Title: Lecture Materials: (CU2 M1) Content Strategies
Course: SkillsCom_SMT 113 17.0 > Section: Credit Unit 2 Module 1 - SEO Basics

Arguably the most important part of SEO is generating great content that is properly indexed by search engines. This ensures that search engines will pull up your content for relevant searches and that your targeted audience will want to read what they find.

There are three main parts to creating engaging, indexed material for your site: keywords, technical optimization, and well-written content.

In many ways these topics are the core of SEO. Take your time working through this material and be sure to reach out to your Content Expert with any questions!

- Keywords
- Technical Aspects
- Content

Keywords play an important part in the content creation process. As you write your blog posts and create engaging content for your pages, it is important to double check that your content includes natural keywords embedded in the writing.

The following articles explain the importance and use of keywords in more depth.

Chapter 5 - The Beginner's Guide to SEO (Webpage)

Importance of Keywords (Webpage)

On Page SEO Technique To Rank On First Page - 2016 Edition (Webpage)

The following link will take you to a video showing you how to use Google's Keyword Planner:

How to Use the Google Keyword Planner Tool For SEO (Webpage)

Technical optimization includes several different things, the most important being meta data. Custom meta data (information for web crawlers) should be thought-out, well-written, and implemented consistently on every page of your website.

Read the following articles to learn more about the technical aspects of SEO:

Chapter 4 - The Beginner's Guide to SEO (Webpage)

Everything You Need to Know About Using Yoast SEO for Wordpress (Webpage)

Using H1 Tags Improves Search Engine Ranking (Webpage)

To clarify, here is a brief description of some of the most important technical aspects of SEO:

1. Page Title: A maximum of 70 characters in your title. Characters include letters and spaces. Do not use commas, lines, asterisks, or any other 'cute' keyboard strokes. It is very important that your page titles include keywords that your viewers might search.
2. Meta Description: A maximum of 50 characters to describe your page. Only the most relevant keywords- brevity is key. Many times if you don't manage your information you will find that Google tries to by filling in whatever it can find. It is recommended that you are better off managing your own information before it is managed for you in a way you don't necessarily like.
3. Images: As mentioned earlier in this course, you want to have at least one image in every post. The 'title' of your images is important and should not just be numbers from their original source (like a camera). WordPress also gives you the option to include ALT text for the image. A good title and description (using keywords if natural) ensures your photo is indexed properly by the search engines. In addition, make sure your images are not too large, as that can slow down the load time of your site and decrease the user experience. A template of 350x400 is a good place to start.
4. Meta Keywords: A maximum of 500 characters. This is the least important field, as there is no conclusive evidence of how this is indexed. But since it is available, we call this insurance!
5. URLs: Create a unique URL for each page or post on your website. Make sure your unique URL is related to the content of the page (often a shortened form of the title is a good choice). This keeps the links static, which will help your SEO ranking, and creates a better user experience.

Finally, the actual content of your site needs to be high quality and relevant to the personal/professional purpose of your website.

Read the following articles to learn more about creating great content:

Chapter 6 - The Beginner's Guide to SEO (Webpage)

Why SEO Is Actually All About Content Marketing (Webpage)

The SEO Factors That Matter More Than Keywords (Webpage)