25 Tips To Optimize Your Blog

25 Tips To Optimize Your Blog

Everyone and their dog (yes, there are a few dogs out there with their own blogs) have started up a blog these days, but many people just aren’t taking the steps needed to optimize their blogs for both readers and search engines. While blogs can be business related (another blog about mesothelioma anyone?) they can also be personal where you talk about the great ham sandwich you had for lunch today or the crappy service you had at that trendy restaurant last night.
But whether your blog is business or personal, you should ensure that you are optimizing your blog for both your readers (after all, you want to keep those readers coming back) and the search engines. Unfortunately, optimization is an important step that far too many blogs seem to be skipping over, even those that have a broad appeal to surfers and have the potential to be monetizable.
However, optimizing a blog is a bit different than your standard website search engine optimization (SEO), particularly because most blogs run off standard blog platforms, or worse, run as a hosted blog on someone else’s domain name. And there are design issues that can be unique to blogs which can impact your rankings.

Let’s face it, when you commission a styling’ new blog template, most blog designers focus on making your blog look the way you want it to. But unfortunately for bloggers, not very many of those great blog designers are also SEOs by trade, meaning that the blog design you use could actually be hurting your search engine rankings. While you may have a great design that looks wonderful to readers, new readers might not find you if your blog isn’t ranking well organically in the search engines.
Also, when you optimize your blog for the user experience, you make it easy for users to return and engage in your blog without dealing with any of the hassles that can cause them to abandon other sites or blog entries. Repeat visitors are the cream of your blog, so by following these tips you have given them the tools they need to return as well as the user experience that makes them want to come back.
Fortunately, if you are on the case to make your blog rank well while not hindering your visitor’s experience on your site, there are definitely things you can check – and fix – to prevent any indexing issues from occurring, and ensuring your blog a happy and healthy existence in the search engines.
So here is advice on how you can optimize that blog of yours for both users and search engines without alienating one or the other.

How to Get Your Site a Top Ranking in Google

It's the new American dream. Your website appears in a top spot on Google for your chosen keyword. Next thing you know, orders start coming in faster than you can handle, and you are rolling in the money. If only it were so easy, right?

Well,

It can be done. I've done it many times in many different industries. There is no secret, but rather, it's just knowing what to do. I've made just about every mistake one can make with a website, but I learned from every setback. If you were only allowed to do one thing to get ranked for your site in Google, without a doubt, all you'd need to do is get links for your site.

Yes, there are many other factors involved in getting your site to a top position. But this is the most powerful way as of this writing to get a top spot in Google. It's not just enough to have links pointing to your site, but you need to have your keyword "anchor linked" to your site. Anchor linking is when you use your keyword phrase as the click-able text for a link. So, instead of saying "Click Here", you would use "Widgets" as the link text.

Now, another point of consideration is determining what keyword/phrase you want to use to get your site found. Most times, people impulsively choose a one word phrase. While this would be a great way to bring traffic to your site, would it bring targeted traffic, with people looking specifically for your product or service? Most times when people type in a one letter keyphrase, they are in the beginning of their search.

They may type in "Shoes", but are really looking for "Running Shoes". So, if you have a top ranking for shoes, do you serve that user's needs? Maybe, but they may also be looking for dress, casual, Women's, Men's, Children's, athletic, girl's, boy's, etc. This is why when you begin to optimize your site, you should focus on more targeted keyword phrases.

Suppose you sell a certain brand name of dress shoes. For this example, we'll call the famous brand XYZ. So, by getting anchor links as "XYZ Dress Shoes", you are already eliminating those users who are looking for another brand or line of shoe. Next, you need to make sure that the page that gets linked contains the on the page content with "XYZ Dress Shoes". If you would link to a page without relevant content, Google would view this link as possible spam, or more appropriately, irrelevant content.

Now, once you have compiled your list of keywords, you need to see which one are searched on the most. The best tool for this is WordTracker, and it is worth the tiny fee you need to pay to have access for one day. There are also free tools online that you can use, but WordTracker will give you the most accurate results.

Once you have run through your list of all your keywords, the obvious choice is to pick the ones with the highest amount of searches (and content relevant to your site!). The next step is to then begin the process of a link campaign. Now, I can already hear you complaining about doing a link exchange. This is only 1/3 of your campaign. The ideal method is to not only engage in a reciprocal link exchange, but to also engage in strategic linking.

Strategic linking is when you get a link to your site without having to return the favor. What's the best way to do this? Write an article just like this one. If I get one website to use this article and have it point to my site, I've just created another link to my site. Pretty easy, eh?

Since you have now engaged in a linking campaign, you should expect to see results in Google in as little as 4 days, and as far as 6 months. All of this is determined by where your links are coming from, and the popularity of the site from which the link came. Next, you need to get as many links as you can pointing to your site with your popular keyword phrase anchor linked to your site.

