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Search
Engine Optimization For Blogs
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by:
Priya Shah
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Copyright
© 2004 Priya Shah
http://www.priyashah.com
Blogging software is really a simple Content Management System (CMS)
that easily adds new pages and integrates them into your site's
navigational structure and linkage.
Blogs and blog posts are naturally search engine friendly because they
are text-rich, link-rich, frequently-updated webpages that use
stylesheets or CSS, and have very little extraneous HTML.
Optimizing a blog is very similar to optimizing a website, and
optimizing a blog post similar to optimizing a web page. But depending
on the blogging service or software you use, the results may look
somewhat different.
If you follow some simple rules for search engine optimization, your
blog can rank much higher than static website pages in the search
engine results pages.
Here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed
for keywords of your choice.
1. Use your primary keyword in your blog domain
Whether you purchase a separate domain (recommended) for your blog, or
host it on a blogging service or a subdomain of your own site, try to
ensure that your URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize
for.
For example, if you want your blog to get found for the keyword "rss"
get a domain with the keyword "rss", or use the keyword in a subdomain
as in http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/rssnews/
Getting a domain name with your own name might make for good branding,
especially if yours is a personal blog.
But if you're doing it for business and want the targeted traffic to
flow your way, keywords in the domain or subdomain are a move in the
right direction.
2. Use your primary key phrase in your blog header tags and the title
of your posts
If your primary key phrase is "business blogging" make sure that the
word business, or blogging, or both, appear in your blog headers (the
H1 or H2 tags) as well as the title of each of your posts.
Most blogging software will take the keywords in your post title and
put them into the file name of the permalink posts it creates.
For example, if you have a blog on Blogger and title your post "Search
Engine Optimization For Blogs", Blogger will automatically create a
page with your post and name the file
"search-engine-optimization-for-blogs.html" or something similar.
With other server-side software like Wordpress and Movable Type, you
may require the mod_rewrite command to save the title of your entries
as a permalink.
3. Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
If you want to get listed for secondary keywords use them infrequently
in the body of your post and pepper your blog titles or links with them
appropriately.
Don't overdo this or your posts will end up sounding unnatural and
spammy to readers.
4. Use your keywords in the anchor text of links
Keyword in links have more importance than simple text.
Use your primary and secondary keywords in the anchor text of links
when linking to other blog posts or to other pages on your main site.
Link keywords where they naturally appear in the body text, but again,
don't overdo it, or you'll end up with spammy looking pages.
5. Make sure search engines can spider your blog easily
Set up your blog so that the side navigation bar is present on all
pages.
Make sure your archives and previous posts are accessible from all
pages of your blog so they get spidered easily.
6. Get backlinks from other blogs or websites
Links pointing to your blog or posts are essential to build pagerank
and make your blog rank higher in the search engine listings.
I've seen many people recommend Blogrolling as one method of building
links to your blog.
BlogRolling is a one-stop linklist manager for your blog or journal.
http://www.blogrolling.com
But all this service actually does is give you a bit of javascript code
that "calls" the links.
As far as search engine rankings go, this method of linking is of
little use, because spiders can't read external javascript code.
Instead I recommend that you focus your linking efforts on the methods
here.
* Submitting to Blog Search Engines and Directories:
Submitting your blog and RSS feed to blog search engines and
directories is essential for getting high-quality links back to your
blog. Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or
blog.
Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
* Link Exchanges:
Many similarly-themed blogs are often willing to exchange links with
other blogs and form richly interlinked networks or communities. Link
exchanges with other blogs are easy to implement with most blogging
software.
* Trackbacks:
You can also get links back to your blog using trackbacks. One of the
disadvantages of using Blogger is that it does not automatically create
trackback urls that others can use to link back to your posts.
Haloscan is a free service that will automatically add comments and
trackbacks to your Blogger blog.
http://www.haloscan.com
But if trackbacks are an important component of your linking strategy,
I would advise using another software or system that adds this feature
automatically.
* Comments:
You can also get back links to your blog by posting legitimate comments
in response to posts on other blogs.
7. Update frequently
There's no better food for search engine spiders than fresh content.
Post and update your blog frequently using all the rules outlined above
and there's no reason why your blog will not get you top rankings in a
short period of time.
8. Stay put
Once you create your blog, try to stick to the same domain and blog
host or system for as long as you continue to publish.
You could end up losing a lot of your traffic, your readers and all
your search engine listings if you decide to move.
For more ways of building traffic to your blog, read the article "How
To Build Traffic To Your Blog."
http://www.blog-maniac.com/build-blog-traffic.htm
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Priya Shah publishes an internet marketing ezine at
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com by day and doubles as a Blog Maniac by
night http://www.blog-maniac.com Blog Brandz http://www.blogbrandz.com
is the legitimate offspring of her affair with the blogosphere.
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