Producing a good blog is akin to building a better trap to “catch” more mice. As long as you’re committed to blogging and following a few simple guidelines, you will attract search engine traffic, which may convert to customers.
Blogger Priya Shah outlines what can now be considered universal guidelines for beefing up your blog’s search engine rank:
1. Fresh, Updated, Relevant Content
When you write a good blog about a theme that you’re passionate about and post to it frequently, you’re creating fresh, keyword-rich, content that search engines love.
Let’s say you detail cars for a living, and you have a business blog. Blogging at least three times a week about car detailing in general, your business specifically, and the latest car-washing techniques and products, for example, allows search engines to rank your blog according to similar themes. Depending on how often you update and whether you’re blogging about the most popular subjects in your niche, your site could end up near the top of the results. The more you use specific keywords, the more differentiated your blog will be. For instance, if your business is located in coastal North Carolina, make sure your blog and post contents contain references to that area.
2. Natural, One-Way Links
Search engines view links to your site as a recommendation of your site content. More links pointing to your site or blog boosts your visibility and search engine rankings.
Google gives more weight to natural, one-way incoming links, and blogs make it easy to get two types of one-way links to your site.
One-way incoming links, as opposed to buying links from sites known as “link farms,” will greatly enhance your search engine ranking. Google places greater weight on incoming links from similar sites. For example, a link from a car wax manufacturer to your detailing site is worth more than a link from a mortgage company site.
Some readers may have questions about search engine optimization (SEO). A series of basic articles about the subject is on my to-do list. In the meantime, visit the Search Engine Watch Blog and Priya’s SEO articles.
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