Search engine optimization isn’t sexy.

There’s no two ways about that. It’s humdrum and aggravating and a lot like sacrificing a virgin to a really pissy god who may or may not destroy your harvest.

All hail the great fire-dragon, Google!

But, hey, it’s gotta be done and it’s gotta be talked about because damn it, it’s important.

SEO, not virgin sacrifice, we don’t have to talk about that.

Today let’s look at some simple, but important, tweaks you can use to help your blog perform better in the search engines.

1. Keywords Are A Necessary Evil

Making sure that your site’s target keywords are in your title tag is a must. It’s the fastest way for Google to categorize your site and put you in the proper place.

We’ve talked before about cracking Google’s secret algorithm and how keywords alone won’t rank you number one, but this step is so basic that bloggers sometimes miss it.

The first step in Google’s process is to figure out what your blog is talking about. To do that it uses title tags, among other things, so try not to make Google work too hard to put you in the right spot. Give it the right keywords to categorize you quickly.

But of course Google isn’t going to read your stuff, so you also have to think about catching your reader’s attention with your title, which brings us to #2.

2. Separate Your Headlines From Your Titles

Title tags aren’t headlines and headlines are title tags. What captures the attention of a blog reader isn’t what captures the attention of a searcher.

People go to Google looking for clear, specific answers.

Blog visitors are looking for the interesting and eye-catching.

To cater to both of their needs, use WordPress’ custom title tag feature to separate the two.

This way you can keep your headlines attention-getting and provocative while keeping your title tags keyword rich, search engine optimized and highly targeted.

3. Put Your Site’s Name In The Title Tag

Add your blog’s name at the end of all your title tags (for a good example of this just check out the title tag of this post).

This not only helps with brand recognition but with keyword association as well. As your following grows you’ll begin to pull more visitors from search engines as people recognize that content from your site is high quality.

If you use a WordPress framework theme like Thesis or Genesis you can do this easily with built in options. If you don’t use a theme like Thesis, you can always play around in the code of your WordPress header.

I prepared one of these earlier to demonstrate:

3.5  If It’s Important, It Goes Up Front

This one is pretty important so I thought I’d throw it in as a bonus:

Testing has shown over and over that putting your keywords at the front of your title tags can improve your search engine rankings.

It also improves click through rates since putting the keywords up front means that the search engine will put those terms in bold, attracting visitor attention.

Devil’s In The Details

No, SEO still isn’t sexy.

I know everybody likes to talk about getting more traffic or making more money, but you have to make sure you’re covering these small SEO details.

It’s part of owning an online business and you can’t really afford not to pay attention to these details since they are what will help drive more traffic toward your site and make you more money.

For more ways (and sexier ways ) of improving your online business results, why not subscribe to the free bi-monthly newsletter?