--------------------------------------------------
Tip 1: Benchmark your blog with other popular
sites
--------------------------------------------------
Benchmarking your site with other popular sites is
one of the easiest ways of optimizing your blog
for search engines.
What is benchmarking?
Simple... all you do, is have a look at the
keywords and content that other popular websites
in your niche are using, and then you use those
same ones and add your own keywords and content to
the mix.
For example, say you have a new blog in the magic
niche. You could quickly do a Google search of the
keywords that you want to rank for - eg "magic
tricks".
[The more specific you can make your keyword
search terms, the easier it will be for you to
compete for those same keywords. For example,
competing for the keywords "fat loss" in the
overweight niche would be very difficult. But if
you use something like "fat loss for pregnant
woman" as your keywords, your chance of doing well
compared to the other sites will be greatly
increased.]
Ok, back to the magic example...
By looking at the websites that come up on the
first page of Google, you can get a pretty good
idea about the keywords they are using on their
site and also the kind of content that they are
using.
You can then make a list of all those keywords and
add them to your existing list of keywords that
you want to use on your own blog.
There are a number of other things you can do as
well to benchmark your site, but this will already
help you for finding the right kind of keywords to
use in your blog posts and pages.
Next up are what are called "internal" SEO
strategies, and they involve smaller, but
effective things you can do to help optimize your
blog content...
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 2: Use Targeted Keywords In Your Titles And
Headlines
--------------------------------------------------
This one is pretty straight forward...
Whenever you create a new post or page, always
make sure you add your targeted keywords inside
the headlines/titles.
And for even better results you can add your
keywords right at the front of the
headlines/titles of your blog posts.
This will help because Google and other search
engines give preference to keywords at the
beginning of your headlines/titles.
This is easy and simple to do, and it will help
you improve the chances of ranking for your
selected keywords by leaps and bounds.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 3: Use H2 Tags
--------------------------------------------------
The H2 Tag is really just a fancy name for a type
of heading that you can use inside your blog posts
and pages.
It's like a sub-heading really, but Google and
other search engines gives it a similar "priority"
as your headlines/titles when looking at your blog
content.
So, instead of just making sub headings bold in
your blog posts, consider turning them into proper
"H2" headings.
You can do this by selecting one of the paragraph
options inside your WordPress Admin area when
creating or editing a post.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 4: Use Related Keyword Tags
--------------------------------------------------
Next up is using related keywords as the tags for
your blog posts.
Tags are a mechanism that WordPress uses to help
organize your content and to help people find your
posts when searching for it on your blog.
But another benefit of using tags is that Google
also apparently gives preference to tags when
crawling your site. (I say "apparently" because no
one outside of Google really knows the exact rules
of their algorithms).
You can use the same keywords that you use inside
your blog headlines/titles, but you will cover an
even wider audience if you use other related
keywords. In other words, keywords that you have
not used inside your post or headline/title yet,
but that still relate to your content.
For example, if you write a post about Michael
Jackson, and you have not used the term "pop
music" anywhere inside your post, that would be an
excellent related keyword as a tag.
You can add tags inside your WordPress admin area
when creating or editing posts or pages.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 5: Install SEO Plugins
--------------------------------------------------
If you don't have an optimized blog theme
installed, like the Thesis Theme, it's a good idea
to install two more plugins that will help you
optimize your blog for search engines.
The first one is the SEO Title Tag Plugin, which
essentially optimizes your blog title's for search
engines - instead of your blog name appearing
first inside your blog titles, the SEO Title Tag
plugin will modify the code of your theme so that
your blog post titles appear first, with your blog
name after it.
Remember, Google gives preference to whatever
keywords you use at the front of your blog post
titles. So by moving your blog name to the back of
your blog titles automatically, this automatically
optimizes your blog post titles.
You can get a copy of the SEO Title Tag Plugin
here:
http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin/
The second plugin you can install is the XML
Sitemap Generator plugin.
It basically creates an easily readable "XML
sitemap" for your blog so that Google can easily
crawl it and list you in their directory.
Don't worry if this sounds too technical or
complicated - just know that it's great plugin to
help make it easy for Google to find all the pages
and posts on your blog.
You can find the XML Sitemap Generator Plugin
here:
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 6: Link To Other Posts And Pages In Your Blog
--------------------------------------------------
This is another sneaky little tip that makes sense
once you understand how Google looks at your
website.
Basically, Google views each of the posts and
pages on your blog as a separate entity. And
because of this, it creates a separate "page rank"
for each of your posts and pages by treating them
in isolation.
