When it comes to the free blogging platform, most people would go with Tumblr or WordPress.com. In part because they are easy to setup and use. If you want to know which one is better, all I can tell you is that they all have their own merits. WordPress can be very powerful if you are self hosting them, but if you are just using WordPress.com, then there are a lot of limitations on what you can do. Notwithstanding, in this article, I am going to solely focus on Tumblr.
Tumblr is a hybrid beast; it is a blogging and social network platform, so it is very unique and powerful if you are considering how SEO is changing over the course of the past few years.
Perhaps the most standing out about Tumblr when comparing it with other social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, Tumblr is one of very few social media platforms our there that is allowing dofollow backlinks.
Now, that does not stop there, if your content or post is really interesting, people can re-blog or re-Tumblr your post, that would create a flood of natural dofollow backlinks to your site. For example, if 100 people re-blog your post, you will basically get 101 do-follow backlinks. Pretty sweet and awesome, right?
Of course, in order to be viral, you need to optimize your post.
Following are the Best SEO Practices of using Tumblr:
1. Choosing Top Level Domain
It is very important to use a keyword rich top level domain, because it is one of Google ranking factors when it comes to SERPs.
2. Creating Worth Sharing Content
Not just any type of content, you need to write content that is trending and interesting, so that people can read, share, and link. And that is the core of SEO, and it will stay for a long period of time.
3. Interlinking Posts or Pages
Google doesn’t like one post or one page website; they simply hate a thin website; they like a thick website: a website that contains a lot of pages or posts and interlinking to each other. That is one of important element for on-page SEO.
4. Tagging Posts
One of the most interesting part when it comes to Tumblr if you are searching Google is that they allow tags be index-able. Therefore, it is very good way to gain exposure by adding more tags.
5. Adding Meta Information
Most Tumblr themes come with meta fields that you can enter a post’s meta information; it is a very good practice to add them.
6. Be Creative on Content
It is a fact that the majority of people online do not want to read a long paragraph of texts. I hate it as well. So you need to be creative if you want your post to go viral; in order to increase the odd, you can add some interesting images; utilizing Memes. According to many online research, infographic is one of most effective way sharing content. It is interesting, easy to read, and easy to share.
7. Speed up Website
Believe it or not, website speed is one of Google’s ranking factors, because it is part of user experience. According to Google, slow website translates into bad user experience. Therefore, it is very important to speed up website. Most of time, you can speed up your site by reducing or eliminating big images or scripts.
8. Using Crawlable Comment Form
This is the area that most SEO people are forgetting. Implementing crawlable comment form is good for SEO if your content is being comment by real people, because it adds unique and relevant content to the post. One of the best crawlable comment forms is Disqus comment system. You should never use Facebook comment system, because it is simply not good for SEO.
9. Using Heading Tags
For any post or page, you should utilize heading tags. General speaking, H1 should contain your keyword phrase and it should only be one H1 on a post or page, and h2-h6 should be headings for each section.
10. Renewing Post regularly
It is important to add fresh content to your website regularly, but it is also crucially important to go back to your previous posts and update them, and removed outdated content or information.
It is basically the same SEO stuffs and practice when it comes to Tumbr. Avoid bad SEO practice, be cool; you should never do keyword stuffs and trick Google, because sooner or later, Google will catch you. If you are in for a long run and build your business brand, then you need to follow the rules and do it a right way.
Currently, a big part of ranking factors is based on user experience. Basically, Google ranks a website based on how people react to the site, such as how many people share the post, or likes the posts. The same concept applies to Tumblr; if you want do good on Tumblr, make people like your Tumblr.
