SEO Tactics: Yes, No, and Maybe

Search Engine Optimization can get in the way of good history writing.  I ran passages from the works of the world's greatest historians and they failed SEO stress tests.  I used Youst SEO as the evaluator.  Francis Parkman and Edward Gibbon were the historians I used.  So what  SEO tactics should history bloggers use?    

Yes: Key words (and key phrases) in URL of post and alt tag in images.

No: Using key words in body that undermines quality of writing.  Dumbing down writing to pass Fleishman Tests.

Maybe:  Key word in title.  Key word in first paragraph.

Even though SEO presents special problems for history writers, SEO does not need to be ignored entirely.