Dreamsubmitting BlogSome Blog

by: Caroline Melberg

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 or 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.

by: Peter Velikanov

If you are a Webmaster looking to break in on the benefits derived from link building then you are not alone. Thousands of webmasters just like you, each day, are attempting to establish a strong link building net for myriad reasons. Why? What is it about link building that has got webmasters scouring the Internet looking for a way to establish links with other, similar websites? The reasons and vast benefits of link building are described below:

• More Traffic to Your Website:

First, the biggest benefit from link building is, of course, and increase in your website traffic. When you agree to post a reciprocal link for another website with a similar theme, you will find that both you and the other website benefit from the transaction. For instance, if visitors stop into the website you link with and are looking for websites with a similar theme, the reciprocal link provided by the website you are linking with can bring traffic into your website. Clearly, the more links you have with various websites the better as it gets your website out there and noticed. In fact, you will find that as long as other websites exist you can benefit from reciprocal linking and traffic will be directed to your site from the links you have established.

• A Higher Search Engine Ranking for Your Website:

Search engines determine the popularity of your site based on a number of factors, including how many links are directed to your website. The more links pointing to your website on the web, the higher your search engine ranking is. Thus, it really pays to establish a link building system in which you can create reciprocal links to other websites that share commonalities with your website as, not only do you improve your website traffic, but you also improve your search engine ranking.

• An Increase in the Informative Nature of Your Website

If you are creating a website that you want to be informative for viewers, then you will definitely want to add links to your site. Adding links to your site suggests your familiarity with the other websites on the Internet that address the same topics as you do. Plus, for those individuals that are interested in your website and don’t know where to look for similar websites, you afford them the convenience of easily finding such sites—a convenience that the visitor is sure to remember.

• Linking Increases the Credibility of Your Website

If you apply and successfully place reciprocal links to other websites, the credibility of your site immediately increases. Why? Due to the fact that other, reputable websites are linking to you, your site’s credibility increases because visitors realize that other webmasters deem you a credible source on the Internet. Finally, credibility goes a long way in many Internet communities—people will begin to revere you as an expert and you will be able to reap the rewards afforded to you through your increased popularity and web traffic.

• Establish Connections within the Internet Community

By engaging in Link building, you can increase the number of people you reach. Link building, in and of itself, is a form of free advertising—for every link you establish; you establish the possibility of reaching a new web audience. In essence, the more people you reach, the more traffic you are able to draw to your website. Plus, while you are meeting new people with similar interests, you can become a serious member of the Internet community. Finally, in becoming a member of the Internet community, you will also increase your credibility.

• Suggest an Affiliation with other Websites

Even if you are not affiliated with a website, if such websites decide to link to you, you have created the suggestion that you are affiliated with such sites. Visitors will find that credible websites have supplied links to your website and they will believe that you have some kind of affiliation with the site linking to you—an illusion yes, but a powerful one indeed—one that increases your credibility on the Internet, as well as your ability to be recognized.

Submitting a site to relevant directories can help you get that link building campaign underway. There is no time like the present to get your link campaign started—the sooner you start establishing links from other sites, the sooner you can reap all the benefits from link building.

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