Blogging has emerged as an important marketing tool in the business arena. Bloggers have loyal readers who are looking to connect with other people in this crazy, busy life of the 21st century. A blog is only good, though, if it reaches a wide audience. Luckily, with a little SEO, your blog can start getting the exposure it deserves.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, has emerged as a necessary tool to getting search bots like Google to index your site and list it in their search results. Blogs are a natural fit with search engine bots as they are text-rich, link-rich, frequently updated sites. But it doesn’t just end with getting your blog indexed, most users never make it past the first page or two of search results; getting your site ranked higher in results will go a long way in generating traffic to your blog. With a few tips and techniques, getting your blog indexed with high rankings can happen in no time.
1. Stay Focused. The most important thing you can do to get your blog indexed is to keep the content focused and direct. Spiders are drawn to sites that have a clear message; this means you need to use some SEO keywords. Using content rich words can be a fine line for any blogger. The entry must contain enough keywords to draw the spiders, yet still be natural for the reader base; keyword rich entries can become spammy. For this reason, always focus on your readers first. Write your entry naturally, then on the re-read modify it here and there, adding a few keywords to attract search engine spiders.
2. Title Thoughtfully. It is important to choose a great title for your blog. It should be very relevant to the focus of your blog, but also draw the reader’s eye. This is often the first thing a reader will see on your site; it needs to hook them and cause them to go to your page and not to your competition’s. The best titles are ones that contain no more than 10-12 words; think of the title as ad copy, short, sweet and relevant. Also, give each page of your website its own title instead of using one title for the entire website.
3. Meta-Tag It. Meta tags are just as important as the title of your site and need to be thought through carefully. The description-tag is the second thing a user will see on the search engine results page beneath your title. Some things to keep in mind: give each page of your website its own description and keep it keyword rich; this can go a long way to increasing traffic to your site. The description-tag should contain no more than 25-30 words.
4. Decorating. Headlines and text decoration are another easy way to get spidered. Search engines give more relevancy to headlines between <h1></h1> and <h3></h3> tags, with <h1> being the most relevant; also good for SEO is marking important text with bold and italic characters.
5. Link it. A great way to generate traffic and search bots is by the use of links. To draw bots to your site create a few links with relevant keywords throughout each entry of your blog. The other way to generate traffic is through backlinking. This can be done either by submitting your blog to directories, or by connecting with other bloggers. The blogging network has become huge because bloggers connect with each other; search out blogs similar to yours and post legitimate comments to their entries. Most bloggers like to exchange links, thereby creating richly interlinked networks that are very spider friendly.
6. Update. The last and most important thing to generate and maintain traffic to your site is by updating often. Search engine spiders like fresh content so give it to them! You’ll have top rankings and a loyal reader base in no time.
