Blog posting doesn’t sound like a terribly difficult task on it’s face — you have something you know about and love, and you write about it. Right? Well, to be honest, when you’ve had a blog for several weeks or months and you post on it daily (or even weekly), finding some new angle to write about can be a royal pain in the butt.

Now, wait — what does this have to do with SEO?

Glad you asked. This is one of those times when SEO techniques can help you in your non-SEO exploits. We don’t talk about this much, but it’s good to occasionally branch out a little. So here goes.

You’re probably familiar with backlink analysis tools — there’s a few popular ones out there. SEOMoz and SEOBook have good ones. You use them to look at all of the backlinks that are coming into a website. You can use it on your own website, but it’s generally a lot more profitable to use it on your competitor’s sites so that you can mimic their most effective backlinking strategies. They’re great tools for traditional website SEO geeks.

Here’s the trick for all your bloggers out there — you can snag a backlink analysis tool and use it on your competitor’s websites (or your own, in a pinch) and you’ll end up with a huge list of sources. Sites that are like yours, but have information and angles yours don’t.

A quick example. Let’s say you run a website about Victorian-era fashion designers and their most famous sketches. (Hey, it’s a niche market, what do you want?) You’ve been blogging about Charles Frederick Worth and Sons for the past few weeks, and you really need to get out of your rut.

You snag a backlink analysis tool and run it on your own website, looking for anyone who’s linked to you that you didn’t pay to do so. You find a guy at www.TheyHadNoFashionSense.com that’s been blogging about the absurdity of Maison E. Minangoy’s enormous bicep ruffles, and suddenly you realize he’s right! Rut broken, you join in mocking the dead Russian designer and make a new friend in the process.

Let’s assume that you have a website, and you’ve also got a list of keywords that you’re trying to get your website to rank for. You may or may not realize this, but it’s much easier to get each page on your website to rank for a few keywords than it is to get your entire site to rank for an entire list of keywords. That’s where the power of internal linking — specifically, organized on-page blog posting — comes in.

People assume (correctly) that getting a link from Page A on Site A to Page B on Site A doesn’t do a thing to help Page B’s authority in the eyes of the search engines. No amount of internal linking is going to make your page rank for a keyword if your site doesn’t also have solid incoming keywords from as many different root domains as possible.

But what people don’t realize is that the total authority of your site can be manipulated so that Page A ranks for different keywords than Page B — through the power of internal linking. This is the deepest levels of organic SEO, but it’s worth learning.

Let’s say, for example, that you have a site that’s all about nutrition. You’ve got a bunch of solid incoming links from a bunch of other root domains, but right now your site is all over the place in terms of what page is showing up under what keyword. If you have a blog in a subfolder or subdomain of your main page, you can easily produce a bunch of content that is strongly bound up in a small cluster of related keywords. Then, you link each content page to the specific page of your site that you want to rank for those keywords.

For instance, you might write a blog post all about low-carb dieting, and pack in keywords like “Atkins”, “South Beach”, “low-carb”, “low carbohydrate”, “Gary Taubes”, and so forth. Then, you link the blog article to your site’s page about the effects of low-carb dieting and how it works.

Essentially, what you’ve done is to tell Google that, while your whole site is about dieting, that specific page is really all about low-carb dieting. As your site builds authority as a whole, your individual page about low-carb dieting will score higher than the rest of them will regarding those chosen keywords, and the searchers will go to the page most relevant to the terms they are actually searching for.

That gives you a boost in conversions as well as a small overall boost in rankings (because each page on your site is specific to a certain cluster of related keywords, it will rank more highly on those keywords than an identical site without the solid internal linking structure that your on-site blog provides.) As if there weren’t already enough great reasons to have a custom blog created for your website!

Custom blog creation is one of the greatest tools that a small business can purchase from a qualified SEO company. The reasons are legion, but the greatest benefits can be encapsulated in a few short concepts: content, control, conversions, and character.

Content
Anyone who has even looked sideways at the world of Internet Marketing has heard someone say “CONTENT IS KING”. That’s because it’s true — Google loves fresh content more than just about anything else. In this more than anything else, a blog is a great source of Search Engine love, because by it’s very design, it gives Google what it loves best on a regular schedule of goodness.

