Blogging For Web Site Promotion
Web Site Promotion For The Small Business v2
November 12, 2007
Sometimes, you just run out of ideas for your blog, or, you get too busy with other things and don't have time to blog. Other times, you find great information on other sites that you want to present to your readers. The latter is now…
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Blog Tips for SEO
(Article republished from, and with the permission of www.small-business-software.net)
By Sharon Housley
Blogs are the current rage, and many webmasters
have blogs but fail to use their blog to it's full potential.
Blogs provide a steady stream of fresh content, and if this
content is written and managed properly, blogs have the
ability to increase a website's ranking in the search engines.
1. Host Your Own Blog
In order to prosper from a blog, be sure to host it
on your own domain. Hosting the blog on your own server
will maximize the links to your website. Link popularity
is one of the factors search engines use to rank websites.
Resist the urge to use free hosting services, do not give
away your link popularity!
2. RSS Feeds
All blogs should have an RSS feed. An RSS feed will
allow for your blog posts to be easily syndicated. The syndication
will result in links back to your blog from RSS directories
or others who display the feed. Blog entries should be available
via an RSS feed. Website visitors who subscribe to the feed
will receive notification when new blog posts are added.
If the title is of interest, they will click through to
your website. This gives subscribers an easy way to know
when a blog has been updated.
3. Use White Space
Be sure to make your content scannable. Few website
visitors actually read blog posts; most web visitors simply
scan a blog entry to determine its relevance or point. With
that in mind, the blog posts should be displayed in short
paragraphs. Overly long posts should be segmented into concise
paragraphs or broken into bulleted lists to make scanning
easier. Avoid the urge to “clutter” the post.
4. Titles Matter
You only have seconds to grab the attention of scanners
browsing your blog. Use keywords and catchy titles to draw
readers in. Blog post titles can be bolded for emphasis
and white space should be used to buffer the content.
5. Grammar Matters
You will be judged by your knowledge and use of the
English language. Search engines will make note of blog
entries that lack proper punctuation or capitalization.
If a blog post does not respect the rules of grammar and
punctuation, it is possible search engines will make the
assumption that a bot cobbled together the posts leading
to a potential ban.
6. Legibility
As with any web design select fonts carefully, do not
use micro or macro-fonts. Colors should be web safe, making
it easy to discern and read. The background and background
color should not obscure the text.
7. Navigate
Give readers somewhere to go, include links to additional
information resources or extended information in the blog
post. Including links in the actual blog post will ensure
back links should the RSS feed be syndicated.
8. Communicate
If you create a post about someone, let them know, they
might surprise you and link back or they might blog about
your blog post, essentially creating a virtual dialogs.
This is an easy way to build link popularity. Be warned
however, simply mentioning a popular blogger on a blog will
rarely result in a link back, the content of the blog post
must “grab” their interest.
9. Incorporate SEO
Blog posts should be written as you would write a web
copy. Posts should be natural and make sense while still
incorporating keywords and keyword phrases that relate to
the content.
10. Speed Matters
Web pages that are slow to load will frustrate users,
be sure to use reliable web hosting. Compress graphics to
maximize load time.
Use your blog to help your website attract
traffic. Attention to search engine optimization details
could mean the difference between popular and unpopular.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and
podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll
http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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This article may be used freely in opt-in
publications and websites, provided that the resource box
is included and the links are active. A courtesy copy of
the issue or a link to any online posting would be greatly
appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
.
Additional articles available for publication available
at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
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© Copyright 2009, John A. Simpson. All Rights Reserved.
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