Functional & Ethical SEO for Wordpress
June 6, 2018 8:28 AM Subscribe
Am I tagging images and using keywords properly and fairly on my Wordpress site?
So Anonymous because I love Metafilter and want to play fair - I don't want this to be a ploy for my site.
Let's say my name is Susan and that I knit and have taught knitting classes in a BIG CITY since 2005. I am known for teaching knitting locally. I call my place a knitting PLACE, but my competition calls theirs a knitting SPACE.
None of those things are true, but they are good parallels to my question for this example. Assume that both PLACE and SPACE are common usage words that anyone would associate to a knitting business.
I have a website that has ranked high in Google locally because of attention I have gotten over the years, but things are changing and I need some clarification to keep up with some new competition.
My website is susan-dot-com (again: it isn't) and my knitting blog about my knitting classes is blog..susan-dot-com.
When I upload and tag images in wordpress I have been using this format with colons separating the words or phrases:
(Let's say it is an entry about a garment that a student named George has made)
--Picture of George in knitted garment--
Title:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: knitting PLACE: Knitting SPACE: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress
Caption:
George's red knitted dress!
Alt Text:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: knitting PLACE: Knitting SPACE: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress: red
Description:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: knitting PLACE: Knitting SPACE: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress: Red
Then, on the post page itself I have been going to the "Custom Fields" section and adding:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: Knitting Place: Knitting space: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress
And then in the "Custom Fields" section, for the Meta-description, Snippet, and Excerpt I write something like:
"Let George show you the garment they worked on at Susan's knitting place!"
Is this fair and correct? Is there a better way to do it?
So Anonymous because I love Metafilter and want to play fair - I don't want this to be a ploy for my site.
Let's say my name is Susan and that I knit and have taught knitting classes in a BIG CITY since 2005. I am known for teaching knitting locally. I call my place a knitting PLACE, but my competition calls theirs a knitting SPACE.
None of those things are true, but they are good parallels to my question for this example. Assume that both PLACE and SPACE are common usage words that anyone would associate to a knitting business.
I have a website that has ranked high in Google locally because of attention I have gotten over the years, but things are changing and I need some clarification to keep up with some new competition.
My website is susan-dot-com (again: it isn't) and my knitting blog about my knitting classes is blog..susan-dot-com.
When I upload and tag images in wordpress I have been using this format with colons separating the words or phrases:
(Let's say it is an entry about a garment that a student named George has made)
--Picture of George in knitted garment--
Title:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: knitting PLACE: Knitting SPACE: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress
Caption:
George's red knitted dress!
Alt Text:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: knitting PLACE: Knitting SPACE: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress: red
Description:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: knitting PLACE: Knitting SPACE: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress: Red
Then, on the post page itself I have been going to the "Custom Fields" section and adding:
Knitting classes in BIG CITY: Susan: Knitting Place: Knitting space: Knitting: Garment: Student: George: Knitted dress
And then in the "Custom Fields" section, for the Meta-description, Snippet, and Excerpt I write something like:
"Let George show you the garment they worked on at Susan's knitting place!"
Is this fair and correct? Is there a better way to do it?
The only bit I see an issue with here is the ALT text, because any user with a screen reader will have that text read to them as a replacement for the image. An SEO-optimized string is not likely to be useful to that user of your website.
posted by fencerjimmy at 10:54 AM on June 6, 2018
posted by fencerjimmy at 10:54 AM on June 6, 2018
I've been doing ethical, white-hat SEO since 2010. With that in mind, I have a few suggestions/observations:
1) Write for people
While keywords are important, these days search algorithms rely on a variety of on-page (and off-page) "signals" to determine quality and relevance, and subsequently search ranking.
The strings you have here are not written for people. With image alt tags, for example, keep them short, with a maximum of 4 words.
Keep your image title short as well, using your target keywords. But try to be a little more descriptive.
Use "keyword variations" throughout the text. However, if you love what you write about, and you write with authority, don't worry about it too much.
2) Titles and alt tags should be written for people
I think accessibility should be a top consideration, too. Some people are visually impaired and rely on titles and alt tags, so having weird strings is really not helpful.
3) Use the Yoast WordPress plugin
The Yoast plugin is really useful for addressing on-page SEO in a systematic way. I don't rely on it, because in my opinion it tends to favor keyword-stuffing, but there is a handy checklist you can follow to get the page looking good.
posted by JamesBay at 11:01 AM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
1) Write for people
While keywords are important, these days search algorithms rely on a variety of on-page (and off-page) "signals" to determine quality and relevance, and subsequently search ranking.