As I mentioned before, there many other factors that will only enhance your rankings in Google, but the implementation of a link campaign is the strongest method to get your site to a top ranking!

 

copy from: All About SEO Tips

Why Choosing a Blog Niche Might Not Be a Good Idea

There are a few pieces of advice that tend to come as standard when you look for help with blogging. “Write compelling content”, “network in your niche”, and “stay consistent” are probably the most common words of wisdom you’ll receive. “Pick the right niche” ranks right up there with them as well.
Choosing the right niche, in the case of blogging, usually just means that you should pick a topic you’re passionate about, which also happens to have a large audience. It’s advice I’ve given myself throughout the years and I still see it on many blogs today.
Yet, I just don’t think it’s relevant anymore.
After more than 15 coaching calls in the last month, I had the realisation that this advice just isn’t helping people, especially with 10 of those calls involving my client stressing out about which industry they should be blogging in.
“Should I define myself as a blog on Lifestyle design or Personal Development?” and “Will people know what I mean by Creative Marketing?” were just some of the related queries that I received.
I instantly replied with “Don’t worry about it” which not only helped bring these people some relief, but also touched upon something that I think everyone should think about. In my opinion, choosing your blog niche – in most cases – just doesn’t really matter anymore.

Defining yourself is a waste of time

I used to run a blog which covered my journey of going from college dropout and leaving England at 18 to working for a big marketing agency in Cape Town where I didn’t know one single person. It was a site that not only grew to thousands of subscribers very quickly, but a site where I worked very hard to define what it was about.
I wanted everyone to know that my blog covered the topic of personal development. Yet, the only place I actually mentioned personal development was in the title tag (to increase search engine rankings for that phrase). The sites’ name, PluginID, didn’t really give much away, and neither did the “Plug into your identity” tagline.
Looking back, my focus on just writing about “personal development” actually hindered me in a number of ways.
The first way being that defining myself was a total waste of time, and probably is for you too. There are simply far more important important aspects to blogging which should be occupying your attention. The most important thing you can do is get the essentials out of the way and then just start writing.
A blog is nothing without its content.
Whether you define yourself as a personal finance blog or a financial advice blog doesn’t really matter. It only matters if you would change your content based on that definition. Nobody is going to look at your blog and think it’s about health if all you write about is money.
Your content is going to show what your site is about; you don’t have to stress about defining it.
Thankfully, there is…

A much better alternative

I can’t write an article which takes out one of the most recommended fundamentals of blogging and not replace it with what I believe is a far superior alternative. Instead of stressing about which direction you’re going to take your blog and the angle of your content, just simply ask yourself “in which way do I want to help my audience?”
That’s it.
Do you want to entertain people?
Do you want to give them the latest news?
Do you want to help them make more money?
Do you want them to become better copywriters?
I can’t answer this question for you, but it should be pretty easy for you. After all, your blog wouldn’t be much without an audience. What do you want to provide for them?
With this one question, you can accomplish a number of things a lot easier.

Content

No longer do you have to worry about whether a certain article fits under the category of ‘personal development’ or whether you’re writing something that your audience doesn’t care about. You simply focus on whether the information you’re providing helps you help your audience.
My aim with ViperChill is to give people the best advice I can about internet marketing and building remarkable websites. I don’t stress if a topic choice is going to be relevant to my readers because I’m always publishing content with that aim so the majority of the time, it just naturally will be.
This question gives you more content ideas, helps you decide if an idea is right for your audience and allows you to twist content ideas from other industries and make them more relevant to your readers.

Audience

Another reason people worry about which blog niche they choose is because they want to make sure they’re attracting – and keeping – the right website visitors. The great thing about this question is that it allows you to build an audience that is laser-targeted.
And as most of you know, a laser targeted audience is exactly what you want if you ever come to monetise your website. Although there are other factors besides what you write about that attract a readership – such as your content length and post frequency – it’s still the biggest factor in growing a blog which can make you money.

Value

The only reason people ever read a blog is because of the value that it provides. That value can be in one of hundreds of forms, but it always exists. For instance, the value I receive from Daily Blog Tips is information which helps me become a better writer, which in-turn helps me to grow my business.
Another blog I love, TechCrunch, provides me not only with boredom relief when I’m not sure what to work on next but also information on the newest social media sites I may be able to utilise. Knowing how you can help people through your site is the exact value that you’re providing to them.
As long as you continue to put out content that is inline with your aim, then you’re constantly giving your audience what they want. That’s true providing true value.
If you’re still not convinced, answer me this: Is it easier for you to tell me how you want to help people, or easier to tell me which category your blog fits under?

copy from: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/choosing-a-blog-niche/

Tips To Increase Blog Trafffic

* Track blog and leave comments on them. A good way to keep the conversation is to install a MyBlogLog widget and visit the blogs of people who visit your site. 

