Allow Me to BLOW Your SEO Mind
I’m sure those of you who regularly read my WA blog posts are starting to realise that my website articles are far more geared towards the “human factor”.
By this I mean I no longer try to write for machines, software, algorithms, etc.
Pure and simple, I prefer to write for people.
Something that I see over-and-over again on the platform is members becoming a slave to their SEO plugin.
Basically, trying to score a perfect 100/100 in the All-in-One SEO plugin, or perhaps trying to turn everything green in Yoast.
There’s almost a belief that if you adhere to everything that an SEO plugin “tells you” that you’ll magically shoot to the top of the rankings.
However, I’m here to tell you (and prove to you) that this simply isn’t true.
Now, I understand that if you’re new to blogging and SEO then you do need to follow certain guidelines.
You want to do everything the “right way”.
So, this will typically mean that you learn a certain set of “rules” and then you follow these to the tee.
I don’t see anything wrong with this.
But, I also believe that you should mature during your online journey.
This means that you start to learn things from your own experiences.
For me, an SEO plugin has always been a guide and nothing more.
In fact, I would even go as far to say that if all of your articles are scoring 100/100 then your writing may even have become robotic in nature.
You have lost that “human factor”.
And this in turn could actually harm your rankings.
You Can Manipulate an SEO Plugin
Let’s imagine that I have chosen to write an article around the keyword phrases:
“Ways to Make Money Online”
So, my title reads:
“5 Ways to Make Money Online in 2021”
I then create a meta description for my article which reads:
“Are You Looking For Ways to Make Money Online? Here’s My Guide to 5 of The Best Money Earners Online in 2021. Discover More Inside.”
Once I’ve completed my article in WordPress I scroll to the bottom of the page to “complete my SEO work”.
This involves completing my meta title, meta description, etc.
The first thing that your SEO plugin asks for is the “Focus Keyword”.
However, the SEO plugin hasn’t worked out what your target keyword is.
NO.
It is ASKING YOU to put in the target keyword.
So, you input:
“Ways to Make Money Online”
You’ve created a title and a meta description that contains this “keyword phrase”.
And for arguments sake let’s say that you have an H2 title and an H3 title within your article that also use the phrase “Ways to Make Money Online”.
Plus, you use the phrase once more in your conclusion.
Additionally, your “passive voice” and “readability” are all on-point (Yeah whatever!! Who Cares)
And so your plugin tells you that you have a score of 100/100.
SUCCESS.
Hold your horses one second cowboy.
But, didn’t the SEO plugin just ASK ME TO INPUT THE FOCUS KEYWORD?
So, in reality I can type in whatever I want.
Basically, I can manipulate my SEO score.
Imagine if I input the phrase “Eating Peanut Butter” into the Focus Keyword part of the SEO plugin.
What do you think my SEO score would be then?
Yep, that’s right 0/100.
However, if I decided to change just the title and just the meta description of my article to:
“5 Ways to Make Money Online While Eating Peanut Butter”
AND
“Are You Looking For Ways to Make Money Online While Eating Peanut Butter? Here’s My Guide to 5 of The Best Money Earners Online”
SUDDENLY
My SEO score would shoot up to around 60/100
I could then change one subheading to include the phrase “eating peanut butter”.
AND
I could then add the phrase “eating peanut butter” twice more within my text.
IT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO MAKE SENSE.
I could just throw the phrase “eating peanut butter” anywhere I wanted in my article.
And then, as IF BY MAGIC, my SEO score shows `100/100.
Basically, you have manipulated the plugin to get a score of 100/100.
Okay, a pretty wild example, but hopefully you understand that you are in complete control of what score you receive via the SEO plugin.
However, somehow many of us become slaves to the SEO plugin.
We hang off its every single word.
We believe if we follow the “SEO rules” that we will magically catapult to the top of the rankings.
We are allowing an inanimate object, a piece of software, to control our lives (and yet we could change anything we want to manipulate it to give us a score of 100/100).
In essence, you have allowed a machine to take over from common sense.
This is not TERMINATOR people.
Take back control, and don’t allow the machines to control you.
How’s This For Meta Title and Meta Description
I’ve previously spoken about how I find keywords and structure my articles.
I also provided an example of how an article was performing in my WA blog, Here’s How to Rank No. 1 on Google (Everything Revealed).
The article was titled, “Why Are My Abs Sore After Jumping Rope? (Here’s 5 Reasons Why)”
This article has really started to take off now.
In fact, over the last 28 days it has now hit over 860 visitors.
I can see the article receiving over 1,000 visitors in August 2021, as it has had at least 35 visitors every day so far this month.
