Manage Subscriptions · Subscribe Now · F.A.Q.'s
HOME · Saturday, May 17, 2008
Search Engine Optimization
SEO: Blogging Your Way To The Top
Lift your site from the Google sandbox
By: Stephan Spencer
Comments: 2
Search engines, Google in particular, seem to love blogs. This is in part due to the fact that search engines rely heavily on links for their ranking algorithms, and the blogosphere is rich with interlinkages. Bloggers constantly link to each other - through "hat tips," "blogrolls," "trackbacks," and so forth. Furthermore, blogs tend to be heavy on content and light on search-engine-unfriendly features like overly complex URLs, frames, JavaScript-based links and Flash. I?ve seen new blogs quickly penetrate Google?s top results where a brandnew, traditional website might have languished in the "Google sandbox" for a number of months with very poor visibility.
Blogs may be search-engine friendly out-of-the-box, but you can?t rest on your laurels. Proactively optimize your blog using the following powerful tactics.
Title Tags
From a search-engine-optimization perspective, the title tag is the most important thing on the page. The best title tag is one that leads with the targeted keywords, not the name of the blog. Customize the title tag of your home page with good keywords, making sure they appear in the body copy, too.
Rewritten URLs
Dynamic URLs can impede search-engine spiders from fully spidering and indexing your blog. Instead, use "rewritten" URLs. The excellent (and free) blogging software WordPress supports URL rewriting. Also, WordPress URLs contain hyphens rather than underscores (underscores are not considered to be word separators by Google).
If switching blog platforms, it?s imperative that the old permalink URLs still work; you wouldn?t want to lose all that link gain from deep links into specific post pages in your blog.
Tags
Tag clouds and tag pages are a blogger?s secret weapon. A tagging plugin, like Ultimate Tag Warrior (neato.co.nz/ultimatetag- warrior) for WordPress, creates internal navigation based on tags and, once installed, will allow you to target new search terms by simply adding relevant keywords to the tag field in your post. Make sure the tag name is mentioned at the beginning of the title tag and in the body copy.
Related Posts
Most blogs are over-reliant on chronological archives, which tell the search engines to weight your recent posts more heavily. But an old post may be really well optimized and targeting a very important keyword. A related-posts feature on your blog creates more interconnections between blog posts and passes around more link gain.
Popular Posts
Take your very best-ever posts and compile a Top 10 Posts list to pass link gain from your blog?s home page directly to these posts so you will rank well in the search engines. Target those with your most important keywords. Or simply use a plugin like Popularity Contest for WordPress to create top 10 lists for you.
Anchor Text
Link to the blog post?s permalink URL from the post?s title to provide much better (contextual) anchor text. When writing blog posts, refer to and link to previous posts or other related content of yours (including products in your online catalog), with relevant targeted keywords in the anchor text (no "click here" links).
"Sticky"Posts
A "sticky" post that always appears at the top regardless of the date/time posted is an easy way to improve the keyword prominence on a category page or tag page. Having keyword-rich introduction copy that consistently appears at the top of these pages will help you maintain a stable keyword theme when old posts drop off and new ones appear.
Heading Tags
Heading tags (H1 through to H6) are given more weight by search engines than regular body copy. Use them wisely to reinforce the page?s overall keyword theme. The posting date should never be within an H1 tag; instead, wrap an H1 tag around your category name or tag name on your category page or tag page respectively.
Emphasis
Bold, strong or emphasis tags within the body copy of your blog posts will help identify to search engines which words/phrases should be given more weight.
Author Pages and Links
If you have a group blog, your authors will appreciate a link (with anchor that they specify) to each of their websites on your blog?s home page in the sidebar rather than the footer. Also provide each author with a profile page hosted on your blog, complete with a biographical statement, recent posts they?ve written, and a link to their site. WordPress supports this capability through the author.php theme file.
Blinklist | Del.icio.us | Furl | Ma.gnolia | Newsvine | Spurl | Reddit | Technorati
Published on Saturday, July 01, 2006
Comments:
Great article. I'm researching corporate blogging but with a focus on providing a resource. providing useful information even if it leads prospective client to my competitors. kind of like the movie "miracle on 34th street" where macy's finds toys for its christmas shoppers; no matter which store they send you too. thus becoming a resource rather than slanted and self-serving. thanks again.
Posted by: mr oh
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Ecommerce Articles
- Browse All Articles
- Browse our complete archive of ecommerce articles.
- Accounting, Management & Legal
- Ecommerce articles related to managing a small business including ecommerce accounting, business strategy and legal considerations.
- Conversion & Usability
- Online business articles about converting web site visitors into customers and how to gauge and improve your business website's usability.
- Development & Programming
- Articles to help designers, developers and programmers create successful, search engine friendly ecommerce websites and improve existing ones.
- Hosting, Infrastructure & Software
- Articles for ecommerce businesses about ecommerce web hosting, business infrastructure, business strategy and helpful ecommerce & small business software.
- Interviews & Profiles
- Interviews with prominent ecommerce business personalities and profiles of successful online businesses.
- Inventory & Shipping
- Ecommerce articles about inventory management, ecommerce order fulfillment and product shipping considerations.
- Marketing & Revenue Growth
- Articles relating to online marketing, email marketing and using the Internet to growing your business.
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search engine optimization articles for ecommerce business owners, strategists, marketers and developers.
- Shopping Carts & Online Payments
- Articles covering ecommerce shopping cart platforms and options for choosing an online payment gateway.
- Training & Education
- Tutorials and articles providing training and education for ecommerce business owners and developers of ecommerce websites.
Search Articles
Ecommerce Community
- Ecommerce Blogs
- Read our blogs about ecommerce topics written by industry professionals.
- Community Forum
- Connect with other ecommerce professionals to trade advice and answers in our community forum.
- Podcasts
- Check out our ecommerce podcasts covering topics ranging from interviews to tutorials.
- RSS Content Feeds
- Subscribe to our RSS feeds and have fresh ecommerce content delivered to you.
Ecommerce Resources
- Free Email Newsletter
- Sign up for Ecommerce Notes, our free email newsletter for ecommerce business owners and developers.
- Ecommerce Directory
- Browse our directory of ecommerce products and services, or submit your own listing in our directory.
- Ecommerce Glossary
- Familiarize yourself with terminology or submit terms to help others with our Ecommerce Glossary.
- Events Calendar
- Find out about upcoming ecommerce events or invite other ecommerce professionals by posting your own event.
- Press Releases
- Browse ecommerce related press releases and post your own press release for distribution.
- Ecommerce Store & Back Issues
- Pick up back issues of Practical eCommerce magazine along with other merchandise from Practical Ecommerce
About Practical eCommerce
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Look at frequently asked questions regarded using our website, subscribing to our magazine and more.
- Advertising Information
- Information about advertising in Practical eCommerce magazine, on our website, or in our email newsletters.
- Editorial Sharing
- Learn about options for sharing our content with your visitors, customers or employees.
- About Us
- Learn more about Practical Ecommerce magazine and meet our staff.
- Contact Us
- Contact Practical Ecommerce at any time for more information. We'd love to hear from you.
Copyright 2007 Confluence Distribution, Inc. and Practical eCommerce.
All Rights Reserved.
Thanks! I've recently started blogging to support my UK Office Chairs' business. This article has given me some very useful tips.
Posted by: Chellgrove
Tuesday, January 08, 2008