That's why sometimes, when you look at some blogs,
their home page could have a page rank of 6, but
then their About page may only have a page rank of
2 or 3.
So, knowing this bit of information, you can use
it to your advantage by creating links to and from
your posts and pages.
When you do this, and Google crawls a specific
post on your site, and you happen to link back to
another post, Google will follow along that link
and pass on some "page rank juice".
I'm just using simple terms here to try and
explain this in the most simple way. So, if you
don't quite fully understand all of this, don't
worry about it too much.
But just make sure your regularly link back to
other posts and pages when you create new content.
For example, say you create a new post, and while
you're creating it, you remember that you talked
about a related topic on a previous post. You can
then simply link back to that previous post and
that will do the job.
And that's all there really is to it.
If you do this, it will help the Google bot
understand how content in your blog relate to each
other, and as a result provide you with better
overall rankings.
--------------------------------------------------
7: Just Write Naturally
--------------------------------------------------
Google LOVES relevant content!
In other words, when you do a search for something
like "beach gear", the last thing you want to find
popping up as the #1 search result is a website
about an unrelated topic such as "marine life".
What some people do, is to "stuff" their pages
with a whole bunch of keywords "unnaturally" in
the hope that Google and other search engines will
pick up on it and start ranking their pages.
But the algorithms employed by these search
engines are pretty clever, and nowadays can tell
if you're just stuffing your pages with a bunch of
keywords.
Think about it...
It's absolutely critical that Google always
delivers RELEVANT content to their users.
And the best way that you can guarantee this
relevant kind of content, is to simply engage in
creating natural content.
In other words, don't worry about stuffing your
posts with a bunch of keywords to try and please
the search engines.
Just write as you normally would, and then as a
result, your content will contain all the related
keywords you need for ranking with Google and
other search engines.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 8: Get High Quality Incoming Links To Your
Blog
--------------------------------------------------
One of the best ways of creating a search engine
optimized blog is to make sure you get as many as
possible high quality websites linking back to
your blog.
For example, say your blog is in the soft drinks
niche. If you can somehow get Coca Cola (which
would be a very popular website with high page
rank) to link to your blog, that would give you
instant "credibility" with Google.
Obviously though, it's not always easy to get
other popular websites and blogs to link back to
your own, but over time, if you consistently
deliver value on your blog and become involved in
your community, people will naturally start
linking back to your blog.
Of course, if you really want to, you can take on
a more active role, and actively seek other
popular websites and blogs to link back to yours.
One great strategy for this is to create guest
posts for other popular blogs and then to link
back to your own blog at the end - you don't want
to make it too obvious :)
Over time, if other blogs keep on linking back to
you, your own blog will appear more "relevant" to
Google, and as a result, your rankings inside
Google searches will start rising.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 9: Aim For The Long Tail
--------------------------------------------------
In the ever increasing competitive online world,
it has become very hard to rank for certain
popular keywords in popular niches.
But that does not mean you cannot get ranked for
other keywords, known as "long tail keywords" in
those same niches.
What's a "long tail keyword" you ask?
The concept of the long tail was first coined by
Chris Anderson who wrote an article inside Wired
Magazine, which eventually lead him to publish a
book called "The Long Tail".
In the context of keywords on the internet, the
long tail refers to those kind of keywords phrases
that are not considered "main stream" keywords
phrases.
For example, "fat loss" would not be considered a
long tail keyword phrase. But "fat loss for
pregnant mothers" is a long tail keyword phrase.
Do you see the difference? The long tail keyword
phrases are A LOT more specific and targeted than
the more popular phrases.
What this means is that you will rank much easier
for these long tail keyword phrases. The only
catch is that they wont get as much traffic as the
more popular keyword phrases.
But over the long run, if you keep on creating new
posts for your blog, targeting long tail keyword
phrases, that would amount to a very nice and
steady stream of traffic back to your blog.
For more information on the long tail, please
visit the following page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail
---
And that brings us to the end of today's lesson
and also the end of the lessons on traffic
generation. You've now been given some of the most
powerful techniques for driving traffic back to
your blog.
All you have to do now, is start implementing what
you've learned, to be persistent and also to be
patient.
Any successful blog takes time and effort to
develop, but what it allows you to do, is create
the base for a very sustainable and long term
successful business.
Inside the next part of this mini course, I will
finally reveal what you've been waiting for all
along - how to create multiple streams of income
from your blog!
Until then...