* Nothing creates long-term traffic more than value. Consider writing posts with resources or explaining how things work. The things that have links to useful and they rose to del.icio.us, a much better long term than the front page of digg. 

* Inform search engines and aggregators like Technorati (using the ping functionality) when your blog is updated, this should ensure maximum traffic coming from these sources. (check list Pinging Service) 

* 

Simplify. Taking into account the complex issues in your work. This may be a big long publication that is difficult to cross through or a concept that is difficult to understand. Reference and made shorter "for dummies" version of your own lessons and tips that are relevant. When doing this, I was surprised to find that the simplified post will appear before a more complex version in search results. Perhaps this is why the results in increased traffic; people looking for help or clarification on the subject will land on your blog. 

* Try to be polemic. Writing obsessive about all-things political from the left-wing perspective in the form of humorous, sarcastic one sentence. 

* A simple tip which may increase page views: install a translator plugin. I decided to use this plugin to be paid, but if I'm not mistaken there are some free, too. Translation is not so good, as you can imagine, but it helps to attract readers who are not fluent in English. 

* Submit articles to blog carnivals (http://blogcarnival.com) related to your niche. Your article almost always get posted, and should generate some visitors, at least. 

* Newsgroups. I always see spikes when posting to the newsgroup reviews. 

* Creating a new design for your website. Not only will become more attractive to your regular readers, but you can send to some CSS gallery sites that feature great design. This will give you exposure on those sites while making a lot of traffic and backlinks from those types of sites. 

* Participate in the conversation on the blog related. Start conversations on your own blog. Do not just post about the story and stop there, involving the audience, asking questions and call to action. 

* Comments on the blog, write useful content and make good friends on the forum. 

* You must be active to generate traffic. Post comments on other blogs related to me, and I post my site link my signature on the forum. Spread the word about your blog and it certainly will attract readers. 

* Just browse around MyBlogLog.com and you will get visitors to your blog. Also try to join the community as much as possible related to your topic. 

* Tips to generate traffic is off-line by entering your url at all off-line liturature from business cards, letterhead, pamphlets, advertisements through in-store signage if applicable. I even have our web site at the vehicle. 

* Read a lot of other blogs. Leave a trackback. Make sure your blog is optimized for search engines. Leverage social bookmarking sites like digg (both for new ideas and for traffic). 

* Leave comments on other blogs. If you've read them, it takes only a few seconds to leave a message agree or disagree with the author, you must leave a link to your site, and you will almost ALWAYS get the last lintastraffic of your comment. 

* Post 3-5 times a day. Use ping services like wordpress Pingomatic or arrange to ping several ping services. Involve your readers. Install the polls, ask them questions, give them quizzes, free tools, etc. Make them want to come back and tell their friends about you. 

* Community. That one word, but the most important when it comes to blogging. The only "blog metric" that makes sense is the vibrant community of readers that. Building a community around your blog will bring you increased traffic, but how do you start? A boilerplate response to building traffic is always "SEO, social networking sites, and commenting on blogs" but can be simplified to "be part of a community". The easiest way to seed your blog is a community that already exists. But the only way to do that is to be part of the community itself. 

* The lens Squidoo is a good way to generate traffic. By using the lens, you can generate your own custom "community" of web pages, including some of the more popular pages on "environment." Including your own web page as the list is a good way to produce traffic. 

* Write articles and send them to EzineArticles. This article has been written by well researched keyword phrases and accepted by EzineArticles tend to rank very high on Google for search. Placing anchor text in the footer of the articles so that readers can visit the relevant web sites I always improve my site traffic. 

* I found some unexpected traffic when my blog appear in some css design portals like www.cssmania.com and www.webcreme.com. If you can put some time into the back of the concept and design for your blog, I would recommend submitting your site to a design portal not only for additional traffic but to build an additional community on your site. 

* Engage in some "MySpace-like" community sites that focus on my target audience. I share his thoughts in the forums, post intros to my real blog on their system blog and I've even created a group for a particular niche. It's very, very successful for me. 

* Well, obviously everyone knows that social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, etc. bring lots of traffic. Send some of my articles to blogg-buzz.com (a digg like site for bloggers), and I always did not get the bad traffic from there. 

* Participate in Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers where you can show your expertise, can be associated with relevant keywords and put your URL out there. 

* Be the first to write a post about 'Top Ten Blogs' in your niche. Pos will rank high in any general search for blogs in your niche and other bloggers in your niche write about the post and link to halalaman. 

* Participating in the forum is a great way to get loyal readers. Good fishing links people in your signature or posting advice and great tips that will give you high quality traffic, which will result in return visitors. 

* A simple trick I've used to increase traffic to blogs are participating in a group writing project. 

* Do not forget your records. 

* Writing something controversial. it's good to write something controversial just for the purpose of getting traffi. 

* Find the best blogs in the niche and contact the author. Introduce yourself and send a link from your blog. This may help them to find your blog, read it and maybe link to it.