I’ve always been a little wary of SEO, or search engine optimization. I even turned down a recent writing opportunity because the company asked me to use “an SEO friendly subject and phrases” in my finished article. It set off my alarms, and I decided it wasn’t worth the publicity.
When people tell me I need to improve my own, I look at them like they just asked me to write lengthy and frequent blog posts about Lady Gaga. If my blog isn’t popular, I think, it’s because I don’t blog frequently enough, or about the right topics. How is being a top search result going to change that?
My friend Aaron Clark finally convinced me to do something about it. He’s an SEO professional, which explains why his website, EvaGeeks.org, shows up on the very first page of any Google search for Evangelion. He convinced me by saying that I wouldn’t have to do anything and I could just pay him. Sounded like a deal to me.
I still think SEO falls in an ethical gray area, so we had an in-depth talk about what to change. Most of the optimizations were changes my blog needed anyway, like cleaning up code bloat and removing features I no longer use.
He’s not done yet, but I’ve already noticed a few changes. Such as:
- My traffic from search engines went up from 15 percent of my total traffic to 30 percent.
- I’ve started getting email from people who tell me they found Otaku Journalist through a Google search.
- A PR representative asked me to review their TV show on my blog.
I’ve been blogging for almost two years, but those are all new experiences for me. I haven’t altered my posting habits or surged in popularity, so I know this is Aaron’s work. That means that more traffic, more email and PR requests are perks I’d already earned without changing my content. Now, my only regret is not optimizing sooner.
Geek, subculture and anime bloggers should seriously consider SEO. I was too quick to assume that low traffic was the fault of my unconventional coverage. I used to think optimizing would mean changing the way I write. But it turned out I only had to shift a few things behind the scenes to connect with the audience I already had.
I have to hand it to Aaron on this one. He really understood my geek aesthetic and my concerns. If you’re interested in hiring him for your SEO, you can reach him here.
14 Comments.
So occasionally I get in this blogging rut where I stare out windows and slam doors whilst revelling in my own self pity. Then I read a post like this which gets me all excited about the Internet again. So thanks for making today a jumping on the bed kind of day. You rock!
@Camilla, I checked out your blog the other day and thought it was fantastic. Definitely doesn’t look like the homepage of somebody in a rut! I looked at your blog and thought, “Hmm maybe I should blog about my other interests sometimes, too.”
Unrelated: I saw you blogged about Kittywood and I thought you might want to see my coworker’s interview with the video creator: http://www.dailydot.com/video/kittywood-studios-cat-video/
Only worth it if you’re actually making money off your blog. I’m happy with my 3 readers, 2 trolls and 15 spammers, thank you very much!
@Tommy, but what if there is a 4th reader and a 3rd troll out there who are looking for a blog just like yours, if only they could find one? I figured Otaku Journalist had a VERRRRY limited audience, but I’m happy that a few tweaks allowed me to reach more people who are actually interested without misleading Google users who aren’t.
I’m still a little bit scared of SEO, not just because of the sacrificing quality content fear, but also because of how clinical it seems. One of the things I like about being a blogger is not having to follow the rules all the time.
@Britt, what’s great is not having to think about it. And as you know, I’m too busy spamming your blog with duplicate comments to think about it! (Sorry about that — guess I was having tech issues.)
@Lauren I think my site is the one with the tech issues; the problem wouldn’t have come from your end. [Someone I know has been trying to comment for weeks, and it just won’t let her – keeps coming up with “fatal error”].
With the SEO, would you recommend I look into it myself, or leave it to a professional?
I guess maybe I should be worried a bit. I just a did a search for “Otaku” and the website for the OG podcast doesn’t even appear until page 2! Oi, I wonder if that really is a problem…
Although, to be fair, “otakujournalist” doesn’t appear until page 3.
Here’s the page 1 order of sites on my own google search for “otaku”…
1. Wikipedia entry for “Otaku”
2. Urban dictionary for “otaku”
3. http://www.theotaku.com
4. http://www.otaku.com
5. Otaku USA Magazine site
6. otakuworld.com
7. http://www.otakusoftware.com
8. http://www.otakuzone.com
9. TV Tropes – “Otaku” section
10. ANN entry for “Otaku”
To be honest, I’d love to see the site for Otaku USA Magazine on top. Heck, I’d love to the see Otakon site on a page 1 search as well. But there are some truly “WTF!?” hits in this search. This looks like a bad snubbing IMHO… :-/
I see Aaron isn’t done, but may I say a few things about SEO?
I’ve been designing web sites for some years, and SEO is my biggest marketing tool for getting new clients.
When a search spider accesses your website, text is all it sees. Images will slow it down, but it pretty much ignores them. Although it’s important to limit your images, because page speed is a factor with page rank … Text is what you have to give your biggest focus on.
The tip I wanted to suggest to you, is optimizing your home page. Why? Well when a spider hits your home page it’s flooded with text. That text will often lead search guests to your home page, but your home page no longer shows that article because it’s on the second page now. Understand what I’m saying? It’s best to only have an excerpt on your home page, and not full articles.
You should also focus on your meta content. Take this article for example. If you view it’s source:
Your keywords could be expanded on. You could have anime, articles, blogs, etc in their. The description could also be redefined. Note most search engines only accept 160 characters.
I just thought I’d throw this out there, as I’ve been thinking about it for a while based on this article :) Aaron probably knows more than me on this though ;) I’d like to see a great tech write up of what he did for your site.
Another thing I’ve been doing is including larger stuff via iframes, so that it’s ignored by the spiders, so page speed to the spiders is increased. (Spiders ignore iframes)
@Crimm, thanks for this. But believe me, even if Aaron recommends it, I’m probably not going to alter my blogging style at all. I’ve already pushed back on a couple of his suggestions. Even if it means more visibility, I simply don’t want to put much effort into SEO. It’s tough enough to keep up my blogging schedule right now. But you should definitely talk to Aaron (he’s @theevamonkey on Twitter) and talk shop.
I’m not suggesting you change your blogging either. These can all be done with some style tweaks or you can take the time to input that meta information. :)
[…] doing some research on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ever since Otaku Journalist wrote about why SEO is vital for nerd bloggers such as myself. It got me thinking about hiring an SEO professional to do some clean up on my blog. […]
SEO can only do so much for an anime blog. ** Good content, practical site structure (proper H1 tags, descriptions, and etc) in which Google Bot can read, strong visitor loyalty and interacting with your medium (ie. Anime bloggers or anime fans on twitter) ** far outweighs what SEO can do for you if you’re just starting out.
SEO didn’t help your friend land on page 1 on “evangelion” keyword searches, the strong community that supports that site does. Whatever he did when he started to get them (ie content) is what deserves the credit. SEO just makes sure people can access it and it doesn’t die in a graveyard. All I had to do was look at the forums to see it’s pretty active.
But yes, there are tons of seasoned anime blogs whose sites don’t even rank anywhere or their entries are never picked up by Google at all or for long periods of time because their sites are so wonky and outdated that Googlebot has a tough time trying to figure out what their site is even about.