Gideon and Yaro
Become A Blogger
Tip 1: Benchmark your blog with other popular
sites
--------------------------------------------------
Benchmarking your site with other popular sites is
one of the easiest ways of optimizing your blog
for search engines.
What is benchmarking?
Simple... all you do, is have a look at the
keywords and content that other popular websites
in your niche are using, and then you use those
same ones and add your own keywords and content to
the mix.
For example, say you have a new blog in the magic
niche. You could quickly do a Google search of the
keywords that you want to rank for - eg "magic
tricks".
[The more specific you can make your keyword
search terms, the easier it will be for you to
compete for those same keywords. For example,
competing for the keywords "fat loss" in the
overweight niche would be very difficult. But if
you use something like "fat loss for pregnant
woman" as your keywords, your chance of doing well
compared to the other sites will be greatly
increased.]
Ok, back to the magic example...
By looking at the websites that come up on the
first page of Google, you can get a pretty good
idea about the keywords they are using on their
site and also the kind of content that they are
using.
You can then make a list of all those keywords and
add them to your existing list of keywords that
you want to use on your own blog.
There are a number of other things you can do as
well to benchmark your site, but this will already
help you for finding the right kind of keywords to
use in your blog posts and pages.
Next up are what are called "internal" SEO
strategies, and they involve smaller, but
effective things you can do to help optimize your
blog content...
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 2: Use Targeted Keywords In Your Titles And
Headlines
--------------------------------------------------
This one is pretty straight forward...
Whenever you create a new post or page, always
make sure you add your targeted keywords inside
the headlines/titles.
And for even better results you can add your
keywords right at the front of the
headlines/titles of your blog posts.
This will help because Google and other search
engines give preference to keywords at the
beginning of your headlines/titles.
This is easy and simple to do, and it will help
you improve the chances of ranking for your
selected keywords by leaps and bounds.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 3: Use H2 Tags
--------------------------------------------------
The H2 Tag is really just a fancy name for a type
of heading that you can use inside your blog posts
and pages.
It's like a sub-heading really, but Google and
other search engines gives it a similar "priority"
as your headlines/titles when looking at your blog
content.
So, instead of just making sub headings bold in
your blog posts, consider turning them into proper
"H2" headings.
You can do this by selecting one of the paragraph
options inside your WordPress Admin area when
creating or editing a post.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 4: Use Related Keyword Tags
--------------------------------------------------
Next up is using related keywords as the tags for
your blog posts.
Tags are a mechanism that WordPress uses to help
organize your content and to help people find your
posts when searching for it on your blog.
But another benefit of using tags is that Google
also apparently gives preference to tags when
crawling your site. (I say "apparently" because no
one outside of Google really knows the exact rules
of their algorithms).
You can use the same keywords that you use inside
your blog headlines/titles, but you will cover an
even wider audience if you use other related
keywords. In other words, keywords that you have
not used inside your post or headline/title yet,
but that still relate to your content.
For example, if you write a post about Michael
Jackson, and you have not used the term "pop
music" anywhere inside your post, that would be an
excellent related keyword as a tag.
You can add tags inside your WordPress admin area
when creating or editing posts or pages.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 5: Install SEO Plugins
--------------------------------------------------
If you don't have an optimized blog theme
installed, like the Thesis Theme, it's a good idea
to install two more plugins that will help you
optimize your blog for search engines.
The first one is the SEO Title Tag Plugin, which
essentially optimizes your blog title's for search
engines - instead of your blog name appearing
first inside your blog titles, the SEO Title Tag
plugin will modify the code of your theme so that
your blog post titles appear first, with your blog
name after it.
Remember, Google gives preference to whatever
keywords you use at the front of your blog post
titles. So by moving your blog name to the back of
your blog titles automatically, this automatically
optimizes your blog post titles.
You can get a copy of the SEO Title Tag Plugin
here:
http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin/
The second plugin you can install is the XML
Sitemap Generator plugin.
It basically creates an easily readable "XML
sitemap" for your blog so that Google can easily
crawl it and list you in their directory.
Don't worry if this sounds too technical or
complicated - just know that it's great plugin to
help make it easy for Google to find all the pages
and posts on your blog.
You can find the XML Sitemap Generator Plugin
here:
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 6: Link To Other Posts And Pages In Your Blog
--------------------------------------------------
This is another sneaky little tip that makes sense
once you understand how Google looks at your
website.
Basically, Google views each of the posts and
pages on your blog as a separate entity. And
because of this, it creates a separate "page rank"
for each of your posts and pages by treating them
in isolation.
