Blog SEO for the Rest of Us


Picture:Clock Published on June 4th, 2006 in SEO

Meta Tags

First of all, use the old, well-known Meta Tags like Keywords and Description. This certainly isn’t as important as it used to be, because most big Search Engines started to ignore them since a growing number of sites started to take advantage of this system and used every possible keyword there was just to get into search engine results. But there are still a few smaller ones, who do believe in the power of Meta Tags and pay a decent amount of attention to them. That’s why you should still consider using them. And since it’s also done quickly, you should definitely take this step.

The Description Meta-Tag is still being used very often by Search Engines to display a short description about your webpage within their search results. Try to use 4 - 8 sentences. Short enough to be read by everyone, long enough to provide a useful summary of your web presence.

Search Engines

Submit to Search Engines! Do it by hand or use a Software like WebPosition, which dramatically automates this procedure and also submits to search engine providers you didn’t consider or even haven’t heard of, but which can still drive some traffic to your Blog.

Automatic Update Announcement

Use the update function in your Blog authoring software, WordPress, the most popular one does support this, while other Blog providers should allow this as well. It is important that you don’t send an update to too many websites, as writing a new post and hitting the submit button can became a pain in the ass, because it then takes several seconds to send an update ping to every single website and thus resulting in extremely long wait-times. The sites that WordPress suggests sending an update to are (you can just copy & paste this list to your WordPress settings):

http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

Join a Network

Networks promoting blogs and other websites are often used by surfers who are bored and want to know more about a random topic or maybe they do have a topic in mind, like technology for example, but are not interested in a specific matter, so they turn to one of these websites and browse it for a blog tagged with the term “technology”. A lot of users also find lots of their web favorites this way. Technorati.com is one of the biggest sites of this kind. If you take advantage of the automatic update announcement described in the previous paragraph, then it’s all been taken care of already and your blog content is being indexed by Technorati.com and those other sites. As they name already suggests, Technorati is only for technological related blogs, so don’ spam it with something different.

9Rules.com is an example of a so-called “Blog Community”. Its purpose is to show off the very best of the topics it chose to showcase. Of course you can’t just register to get a membership on this kind of site. There are periods where there are “opening positions”, so that new blogs can apply. But only the best are being selected which means that your chances are pretty slim since there are often thousands of sites applying.

Feedster.com syndicates RSS feeds all over the web, often it finds new feeds automatically. To make sure yours is being syndicated, visit the website and check it.
digg.com is also very popular. You have to announce your new posts manually though, but digg.com has become an important starting point for many surfers out there, hence providing you with lots of quality traffic. This is a great resource you shouldn’t miss!
del.icio.us is yet another very popular network, providing visitors with quality sites which they determine themselves. It’s a way to share your favorites with others.

Build your own Network!
This sounds more complicated than it really is. I’m not saying you have to build a new 9Rules.com, no, just exchange links with other blogs that have a lot in common with yours and that you eventually even like to read. So if you’re writing about your dogs, find another great blog that writes about cats or other animals. This way you’re providing your visitors with other great resources as well and, more importantly, you’ll get some traffic from those sites that link to you and it will also increase your ranking within search engine results. But do not turn this into something unethical, by for example creating a dedicated page containing only links to other blogs or webpages that contain no quality information. Choose your linking partners wisely and don’t choose too many, make it a great selection every visitor enjoys. This will definitely take some time as most of the SEO methods to increase traffic, but Rome wasn’t built in a day either, right?

Content is King!

You’ve probably heard this a few times already, but it is still so true and always will be. Who’s going to visit your site if there is nothing interesting on it? Just ask yourself. What are the sites you visit the most? What are the most valuable sites to you? Well, you’re surely going to answer these questions, with one of your favorite websites with fresh, quality content. So it’s clear you have to write some really good posts, but always think about the length / information ratio. Your posts should have some high quality writing, which should be a pleasure to read, but you also have to keep the information your posts provide, in mind. Information is kind of the meat in your posts!
Updating frequency is also another important issue. If you start posting every day and then, for example, are gone for 3 months, your frequent visitors, will get annoyed and finally stop visiting your site at all, they might even wonder if you had an accident. Don’t let this happen. Choose a frequency before you start with your blog. Daily, weekly or monthly, but stick more or less to this frequency. It also depends on the topic you’re writing about. If it is a totally specific science topic, there might not be enough “meat” to post even for a monthly frequency, but you will eventually find ways to avoid this, or just simply write about something personal, which always seems to keep people interested, blogs are often personal diaries, so posting something personal that might of interest for your visitors is always a good idea.

Eat your own Dogfood

I just love this expression, but it really does make sense, even in blogging terms, although it doesn’t directly has something to do with Search Engine Optimization. What it means in respect to blogging is, that you should write about stuff that’s useful and is also interesting to yourself, not only other people who read your blog. It perfectly serves as an archive since most blogging platforms let you search for article headers and content. This way you will also find out more about the quality of your own blogging style which certainly helps you to improve your blogging skills. Your readers will appreciate it.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much I enjoyed writing it. If you have any comments or suggestions, just send them! I would also love to hear about your past experiences you had with SEO and what your tips are.

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3 comments

    RaymonWazerri April 20th, 2007

    Hey,
    I love what you’e doing!
    Don’t ever change and best of luck.

    Raymon W.

    Martin April 21st, 2007

    Thanks Raymon W., appreciate it a lot! Hope you’re enjoying the rest of the site as well.

    JoeyBurns August 31st, 2007

    Wow, there is some really nice info here.
    I’ll definitely come back soon to see everything.
    Way to go! ;-)

    Joey

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