Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog

If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think.

The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:

1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads with or tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website

Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text.

You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.

Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.

There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.

Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page.

The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.

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About Caroline Melberg

Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.


And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Answering Inappropriate Interview Questions

When you look for a job in Canada, you will have to attend to the so called "job interviews".

Very often, you will be asked some inappropriate questions. You definitely need to know how to answer these questions so that you can land the job of your dreams in Canada!

Normally, hiring decisions can not be based on certain things, such as marital status, race, religion, etc. For this reason, questions pertaining to this topic are usually considered off limits by most experienced interviewers. They realize there's no reason to ask a candidate if he or she goes to church or if they have reliable child care.

The bad news for you is that not all of the interviewers you are going to encounter will be experienced. Some will be managers or supervisors who are more comfortable giving direction than asking questions. Others just won't see the potential harm in asking personal questions such as these.

Before we discuss how to deal with these types of questions, let me give you an idea of what topics are generally accepted as being inappropriate during an interview:

· Questions about your ethnicity, culture, or parental background
· Questions about your marital status or sexual preference
· Questions about your race and gender
· Questions about your religion or your religious practices
· Questions about your health or physical limitations
· Questions about your children, child care, or family plans

These questions can be phrased in the most seemingly innocent ways, such as "That's a beautiful diamond ring! Are you engaged?" or they can be blunt "Do you plan on having children in the next year?" It all depends on the interviewer.

Regardless of how the question is asked, there are a couple of ways of dealing with the problem. Some are preferable over others.

Option 1 â€" Reminding the interviewer that the question is inappropriate

In most cases, the interviewer asks these questions without malice. He or she doesn't plan on using the information against you. They might just be trying to break the ice.

If your first reaction is to point out that they question should never have been asked or to start making comments about the "legality" of the question, chances are you're not going to get that job. Employers don't want to hire people who are going to cause trouble at the drop of a hat. If you make a big deal about a question during the interview, they'll take it as a good sign you'll cause more trouble as an employee.

You're better off not taking this approach unless you've made up your mind not to work for this company.

Option 2 â€" Answer the question briefly

There's no harm in going ahead and answering the questions, but you'll want to keep your answers brief. For example, if an interviewer asks you "How does your wife/husband feel about you taking this position?" then you could answer â€" depending on your marital situation â€" "She/he is fine with it" or "I'm not married." There's no reason to go into any further details, such as how long you've been married or if you're in a serious relationship.

If the interviewer continues to ask follow-up questions that are inappropriate, such as "How long have you been married?" or "Do you ever plan on getting married?" then you may need to be more forceful. Simply smile and ask, "I'd be happy to answer your questions, but I'm really not sure how my marital status relates to my ability to fulfill this position."

In my next article, I will explain other steps you must follow to answer inappropriate questions during a job interview in Canada.

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About Alex Berezovsky

Alex Berezovsky is author of the book Step-by-Step Immigration to Canada . He helps immigrants achieve their dream: moving to this amazing country! He owns http://www.stepbystepimmigrationcanada.com.