Month: September 2022

5 Easy SEO Tips for Poetry Blogs

Actionable Tips to Rank Your Poetry Blog

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While I strongly believe that a blog with well and consistently written posts can help you ace the blogging game, it’s also true that a good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) can be the catalyst for the google ranking. Though there are plenty of resources on how to go about on-page or off-page SEO, I have always found them to work best for long-format content and not poetry.

SEO gets trickier when it comes to poetry mainly because of its brevity and also of the difficulty to stuff keywords into it. So I thought why not share a few easy and actionable tweaks that I had applied in this poetry blog of mine and found them work well. So here you go.

“Succesful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about partnering with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.”

Phil Frost

My top ranking pages

If someone had told me a few months back that you can rank your poetry blog well with just SEO, I would have laughed at them. Like, who are they kidding, huh?

As poets, while we know how difficult it is to even get our work to be seen, it is even more difficult to believe in someone talking about getting our poetry blog on the first page of google, just by SEO. So I can understand if you are reading this article through the lens of suspicion.

To ascertain that these tips work, let me start with sharing the proof first. Here are three screenshots where you can find,

  1. My website ranking first for the keyword “promising poetry”.
  2. One of my poems ranked on the first page of google images, for the keyword “lipogram poem”.
  3. My review of the poetry book, Gitanjali is ranked on Google’s first page.

Screenshot of website that ranks first for the keyword "promising poetry"
A screenshot of my website ranked first for the keyword “promising poetry”.

Screenshot of one of my poems ranking on the first page of google images, for the keyword "lipogram poem".
A screenshot of one of my poems ranked on the first page of google images, for the keyword “lipogram poem”.

 Screenshot of my review of the poetry book, Gitanjali which is ranked on Google's first page.
Screenshot of my review of the poetry book, Gitanjali which is ranked on Google’s first page.

Now that you are convinced, let me just dive into the tips part.

5 Easy and Actionable SEO Tips for Poetry Blogs

Include intro/conclusion

Brevity is the biggest enemy of poetry which makes it not feasible to rank on the first page. A minimum of 300 words count gets traction for google ranking and the lengthier it gets (quality matters too!), the better the traction is. So, here is the tweak. Try to include an introduction and/or conclusion, before/after your poetry which can help you get the desired word count.

Choose your title wise

As poets, it can be very tempting to give unusual or abstract or mystic titles to our poetry pieces but let me warn you that it can be of no help when it comes to ranking. Say, for example, one of my poems, “Rasa” wouldn’t have ranked on google images’ first page, had I titled it just as “Rasa”. Come on, who on earth would search as “A poem on Rasa”?

So, the trick here was to title it, “Rasa- A Lipogram Poem”. Now, the keyword “lipogram poem” did the magic here and brought visibility to the piece. The key takeaway here is to have a lengthy title while describing what the poem is about or the poetry format. If you wish you can add your actual creative title of the poem as a subtitle.

Keep in mind that the user is mostly a layman, looking for poems using simple words/phrases like, ‘a poem on love’, ‘ a poem on domestic abuse‘, etc.

Wait, there is also another reason the poem, Rasa, was ranked and that’s the next tip.

Add ALT tags for the images

Well, as you could have seen in the screenshots above the poem Rasa was optimised for its image. When it comes to optimising your poetry, you got to make use of all the possible ways to do so and adding attractive images is one thing to do. But it just doesn’t stop there.

Add a description of the image used using ALT tags and also in the caption of the image. This way you are helping google find your page through the images. Sometimes while the content itself may not rank, the image may rank (as in the case of my poem, here) on the top page and bring in traction or views.

Check out this easy-peasy video to learn how to add ALT tags for images:

Include video

It’s not just about lengthening your poetry post but it’s also about keeping your audience hooked and staying on your page for a considerable amount of time. Since the brevity of poetry can’t keep anyone hooked for a long time, embedding a video can help retain the reader for some time.

So get creative and go for adding a video of the spoken word version of your poem or just add a related youtube video to the page. Make sure the content of the video aligns with your poetry and doesn’t look like a forced inclusion.

Get creative

Ok, now don’t get me wrong saying we are poets and doesn’t that mean we are already creative? Well, I agree. It’s not about getting creative about poetries that I’m talking about. I’m asking you to get creative with the format of your posts that you pen for your poetry blog.

Most times, one may think that a poetry blog is all about sharing poetries but it is not. Think about everything that has got to do with poetry and pen them. Write reviews for poetry books, do poetry analysis, get a poet interviewed and write about it, etc. This way, you are still soaking in the essence of poetry while also being able to furnish long-format content which is the key to page optimisation.

In the below post on my review of Tagore’s Gitanjali , you shall find all the above points incorporated.

My review of the poetry book, Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore.

Concluding Words

SEO of poetry blogs can be tricky but with little tweaks here and there, you can ace the game. If you had noticed, the underlying factor behind all the tips is to make the posts “reader friendly” by giving them an insight on how or what made you come up with a poem or adding user-friendly titles or ALT text for images or videos or bringing them into your poetry world through more related educative/entertaining information.

Hope you found this post useful. Do let me know if you want to learn more on SEO specific to poetry blogs.

This post was written for the prompt “Simple SEO tricks nobody told you”, as a part of #BlogchatterBlogHop.

How To Dissolve Yourself as a Poet- A Poem

A poem on how to be the voice of others by dissolving yourself

Note: This poem was first published here: <link rel=“canonical” href=“https://medium.com/gentleness-ambassadors/how-to-dissolve-yourself-as-a-poet-50c017d30bfc” />

Designed by the Author, using Canva

How to dissolve yourself as a poet

Do not think. Do not
write. Not even
attempt. Just be
unarmed. Your naked
self-open
to stories
and scars alike but
remember
not to use them
as protective clothing.

Stay naked.

Your vulnerability
is the fabric.

~

Breathe
through the fabric.
It’s hard. Yet
doable.

Breathe.

Even as you be
and breathe-
jump, sway, dance
cry, punch,
or itch as
the scar
or story may
want you to.

Blend with the story.
Bleed with the scar.
Be.

~

Let it all
soak up
through
the fabric.

Your vulnerability.

Let it
suck it up
till saturated.
Stretch it
not.
Shrink it
not.
Carefully lift
the fabric. Spread
it away from
your naked self.

~

The scars that
you allowed
to seep into
your skin
can wait.
Attend
to the fabric
first. Remember
you are a poet.
That fabric-
your canvas
and composition.

~

Now
like the lover’s
caressing
let your soul
gently tend to
the fabric.

Lift it up
letting light
find its way
highlighting
parts of it
naturally.
In the clothesline
of creative force
pin it carefully
with pegs
of purpose
so life breathes
through its pores.

Let it be.
Let it dry.
Let it dance.
Let it drench.
Let it delve.
Let it dry.
Let it be.

~

Remember
you are a poet.
That fabric-
your canvas
and composition
It’s not
you.
Gently move away.
It’s now
for the world
to witness.

You may now
tend to
the scars or
stories
that you
let seep
through your
skin.

You can be
you.