* SEO = Search Engine Optimisation

Many website and blog users may have heard of the term “SEO”, but how many of us really know what it is and how to do something about it? I’ve been gathering snippets of information to pass on to my readers & clients; I’ll keep updating this blog post as I come across more useful things.

Tip #1 – “Slugs” and “Permalinks”

“Slugs” or “permalinks” allow you to insert a topic or keyword phrase into your URL (or web address) that is used to access a page or a blog post (blog entry). This helps the search engines to find more relevant results when users search for something.

For example: the URL or website address for this particular post is http://thesimplewebcompany.com/useful-seo-techniques (it’s in the top line of your web browser) which, as you can see, has been made up from the words I used as this blog post’s title.

But if I had a particularly long or meaningless title (as sometimes happens!) it will serve me better to change the “slug” or “permalink” to something more readable and more relevant to search engines.

* Bad example: http://thesimplewebcompany.com/what-not-to-do-in-seo
* Better example: http://thesimplewebcompany.com/wordpress-seo-techniques – as this gives the search engines more useful information to work with.

By default the title you use for a blog post or page name becomes your “slug” or “permalink” name, but you can alter that very simply.

* In older versions of Wordpress, you can edit the post slug in the right hand column of the post writing/editing page.
* In versions 2.5 and above, there is a link to edit the Permalink, near the top of the editing page between the page or post header, and the main body of text.

Changing these descriptions to better keyword-rich titles helps improving the SEO of your website.

Tip #2 will be posted soon…

Please feel free to send in comments, queries and suggestions using the “comment” form below, or email from the “Contact Us” page.

Good luck!
Tracey

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