SEO for Bloggers: More Important Than Ever

Before we get into the logistics of good SEO for bloggers, I'd like to begin by saying that a blog should, first and foremost, be about the reader. If you don't write content with the reader in mind, SEO is useless because you won't have readers returning to your blog. When you submit a post to your blog, make sure it's useful information the reader is looking for, or its entertaining to the reader. Good writers can often find a happy medium and write an entertaining post that is also informative. This is probably the most important facet of having a good blog.

The tips given here will be geared towards a Google friendly blog. We all know that Google is the search engine god, and if you want to be found, you have to adhere to Google gods' rules. I also searched the other two main search engines, MSN and Yahoo!, to see if their guidelines coincide with Google.

Quality content: All three search engines cannot stress enough the importance of quality content. As writers, here at The Written Word, we also can't stress this enough. We are also readers, and nothing is more frustrating than to think you're going to a great site for information and find out the site's content sucks. You have to have good, informative, quality content to keep readers coming back.

Search engines are important and you want to be indexed with them, but if you don't have quality content on your site, none of that will matter. Readers will not return if you publish poorly written and low quality content.

You also have to update on a regular basis. One quality piece a week is better than a daily slathering of low quality material.

Giving the reader unique content will ensure the reader returns and may link to your site or blog from theirs. Always put the importance of your content in the forefront of your objectives.

Things to avoid: All major search engines frown on using trickery to gain link popularity and getting indexed. They will discover this and either punish your site or ban your site altogether.

Cloaking, keyword stuffing, irrelevant meta-tags and keywords are also things frowned upon by the major search engines.

Avoid creating multiple pages with duplicate content. Please keep relevant content on one page. This does not mean you can't highlight certain important topics on other pages, but make sure the new page has relevant content that isn't the same as another page.

Improper use of 'alt' tags, hiding text, and using link farms are also bad practices.

Google does not like being hit with automated queries. Automated queries are programs used to query Google and other search engines to determine how a website or webpage ranks. They absorb sources which causes things to bog down.

Sitemaps: All search engines work more efficiently and give better rankings and results if your site uses a sitemap. A sitemap is used to find relevant pages within your site that may otherwise be overlooked. Links that are embedded in menus, list boxes, and similar elements are difficult for web crawlers to locate. This is where a good sitemap will help your site get crawled and indexed. Your site should have a clear hierarchy and good text links.

The major search engines suggest that a person shouldn't have to click more than once or twice to get to the information they are looking for. This means don't bury your content and force someone to click more links than necessary. I can tell you from my own research that this is not only a bad practice, but it's a pain in the backside too. If I can't find information in 2 or 3 clicks, I'm out of there. As writers, we do a lot of research and can't afford time wasted clicking around a site.

Your sitemap needs to have a link on each page of your site or on the main page of your blog. It should be simple and easy to navigate as well.

Categories and Tags: Be sure that your information can be found when readers are browsing your blog. Your information should be organized, titles clear and concise, and your tags should fit the content of your posts.

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to navigate a site that isn't setup well. Categories make it easy for readers who are searching for specific topics and information. One click of a category field should take the reader to all the posts listed under that topic and make navigation easier.

Sub-categories can be useful as well but make sure you don't go overboard with these. One or two sub-categories should be plenty. If you have more than one or two, it most likely will annoy the reader and they will look elsewhere.

Backlinks: Make sure the sites you link to, or that link to you, are relevant (at least as close as possible) and make sure the sites you link to have a good PR (page rank) and are informative. In the beginning, new blogs may not have a PR rating yet, but this doesn't mean you can't link to them. If it offers good sound information, it will usually end up being a good link to have. You still want to keep your reader in mind by offering links that are useful to them. Even if a reader clicks off your site because you've linked to something that may interest them, doesn't mean they'll never return. Readers will return to a good website or blog. If the reader trusts your suggestions/opinions, they will return to you often.

Community Interest: Be active in a community for bloggers and publish your posts to an rss feed. This will ensure that people find you. If you're active in community sites that cater to bloggers, it will spark others' interest and they will click on your blog to see what you're all about. Word of mouth is still one of the best forms of advertising out there. People who like your material will tell their friends.

These are not all inclusive SEO tips, they barely scratch the surface, but they can help you get a good start until you find the time to dig deeper into what search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN want to see when they crawl the web. Getting your blog indexed and ranked is a process, it will not happen over night. Taking small steps in the beginning is the best way to make sure you understand how to prepare your site for SEO and getting a good report from the search engines.

References:

Google's Webmaster Tips for Bloggers (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=70950&topic=15260)

MSN guides for content (http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_webmasters)

Yahoo! guides for content (http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html)