And remember, the article is just over 5 months old, so it hasn't had the 8-9 months to “mature” as I often speak about.
PLUS, this JUST ONE ARTICLE on my site (I have hundreds and hundreds)
Here’s something interesting for you to see though.
According to Google Search Console the article appears in the search results for 172 different keywords.
Remember how I’ve explained that even though you write an article targeted around ONE keyword, eventually you can rank for 100s or 1000s of keywords for the same article.
Out of the 172 keywords I appear in the search results for, I have 37 keyword phrases that actually produce traffic.
Interestingly, one of the keyword phrases is “Why Does My Stomach Hurt After Skipping?”
I have received a total of 12 of the 860+ visitors to this article from this keyword alone.
Here it is in the search results:
I’m ranking at No. 4 in Google for the phrase "Why Does My Stomach Hurt After Skipping".
However, have you noticed that my “meta title” and “meta description” are exactly the same as the original article?
Nowhere in the meta title or meta description have I mentioned the words “Does”, “Stomach”, “Hurt”, “Skipping”.
In fact, the only words that remain the same are “Why” “My” and “After”.
Basically, what I’m saying is that Google is extremely clever.
Google is so sophisticated nowadays that if YOU MAKE IT OBVIOUS WHAT YOUR ARTICLE IS ABOUT, Google will know.
Google works on relevance.
And according to Google “Stomach Hurt” is the same as “Abs Sore” and “Jumping Rope” is the same as “Skipping”.
And this is why I rank no.4 in Google for the phrase “Why Does My Stomach Hurt After Skipping?”
Because even though I DON’T MENTION THESE EXACT WORDS IN MY META TITLE AND META DESCRIPTION I am still RELEVANT to this search.
Google (And Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, etc.) Decide, Not You
Have you ever noticed that often when you check the search results for an article, the meta description is NOT the one that you’ve written?
It happens all the time.
This is Google (or any other search engine) telling you that they will decide what they deem most relevant for this search result.
Another example:
Let’s say in my “5 Ways to Make Money Online” article includes details about:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Freelancing
- Blogging & Ad Revenue
- Social Media Influencer
- Ebook Creator
Okay, I’m going to simplify things here.
The article receives 1,000 visitors a month.
Once again, remember how I’ve mentioned that ONE article can rank for MANY different keywords, and often keywords that you’re NOT EVEN TARGETING.
Let’s say 1,000 visitors a month are visiting your article via the following keyword phrases:
- “Ways to Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing” - 200 visitors
- “Ways to Make Money Online By Freelancing” - 200 visitors
- “Ways to Make Money Online With Blogging and Ad Revenue” - 200 visitors
- “Ways to Make Money Online By Being a Social Media Influencer” - visitors
- “Ways to Make Money Online By Creating Ebooks” - 200 visitors.
So, you appear in 5 separate search results and rank no.1 for 5 separate keywords (as above).
Do you honestly believe that Google (or other search engine) is going to use the same meta description that you wrote in your ALL-In-ONE SEO Plugin for each of these 5 search results?
NO
Google will find some relevant text within your article that is RELEVANT TO THAT PARTICULAR SEARCH RESULT, e.g. Affiliate marketing, freelancing, blogging, social media, ebooks, etc.
And it will use this RELEVANT text as your NEW meta description.
In Conclusion
I’m definitely not saying that you shouldn’t use an SEO plugin (although I certainly don’t).
I’m simply asking you not to allow it to control you.
IT’S A GUIDE, NOTHING MORE.
A 100/100 SEO score can be manipulated by you (remember “eating peanut butter”)
One article can rank for a multitude of keywords and Google will choose what text from your article is most relevant for “meta description”.
Plus, you don’t even have to include the same words, Google will UNDERSTAND RELEVANCY (remember my article “Stomach Hurt” means the same thing as “Abs Sore”).
Stop writing for software, machines, and algorithms.
Write for human beings.
If you find topics that are “underserved” as I’ve spoken about in my WA blog post, My Formula to rank No.1 on Google (Even More Revealed).
If your writing stays RELEVANT to the title and subject matter.
If you answer the searcher’s query within your article.
You have a much better chance of ranking HIGH in the search engines than an article that satisfies a “machine” with a 100/100 SEO score.
I’m sure this post will stir up much controversy and many questions.
So, for once, I’ll make an effort to answer everything and everyone (it could take a while).
