SEO and Blog Post Tags: More Isn't Better

I’m teaching myself about SEO, and it appears I still have a lot to learn.

Last week, I wrote about new skills freelancers should have in the age of digital media. To get things rolling I covered what freelancers should know about SEO, or search engine optimization. That’s the term used to describe the art of stuffing keywords or tags into a blog post or article on a Website so it winds up high in search engine listings.

To make sure I practiced what I was preaching, I asked the two SEO experts I interviewed to look over the article after I’d posted it to see how well I’d optimized it for SEO purposes.

After I’d finished the 1,000-word post – I know, too long! – I inserted what I thought the proper tags should be. To do this, I used a built-in feature of the blogging software on WordPress.com. Altogether, I added 14 tags: my name, my blog’s name, the names of everyone I quoted in the story and their blogs or Websites. I also included a couple words and phrases that captured the post’s theme, including “SEO skills,” “SEO skills for freelancers,” “skills freelancers should have” and so on.

I posted the article, then sent a link to my experts.

Their conclusion: way, way, way too many tags. In fact, I violated the first rule of SEO writing, which according to Marty Weil, an Asheville, North Carolina, freelancer and SEO expert, is don’t put in too many tags. Weil recommends using no more than two keywords per post and using a “keyword density” of no more than four uses per 100 words.

So I blew it on the tags, which I promptly went back and cut right after reading Weil’s suggestions. But, according to Weil, I didn’t blow it on other SEO rules: include lots of links, have a topic worth writing about, and write it well.

The combination looks like it’s working: the wizards at WordPress my liked my post so much they made it the featured Technology blog on the site’s front page over the weekend. (It’s not there anymore so if you follow the link you’ll see whatever Technology blog entry they’re highlighting at the moment.)

I learned my lesson – almost. I only put three tags on this post: “SEO,” “freelance writers” and “SEO tags in blog posts.”

Got some SEO tricks? Have you figured out some SEO tricks through trial and error you’d like to share? The comments line is open.