The strings you have here are not written for people. With image alt tags, for example, keep them short, with a maximum of 4 words.
Keep your image title short as well, using your target keywords. But try to be a little more descriptive.
Use "keyword variations" throughout the text. However, if you love what you write about, and you write with authority, don't worry about it too much.
2) Titles and alt tags should be written for people
I think accessibility should be a top consideration, too. Some people are visually impaired and rely on titles and alt tags, so having weird strings is really not helpful.
3) Use the Yoast WordPress plugin
The Yoast plugin is really useful for addressing on-page SEO in a systematic way. I don't rely on it, because in my opinion it tends to favor keyword-stuffing, but there is a handy checklist you can follow to get the page looking good.
posted by JamesBay at 11:01 AM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
You are getting some good advice, but now I want to know your site. MeMail it to me?
posted by terrapin at 11:31 AM on June 6, 2018
posted by terrapin at 11:31 AM on June 6, 2018
Is Wordpress generating “structured data” for these knitting events? Google claims this is important, though of course as with everything else they won't promise that it actually makes a difference. (I'm not a Wordpress user, so I don't actually know whether this is a normal feature or if you have to put these things in manually.)
You can check your pages with their “Structured Data Testing tool”. To be clear, I'm saying that your site shouldn't only put out generic information about your business, but—if you want to put the effort into it—should also show structured content like schema.org's Event schema stuff for each individual event.
Do you have a Google Search Console account? If you don't you really should go to the effort to set one up. Note that it's possible to screw up your search rankings if you make mistakes, so proceed carefully and get technical help if you need it, but the feedback it gives you can make the whole process of SEO feel less shamanistic, where you're just throwing stuff out there based on theory and ceremonially shaking your bone rattles and hoping that the search engine gods smile upon you. Bing has a similar free service, though much less sophisticated, if you care about Bing at all.
posted by XMLicious at 11:40 AM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
You can check your pages with their “Structured Data Testing tool”. To be clear, I'm saying that your site shouldn't only put out generic information about your business, but—if you want to put the effort into it—should also show structured content like schema.org's Event schema stuff for each individual event.
Do you have a Google Search Console account? If you don't you really should go to the effort to set one up. Note that it's possible to screw up your search rankings if you make mistakes, so proceed carefully and get technical help if you need it, but the feedback it gives you can make the whole process of SEO feel less shamanistic, where you're just throwing stuff out there based on theory and ceremonially shaking your bone rattles and hoping that the search engine gods smile upon you. Bing has a similar free service, though much less sophisticated, if you care about Bing at all.
posted by XMLicious at 11:40 AM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
JamesBay has some good advice above. To add:
Title Tags: aim for 65 characters as a limit; the keywords placed first matter more. But think user experience and accessibility first: describe the post's content and get interest in it, and you'll use the keywords naturally.
Meta Descriptions: Google has been messing around with these; they were 150 characters originally, then swung up to ~300 from December to May, and are now sometimes but not always back to 150. Google is now more likely to 'write their own'. I'd go for 150. Don't stress about these too much because, fun bar trivia, they don't matter at all for ranking like title tags do! But they are useful, because describing the page (with the keyword you use bolded for readers depending on their search terms) drives interest from the search result page.
Categories and Tags: Just organize as you see fit. Don't worry about adding a bunch of keywords to tags, they really don't matter.
Keywords in the content: Also don't worry about these a lot! Again, you'll use them naturally when talking about what you're doing (e.g. a "at our intarsia sweater knitting class, you'll learn..."). It used to be that keywords had to be really really exact. But search engines have for awhile been using semantic search - they understand, better at least, concepts rather than exact strings of text. So it used to be that, for instance, "scarf classes in Portland" as a keyword on your page had to match for that search. But now if you talk about how fun it is to learn how to knit a scarf and that you've been teaching this class for five years and that your meeting group is at a fun Portland bookshop etc etc over paragraphs, Google can still put all that together to match up for "scarf classes in Portland." Not that keywords don't matter, but ignore all the weird mysticism - it just means "write about the topics you want to show up for".
