SEO Best Practices: How Blogs Can Break Or Make Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy

Blogs - Structure and Layout

I work in the field of Search Engine Optimization. It has a wide range of options, from the technical to the more strategic. Tons of discussions are found on off-page and on-page factors, latent semantic analysis, content scope, quality, HTML/CSS development, site navigational structure, spamdexing, 301 redirects, plagiarism, link strategies, directories, blogs, search engine news, email marketing tips & online (internet) marketing. Most all of the top 10 SEO firms out there agree that blogs are a "must" for driving traffic and get established in the Internet community.

There is a right way, and a wrong way. We'll discuss these below.

Be warned - too many folks out there are thinking about "how to outbeat the search engines" and use the latest-and-greatest (blogs) to elevate their rankings, essentially via content and blog spam. Blogs are a powerful way to get seen by the search bots. Blogger (Google's own) is an important key to the puzzle, but there are many.

THE UN-OFFICIAL TOP 7 BLOGGING BEST PRACTICES FOR SEO

Start here, begin a quick review of the world's top blogs:
http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs (the gorilla blog listings - updated daily)
http://www.problogger.net (this guy makes 16,000 USD / monthly)
http://microsaw.stikipad.com (web 2.0 blogs and news)

Get an account - it's free. log in - and - don't start! What? No, you must first continue by scanning the list above and get a sense for what people are writing about. This could be more generic at first, but start looking to yourself. What do you know? What do people come to you for? Anything that you specialize in? (Hint: don't think "how can I sell this" - but "how can I share this?") You'll also learn how to use trackback functions to allow other people to be notified. Permalinks are great for SEO and should be used where appropriate. So, now you learned something big: be yourself!

Think about an interesting headline. You don't need to be copywriter, but you should think about your headline and the topic at hand. More importantly, is it something that you are passionate about, or can contribute something to? It's ok to spend some time here, writer's block can come up. Think about other sites, can you re-write their UVP (unique value proposition)? How would you write yours (thinking theme here). What I've found to work is simply sit back and start talking as if you were discussing a (hot) topic with a friend, and then breaking it out into sub-groups from there.

Writing tips: casual, friendly and interesting (meaning you have something to write and you don't copy others) works well in blogs. Make sure you stay on topic and that you are truthful. Would you lie to your mother? Of course not - then think about this when you are writing online (and she will not come after you). Yahoo's blogging policy is a good one: "Be respectful of your colleagues, get your facts straight, provide context to your argument, and engage in private feedback." Also, make sure to include images (flickr) and video (youtube, google video) where you can. Make the images rich and colorful, don't worry about sizing too much.

Committment, persistence and disciplin. Sound like an extract from Jim Rohn or Anthony Robbins? Well, they probably are - but it applies to most of the things you do in life. So be it with blogging. Carve out 1/2-1 hour every day to nurture to your blog business. Think of it as your morning ritual - right after you have attended to your family and other duties. Plus, often you are not going to be in writing mode - but rather, maintenance mode - reviewing and responding to other blogger's input.

Search engines start picking up your blog, and traffic increases. Be prepared and if it gets out of hand, be able to manage that too. I'm not simply talking about traffic, but as others join and comment, you may need to defend your stance, including admitting mistakes if / when you make them. Folks appreciate other folks who are big enough to admit mistakes if it gets there. For example, you may have folks who don't like you - even if you're Bill Gates. This guy created a Corporate Weblog Manifesto that I found interesting.

Run and host your own blog service. More expensive, but this could have a large impact on your ability to control not only the content, but custom HTML layouts, code and information architecture that are important to search engines. You can offer this as a service to others in your niche market. http://businesslogs.com/ is a great resource to use for starting this process, and more hands-on development companies like http://www.leveltendesign.com/ can be an option for you. Keep in mind that the market has developed niche-companies, from real-estate to healthcare, and you should research those specifically.

If you have writer's block - make sure to read the next section, content is important for Search Engine Optimization - be on top of it.

How To Be Creative RE: Blogs (and SEO)

Here are some tips about being creative with blogs. Funny, but poignant.
(Taken from http://www.gapingvoid.com/)

Ignore everybody.

The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.

Put the hours in.

If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

You are responsible for your own experience.

Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

Keep your day job.

Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.

Dying young is overrated.

The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

The world is changing.

Merit can be bought. Passion can't.

Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

Sing in your own voice.

The choice of media is irrelevant.

Selling out is harder than it looks.

Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.

Don?t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

You have to find your own schtick.

Write from the heart.

The best way to get approval is not to need it.

Power is never given. Power is taken.

Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

Remain frugal.

