SEO Cheat Sheet for SCN

Title

HTML Title Tag

Briefly, now: Only the first 50 characters* (including spaces) of your content title are used to create the HTML title tag, the default title appearing on search results.

• Start off with descriptive and unique text
• Use the progressive (-ing) form of verbs: Installing... Vs. How to Install...
• Abbreviate long terms and product names_

Description

Meta Description

The first 200 characters (including spaces) of your body text are used to generate the meta description, the default description appearing on search results.

• Begin your text with a brief overview of your blog post, document, poll or query in the case of discussions.
• Do not repeat your title word-for-word: build on it (expand).

URL

Blog Posts Only

Blog post URLs are composed of the entire blog post title.

• Follow the same suggestions for titles (above)
• After publishing your blog post, you can always edit it and change the title without affecting the URL*: This provides some flexibility in differentiating the blog post URL and title to add more uniqueness.

Republishing the blog post, however, will alter the URL according to the new blog post title

Linking

Share, Promote

Links are a two way street.

• Link to other content* and link to your content from other places
• Link only where it makes sense (relevance).  Don't abuse
• Share your content on Google+, Twitter, FB or LinkEd with your circles with the the social sharing buttons

Inserting Links on SCN Content

Content

Unique, Interesting

Can't have good #SEO w/out great content: People are searching for fresh new content (unique) and search engines oblige.

• Write new, fresh content that's relevant now
• Don't rehash something already written: quote it and expand on it
• Update existing content instead of writing something new (or at least delete the old outdated content!)
• What's the rush? Write, save draft, review later, and then publish
• Run the spellchecker before hitting publish, seriously

Structure

Using Styles

Cross your t's, dot you i'Is and tag your headers.

• Good content also means that it is well structured and visually appealing
  • Avoid custom fonts: stick to the defaults
  • Use styles to format and tag your headers: never substitute with bold!

Google Authorship

Who are you?

Link your Google+ account to your SCN content to improve its visibility and click through rates from search results.

Signing up for Google authorship is quick and easy: Google Authorship: Linking Your SCN Content to Google+