Introduction
In the previous two parts of this series on "Steemit SEO", we talked about planning your infrastructure and publish high quality content. Today, I am going to touch on how to use headers, styles and anchor texts in the context of a reader's experience and SEO. If you enjoy the content of this series, I suggest that you follow me as I am trying to publish daily on the topic of SEO.
The Search Engines Wants it's Users to Have a Good Experience
Google, Bing and others wants the people who use them to have a good experience. They want them to find exactly what they want. For that, the search engine is becoming increasingly capable of predicting what users like and what an article is about as well as spotting those who try to manipulate the SERP(Search Engine Ranking Page) for their own benefit.
In the good old days, in was simple to rank. We just stuffed pages with anchor text, headers and style with our target keywords and create at a push of a button 25000 backlinks to websites and directories around the internet. Not anymore.
Using Headers, Styles and Formatting for SEO
It's For Better Reading And SEO
On steemit you can use markdown or html tags for headers, styles and formatting. Using them helps both the search engine and your readers to understand your article better and create a more enjoyable experience.
How to Use Headers
Headers are the building block of your article. They help the readers know what is most important about it and jump to the part of your article that is most relevant to them. H1, H2, H3 are hierarchical which mean that they are used by the search engine to understand the major points of your article hierarchically.
For example on steemit.com, the title is by default the H1 of your article. Having multiple H1 may confuse the search engine about what the article is about in the first place. This is why, in the article that you are reading right now, I only use H2, H3 and H4 since the H1 is already taken by the title.
Note: There is no issues at using multiple H2, H3 and H4.
How to Use Styles Properly
Bold and italics can also be used to highlight your particular keyword. But in the context of a fun article to read, I wouldn't overdo it. There are sections of your article that you want to emphasize...and this is what styling is for.
Use Your Keyword(s)...But Not Too Much
If you are looking to rank for a keyword, make sure you are using it in the title of your article as well as in your headings...but be careful of not overdoing it. The search engine despise keyword stuffing.
People don't talk in keywords and it's very easy to overdo it. Instead, try to find related terms and synonyms to help your article feel more natural. The consensus around the keyword density is between 0.5 and 2.5%. If you are curious, you can calculate the keyword density of your article by entering it in this online tool.
Anchor Texts
Anchor texts is the text that you use in a link. Whenever search engine looks at what is the text used to link to an article, it helps it found out what the article or website is about. The mistake people make is to over optimize those. It is good to have the keywords in there but the search engine can recognize when it is overdone.
If you are using Steemit.com to rank your personal or business website use:
- Your Brand Name
- Use Your Keywords
- Use Synonyms of Those Keywords
- Use a variety of "click here", "read more", etc.
Conclusion
Tomorrow, I am going to cover other aspects of SEO. Most likely, we will go over the first steps you can take to start building backlinks to your website. If you enjoy the content of this series, I suggest that you follow me as I am trying to publish daily on the topic of SEO.