Search Engine Optimization, Online Marketing & Web Development Services

Build Site Rankings and Develop a Following with an Optimized Blog, Part III

Published 03/26/2009

The last of our series of articles on blogs is perhaps the most important to getting your blog noticed by search engines. That is, optimizing your blog so it will be noticed and bring readers and by extension, qualified traffic to your website.

Backing up for a second, before starting to write posts, you need to choose a blog platform that suits your needs. There are several to choose from and it’s usually a tradeoff between the number of features and ease of use.

Two of the best blogging platforms out there are Movable Type and WordPress and are used extensively in the blogosphere. WordPress is free and pretty easy to use but if you think you may need customer assistance, Movable Type may be a better option. Install blog software on your own server so you can maintain full control of your blog – very important, especially as your blog grows.

Before you begin writing, develop a list of keywords and work them into your post – the title being the most important place since the title of the post is also the title of the webpage it’s found on. These keywords or phrases need to relate to the subject of your blog and be words/phrases someone would enter into a search engine when they’re looking for information on that topic.

Where do I find keywords and how do I know which ones to use?

Generally, you should target keywords that are not too competitive but have a fair amount of searches. The free WordTracker service is a great way to locate keywords quickly – Google also has a keyword utility that’s free. For more in depth analysis of keyword numbers, full WordTracker service is available for a nominal fee.

Submit your blog to popular blog directories and search engines

A big step in optimizing your blog for the search engines and getting noticed is to list your blog in the various directories and search engines designed especially for blogs. Each of these directories and search engines work differently – some rank blogs on their popularity while others send notices to various sites when you ping them with a new post.

Popular blog search engines and directories include: Technorati, Blogwise, Globe of Blogs, Blog Search Engine and Getblogs.com.

Engaging in the blogosphere is an important step in gaining traction for your blog

Another step to gaining exposure for your blog and building rankings in the search engines is to stay engaged in the blogosphere – meaning, it’s to your benefit to read other blogs and comment in them frequently.

Not only do you get a link back to your blog, but you build awareness that your blog exists. To maximize the benefits of commenting on other blogs, find the highest PageRank pages you can that are loosely related to your blog’s topic.

Perhaps the most important way to build search engine rankings and a following for your blog is to post often – at least several times of week when you’re starting out. In general, the more you post the better as long as the content is interesting. Posting frequently also means your blog will appear more frequently in blog directories and search services.

Search engine optimization firm SEO Advantage provides experienced blog copywriting services. Contact us today and see how a blog can help draw more qualified traffic to your site.

Check out parts I and II of our article series on blogs at the search engine optimization Knowledge Center – technical basics of blogs and a how-to write engaging content that gets noticed by your customers and the search engines.

About SEO Advantage

SEO Advantage, Inc. is an online marketing /search engine optimization firm that helps businesses turn their web presence into a powerful revenue generation medium. Our clients enjoy dominance on Google, Yahoo and Bing through a suite of unique pay-for-performance search engine optimization and online marketing services implemented by a multidisciplinary team of SEO engineers, copywriters, and web designers. You'll find us referenced in books such as Writing Web-Based Advertising Copy to Get the Sale and the BusinessWeek bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR, as well as the popular ebook The Small Business Blogging Blueprint. Find out more today. Visit www.seo-advantage.com, call 1-800-366-1639 or email us here.



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