Thank You For Reading
Partha
Recent Comments
112
Very well explained to everyone about SEO! For the past couple years I have wondered about the SEO plugins and should you always aim for that 100 in score, my articles get 90 or below! Just recently I stopped focusing on that score but keep it above 80. Finding my articles published this past week, already with score 80 or above with these plugins before if set a target keyword Or phrase. This shows how the internet is constantly changing.
Thank Partha for another awesome and informative post. The few times that I have looked at SEO, I have realized that I can never satisfy it. Too short, too long, needs this or lacks that is all I every see.
We jump through more hoop for SEO than when trying to write the actual article. Talk about tough living!
Canty
This is such an awesome post, Partha my old friend! I actually discovered this by mistake when I once forgot to change the meta description of a post and saw that it was already ranking. I was like woahh... what just happened there! But you are super right...use the "SEO tool as a guide, nothing more". Having said that, I still do optimize my title and meta descriptions using the tool lol. But I definitely don't depend on it. Out of curiosity, is there a way to improve SEO rankings on images on posts?
Hey Sasha,
Long time!!
I'm not sure why, but I felt I needed to brush my hair before I responded to you, though you might judge me otherwise.
Hahahaha.
Yep, I've completely moved away from "software" for both keyword research and publishing.
This is kinda how we used to do things when I first got involved online.
All I know is, it works, Big Time.
As for Image SEO, just keep it simple.
Always optimize your image file names.
So, let's say you are writing an article and your target keyword is "Why Does Hair Grow Slower in the Winter?" (Oh btw, I found this keyword using my method of keyword research, which I have written extensively about here at WA, and a well-written article using this keyword and my article writing method will definitely rank on page one of Google, so that's my present for you).
You then want to add 3 images to your post.
Save the images to your desktop as;
Why Does Hair Grow Slower in the Winter -1
Why Does Hair Grow Slower in the Winter - 2
Why Does Hair Grow Slower in the Winter - 3
Next, I typically save images as either jpeg or png format.
png is great for basic images and jpeg is advisable if the images contain a lot of colour.
Properly resize your images (I have the Imagify plugin installed, so that's done autmatically).
And when you write the Alt Text don't try to get your keyword in there unnaturally.
Your keyword will already be contained in your Alt Title if you save your images to your desktop as I've described above.
Write EXACTLY what you see in the image as your Alt Text, e.g. A Women Lying on the Beach Sipping From a Cocktail Glass While Her Hair Flows in the Wind.
That's it.
Hope that helps.
Partha
You are an amazing human- and that is an understatement!!
Thank you so much for the present and I cannot wait to write an article with that exact title using your tips! In fact, you just gave me an idea for 4 more articles so im a happy camper!
Oh and i find it hilarious that you had the need to brush your hair before replying to me. I hope you also thought of using a wooden wide tooth comb for your hair but of course, who's judging? hahaha :)
Hahahaha!!!
Dammit, I'm going to have to go out and buy a wooden wide tooth comb now.
You're welcome Sasha.
I swear to you, your niche is huge for using my methods.
Simply typing "Why Does My Hair" into Google (use an incognito tab) and then going through the alphabet, you'll get loads of weird and wacky things to write about (always focus on the "weird" stuff, that way you're not writing the same articles as everyone else).
And most of the results on the first page of Google have the longcarehair forum, Quora and Reddit, which means that just doing question and answer style articles you'll rank.
I even just found another one for you, Lololol...
"Why Does My Hair Smell Burnt When Wet?"
Once again, page one of Google has forums, Q&A sites, etc.
EASY RANKINGS!!!
If you haven't read it yet, here's a blog post that I specifically wrote for Shannon (yes, she has now been revealed), which will explain how to research and then structure your articles for optimum ranking. My Formula to Rank No.1 On Google (Even More Revealed) That should give you enough article ideas for the rest of the year. Enjoy!!
Partha
Thank you so much again, Prince Partha! Apologies for the delayed response- I was away basking away in the sun :)
Thanks for all this great info, Partha!! If all this doesn't work I'll have to resort to voodoo!
Barbara
Hey Prince P,
Thanks Again!
Since I started none of my articles ever scored 100/100 with AIO SEO.
I don't think any of them are over 93 and I believe some are even at 84 or 86.
With the first article, I was tempted to get stressed out about it.
However, I knew if I were to do things like changing some of my subheadings to my keyword in order to score better it wouldn't have been as relevant as what I had already written.
So even though I was new I decided to suck it up and leave it as I had it regardless of the SEO score.
After reading your posts I feel much better about my decision!!!
Again Many Thanks Prince of writing for Real People instead of Robots!