Voila - that's it, there you have it. Watch how the search engines will start picking up your content. You can run tools to see how you are ranking, how often you are showing up in the search engines. We like www.UrlTrends.com as a simple beginner starting point. However, it's not 100% accurate, other SEO tools can provide more detail.

Keep your content fresh, updates daily is preferred - and definitely once a week and your search engine marketing (which includes search engine optimization) will become more visible than it was just last week. Then, use http://pingomatic.com/ to alert search engines that you have made updates. It's a free service, and will help your visibility.

About The Author
Jon Rognerud is a recognized authority on the subject of SEO, and has spent over 10 years developing websites and marketing solutions at companies like Overture and Yahoo. His Web 2.0 site, Los Angeles Search Marketing (http://www.microsaw.com), provides a wealth of informative articles, resources and complimentary email courses on everything you will ever need to know about SEO and Search Marketing. He lives with his family in Southern California.

Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The motive of Search Engine Optimization is to improve the ranking of the web sites, which are listed in the search engine lists. With the high rank of the web site in the search engine, there is a chance of more and more customers visiting your site. In today’s busy world the customers or internet users does not have much time to click through pages or the pages of search engine, so during their visit to the web site if the customer finds that the rank of the site is high he or she will ultimately move towards that site.

In the today’s web world, search engine optimizers (SEOs) are recognized as an industry of the professionals who bring the optimization scheme or projects on behalf of their customer’s sites. SEO ensure to the customer that the site they are looking for is reachable by the search engine. (It also improves the probability that the site, which a customer is looking for, will be found by the search engine. The motive of any search engine marketing agency is to know the techniques which give greater reliability to the search engine and what the search engines are looking for. So they modify a web site so that it is considered to be friendly to search engine.)

Different kinds of listing are displayed by the search engines in the search engine result pages (SERPs). The lists which are displayed by the search engines are pay per click advertisement, organic search results and paid inclusion listings. The strategies adopted by a search engine optimization company in Thailand are just same as required everywhere else in the world – they shall increase quality of customers and number of customers by improving the rankings of the SEO clients’ websites. Mainly SEO is concerned with achieving the aim of a web site by the improvement and progress of its organic search results.

Any newcomer, who wants to make his place in the web world and is launching his web site, should think about search engine optimization even already for the initial design of a site and development of the site, as they offer the stand alone service.

As a part of a large marketing effort, SEO plays a very important role for the initial design and development of the site. Pay per click advertising can play a substantial role for the competitive and high volume search term. The cost of pay per click advertising is little bit higher, so web site owners can think to optimize their sites for organic search. If your web site is having high ranking in the organic search results, this can bring the flow of traffic at a possible significant savings. Search engine optimization may not be having identical goal for all sites.

Some sites optimize to rank high for common search phrases, so these types of sites often look for any and all types of traffic. These common phrases are often much harder to rank for than the real “long tail” phrases that clients use to search for a product. It is important to note that you have to perform search engine optimization for every language that you cover – and if you have a Thai language part on your site targeting clients from Thailand, you sure want Thai search engine optimization experts to help you for the famous engines in Thailand like Google.co.th or Sanook.com.

In the Search Engine Optimization industry some of the search engines are frequent guests and sponsors at SEO seminars and conferences. With the arrival of paid inclusion, some of the search engines are now taking interest in the well being of the optimization community.

Copyright 2006 Globlet Co., Ltd.

About The Author
Jatupol Tanaruthai has been in the search engine marketing business for about 9 years. He is the owner and CEO of Globlet Co., Ltd. (http://www.globlet.com), a search engine marketing company based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Web Site Checklist for Search Engine Optimization (Easy and Quick SEO)

Print out this checklist and survey your web site. - How did you do?

__ Does your home page answer the four principle questions?

- What are you offering me? Are you trying to sell me something or is it a free information resource?

- Why should I believe you? Credibility

- What's in it for me? Benefit

- Who are you? Contact Information and About You

__ Is your home page greeting and message visible "above the fold", without scrolling down the page?

__ Can visitors find information easily?

__ Can Visitors get to important or common information in two clicks or less?

__ Do you have a clear and consistent method of navigation throughout the web site?

__ Can visitors bookmark individual pages?

__ Can visitors easily find contact information, phone numbers or email addresses on every page?

__ Does each page contain links to related topics, web sites, definitions, accessories, "buy now" or "contact now" (action option)?

