Don't tell me keyword-optimized blog posts don't get Google's attention, cause they do!

I don't pretend to be an SEO specialist. One thing I do know is that Google and blogs play together very well. Here's one example...(click for larger image)

I googled "social media consultant" and what do my little eyes behold but a post I'd written over a year ago, Just what is a social media consultant anyway?.

One post with probably less than 300 words and there it is on the 1st page as the 4th return. (Or, 3/12 depending on how much weight you give to the indented return. Not counting the PPC stuff, of course.)

I must admit, even after seeing this type of thing happen again and again and again, it still surprises me. The question is, "why?" Why did Google decide this post fit the search criteria so well that it deserved 1st page ranking.

There are a number of reasons:

1. Business Blog Consulting, the group blog where I wrote the post, has a Page Rank of 6. That's a better than average level of authority.
2. It was keyword-optimized. I wish I could be accused of keyword-optimizing everything I did, but that' not true. However, in this case, I was more sensitive to the need. Notice that I used the term "social media consultant" once in the title and a couple of times in the body of the post. A few of the comments mentioned the term as well.
3. Some bloggers gave it link love. A few bloggers that I know of linked to it, which helped, especially considering their blogs have good Page Rank as well.
4. It was posted on a site where people talk about such things. In other words, it was thematically relevant.

You know, this stuff isn't rocket science. If I can do it, you certainly can. Why pay an expensive SEO specialist when you can blog and achieve great results? (Well, there are good reasons, so allow me to rephrase. If you're on a limited budget, why pay an SEO specialist when you can blog. How's that?)

Where SEO is concerned, blogging works. It just does. I dare you to argue that point.

Comments

[Kristal Kraft]

Twitter send me your way Paul. You are so right about the keywords and Google. I love it when a plan comes together, don't you?
:)

[Chad Hallberg]

Isn't it funny just how connected these things are? You write a short post over a year ago and not only does the layperson see it on the front page, but it still is getting good play from this post right here.

I love the Capitalism of the Internet!!!

[Mark McLaren]

Absolutely Paul. You identify a number of the most important aspects of keyword optimization. Google loves all that stuff.

Also important: the URL contains the keyword. I mention this here: http://snurl.com/204k0 WordPress does this automatically.

Like the page title tag, the URL would be even stronger if it were simply the keyword by itself. This is something that WordPress allows you to do in the Dashboard using the "post slug" feature. Not sure if TypePad allows this or not. Your Conversational Media Marketing site appears to truncate URLs at an arbitrary length, denying you of the SEO advantages of a URL that contains highly relevant (or essential) terms in their entirety.

WordPress makes the title tag the same as the visible title by default. But it's possible to customize the page title tag using the WordPress Dashboard when you apply a tweak to the header.php file. In the case you are discussing, for example, the page title tag could be the keyword by itself, "Social Media Consultant", the URL could be .../2006/12/social-media-consultant , and the title of the post could remain "Just What is a Social Media Consultant Anyway?", which obviously makes more sense to human readers.

Coincidentally, Business Blog Consulting wrote a related post last month about the advantages of shortening URLs: http://snurl.com/204lq And it's far better to shorten URLs yourself rather than letting WordPress or TypePad do it for you: Done automatically, you can wind up with no relevant terms in your URL, like "dont-tell-me-ke.html" when the relevant keyword for your post is something like "keyword optimized blog".

Of course, I'm not harping on your site, Paul. I hope you won't think so. But I do think the URL is important.

SEO today is not rocket science, but not everyone has time to figure it out, much less implement it.

[Lisa Sanderson]

I would never argue with you, Paul. Well, maybe I would....about politics...or crocs, perhaps. But NEVER about this.

Your advice on keyword optimization has put my little corner of the web in the top results spot when I want it to be. But you never told me how FAST it could happen - I've had hits within hours for certain search terms!

[Paul Chaney]

@Kristal - Yes, isn't it fun!

@Chad - I love it too. Love the phrase you used as well.

@Mark - I agree wholeheartedly and am glad you mentioned it. I should have included it on the list.

No doubt WordPress allows more flexibility than does Typepad. I'm going to check into why TP is truncating the URL so much. I don't like it and, frankly, don't recall it doing that in previous versions.

@Lisa - Isn't it amazing how quickly blog posts can make it to Google, ranking highly as well.

[BawldGuy]

Paul -- So much in blogging isn't rocket science, yet becomes so due to our various ignorance levels. I should know more about this stuff, but it's for my personal 'web geek' to know for me. :)

Great stuff, and thanks.

[Paul Chaney]

We aims to please, BawldGuy.