Search Engine Optimization for Blogs

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs

Whether it’s a accumulated blog, a news-type blog, or even a claimed blog, optimizing your blog for the seek engines is a must. There are some simple changes that you can accomplish to WordPress and Moveable Type that will accomplish your blog added seek engine affable and accomplish the seek engines beg for added (more column and content, that is!).

Optimizing a blog is just like optimizing any added website. The agreeable and pages (posts) accept to be unique, they accept to be seek engine friendly, and it needs links from added websites. If it’s a new blog, again you aboriginal charge to accomplish abiding the blog software you’re application is set up so that it takes advantage of all of the accessible enhancement features. Then, advertise it to the world, plan on accepting some links to it, and alpha authoritative posts.

WordPress Optimization

If you’re application WordPress for your blog software, it’s important to accomplish abiding that your website is seek engine friendly, acceptation that it can calmly be spidered by the seek engine spiders. Just like optimizing a website, it’s important to accept acceptable appellation tags and meta tags. Keep in apperception that blog software usually uses the appellation of your column as the appellation tag, so cover keywords in your titles as abundant as possible. It’s important to set up your blog’s software so that the URLs don’t accommodate a lot of variables. Instead, use URLs that cover the column appellation or column name in them. For example, if you’re application WordPress you’ll charge to set the permalinks so that it uses %postname% in the URL. You can aswell set up a specific class for the column archives, and you ability accede application a keyword that’s accompanying to your blog instead of the default, which is about the chat “archive”. Fintan Darragh of www.dech.co.uk has a abundant blog column alleged “Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips” (http://www.dech.co.uk/2005/11/ultimate-WordPress-seo-tips/). Mr. Darragh talks about permalink enhancement and says, “The goal: stick added keywords up into the URL and abolish the faff which cipher uses, to accomplish the URL seek engine and humans attractive. Accepting keywords in your URL is an complete must, abnormally if it’s as simple as WordPress makes it.” He aswell goes on to allocution about accepting rid of abortive tags like the month, day, and year, as able-bodied as one important detail: whatever you do stick with the website anatomy you choose—otherwise you ability end up with a lot of abortive links to your site. Added tips that Mr. Darragh mentions are optimizing your page titles and your column titles--and installing a few plugins that are advantageous such as the “Related Posts Plugin” and the “Technorati Tag Generator”.

There are several added places area you can get specific tips about ambience up WordPress in a seek engine affable manner, including: * SEO at Aleeya Dot Net - http://www.aleeya.net/category/WordPress/seo/

* The Best WordPress SEO Accessible - http://WordPress.org/support/topic/49168

* Seek Engine Enhancement for WordPress - http://codex.WordPress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_WordPress

* Seek Engine Enhancement for Blogs - http://www.blog-maniac.com/blog-seo.htm

* DYI Seek Engine Enhancement - http://lorelle.WordPress.com/2006/01/15/dyi-search-engine-optimization/ One of the best tutorials out there is one alleged “DYI Seek Engine Optimization” by Lorelle VanFossen. Specifically, Lorelle (lorelle.WordPress.com) has some abundant tips, including how to optimize your code, advance able intrasite links, address with able keyword usage, use categories and tags, and how to use ping services. Lorelle says that “the ambition is to advice seek engine crawlers move through your website accession advice to be stored in the seek engine’s database. The key to your blog’s abstracts authoritative it auspiciously into a seek engine’s database is to: 1) Accomplish abiding there are no alley blocks in the aisle of a seek engine crawler.

2) Accomplish abiding the crawler can move through your blog, analytical all your web pages.

3) Accommodate able keywords and key phrases which acutely advice assort your content.

4) Accommodate acutely labeled tags and categories accustomed by tagging account crawlers and abounding seek engines today.

5) Yield advantage of pinging services.” There are several WordPress Plugins accessible that will advice you yield advantage of centralized bond (like the Accompanying Posts Plugin) which will hotlink to added posts in your blog that are on the aforementioned topic.

Other plugins that ability be accessible are plugins that automatically accomplish a Google Sitemap book as able-bodied as plugins that advice you assort the website such as the WordPress Subdomain Plugin (http://www.webguerrilla.com/WordPress-subdomain-plugin/).

