What’s something most people don’t understand?
My post titles’ SEO these days are shit. I’m not following best practices for the Google crawler to find my posts and treat them preferentially in search results. Well, except for my last one — I used “top ten,” which is good for SEO. That’s why you see so many posts with “top ten” or “top five.” It appeals to readers and search engines alike.
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
If you want readers, writing a good post and writing well won’t get you far. It’s all about SEO, baby! There are a few plugins for WordPress sites that help you do SEO for your site and every single post. Writing a post is the easy part. Optimizing it for Search Engine Optimization is tiring and long.
Optimization: making the most effective use of a search engine.
The first thing you must do is have links. Internal links to other posts on your site, and external links. The plugin will tell you if you don’t have enough. I’m tired of putting in links. I usually do them not because of SEO, but to provide more information and make it easy for readers to find what I’m talking about in more depth. For example, if I mention my hypothalamus fix, I’d link to my book page, which contains the most up-to-date info or the blog series I wrote. Nope, you’re right, no link today. Hit that search box, I say! Why? Because the energy to get and put in the links has kept me from writing. I’d rather just write, so I can breathe, and it’s not like anyone uses them anyway. My stats site tells me which links are clicked on. Very few. So why bother?
SEO also requires images. I’m down with that! But my fatigue is like, fuck, no! I’d like the energy to create new images for each post, even on my phone on which I’m typing this; then the energy to upload a small file size version; and lastly add Alt-Text. But that, too, has kept me from writing. So on my Psychology Today blog, I began using their recommended Pixabay source for free images. And on my blog, I recycle from my media library or use the free Plex ones WordPress provides if I happen to write on my desktop.
Then you need to write a summary text that’s not too long nor too short (the plugin colour codes it so when it’s green, you know it’s good) and also contains keywords you can find through the Google Keyword app. Can I just tell you how many hours that soaks up when you first use it for your site‽ Using it for each post is why businesses have social media managers and why social influencing is a full-time job. Eff it. I’m not doing that anymore. Besides which I can’t access the optimizing-SEO plugin in the Jetpack phone app for WordPress. On my desktop, though, I try to make an effort. And I did enough keyword searches when trying to sell my Art Fit To Wear (soon to be defunct as they’re closing the marketplace and I have no energy to open and monitor a barely used e-commerce shop) that I have a general idea how to use them and which ones to use. Search engines use these summaries and keywords to put your posts on page one or bury them.
Oh yeah, I forgot. You have to choose one keyword or key phrase to represent your post to search engines. Some posts easy to do; others your eyes glaze over trying to come up with the right one.
Then you have to categorize your post or page for SEO, not just your own categories and tags for readers to find posts they’re interested in on your site. I’ve pretty much ignored that and gone with the generic default. Except for my About page.
Are you exhausted yet?
Then there’s your social media SEO. Gotta fill in titles specific to each platform plus a blurb plus the right size image. Facebook tells you what size will net you views. (Oh yeah, Facebook has its own SEO if you really want to get your post read!)
There’s other stuff, too, you have to do. Paragraphing, sub-headings, language level. It’s a whole thing that the plugin will rate you on and guide you to meet SEO requirements. But I’m a writer; I’m not writing to fit within marketing parameters. So hell no!
Trying to find readers, get people buying my books, an audience for my blog has been a futile process for many years now, ever since my community care got cut and social support dropped to little, ending up with me using my energy to improve my brain health and survive instead of creating. Yes, I’ve managed to write a few more books extremely few read. But I haven’t kept up with marketing, SEO, or imagery work I’d like to do. The plugin streamlined SEO after I found and installed it — so for awhile I was back on the SEO track — and I learnt a lot through Toronto’s Digital Main Street and Google guidance. But it lead to no lasting change, my energy got sucked up by neverending retrofitting for climate change, and I’m tired of it all and weary. I just want to write.