That's why sometimes, when you look at some blogs,
their home page could have a page rank of 6, but
then their About page may only have a page rank of
2 or 3.
So, knowing this bit of information, you can use
it to your advantage by creating links to and from
your posts and pages.
When you do this, and Google crawls a specific
post on your site, and you happen to link back to
another post, Google will follow along that link
and pass on some "page rank juice".
I'm just using simple terms here to try and
explain this in the most simple way. So, if you
don't quite fully understand all of this, don't
worry about it too much.
But just make sure your regularly link back to
other posts and pages when you create new content.
For example, say you create a new post, and while
you're creating it, you remember that you talked
about a related topic on a previous post. You can
then simply link back to that previous post and
that will do the job.
And that's all there really is to it.
If you do this, it will help the Google bot
understand how content in your blog relate to each
other, and as a result provide you with better
overall rankings.
--------------------------------------------------
7: Just Write Naturally
--------------------------------------------------
Google LOVES relevant content!
In other words, when you do a search for something
like "beach gear", the last thing you want to find
popping up as the #1 search result is a website
about an unrelated topic such as "marine life".
What some people do, is to "stuff" their pages
with a whole bunch of keywords "unnaturally" in
the hope that Google and other search engines will
pick up on it and start ranking their pages.
But the algorithms employed by these search
engines are pretty clever, and nowadays can tell
if you're just stuffing your pages with a bunch of
keywords.
Think about it...
It's absolutely critical that Google always
delivers RELEVANT content to their users.
And the best way that you can guarantee this
relevant kind of content, is to simply engage in
creating natural content.
In other words, don't worry about stuffing your
posts with a bunch of keywords to try and please
the search engines.
Just write as you normally would, and then as a
result, your content will contain all the related
keywords you need for ranking with Google and
other search engines.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 8: Get High Quality Incoming Links To Your
Blog
--------------------------------------------------
One of the best ways of creating a search engine
optimized blog is to make sure you get as many as
possible high quality websites linking back to
your blog.
For example, say your blog is in the soft drinks
niche. If you can somehow get Coca Cola (which
would be a very popular website with high page
rank) to link to your blog, that would give you
instant "credibility" with Google.
Obviously though, it's not always easy to get
other popular websites and blogs to link back to
your own, but over time, if you consistently
deliver value on your blog and become involved in
your community, people will naturally start
linking back to your blog.
Of course, if you really want to, you can take on
a more active role, and actively seek other
popular websites and blogs to link back to yours.
One great strategy for this is to create guest
posts for other popular blogs and then to link
back to your own blog at the end - you don't want
to make it too obvious :)
Over time, if other blogs keep on linking back to
you, your own blog will appear more "relevant" to
Google, and as a result, your rankings inside
Google searches will start rising.
--------------------------------------------------
Tip 9: Aim For The Long Tail
--------------------------------------------------
In the ever increasing competitive online world,
it has become very hard to rank for certain
popular keywords in popular niches.
But that does not mean you cannot get ranked for
other keywords, known as "long tail keywords" in
those same niches.
What's a "long tail keyword" you ask?
The concept of the long tail was first coined by
Chris Anderson who wrote an article inside Wired
Magazine, which eventually lead him to publish a
book called "The Long Tail".
In the context of keywords on the internet, the
long tail refers to those kind of keywords phrases
that are not considered "main stream" keywords
phrases.
For example, "fat loss" would not be considered a
long tail keyword phrase. But "fat loss for
pregnant mothers" is a long tail keyword phrase.
Do you see the difference? The long tail keyword
phrases are A LOT more specific and targeted than
the more popular phrases.
What this means is that you will rank much easier
for these long tail keyword phrases. The only
catch is that they wont get as much traffic as the
more popular keyword phrases.
But over the long run, if you keep on creating new
posts for your blog, targeting long tail keyword
phrases, that would amount to a very nice and
steady stream of traffic back to your blog.
For more information on the long tail, please
visit the following page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail
---
And that brings us to the end of today's lesson
and also the end of the lessons on traffic
generation. You've now been given some of the most
powerful techniques for driving traffic back to
your blog.
All you have to do now, is start implementing what
you've learned, to be persistent and also to be
patient.
Any successful blog takes time and effort to
develop, but what it allows you to do, is create
the base for a very sustainable and long term
successful business.
Inside the next part of this mini course, I will
finally reveal what you've been waiting for all
along - how to create multiple streams of income
from your blog!
Until then...
Gideon and Yaro
Become A Blogger