Learning about SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a catchphrase that everyone uses these days in association with any website or blog you might read or write for. If you have a WordPress website there are several tools out there to use to help it become more visible. One of the main things you need to learn is about the search engine words. Knowing what types of words or phrases to use in tags and categories and creating the files that the search engine uses to find your site is very important. As writers, we also need to know how to use these tools effectively. After all, we want our readers to find us on the web.
One software tool I have used with all of my WordPress sites is “All in One SEO”. It has a free version and a paid PRO version. Sadly, I have never paid for the Pro version so I cannot testify to the tools and results of that one. If you add this to your WordPress site it will create the required files for each of the major search engines. You will need to fill out the boxes on each of your pages and blog posts for it to be effective. WordPress.org has help forums online that can help you tweak it for your particular type of site. I usually just go with the default settings.
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To add to that I usually do all my posting to my website using the Chrome browser. Then I installed the Grammarly add-on that reads my posts as I write them. This will slow down your website response time but it seems to help me with the basic grammar errors I have been experiencing. It centers on the posting area only and not on any of the extra boxes on the blog posting screen. The free version of Grammarly will not check for sentence structure or misused words either. That means you will still have to read through your posts prior to publishing them.
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We have just started using the YOAST SEO plug-in for the 300 North Florida Writers Blog Tour website. It has been a challenge to learn this new software as it is a bit more involved with your writing. It reads sentences for passive use, too long, not dividing your content into subsections with subheadings for easier reading as well as making sure you have selected a key phrase for the post and use it a couple of times within the writing itself. Finally, it tells you if your post is too short and highlights areas within your post that you might want to rewrite. Once you get a Green Light on the SEO and Readability icons you are set to post. However, you really should read through your writing once more to ensure that it says what you really mean to convey.
