Common sense ways for Optimizing your blog for search engines

Competition is fierce online and the top places on the search result pages are the most hunted for; therefore, any blog owner who tries to make money on the Internet needs to use a comprehensive strategy to attract the best visitors and the highest traffic.  By having a blog and building a social networking spider web around it, you will be working to optimize it for the search engines.

As mentioned in our last post, the primary factor for blog optimization for search engines is the keyword. When you start the race for SEO (search engine optimization), you already have an advantage: blogs are usually the ones to receive more traffic then other complex sites due to their highly informational content. By keywords we mean those sentences or structures that a user types in the search box of an engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo.

Blogs mainly rely on articles that are regularly updated and re-freshened, so that they have something new to offer all the time. Before you write your blog content, you’ll need to make a list with all the keywords related to your niche/domain and which are most likely to be typed in the search box by Internet users. A brain-storming session is ideal to find the best structures you need to include in the articles; keep in mind that there are some rules you may have to follow here as well.

For example, choosing some very general keywords is not the best way to promote a business via. The explanation is very simple here: search terms that are too broad attract all sorts of users, even those that are not interested in purchasing something. SEO experts use all sorts of parameters to check the profitability of a blog, and one of them deals precisely with the number of relevant users the web-page gets.  (More on stats and analytics later.)

Once you start to use the most high-in-demand keywords you’ll still have to do a lot of other types of work in order to keep your blog position high in traffic. There are many strategies for this and we are going to get to them, after we build our Social Networking Spider Web. Building a Social Networking Spider Web offers the greatest bang for the buck ROI of all the tactics, except for having a lot of quality content on your blog.

Quality content remains the golden rule of search engine optimization: quality informational content is the foundation of any successful blog!

Many businesses have a hard time finding ways to promote their businesses, getting results from their online marketing efforts, and ultimately getting customers to their websites.   As with most small businesses they also have restricted budgets which makes the task even harder.  Here’s one neat way to promote yourself and your business for free.  It’s all about building a giant spider web of back links and referral sources back to your business website or blog.

Google Local, recently renamed “Google Places“, invites local businesses to use Google to promote their services. Google Places is a great way to promote yourself on the web, especially if you are a local business.

For many small businesses the quickest way to get on the map and attract customers is through the Internet.  One out of five searches on Google are related to location.  Google Places helps to make sure your business is able to be found.

Google has taken a big step forward in providing local businesses a way to reach out to customers by beefing up Google Places. Google figures that the stronger offering draws more local businesses to use Google to promote their services.

Service and home-based businesses will benefit through the ability to define service areas, allowing customers to more accurately find businesses that serve them. Additionally, home-based businesses that don’t want to make their home addresses public can hide them from the listing if they so desire.

Four million businesses have already claimed their Place Page on Google Places, which enables them to verify and supplement their business information to include hours of operation, photos, videos, coupons, product offerings and more.  It also lets them communicate with customers and get insights that help them make smart business decisions.

So, go to http://google.com/places and stake out your local business corner on Google.

Get Your Own WordPress Blog and Jump Start Your Business

Blogging with WordPress is Easy and it is one of the best ways to promote your business and yourself on line.  The search engines love blogs which translates into your business being found on the web and subsequently driving more prospects and customers to your site.

The WordPress Blog application is the most popular blogging application available and offers a wide variety of configurable options. Blogging is an excellent way to establish a strong Internet presence and for you to be found by people searching for what you have to offer.  WordPress blogs allow you to easily expand your website content, increase your website traffic, share your expertise, establish yourself as an authority figure, offer advice to customers, and ultimately to attract new customers.

What Is A Blog?

Here’s a great introduction to blogging put together by WordPress (http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging).  It’s an article written by the people that developed WordPress.

How Much Does It Cost?

The WordPress Blog software is completely FREE to download! All you need is a domain name (~$10.00 a year) and a web site hosting account (which you can get on your own or I can provide).  If you already have a domain name we can add a blog onto that domain name. You also need a WordPress theme (aka template).  There are thousands of free WordPress themes available that can be customized or you can purchase a premium theme.

It typically takes me typically 3 to 6 hours to install and set up a blog. I charge $75 per hour. Once your blog is set up there are no costs except for your monthly hosting and your yearly domain name fee. I show you how to maintain and manage the blog yourself!

What Will I Do for You?

I assist and advise in finding the right theme and plugins to meet your website objectives.  With thousands of themes and over 7,000 plugins available, selecting the best ones for your needs can be a bit challenging, but with my help it’s easy.

My consulting services are customized for each client and can include any of the following:

• Theme and plugin selection
• WordPress Training
• Design and Layout Strategy
• Website optimization
• Google Analytics
• Advanced Customization, and

Add Social Media Marketing for a Killer Traffic Magnet

Adding a circle of social networking profiles around your blog will really make your blog traffic take off.  I will Develop a Social Media Marketing Strategy for you that will drive traffic to your business website or WordPress blog like crazy.

Article Marketing is a free and effective way to increase traffic to your blogs and websites.

If I was only going to recommend one traffic generation strategy after setting up a “social networking Spider Web” pointing back to your blog, it would be a toss up between video and article marketing. But for now I am going to go with article marketing because it is easier to get started with. There is a reason why article marketing is so popular – it actually works!

Article marketing is one of the best ways to establish your credibility and draw attention to your sites. Article marketing is where you write articles about your niche or topic and you then submit them to article directories.  It lets you to provide valuable information, build trust with your readers, and become an authority figure, before making any kind of promotion.