__ Have you run a spell check on every page, and then checked to make sure you used the write words two?

__ Have you provided your visitors with a reason to remember you and come back later?

__ Can you visualize specific community members who will benefit from your web site?

Slightly Technical Stuff

__ Does every page have a unique Title?

__ Does your Title contain the Keywords for the page, and vice versa?

__ Are your Keywords also used in the test on the page?

__ Are your page titles more than one word, and more than 30 characters?

__ Do you have Alternate Text Tags for your images?

__ Are your Metatags current?

__ Do you use Text Links to other pages? (Spider Bots can not follow Buttons or Images)

__ Have you submitted your pages to the Search Engines?

__ Do you share reciprocal links?

__ Have you optimized your HTML, and do your pages have 25% text or more (higher ratio is better)?

Cool Tools

SEO Lite Toolbar - Install the Toolbar and check the link popularity on any web site
http://www.download.com/SEO-ToolBar-Lite/3000-2379_4-10337328.html

IBP (Internet Business Pages) FREE DEMO - "Optimize My Web Site" and compare to your competitors
http://www.axandra-web-site-promotion-software-tool.com/download.htm

XML Sitemap Generator - Automatically Generate a Sitemap and Metatags
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

Google Keyword Tool - See the Current most popular Keywords used to Search the Web
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

______________________________________________________

Words of Wisdom

"I invented the Internet."
- Al Gore

"Words are of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind""
- Rudyard Kipling
http://www.rawpowerwriting.com

"When my father was a child, he played with other children in the neighborhood. When I was a child, we watched television shows about children around the world, interacting with other children and playing in their neighborhoods. Now I watch my son connect to the Internet and play with children around the world."
- John Mehrmann

About The Author
John Mehrmann is a freelance writer and President of Executive Blueprints Inc., an organization devoted to improving business practices and developing human capital. www.ExecutiveBlueprints.com provides resource materials for trainers, sample Case Studies, educational articles and references to local affiliates for consulting and executive coaching.

http://www.InstituteforAdvancedLeadership.com provides self-paced tutorials for personal development and tools for trainers. Presentation materials, reference guides and exercises are available for continuous development.

You may distribute this article freely, print it, sell it, or include it as part of a package as long as it is intact, unchanged and delivered in the original format with acknowledgement to Executive Blueprints Inc.

AdSense Used As A Web Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Detection Tool

Abstract : In addition to Google AdSense advertisements in the business environment has played a role,Sometimes, they can even as their web search engine optimization conditions (SEO) detection tool!If your website or the website of just doing a column optimization,but just joined the Google AdSense advertising code.AdSense refer to the content of the advertisements may be some food for thought from the information.

If your website joined the Google AdSense.look at the Google advertising on their website that there are some surprising discovery and enlightenment.For example, found a new competitor, or some of the new trends within counterparts.This is the Google AdSense advertising in the business environment has been playing the role of relevant articles.In addition,Google AdSense advertisements and sometimes even their own web search engine optimization can be used as a tool for measuring the conditions!

AdSense website as search engine optimization (SEO) tool.This is my columns on the front page of a web site observation and the analysis found.Google's AdSense discovered in the course of the trial, the front page columns online marketing a new observation.Although the text of a lot and seldom changesIt also believed that the body had been included and web pages related to the themes of the word.However, the website of AdSense advertisements are often not normal,the advertisement and bore little relation to the core content pages. In addition, visit the website,by Alexa toolbar shows and related sites are not directly related to the web page (Alexa website statistics and information that can be used as a reference tool).According to the information analysis, preliminary assessment is the theme of the website homepage.Meta labels or website content may exist some problems search engines can not make an accurate judgment of the core content of the website.According to !

this idea, words related to the website, so a lot of checksMeta found that the problem is the label "page description" content to a certain extent,Since the adoption of a common template, the website of the "page description" and the theme of the website,website content is not much correlation.Simple modification of this issue shortly after a big improvement on the aforementioned issues.

This is what I use AdSense advertising search engine optimization tool for measuring the website as an example.But this "search engine optimization tool for measuring" of a certain limitations, are not effective for all website,Moreover, a strong correlation between advertising pages there AdSense advertising or not.Another possible situation is thattheme and content of the website pages contain keywords corresponding advertisers do not put advertisementsor is not suitable for advertising in this area, of course, impossible for advertising,Google advertising alone can not determine the site of the phenomenon to a simple search engine optimization,only as a reference to a certain extent.

If your website or the website of just doing a column optimization,but just joined the Google AdSense advertising code.

AdSense refer to the content of the advertisements may be some food for thought from the information.

