Copyright © Eddie SanMarco
You write a blog religiously every day or so. You provide
informative, interesting content for your loyal readers. You've
even got a couple of affiliate links in there, too. But is this
enough to get great search engine results for your efforts?
Probably not. Sure, you'll get listed with the search engines
easily. But without a top twenty listing at one of the majors
(Google, Yahoo! or MSN), you won't have traffic, literally,
banging down your door.
In order to get better search engine results you need to make
sure you are using the right keywords (and know how to use
them), have links pointed your way and regularly check the
results of your hard work. Here's how.
Choosing Appropriate Keywords
Do you know what search terms your visitors are using to find
you? Most blogging sites give you the option of checking up to
see just how people found you. If you don't have this feature
available, hop over to
http://www.statcounter.com/ and install
their free service on your blog immediately.
Next, research those keywords. Visit Overture's free site
(
http://inventory.overture.com/) and type in the most generic
of the terms people are using to find your blog. You'll get a
list of related keywords used at a major search engine in the
past month. Although it is an oversimplification of the search
engine optimization process, try and stick to the more unusual
but natural-sounding keywords as your top picks.
Putting Keywords in the Right Places
Once you've picked a keyword that applies directly to your
blog, make sure to incorporate it into the following portions
of one complete blog posting:
# The title;
# The first sentence;
# Each header (if you have any);
# Once a paragraph; and
# The last sentence.
If you have any links to outside sources, use the same keyword
as your link text where possible. Also, for each blog posting,
try and pick a different (but related) keyword to use. Feel
free to reuse keywords every 30-45 postings.
Submitting to Directories
Your third step is to take these keyword optimized blog
postings and post them to the article and blog directories.
Most of the search engines determine the relevancy of your blog
by how many outside websites link directly to you; therefore,
posting your blog entries (with a link back to your site in
your resource blurb) is an easy and straightforward way of
doing so.
Checking Your Progress
It may take a couple of days to see any results, so try and
wait a week before you take a look at StatCounter. Have your
hits increased at all? Are there any new search engine
referrals?
To track your blog's ascent up the search engine rankings for
any given keyword, try Digital Point's free Keyword Tracker
Tool (
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/). It is an
excellent way of ensuring your blog positioning efforts are
paying off.
With all blog postings, content is key. Without useful,
interesting information that cannot be found elsewhere, your
visitors won't come back for more. Incorporate these simple
search engine optimization techniques into your blogging
practice however, and you'll both keep the visitors you already
have and dramatically increase your readership through high
ranking search engine placement in no time.
About The Author:
http://www.theblogmarket.com
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Psst!...Have you Heard the Buzz? 
