Entries from October 2008 ↓

When you have written a blog post on a topic. Google that topic.

• Go through the top 10, top 20 positions and see whether you can:
• Leave a relevant comment to your new post
• Contact the blogger / website to let them know about your post.

This is an excellent way to get traffic and links. It works quite often, especially if: Your post is actually good and offers something new.

• For example, I wrote a post on a cycling event - Brompton World Championships and then googled the phrase
• I wrote to one blogger, to say you might be interested in my pictures. He linked to my blog. (note I didn’t ask him to link to it. I just said he might be interested because there is a close correlation)
• On another, I left a comment, first one. This brought quite a bit of traffic.

If you want to get high search engine positions for a certain keyword, there are various strategies that you can take. The ultimate test will be to create a site that compels others to link to it. Therefore, although SEO practices are important, you must give importance to making the site attractive for visitors and readers.

These are the most Important Factors for Keyword ranking

1. Choose Good domain name.

• If you want to dominate the rankings for a keyword such as “cycling”. It is helpful to have cycling in the domain name. e.g. cyclinginfo.com, cyclingtips.com
• However, it is not essential; people can still have high rankings for “computers” without having computers in the title. (Googling cycling in the UK gives only 3 results out of top 10 with cycling in domain name)
• The advantage of choosing a domain name “cycling info” is that when you get someone linking to your site, the anchor text will invariably have “cycling info” in it.
• If you wanted to have multiple domains to try and dominate a key search phrase like “mortgage quotes”. I would suggest choosing 50% of domains with mortgages in and 50% of domains without mortgages.

2. In Bound Links

Links from Other Websites to your Site is, in my opinion, the single most important factor. However, it is not the number, but, the quality and variety of links that is important
The importance of Links increases if

• They are from sites on related themes
• If the site is trusted by Google. i.e well established, high PR, lots of links to that site, has been around for a long time.
• The link contains a high % the anchor text of the keyword.
• They are naturally generated over time. - Google will try to spot link manipulation schemes.
• The links are from a variety of sources and different IP addresses.

Don’t bother with:

• Buying links
• Links from Link farms
• Reciprocal links from unrelated sites.
• Links from a page with 100s of links, unless the site is very good.

See more Tips on getting inbound links

• It depends on the keyword niche. If the keyword is not particularly competitive, you may need only a small number of links, so don’t be put off by worrying how to get loads of links.

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A few months ago, I set up a gardening blog, with my father - Gardeners Tips. We have done all the right things for a new blog

• Got some good links.
• Created 300 posts.
• Reasonable design and good logo.

Although, it is still a fairly new blog I was a little disappointed with traffic levels, given the number of posts and inbound links. I had a look at the posts, and decided the problem was in the titles chosen. My father had chosen good titles, the kind of titles you would get in a gardening magazine or newspaper, but, they are not optimised for  search engines. This is how I changed the titles, to hopefully get more traffic.

Note: The first thing I did was to look in the statistics to see which kind of keywords were bring traffic.

The top 3 were:

• 21.15% growing sunflowers
• growing lupins
• growing sweet peas

Straight away, we are given a simple idea. ‘Growing’ and ‘plant name’ make a good combination.

Examples of Old Titles and New titles

1. Big Cuttings for Big Shrubs - “How To Take Cuttings of  Shrubs” I didn’t feel anyone would search the first title, but, people do search questions, how to do something.
2. Asparagus Cultivation UK Style - “Growing Asparagus in UK” - Generally, it is best to use the most common words. Growing will be more common than cultivation.
3. A Pair of Decorative Herbs - “Decorative Herbs for The Garden” - The second will be searched more frequently
4. Apple Rootstock - “Types of Apple Rootstock” - Two words is very difficult to rank for; competition is too intense. Here my choice of the extra word Types was because this is what the post is about. Important to remember, the title should reflect the post!
5. Weedy Ponds - “Dealing With Weeds in Ponds”
6. Easy Rhubarb in Yorkshire - “Simple Tips for Growing Rhubarb in Yorkshire”

By now, you probably get the idea of how you can make more search engine friendly titles. You may feel it becomes repeitive. But, also don’t forget, it is good to be descriptive and say exactly what it is about. It will make it more likely people will actually click on the link when they see it in search engine results.

Today is 1st October, and I have noticed an increase in the number of people searching for ‘Christmas gift ideas for…’ and ‘10 Tips for Christmas’ e.t.c.

If you have a blog on fly fishing, why not produce a blog post, ‘Christmas gift ideas for fishing enthusiasts’ For the next 3 months, you have a good chance to get some good seasonal traffic. It is also an opportunity to gain some affiliate sales from Amazon or other dealer.

Actually, it’s pretty hard to think of Christmas ideas for bloggers. But, I guess the new Problogger book would make a good start.

Other Ideas of Presents for Bloggers

• Ergo Mouse Mat which remembers your position
• Spare battery for laptop - This is a real boon for the blogger who writes in a cafe, away from home
• Small digital camera, a definite help for the blogger looking for pictures for their blog.