About The Author
James Yaqins own http://www.kersearch.com, this is a free articles search engine and directory for search engine marketing.See more articles on the search engine marketing,please click http://www.kersearch.com

FAQ About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is SEO anyway?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is a highly involved, somewhat lengthy, process designed to elevate an internet website’s major search engine ranking and/or positioning. The major search engines (Google, Microsoft Network (MSN), and Yahoo) make up greater than 70% of search traffic on the internet. This is a common way for people to find others, information, companies, potential business partners, etc. by entering a “keyword” or search term. Typically, the searcher will seek information on their keyword or search term and click on the top results. Thus the higher a site ranks for a given keyword or search term, the better its chances of attracting more visitors to its site.

Why Should I Care about SEO?

If you run a business and have a web presence, don’t you want the most people possible knowing about that business? Wouldn’t it benefit you if your website was able to bring you new leads or develop new customers every day, 24 hours per day? Research has shown that nearly 95% of all search engine users rarely read past the first page of search results. Because of that, it behooves you to have your website on the first page of search results for specific keywords and terms.

Can’t I just Pay for a High Ranking?

No! Organic (or “free”) search listing rankings cannot be purchased. These are “earned” over time via links, content, keyword relevance, page and site descriptions, titles of pages, etc. You can pay for clicks to your website based on specific terms or keywords however these are separate results from the free results people commonly click.

What is Pay-Per-Click?

Pay-per-click is a form of internet advertising where you pay a certain amount for each “click” or “hit” to your website as a result of a person searching for a certain keyword or phrase.

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud occurs when a person or automated computer script imitates a legitimate search for a keyword or phrase yet clicks on the pay-per-click result for the sole purpose of generating revenue for the search engine or affiliate.

What is a Linking Partner?

A linking partner is a website which provides a link to your site. Some will require a link on your site to theirs in return (a reciprocal link) while others will want to have a link on a third party’s site in exchange for the link to yours. Reciprocal links aren’t as valuable as unique one way links but the more links you have pointing to your site (link popularity), the more “important” the search engines will consider your site.

What is Page Rank?

Page Rank is Google’s proprietary algorithm for determining a site’s importance. It’s expressed as a value from 1-10 with 10 being the most important and most desirable. The algorithm was designed by Larry Page, Google’s co-founder. Page Rank is affected by things such as the number of links pointing to your website, and the amount of unique and relevant content on your website.

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is a typical word or phrase you’d expect people to use when searching for your site. That’s about as simple as we can explain it.

What is Keyword Density?

The number of keywords you use on a particular page in relation to the number of total words on that page. The more keywords you have peppered throughout the page and site, the better your site may rank for that particular term. You must be careful not to load a page with too many keywords, however—that is considered keyword “stuffing” or spamming and is frowned upon by the search engines.

What is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is basically an inventory listing of all of the pages on your site. It tells the search engines how to get around your site and also how many pages there are on your site. It can be made visible to your visitors, but it doesn’t have to be. Uploading an XML file directly to the search engines is a generally accepted best practice for optimizing your search engine rankings.

What is a Spider?

Search engines utilize small programs to surf and inventory sites all over the internet. These are called spiders, and they follow links from site to site to gather their inventory to report back to the search engine. They are also referred to as crawlers or bots from time to time.

What is a Meta Tag?

A meta tag is an HTML piece of code which provides information about that particular page or document. These don’t provide formatting information or any actionable code—they are there for the search engines to catalog your site and the pages contained on your site.

What is a Blog?

A blog (short for weblog) is a news or journal type of site which is frequently used more for opinionated type of entries and is typically updated frequently. It is intended for general consumption but has become a valuable tool for all types of users to spread information and awareness of their websites.

Why Should I Write Articles for my Website?

Articles are a great way to increase the amount of unique content on your site as it pertains to the keywords you desire to rank well. There are numerous websites that publish articles, and it is common practice for the authors to include a link in their by-line back to their website. This creates an inbound link to the author’s website which in turn increases its popularity. It’s also a good way to increase awareness aside from the linking benefits.

What are Directories?

Directories are databases containing listings to websites based on categories and sub-categories. Many of the search engines access directories to crawl their links to learn of new sites. Directories are an invaluable resource for search engines and can often serve to improve a site’s ranking depending upon how important the search engine weighs the directory in question. Directories may provide a link to your site often without requiring a return or reciprocal link on your site.

There you have a faq based overview of search engine optimization, why you should care, and some of the key terms used. If you're considering implementing an optimization program for your website, please visit http://smbconsultinginc.com for more information on this topic.

About The Author
Roger Bauer is Founder and CEO of SMB Consulting, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky based small business consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, web presence, internet marketing, SEO, technology, and business analysis. To learn more, point your browser to http://smbconsultinginc.com