Zach
See more comments
Thank you for writing this, Partha! I have noticed over the past 2 months (which is the longest period of time I have written posts over once per week) that some of the things Yoast requires for the 'green' light, namely getting passive voice down to 10% and length or sentences
Hey Barbara,
You said it right - often trying to adhere to what a plugin tells you can actually reduce the quality.
As for YouTube videos, yes, try to add one to every post.
YouTube videos can be freely shared and put onto any website.
While watching the video you'll notice the title below and a few different things you can do.
Click on "SHARE"
Then click on "EMBED"
This will give you an HTML code, which you can copy.
Now, depending on how you're publishing your articles, there's a few ways to add the code.
If you're using block editor on Wordpress you have the option to add a "YouTube Block" or an "HTML block" - the YouTube Block simply requires the video's slug, as for the HTML, you can just paste the code you've just copied from "EMBED".
If you're using Classic Editor in WordPress, in the top tight-hand corner of your writing document you'll notice it says "Text" and also "HTML". Simply click onto the HTML and then paste the YouTube video's HTML code wherever you'd like the video to appear.
If you're using Wealthy Affiliate's site content, you can simply just paste the video's HTML code wherever you want it to appear.
You can then click SAVE of the top right hand side. Leave/Come out of Site Content, and when you return (or publish) the video will be in the dedicated place.
As for writing articles, getting traffic, etc... I've written about that before as well, Hahahaha... here you go: How to Write the PERFECT Blog Post? (9 Mind-Blowing Informational Blog Post Tips) Partha
ParthaB So I can just find any video I want on Youtube without having to get permission from someone? I should have asked this a long time ago! I could have added videos to at least 5 of my 10 posts. Do you think it's worth going back and adding videos to the ones that could really benefit from it?
I use the block editor but I didn't quite understand what you meant about the HTML CODE. So do I just copy the HTML from the embed and paste the code somewhere in the YouTube block or the HTML block?
This is great news!! I have learned so much from you, I am definitely going to read all of your posts!!
Thanks again so much for your help!
Barbara
Hey Barbara,
Yes, as long as you use the "Embed" feature you can use any video you like within your posts.
The video creators actually WANT you to do this.
When you embed a video into a blog post you increase the creator's exposure, you provide a backlink to their video, which can improve search engine rankings, and they get more views to their video, which could also mean financial gain, depending on how they monetize their videos.
So yes, definitely use videos.
I've provided some screenshots below.
If you decide to go back and edit your articles to add a video, firstly click "EDIT POST" and then just click within the text where you'd like to insert the video.
Click on the + (Add Block) and then click "BROWSE ALL" (1st image)
Then in the search bar that appears on the left hand side type "YOUTUBE" in (image 2).
Then click on the YouTube block and that will be inserted into your post.
If will then ask you to insert the Youtube url, so simply go back to the video you wish to insert and either copy the url from the search bar or right click the video and then click on "COPY".
You can then paste the url into the YouTube block and click save.
You can use the HTML version (that you copied when you clicked "SHARE" and "EMBED" under the video)
Simply type HTML into the block editor search bar (image 3).
This allows to paste the code in and then save the video that way.
Videos are great way to keep visitors on your articles for longer (when you start getting them), plus they can be used to explain parts of your article that are better suited to audio or visual.
If you go to my profile here at WA and you'll see one of my websites there.
You can check the articles and see that pretty much every post has one video, sometimes 2, and even more if it calls for it.
Realistically, the query that you're looking to answer within your article should give your visitor as much information as possible - this includes adding videos, images, linking to other RELEVANT articles of yours, linking to other websites in your niche that discuss a subject relevant to your article, but on slightly DIFFERENT main topic (you don;t want to link directly to an article that is targeting the same keyword as you, this is your competition.)
So, as an example, your article is about stopping your dog from peeing indoors. So, you talk about how certain squeeky toys can be used to train your dog in different ways. You then find an article that speaks about the psychology of noises and how they affect dogs, etc. (I have just made all of this up btw, LOL). So, you link to that article from your own.
You then find a video on YouTube showing how a squaeky toy is used to calm a dog down and train them to go outside in the garden..
This way you're providing your readers with as much relevant information around this subject as possible.
Whatever you feel would enhance your visitors' experience (without going over the top) you should do.
Partha
ParthaB
Thanks so much for all of this! I really appreciate this so much! I have been reading your posts on how to find keywords that don't have tons of authority sites in the results.
Unfortunately, the dog niche has too many authority sites and not enough Reddit, Etsy, etc results. However, I did find a keyword that did have some low-budget sites like mine so naturally, I will use that keyword!
thanks again so much for your help! You might hear from me again if I mess up trying to add the videos.
Barbara