Generally speaking, search engines look at blog posts similarly to the way they evaluate web pages. So, everything you worry about for a normal web page (title tag, linking strategy, etc.) should be taken into consideration for each blog post (If you’re a newcomer to SEO or need just want a general refresher, we recommend you review this on page optimization post by SEOMOZ). In addition, blogs offer two additional elements, which we will focus on today, that can be used to enhance your optimization – categories and tags.

Categories

Creating categories on a blog is a way to organize each blog post into similarly related topics. This helps search engines understand what your blog posts are about through their association with other, related content. When creating categories, define them fairly broadly so that similarly themed posts can be placed within the same category. Each blog post should be assigned as few categories as possible – ideally only one.

Tags

Tags are similar to categories in the sense that they offer the ability to group together similar blog posts. However, post tags tend to be much more granular in nature, describing the various aspects of your posts in greater detail then a category might. Each new blog post can use existing tags that have already been created, or create new ones that more accurately describe the post’s subject matter. Each blog post should be tagged with a handful of descriptive tags.

Where Do I Create Categories and Post Tags?

Each blogging platform is different, but for WordPress (which is what we use) the categories and tags can be found on the right hand side of the “add new/edit post” screen. We’ve provided a quick screen shot below for your reference. The category area is highlighted in red, while the tag area is highlighted in blue.

Creating categories for your blog and tagging each post with relevant keyphrases is a great way to help achieve your optimization goals. It only takes a few additional minutes to do and is well worth your time so get in the habit of doing this before you publish each and every post.

Good luck and happy tagging!

Scenario: (Happened recently to a Pure Visibility client.) Your company has some nice blogging momentum going. You’ve been posting on the regular for about a year now, not quite in Jonathan Schwartz territory yet, but it’s going well. Then one day your Internet marketing company notices that none of your posts are indexed by Google…tried querying Google with the advanced operator site:example.website.com and your blog is nowhere. The Horror!

Here’s what happened behind the scenes.

1. A security flaw in an outdated version of WordPress allows spam to get to the blog, even though comments are moderated.
2. A spider sees the spam and Google removes the blog from its index
3. Spam content deleted, WordPress updated with security flaw corrected.
4. Blog remains de-indexed.
5. Verified site with Google Webmaster Tools & receive notice of Removal from Google’s Indexes
6. Use Webmaster Tools to submit Request Consideration form.



7. Within the week (much sooner than expected) the site is reindexed by Google.
8. Problem! SERP snippet now shows spam that no longer exists on the blog.



Nice that Webmaster Tools allows Google to communicate with site owners and provide them with critical notifications.   This could be pretty frustrating for anyone, particularly someone limited time or intarweb experience.   Takeaways: keep your blogging program up to date; use Akismet or other anti-spam tool; moderate comments vigilantly; sign up for Webmaster Tools.

When I first started building sites in WordPress a year ago I was disappointed in the quality of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugins available. During that time I put several plugins to the test, and here are the five I use exclusively to optimize my WordPress sites. Remember website optimization still takes that personal touch, but these plugins will help you not only achieve organic traffic but make your life easier. Read More