Search Engine Optimization For Blogs
Copyright © 2004 Priya
Shah
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. 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
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.
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."
Copyright © Priya Shah
Priya Shah is Editor of Naaree.com,
an online magazine for the new Indian woman, and CEO of
the blog
publishing firm, Connect10. Subscribe to her free Marketing
With Blogs email course.
This article may be reprinted as long as the
resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
