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Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog

Written by: Caroline Melberg

Article Overview: If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think.

Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog

If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think.

The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:

1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads with h2 or h3 tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website


Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text.

You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.

Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.

There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.

Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page.

The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.

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Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategy - Hi David, I agree about the Blogosphere. You have a smaller group that Blog, but do so on the premise that they think they should, but have never really considered the purpose of their Blog. Then I think there are a few SEO or Internet Marketing types that see Blogging as just another link building strategy. But the largest group of Bloggers, tend to be people who enjoy writing and discussing their topics of interest. Blogging is good for link building, but the true Blogger is a breed apart from the rest. They want to dialog, to debate, to have feedback and they are very willing to link to other worthwhile conversations that are relevant to their topic. I agree with you. These group of Bloggers obviously are passionate about their writing and together, they create huge conversation trails interactive and travel from Blog to Blog. But the evidence is clear with this group that loves what they write about. With comments enabled on a Blog and having a Blog tuned to a specific purpose you already have the evidence of original Social Media.
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Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategy - I wanted to share more on the topic of Blogging and creating your own original content that you enjoy writing about. Here's a real example. My wife started her own little Web site a few years ago. It's a very simple, home made Web site she built all on her own. She had sort of a hobby of going into Dollar stores, purchasing a few inexpensive items for a buck or two. Then she would create something completely new (usually home decor) out of what she bought (often with the same value of creating something that was worth up to $15 or $20) if you bought it in other stores, but only using material she bought at a dollar store. So on this little Web site, she starts writing about her creations and take pictures of them etc. A few years ago, someone from an AOL Money and Finance Blog (called Wallet Pop) invited her to Blog for AOL. Today, she write for both the US AOL Blog and the Canadian AOL Blog as well as she continues with her hobby and keeping up her own Web site. The other Bloggers at AOL have nick-named her, "The Dollar Store Diva" and she often writes about budget decorating. What amazes me is that with no SEO and just her original content, she attracts huge volumes of traffic. She has done radio shows in Toronto (and nearly went to the US to do breakfast television) and most people would be so amazed to see the traffic spike she gets from Blogging. But once again, she is just writing about the stuff she loves to write about. She is having fun with creativity and she now has a huge following of readers and subscribers.Others are decorating their homes with her ideas and their doing it with next to no budget. If someone is creating a Web site or a Blog, the best thing you can do is try something original on your own, but make it something that you love to write about.
Re: Looking For Business Blog Owners - I don't have a list with specific blogs but I have some suggestion on how you should search these blogs. I do this type of research but for another niche and I use: Google Blog Search, Technorati Blog Directory and Twitter search. Try to use specific key words. Good luck, I know it's not an easy job.
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