Movable Type Optimization

If you’re application Movable Type for your blog software, again it’s aswell important to accomplish abiding that your website is seek engine affable and can be spidered by the seek engine spiders. Just like optimizing a website, it’s important to accept acceptable appellation tags and meta tags. Keep in apperception that blog software usually uses the appellation of your column as the appellation tag, so cover keywords in your titles as abundant as possible. Miles Evans (http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20060310Movable TypeSEO.html) says that “Movable Type is optimized absolutely able-bodied out of the box, but there are a few quick tricks to calmly accouterment the spiders with some activating content.” He goes on to say that you charge to optimize your template. “For my capital home page and class base pages I hardcode a lot of of my meta data. Your meta tags will be at the top of the arrangement aural the tag. You can get adorned on your base pages but I cannot absolutely see why. Optimize these two templates by duke for whatever keywords you are targeting website wide.” Mr. Evans aswell has addition commodity titled, “Best Movable Type Plugins” (http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20060310BestMovable TypePlugins.html) that talks about his admired plugins that advice him get abundant seek engine rankings. His admired Movable Type Plugins for SEO are Dashify, MTPaginate, MT Blogroll, MT InlineEditor, MT-Textile, BigPAPI, as able-bodied as Ajaxify (a set of plugins that adds several ajax/javascript widgets into the Movable Type interface), CheckLinks, FormatList v1.0, and Better Book Uploader for uploading files. Nicholas Carvan (http://www.nicholascaravan.com) has a abundant commodity about Movable Type enhancement alleged “Optimizing your Movable Type blog for Google” (http://www.nicholascarvan.com/blog/optimizing_your_Movable Type_blog_for_google.html). In it he talks about PageRank (and how it relates to your centralized bond on your blog), accepting keywords in your URL (which is important for all blog optimization) and blogrolling. He defines the appellation blogrolling actual well, saying, “Blogrolling: Inbound links are gold, but in Google's eyes, not all links are equal. In particular, Google isn't agrarian about links independent aural JavaScript - allegedly they can base them, but that doesn't beggarly they consistently ambition to.”

Once you’ve set up and configured your blog’s software, it’s important to accomplish abiding that you leave it alone—if you change your page URLs again any links that you’ve accustomed from added bloggers may not be accurate anymore. If you charge to change your site’s anatomy (perhaps you’ve been blogging already and ambition to use the tips from this commodity to optimize your blog), again you ability ambition to yield a attending at the Objection Redirection WordPress Plugin(http://WordPress-plugins.biggnuts.com/objection-redirection-WordPress-plugin/) if you’re application WordPress. The Objection Redirection Plugin gives you a simple interface to alter users (and seek engine bots) to the able page, abnormally if you’ve afflicted your site’s structure.

Start Blogging

The best affair you can do is to alpha blogging. Go advanced and column to your heart’s agreeable and write, write, address about your topic. The added agreeable you can accommodate the better—and it seems as if abacus agreeable on a approved base absolutely helps, as well. Feel chargeless to hotlink out to added blog posts that are accompanying to the affair you’re autograph about. For example, afore you broadcast a post, go on over to your admired blog seek engine and acquisition addition contempo column on the aforementioned subject—and hotlink to the post. Bond out to added bloggers will get their attention, and hopefully they’ll end up bond to you as well. If added bloggers accept trackbacks angry on again their blog will hotlink aback to your post. Some trackbacks are moderated, so it ability yield some time afore your hotlink shows up on the added blog. And some bloggers accept trackbacks angry off, so a hotlink aback to your website ability yield some chiral intervention. Assort your posts as abundant as possible, and feel chargeless to add categories as you blog—it will advice the centralized bond anatomy of your site, and advice the seek engines and users acquisition on-topic posts.

Promoting Your Blog

Whenever you accomplish a column in your blog, your blog software will attack to ping assertive sites to let them apperceive that you just adapted your blog. There are abounding blog ping casework out there, including Ping-O-Matic and Pingoat. Your blog software can be configured to ping sites automatically, and I’ve acquaint a account for WordPress of ping casework on by blog (http://www.corporatewebsitemarketing.info/cwm/WordPress-ping-list). If your blog is new or you would like to get some added links, you can abide your blog to blog directories as able-bodied as added sites that will account your blog (don’t overlook to abide to DMOZ.org, Yahoo! Directory, and the Best of the Web Blog Directory). About.com has a abundant commodity about announcement a blog (http://weblogs.about.com/cs/blogpromotions/a/promoteblog.htm) and even Biz Stone has abundant tutorial about announcement your blog (http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1060). Lastly, don’t overlook to about-face on your blog’s RSS feed. And if you’re analytic to advance your RSS feed, try analytic your admired seek engine for “promote rss” to acquisition a lot of acceptable tutorials.

Promoting your blog is just like announcement a website—you charge acceptable spiderable content, links to your content, and you charge to set up your blog software to yield advantage of all the abundant features. There are aswell plugins that will advice accomplish blogging easier for all of us.