If RSS is the Yahoo backdoor,
is a Blog Google's? (Part 2)
By Tinu AbayomiPaul
Setting up Your Blog for the Best Chances to
Be Included in Google - and Your Best Bet For Staying In
Here are the top 8 items you need to be concerned
with to get your blog prepared to be recognized and listed well
by Google. The 8th item will clarify one of the most important
factors if you want to stay in.
1- The Location of Your Blog
Your blog is doing you the least amount of good
on someone else's server. If you have Blogger, you can change
from the blogspot version to have Blogger FTP your files to your
server for free.
2- The Links on Your Blog Template
By links, I don't mean what you link to when you
post. I am specifically referring to the links in your blog. If
you don't edit your blog template to include links to the main
part of your site, you're making a mistake. How is Google going
to find a link that isn't there?
Edit your chosen template to make sure there is
at least one link from your blog directory to the rest of your
site.
3 - The Frequency of Your Updates
A wise webmaster recently said that the best thing
you can do for your search engine efforts is to add a new page
to your site a day, and to make one change to your site a day.
Why is this such great advice?
Because Googlebot does not need to re-spider your
site if it never changes. It probably will - but I've noticed
the more there is a legitimate need for it to return, the more
likely it is that you'll get re-spidered.
Posting to a blog, or an RSS feed, and leaving
it to stagnate will bring you zero traffic. Furthermore, when
people see an abandoned piece of web real estate, they leave.
It's like tuning into a TV channel and seeing
"snow". Most people can't stand it for more than a few
seconds, and will either turn the channel, or turn the television
off.
There are even shorter attention spans online,
from both search engine robots and people. If you want either
to return, update constantly.
4 - The Right Keywords for Your Blog
When you're selecting keywords for your blog,
your best bet is to pick keywords that have a medium to high yield
and low competition.
The essential difference is this - would you rather
be ranked #107 for "internet marketing" and get no traffic,
or be ranked number one for "learn internet marketing"
and get a few hundred?
5 - The Placement of the Keywords on Your Blog
Here's where your primary keywords need to be
:
- in the title
- in the description
- in your post titles where applicable
- in the name of the links to individual posts
- in the text that links your posts
If you look at the front page of my blog, you'll
see the phrase "Free Traffic Tips" everywhere. And yet,
the pages don't sound ridiculous.
This is because I set up my blog so that every
page and every post utilizes these words. If you set up your blog
correctly, and get in certain habits when you post, you'll find
that your site will begin to rank for the term that best matches
your topic.
6 - The Length of Your Blog Posts
Always remember this. "Posts are paragraphs,
sentences are spam." Your posts should be at least two paragraphs.
If there is little to no content on a page, there's
no reason for it to be indexed unless it is the only page available
for that term.
The only time your post can be shorter than that,
and still be effective, is if you're linking to something else.
It won't always work out that you'll have several
paragraphs worth of content to discuss. But do your best to stay
above 90%.
7- The Frequency of Your Archives
Remember the wise webmaster's quote earlier? Well,
here's a question - if one new and updated page on your site is
good, do you think creating or updating three pages of your site
can be better?
It sure can.
Daily archiving makes a huge difference. If you
have this option, use it. If you don't switch. If you need more
room on your server, get some. It's worth it.
When you combine daily archiving and having individual
post pages, each time you post, your site generates a new page
for your post, updates the day's archive page (or creates it if
it's the first post of the day), and updates the index page of
your site.
Combine these date-stamped pages with real content
and you've got great spider bait.
8 - When, and Where You Are Linked
If you have Blogger, you'll want to make sure
your blog is listed as "public", so that it will appear
on Blogger's recently updated blogs pages whenever you make a
new post.
There is some speculation that this is what gets
your blog spidered so quickly by Google if you use Blogger to
post. And the answer is yes, if you are willing to wait about
48 hours, this will get you spidered.
Once.
And IF your site is indexed, it will probably
be dropped out the next day, if this is all you do. This has been
documented in public on other sites.
What hasn't been made public yet is that your
best bet for staying spidered is frequent and regular updates.
Let Google know that you're not trying to use
Blogger to spam its database. Provide useful content that updates
at regular intervals.
All these tips help you get ethical attention
from Google. You don't need to do anything dishonest or underhanded
to get your site spidered, or listed.
So, if your site fills a need that Google has
for sites, and you have a quality site, you can get listed.
With just these tips. you have enough to get a
good blog into Google.
It'll be up to you to stay in.
Can you really get spidered by the Googlebot in
less than 24 hours? Is there more you can do to get your blog
into shape for inclusion? What if you're using another blog system?
Find out more at http://www.freetraffictip.com/bizblogs
