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Search Engine Optimisation

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Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines. (wikipedia.org)

SEO: The optimization of web pages for success with search engines. (wpshout.com)

Additional Reading

SEO on The Breaker

Whilst the ‘WordPress SEO by Yoast’ (see below) panel can help improve the visibility of your ‘Post’ and its content, it is important to understand exactly what is involved in writing SEO optimised copy as not every website you write for will have this option available.

Writing ‘Posts’ in WordPress that adhere to good SEO practices is something that will come with time and practice.

Before testing how SEO friendly your ‘Post’ is, you first need to think about the keywords people will be using. Keywords are what people put into search engines when looking for something specific online, but how do we know what those keywords will be? Unfortunately, you can never be certain the exact keywords people will be using, different people will search for different things. Your keywords (or keyphrase) should summarise the main subject in your content – think about who your target audience is when choosing your keywords.

Read more about keywords.

Step 1

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When adding new ‘Posts’ you should be able to see the ‘Yoast SEO’ panel on your editing page.

Step 2

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If you can’t see the ‘Yoast SEO’ panel, you may need to select if from the Screen Options in the top right hand corner of your screen.

Step 3

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Scroll down the page until you come to the ‘Yoast SEO’ panel – here you can test your post against a certain keyword for Search Engine Optimisation.The ‘Snippet Preview’ at the top of the ‘Yoast SEO’ box gives you a preview of how your ‘Post’ will appear listed in Google or other search engines. Using the fields under the ‘Snippet Preview’ we can alter the visibility of the ‘Post’ and improve how it appears in search engines.

To begin the process of analysing your ‘Post’, enter a keyword into the ‘Focus Keyword’ field – The keyword should reflect the main focus of the content of your piece.

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Once you have entered your ‘Focus Keyword’, underneath a list of bullet points should appear, instructing you on things you have done well, and not-so-well, with regards to SEO. Make your way through the list and make alterations to your post as necessary (remember Journalism comes before SEO).

Be sure to always think about the SEO Title, Slug and Meta-description and the words they should include – these can all be altered through the ‘Edit Snippet’ button

Watch the Video

A video examining how Journalists should approach SEO (Please Note: though this tutorial isn’t actually filmed on The Breaker, the process is exactly the same)

SEO Exercise

SEO Article

Using the article text on the left, create an article and lets test the SEO of the post and think about whether it needs any changes:

  1. Enter a relevant ‘Focus Keyword’ in the ‘Yoast SEO’ box
  2. Save the ‘Post’ – DO NOT PUBLISH
  3. Edit the ‘Post’ – according to this article – until you are happy with the ‘Analysis’ feedback
  4. Sometimes you’ll need to save the ‘Post’ after you make changes to update the SEO analysis
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