Free SEO Advice

Written by CT Moore on July 26, 2011. Posted in SEO.

While I was working for NVI, an SEO and social media agency, I did some guest blogging to help get the word out about our expertise and build links back to the site. Many of those guest posts focused on SEO and social media, and had some pretty advanced and detailed advice on how to address some very specific SEO situation.

Well, they say that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but there’s an exception to every rule, so today I’m posting links to (and synopses of) each of those article. They range in topic from SEO copywriting and web design tips, to leveraging social content to rank and how to rank in different countries.

I hope you enjoy…

Table of Contents

SEO Copywriting

One of the reasons that they say that content is king is because content is one of the primary factors that will help you rank. Oftentimes, however, it can be tricky walking that balance between writing for search engines and writing for actual human beings.

Well, in this article called 5 Tips for SEO & User Friendly Copy, I explore 5 tips for writing content that appeals to both search engines and users. These include:

Length of Page Content
Writing Scanable Paragraphs
Using Header for SEO and Usability
Keyword Density
and How to Use Bullet Lists Properly

Social Content & SEO

There’s a lot of hype around how social media can help you “connect” with consumers, etc. But did you know that the right social content strategy can also help you boost your search engine rankings?

In an article titled Leveraging Social Content for SEO, I explore how you can leverage social content to build links and gain the trust of search engines by demonstrating that your site is relevant to actual human users. Specifically, I take a look at:

How Social Signals Boost SEO
The Basics of Shareable Content (i.e. has viral potential)
and How to Build a Social Content Strategy that will support your SEO

SEO & Web Design

It’s hard not to judge a book by its cover, and oftentimes, packaging is what sells us on a product or service. So it’s important that your website looks good. But there’s also no reason why it can’t be SEO friendly, as well.

In this post called 5 Simple SEO Web Design Hacks, I take a look at 5 SEO elements that web designers should keep in mind when building a site. These include:

Page Load Times
Using HTML5
Optimizing Images
Using Proper Page Copy Elements
and some Flash Hacks for those projects that just can’d do without Flash

International SEO

Many companies sell their products in more than one country. When it comes to search engine optimization, though, it can be challenging to rank high in the search index of more than one country at a time.

Well, in International SEO: The ABCs of Ranking Abroad, we take a look at how Google gages the geographic relevant of a site, and what brands can do to help increase their search ranking profiles in multiple counties. Specifically, we explore how the following factors impact your rankings in different countries:

Top Level Domains (TLDs)
IP Address Location
Onsite Content
Contact Info
Backlink Profile

SEO for Content Publishers

If your business model depends on publishing, then you’ve already bought into the axiom that “content is king.” But the more content you publish, the more challenging it can be to get each piece of content to rank. Indeed, you can get so swamped in producing content, that you don’t always have enough resources to effectively market it.

This is what I set out to address in SEO for Massive Content Sites & Enterprise Level Publishers. In this post, I explore some of the most common SEO pitfalls of having a large content publishing portal. I start with basic onsite page structure, and then move onto to address some tips to avoid duplication content issues/penalties, including:

Using Article Excerpts on the Index and Category Pages
Crafting Unique Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
Implementing Unique Static Content on Dynamic Pages
Noindexing Duplicate Content
and Using Canonical Tags on Syndicated Content

SEO for Restricted Content

Last, but not least, there are the content sites that rely on some kind of subscription model for users to access their content. Maybe those subscriptions are paid, or maybe the content is behind a free registration wall, but either way, such sites face a challenge to making sure that Google can get in behind that registration wall, index that content, and then send the site new users.

Well, in How to Rank & Monetize Restricted Content, I address these issues specifically. I examine:

the business incentives to restrict content,
when it’s appropriate to do so,
and how to get restricted content into the search index so that it has a chance of ranking.

CT Moore

The founder of Socialed Inc., CT Moore has over a decade of experience in Digital Marketing, and has managed SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing campaigns for both start-ups and multinational brands alike. He was also a founding partner and head of digital at anderson pigeon, a full-service agency that specializes in branding, retail strategy, and trade marketing. CT's writing has been featured in dozens of publications and blogs, and he’s spoken at conferences throughout Canada, the US, and Europe. You can stalk CT and learn more about him through his LinkedIn profile.