4 don’ts to improve your blog’s SEO

SEO … the promised land for bloggers. But it’s also like learning a foreign language. In fact, it’s like learning a foreign language that changes all the time with no warning and no explanation. Words like algorithm are made for left-brained scientists not right-brained creatives who blog.

In our work with blog and website design clients one of our goals is to help them position their blogs for the best possible SEO return. The same thing is true for our e-book clients who are developing mini-sites and choosing keywords and descriptions for their projects.

SEO is a necessary evil for most of us. But sometimes we can find simple SEO answers and solutions. When we do, we want to share them with you.   Here are 4 big don’ts to improve your blog’s SEO.

1. Don’t forsake your readers for your SEO. SEO Desk offers 3 SEO techniques that can hurt usability on your site.  While SEO is important, it is never more significant than making your site usable for your readers.
2. Don’t leave broken links. This is something where I often get behind.  But it matters…a lot. Tentblogger recommends the Broken Link Checker plug-in and offers specific suggestions for using it to improve your blog’s SEO and loading time.
3. Don’t neglect backlinks. Backlinks are a vital component to a successful SEO strategy. ProBlogger offers 10 no-nonsense ways to build back links. My favorite suggestions are building exhaustive round-ups, which I did for the Starting Well in 2012 series I did earlier this year, and creating great resource pages, which we are working on here at Design by Insight.
4. Don’t ignore images. I worked at consistently using alt-text and file name for images I use on my blog and the other places I write, including here at Design by Insight. But this article on DIY Themes about optimizing images for SEO helped me understand the importance of captioning my photos.

For more information about SEO improvements, check out these two round-up posts on the topic:

• The Blogger’s Essential Guide to Search Engine Optimization by TentBlogger
• WordPress SEO for Everybody by DIY Themes

How confident are you on the topic of SEO?

What is one thing you can immediately implement to improve your SEO?