eventually my day job became too hectic and I stopped trying.
While much has changed, much remains the same. The rest of this post is some tips to help you create better ranking posts which can help you and LeoFinance.
Content Is King
Then as now, the key to consistent long term success with SEO is in quality content creation. Quality content is also important for return visitors. LeoFinance users are creating tons of quality (and not so quality) content each day. That is the kind of thing Google and users like.
Quality content also organically generates backlinks. No one is going to link to your post on your Splinterlands session, but lots of people may be interested in learning about "the best stable coins to buy" and a few of those may decide to link to it.
Quick SEO Tips
Ok, enough background, here are some easy things you can do to improve the page rank of your posts which may help you (especially if you have referral links in your post) and will certainly help LeoFinance grow. And the better LeoFinance does, the better we all do.
Identify Important Keywords
Just like when you start a post you are identifying the subject of what you are going to write about, you should also be thinking about what keywords/search terms you are targeting.
It is very unlikely you will ever rank well for a single word so it is better to think in terms of keyword phrases. Three, four, and more keywords tied together. So rather than targeting "bitcoin" try to target something like "best bitcoin faucets in 2021." (Note to self... write that post and link it!).
There are lots of great online keyword tools out there to help you identify keywords that might be easy to target like Google's Keyword Planner. Again, I recommend looking for multi-word phrases that match the content you are writing.
Page Title
The title of a webpage is very important. Not only can a good title get you more search traffic, but it can also help get you more clicks here on LeoFinance. Your title should be relatively short and contain the keyword phrase you are targeting.
Linking to Authoritative Pages
Links in your page to high ranking pages can help your page rank better too - assuming they are on topic. So sprinkle in some links to related pages on other cryptocurrency websites.
Link to Other LeoFinance Pages
Linking to other relevant pages on LeoFinance helps give that page a boost in ranking. I have seen some users with a series of links at the bottom of their post that point to other recent posts they created. That can help some with getting more views to your live posts, but long term, those links will help increase that pages rank.
When linking it is important to also use the keywords in the link text. Don't use "yesterday's post". Instead write something like as I said in my post on "the best free bitcoin faucets in 2021" (man I need to write that post!)
Images and Alt Text
At least when I was in the game, I found it was much easier to rank well for image searches than it was for the general web search. So it is important to try and use original images that relate to your keywords.
There are lots of free images sites out there but chances are those images have been used by hundreds of other posters. So what can you do? Make some quick edits. Flip it left from right. Resize it. Add something to it. Save it with a new name, one containing your targeted keywords. So rather than a file name of 134562.jpg change the name to best-bitcoin-faucet-2021.jpg. Don't forget to add keywords to our image alt text too.
Create Links to Your Page Offsite
The big daddy for SEO is backlinks from offsite. There are a number of places where you can create posts with links back to your posts here on LeoFinance. Medium, noise.cash, Publish0x, Reddit, are just a few.
But not all backlinks are created equal. If the site uses the "nofollow" attribute in its external links those links will not provide any page rank.
Also try not to re-post your whole article. Google does not like duplicate content. In fact I think that is one of the things hurting LeoFinance and other Hive front-ends. Each Hive front-end creates duplicates of the same content as the other front-ends to some degree.
Don't Over Due It
While some SEO is a good thing, it can certainly be overdone. Over using your keywords can actually hurt your rankings. Same with having too many links pointing back with the exact same link text.
Got Any More SEO Tips to Share?
As I said, my SEO experience is dated. I would love to hear from others on some things they have learned about improving page rank and generating search engine traffic.