Obtaining a high page rank isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, effort, and patience. You may have read advice that tells you to comment on other relevant blogs, build relationships with dofollow bloggers, participate in forums, and guest blog. And while that’s all good advice (great advice, actually), some of us don’t have as much time as others. And these things are very time consuming.
So here are some simple SEO tips you can use without having to leave your own blog. And remember: even though it’s good to put yourself out there and be an active participant in the blogosphere at large, your blog’s content (quality, quantity, and relevancy) truly is the main factor when it comes to getting traffic to your blog.
1. Content is King
I can’t emphasize this enough. The quality and richness of your content make more of an impact on page rank than any of the tips to follow (though they do help move things along). Strive to have unique and frequently updated content on your blog, and it will drive up your ranking.
2. Link Out
Link out to at least one external site in every blog post. Establishing site relevance is a huge factor in your page rank, so link to pages and sites that are relevant to yours.
3. Links Should Have Meaning
Update your anchor text (the text acting as a link) to have better keyword value. Both internal and external links should have meaning, and stay away from using “here,” “click here,” “this,” etc. as links.
- Incorrect: If you’re looking for Twitter badges for your site, click here.
- Correct: Here are some Twitter badges for your site.
4. Optimize Your Permalinks
Include the post category and post name in your URLs. Use keywords in your URLs, keep them short and sweet, eliminating words like “and” or “the.”
- Incorrect: http://UStandOut.com/?p=123
- Correct: http://ustandout.com/twitter/beginners-guide-twitter
5. Create a Sitemap
Having a sitemap will make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your blog. Read more about creating Google Sitemaps, and if you have a Wordpress blog, install the plugin Google XML Sitemap Generator.
6. Use Header Tags
Use header tags <h></h> instead of bolding your headlines/subheadlines. Since header tags aren’t the prettiest in terms of formatting, use CSS to override the default look. For example: H1 { color: red; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px }.
7. Use Title Tags
Title tags (<title></title>) determine what that page will be called in the search results. Be sure to use rich keywords in your title tags. For those of us who use Wordpress or another blogging tool, this will be automatic, so be sure you’re using those keywords in your blog titles.
8. Use Description Tags
The description tag (<meta name=”description” content=”Description tag here.”>) determines the text that goes below your page’s title in the search results. These should be no longer than 160 characters in order to show up completely and correctly on Google.
9. Use Alt Tags on Images
Every image on your site should have an alt tag, especially if the image is relevant to the content of the page. And don’t simply give it the tag “screenshot” or “image.” Make the tag keyword rich. For example: “The Tweetdeck Application for Twitter.”
10. Don’t Try to Fool Google
You’d think this was a no-brainer, but I see it all the time. Do not try to fool Google. Do not stuff keywords in invisible text, do not purchase links, do not partake in “link swapping,” and do not take any of advice from those blogs encouraging you to cheat the system. Your site will be flagged, and your page rank will be lowered. Bloggers that actually do have good content often hurt their page ranking because they’ve attempted these tricks. Just don’t do it.
What SEO tips can you add to the list?
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 19 comments }
Nice info. it will come handy for me Thanks for the upload friend.
This article has come at the very right time, my blog was a PR3 one and half year ago, after my database crash i rebuild my blog but never gain my dignity back from google, since then it is on PR0 , i feel shame about it, at least i can expect PR2, I have noted down couple of point from here, will use them and let see what happened. I think you help me a lot thru this article in understanding Page Rank methodology. Thanks diana.
This is all very helpful – I would just quibble with #8. The description tag influences the snippet that appears in Google SERPs, but does not “determine” the snippet. See http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/an... .
these are the basic tips in SEO which will be useful for beginners
These are basic tips on SEO which will be useful for SEO beginners
Here is a great chance to drive a large number of targeted visitors to your blogs and websites for free.
Submit your websites, blogs, videos to http://www.zillionsb.com and get 1000s of visitors everyday for free. It also helps your websites/blogs gain valuable backlinks.
Let the other bloggers cast their votes to push your posts up for a greater visibility. Enjoy free huge traffic to your sites.
Thanks
Sara
http://www.zillionsb.com
Great advice! We learned a few things.
THE GUYS
Some good tips are shared here.. it would be helpful for beginners.
When it comes to optimizare seo and seo services there are only a handful of companies who really know what they're doing. Only these know what content is all about, fixing site issues, URL canoniclization and rewrites and getting you a lot of links.
Posting regular content to the site is the best way to ensure the crawlers come back for more. Also, increasing your PageRank through inbound links will also make the Googlebot happy.
Write your content for readers, not search engines. Not only will this boost your credibility but the overall caliber of your content will increase when you use keywords naturally.
I've recently started out my blog but i have not received any feedback. how ca i increase the number of visitors? any other tip is appreciated too.
Number 6 (using the heading tags) is actually what a lot of big bloggers will tell you. They act as a hierarchy of information, and search engines supposedly love that organization. I actually back tracked all my posts and reformatted them.
The content is king part always holds true but you have to make sure you write for people not search engines.
Now I have to start linking out more, I just always forget to do that.
Nice post! These tips are very useful for me because i am also a blogger. Thanks…….
Look around you and you will likely find a lot of grownups who really love to pull out the Crayons and stay within the lines. One of the greatest delights of childhood is one of the ones that starts very early for most kids – coloring. There is just something magical about placing colorful pencil or crayons to a piece of paper and making magic with color.
Look around you and you will likely find a lot of grownups who really love to pull out the Crayons and stay within the lines. One of the greatest delights of childhood is one of the ones that starts very early for most kids – coloring. There is just something magical about placing colorful pencil or crayons to a piece of paper and making magic with color.
Thank you for this! I appreciate the way you explain the info so people who don't speak your lingo can understand what to do. Clearly there are many bloggers who are also tech writers, etc., but many of us are not.
Your post was very helpful
With solid, useful, detailed, and actionable information, this is a rare and welcome article, indeed. Thanks very much.
You're welcome!
{ 2 trackbacks }