When you write an article, come up with an eye-catching headline. Insert keywords and benefits to the reader into the headline so people will be more inclined to read it.

With your first sentence grab their attention and make them want to read more.

At the bottom of each article (usually in the Resource or Author box) you write, you are allowed to insert a link or two that links back to your website.  The Resource Box is perhaps the most important part of the article because this is the only section where you get to promote your site. It should restate the benefits to the reader. Many authors come up with a resource box that sounds like a strong sales pitch or an autobiography. People are not interested in hearing about your life – people want to know “what they will get out of it” or how they will benefit from what you are offering.

There are thousands of article directories that have “top rankings” with the search engines, and by you publishing your articles and links to them gives your site some huge advantages.

And, once your article is published in these high ranking directories, other bloggers, etc. will see your article and may publish it on their site or blog.  This creates even more back links to your site. Thus, it is quite common for just one of your articles to get you several high quality back links.

There are many ways to publish articles.  You can post them one at a time to the directories with “top rankings” or you can use automated tools that will publish to dozens, even hundreds of directories.

To start with, I do not suggest that you submit your article to every article directory you can find – instead just stick with the top few.  Hold off on submitting to more than five to 10 directories until you learn how to spin articles, how to avoid duplicate content penalties, and some of the article submitting tools available.

Here are some for you to consider:

• http://ezinearticles.com
• http://goarticles.com
• http://searchwarp.com
• http://articlecity.com
• http://isnare.com
• http://buzzle.com
• http://goarticles.com
• http://helium.com
• http://articledashboard.com
• http://ideamarketers.com
• http://amazines.com

For those of you that are ready to use an automated Article Submitter, I use and recommend Magic Article Submitter. It is very inexpensive, easy to use, and comes with a 90 day guarantee.

The most important reason for having a blog is the purpose:  Why did you create it?  In our case, we created it as a core part of our business and so that we have a central forum for interacting and building relationships with our future and current customers.  Your blog also forms the center of your “social networking spider web” in that is the target for you to send all your social networking traffic to.

There are some people who choose to create a blog on their own, whereas others prefer to hire some pro to set things up for them. It really is easy if you learn to set up your own blog – there are thousands of videos online that will show you how.  My preference of course, is to use WordPress self-hosted blogs.

One of the most important items revolves around attracting traffic by identifying the keywords that are the highest in demand.  Keywords are nothing more than the search terms people use to find results on the web.  You want to make sure your blog title, description and articles use the right keywords.

Example:  If your business niche is Interior Design, you will want to use keywords like “interior design seattle” or “interior designers in seattle” in your blog description, in the titles of your posts and in the content of your posts.  If your keywords have a lot of competition you may need to get more specific and use what are called long tail keywords.  Example:  “high end interior designers seattle” or “luxury home interior designers seattle”.

As a blogger, you will therefore need to learn as many SEO secrets as you can, since you will have to optimize your blog content AND the social networking and bookmarking sites that you set up for your four or five primary keyword terms.  You want to use these keywords everywhere to drive traffic back to your site.

Another important issue when starting a blog is the content is king.  Keep in mind that the best sites are the ones that are personal in nature, come with highly interesting information and are not overt sales sites. Search engines love great content and visitors stick around longer if your blog has good articles and videos.

Getting “top rankings” with Article Marketing

Issue 01 in our – Getting “top rankings” Series

If I were to recommend just one traffic generation strategy, it would be a toss up between video and article marketing. But for now I am going to go with article marketing because it is easier to get started with. There is a reason why article marketing is so popular – it actually works!  It is also a very “low cost seo” tactic – in fact it shouldn’t cost you a dime.

Article marketing is where you write articles about your niche or topic and you then submit them to article directories.  At the bottom of each article (usually in the Resource or Author box) you write, you are allowed to insert a link or two that links back to your website.

There are thousands of article directories that have “top rankings” with the search engines and by you having your articles and links on them gives your site some huge advantages.

And, once your article is published in these high ranking directories, other bloggers, etc. will see your article and may publish it on their site or blog.  This creates even more back links to your site.

Thus, it is quite common for just one of your articles to get you several high quality backlinks.

There are many ways to publish articles.  You can post them one at a time to the directories with “top rankings” or you can use automated tools that will publish to dozens, even hundreds of directories.

To start with, I do not suggest that you submit your article to every article directory you can find – instead just stick with the top few.  Hold off on submitting to more than five to 10 directories until we teach you about how to spin articles, how to avoid duplicate content penalties, and some of the article submitting tools available.

Here are some for you to consider.  Or, you can go here for a list of the top 50 article directories.

• http://ezinearticles.com
• http://goarticles.com
• http://searchwarp.com
• http://articlecity.com
• http://isnare.com
• http://buzzle.com
• http://goarticles.com
• http://helium.com
• http://articledashboard.com
• http://ideamarketers.com
• http://amazines.com

For those of you that are ready to use an automated Article Submitter, I use and recommend Magic Article Submitter. It is very inexpensive, easy to use, and comes with a 90 day guarantee.

Okay, that’s it for today.  Now go write an article of at least 500 words and submit it to five or so article directories.  Change your titles for each site and make sure you use your keywords in the title of your article.  It is also a good idea to try and make each article somewhat unique so they each appear as original content.

Please read the Article Submission guidelines for each of the directories because they will not publish your article unless you follow them.

Next up we will be discussing Social Bookmarking.