Today I want to talk a bit about TRAFFIC and blogging. It's always been interesting to me that people frequently talk about creating a blog in order to drive traffic to your website...
yet that has always left me wondering where is the traffic TO your blog supposed to come from?
Of course, I understand that frequently updated content keeps your blog fresh and increases the chances that someone doing a search for a specific phrase in your area of expertise might find you, yet I thought it might be valuable to share with you some ways to optimize your blog so that the search engines give you a high listing when that search happens... the natural kind of searching by people looking to find out just the kind of information you can provide.You can find many books, big books, written on the topic and I won't be getting that in-depth but an overview might serve well.
How can SEO (Search Engine Optimization) help you get traffic?
As we've shared before, the goal of any website is to get targeted traffic. And that includes your blog. If your area of interest is pets, someone looking for information about quilting is simply not going to be part of the market you are looking to attract. The search engines role is to help the people looking for information about their pets find the sites about pets! Someone hot to find information or spend money on YOUR niche.
Stop and think about what your blog is about. Actually, what each post of your blog is about. You'll want to set up each post of your blog to be sure to let the search engines know exactly who to send you.
Where to start?
There are two factors that determine how much traffic the search engines will send you. First is the information you have on your own blog. Second is how many other websites and/or blogs are linking to your blog. Those are the two areas you'll want to work on in order to crawl up higher on the search engines for your niche.
On your blog and in each post be sure to use the keywords for your niche. If your blog is about "Marathon Walking" then be sure to use the term "Marathon Walking" as your title and in the body of your posts. Easy and obvious.
Your offsite goals are just as easy. Work on getting other people to link to your blog by writing articles, leaving comments on other subject-related blogs and include a link back to your blog, and even posting on forums.
KEYWORDS
Be sure to include your keywords or key phrases on your posts. You don't want to go overboard but you do want your page title to be very descriptive.
Bad SEO Title: "Why I'm Having a Crummy Day"
Better SEO Title: "The Effects of Acne on Self Esteem"
Assuming these posts were written with the same content, the search engines will understand the "Better SEO Title" more.
We've talked about this before yet I'll reiterate because keywords are so important whether blogging, creating websites, writing articles, building squidoo lenses, etc. There are tools you can use to find keywords that are being searched.
- Overture - A free resource that will give you ideas for keywords. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it's a good place to start. http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
- Wordtracker - Provides a tool that displays the number of people searching for a term, as well as the competition. Wordtracker offers a free trial so you can test their service. http://www.wordtracker.com
Where to include your keywords
Once you have an idea of which keywords you're using stay consistent. Come up with a title that includes your keyword/s and use that word or phrase at least once in your post.
Off-Site SEO
Search engine optimization is a two-part process so work on optimizing your blog content (on-site) and work on getting many incoming links (off-site).
Think about why the search engines consider incoming links to be important. When you find impressive information on a website or blog what do you do? You link to it. This is not only proven with articles and blogs but other types of websites too. If you find a free piece of software or a really inspirational video, you may mention it on your blog or website and include a link to that website or blog where your visitors can claim it.
That's what people naturally do. The search engines recognized this and realized that the more popular websites like CNN.com or ESPN.com are linked to quite frequently and naturally.
So... how can you "force" other sites to link to you? Of course, I don't recommend any illegal or spammy methods so here are some tried and true ways to get other sites to link to yours:
- Create quality sites with unique, informative and/or entertaining content. Visitors will be more open to linking to you if you have much to offer.
- Do something newsworthy and write a press release. Not only will you have incoming links from the press release distributors but you also stand a chance to get your story picked up by TV, radio and print newspapers.
- Become a columnist for another website. Contact websites or blog owners in your niche and offer to write a regular ongoing column for them -- even provide a weekly tip or idea. You'll get plenty of links - and build a networking relationship by doing so.
- Write and submit articles to article directories. You can even use a blog post, perhaps with a bit of re-working, as an article. Simply write an informative article and let others publish it with your Author Resource box at the end which includes your URL.
These are just a few ways you can increase the number of incoming links to your blog. With a little creativity and a bit of work you'll see more traffic coming through those links in the coming months.
And there you have some thoughts about drawing traffic to YOUR blog!
Have a fabulous weekend... I do appreciate you,
--Mary K
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EXPECT MIRACLES!