Alt text: this is the most challenging part, and I agree that what you have doesn't quite match up with accessibility needs. A lot of SEO advice out there ALSO don't take accessibility into account, which is a shame. But images can play one of three roles:
- Content
- Function
- Decorative
An image for content ads, well, content, in which case you want to describe it. Don't worry about keywords at all. "Garter stitch sweater made from a cranberry merino" is way more useful than "Susan's Class: Sweater: George's Work: Yarn" mash-up.
An image for function does something - like a button or a link. You wouldn't want a magnifying glass icon to say "magnifying glass", you'd want it to say "search", because that's what it does! Those are probably outside of your posts, but to keep in mind.
An image for decoration is just there to break up paragraphs. They don't really add anything. So like, a pretty shot of some bamboo DPN's for fluff filler. While they need an alt text attribute (all images do), it can be left empty of actual text (null), which will tell screen-readers to just ignore it. Don't worry - that won't hurt you from an "SEO perspective".
The other points about structured data markup and Google Search Console (I assume you already have Google Analytics too?) are good, but the above is all the basics for a post in Wordpress. While my job means I deserve to be up against the wall when the revolution comes, I do this (SEO, ADA Compliance/Accessibility, digital marketing) professionally and have ~fancy credentials~ so please feel free to memail me for some consulting if it'd help. Especially if your site is actually about knitting. :)
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 7:31 PM on June 6, 2018
Title Tags: aim for 65 characters as a limit; the keywords placed first matter more. But think user experience and accessibility first: describe the post's content and get interest in it, and you'll use the keywords naturally.
Meta Descriptions: Google has been messing around with these; they were 150 characters originally, then swung up to ~300 from December to May, and are now sometimes but not always back to 150. Google is now more likely to 'write their own'. I'd go for 150. Don't stress about these too much because, fun bar trivia, they don't matter at all for ranking like title tags do! But they are useful, because describing the page (with the keyword you use bolded for readers depending on their search terms) drives interest from the search result page.
Categories and Tags: Just organize as you see fit. Don't worry about adding a bunch of keywords to tags, they really don't matter.
Keywords in the content: Also don't worry about these a lot! Again, you'll use them naturally when talking about what you're doing (e.g. a "at our intarsia sweater knitting class, you'll learn..."). It used to be that keywords had to be really really exact. But search engines have for awhile been using semantic search - they understand, better at least, concepts rather than exact strings of text. So it used to be that, for instance, "scarf classes in Portland" as a keyword on your page had to match for that search. But now if you talk about how fun it is to learn how to knit a scarf and that you've been teaching this class for five years and that your meeting group is at a fun Portland bookshop etc etc over paragraphs, Google can still put all that together to match up for "scarf classes in Portland." Not that keywords don't matter, but ignore all the weird mysticism - it just means "write about the topics you want to show up for".
Alt text: this is the most challenging part, and I agree that what you have doesn't quite match up with accessibility needs. A lot of SEO advice out there ALSO don't take accessibility into account, which is a shame. But images can play one of three roles:
- Content
- Function
- Decorative
An image for content ads, well, content, in which case you want to describe it. Don't worry about keywords at all. "Garter stitch sweater made from a cranberry merino" is way more useful than "Susan's Class: Sweater: George's Work: Yarn" mash-up.
An image for function does something - like a button or a link. You wouldn't want a magnifying glass icon to say "magnifying glass", you'd want it to say "search", because that's what it does! Those are probably outside of your posts, but to keep in mind.
An image for decoration is just there to break up paragraphs. They don't really add anything. So like, a pretty shot of some bamboo DPN's for fluff filler. While they need an alt text attribute (all images do), it can be left empty of actual text (null), which will tell screen-readers to just ignore it. Don't worry - that won't hurt you from an "SEO perspective".
The other points about structured data markup and Google Search Console (I assume you already have Google Analytics too?) are good, but the above is all the basics for a post in Wordpress. While my job means I deserve to be up against the wall when the revolution comes, I do this (SEO, ADA Compliance/Accessibility, digital marketing) professionally and have ~fancy credentials~ so please feel free to memail me for some consulting if it'd help. Especially if your site is actually about knitting. :)
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 7:31 PM on June 6, 2018
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Meta: Pattern Name scarf knit in High End Wool Dyer Brand at Susan's Knitting Place, Space Classes, Peoria, Maine.
Excerpt and Snippet: Learn to knit Pattern Name scarf knit in High End Wool Dyer Brand at Susan's Knitting Place, Space Classes, Peoria, Maine.
Choose the 12 keywords that bring you the most traffic (like knit and knitting in the above example) and optimise everything for those.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:36 AM on June 6, 2018