Control
By the same token, what SEO experts love more than anything else is a backlink that gives you complete control over all of its aspects. Specifically: the anchor text, the page linked to, the position of that backlink within the content, and the content of the content that surrounds the backlink. It’s very hard to get precise control over all of those aspects of the backlink, but blogs do it nicely.

Conversions
In succession, let’s look at what webmasters love most: to make sales. In most minds, the most important parts of making sales are traffic and conversions — but there’s a factor that seems to slip most people’s minds. Most gurus act as though it’s the landing page alone that determines conversions, but that’s just not the case. A good portion of the ‘convertiblity’ of a given visitor has to do with their state of mind before they get to the landing page — and with a blog, you can set them up to be in a buying state of mind before they reach the page, priming the pump as it were.

Character
And at last, it’s time to pay attention to the surfer. Surfers love to read things that are fun, outrageous, titillating, and zany. Blogs, because they’re expected to be one crazy person’s take on the world, are perfectly allowed to be any or all of those things.

And right there, you’ve got the reason why custom blogs are the best SEO this side of a massive spurt of article writing and distribution — because everyone, from the surfer to the search engine, loves them.

Most of the world has heard it by now, but just in case you haven’t, Google has changed the rules once again. The infamous Google algorithm that determines page rank and position for searches has been changed, dramatically. This time the search giant knocked out link farms completely, invalidating any link that comes from a site with either no content or duplicate content, including, it appears, RSS summaries on news sites. Those links can still give you traffic, but they won’t count towards your positioning when potential customers are searching for your products or services.

On the flip side, Google has obviously decided that on-site content development is what they want to see for sites to be awarded those top spots on Page One. Blog posting, once considered a casual pastime, has now become an essential element of any internet marketing campaign. If you plan on getting any kind of significant organic traffic from search you will need to start writing or hire someone to do it for you. In the three months since the Google Panda announcement websites have been literally disappearing from the top twenty pages of Google’s search results.

For the time being, other search giants like Yahoo and Bing are playing by the old rules and you can see the disparity in the rankings. Seeing a top ten in two columns and a Page 30 in another might seem hopeful to some, but not when the Page 30 is the search engine that controls a 90% global market share. When it comes to search engine marketing, what Google does is what the industry standard is. The smaller players may win back some ground over this, but not enough to be significant.

Organic SEO companies have always used link building as one of their staple elements in any campaign, but they don’t all do it the same way. Here at Webwise Media, we’ve always focused on content rich links, site development, and article writing and distribution to high-PR directories. The exact details of the Google algorithm remain secret, but we know from tracking our analytics that none of our sites have lost any ground. That tells us and our clients that we’re doing something right. What would we recommend for you? Let’s start with some blog posting.

Does your blog have your personality? Does it exude the characteristics that you or your organization take pride in? Does it carry the message that you want it to or is it just a little bit off-target? When we talk about “custom blog creation”, we’re referring to a service that goes back to basics and gives you the look, feel, and content that you want in what is one of your most effective marketing tools. A blog is a medium for communicating directly with your clients or customers, an opportunity to engage them on an intimate level. You can’t do that if it’s not put together properly.

Begin at the beginning. For a blog designer, that means picking a theme that will let your visitors know right away that they are in the right place. If you sell computer equipment, don’t create a blog with flowers on it. The serious shopper will click right off that. A company logo and technical layout of some kind is good, or just something Spartan with some colors that help retain the attention of the reader. Blues, greens, and soft yellows are good for that. They instill a sense of peace in the mind’s eye and help you get your message across to a more relaxed reader.

The next step in the process is the coding of your blog. Meta tags and descriptions don’t carry as much weight as they once did, but they’re still important. Your readers can see the description, so make sure it sums up what you do. The tags are only visible to search engine spiders, but they help you attain a higher page rank for Organic SEO purposes. When web surfers go searching for information on your products or services you want them to find you at or near the top of Page One. Coding can help you get there. It’s a big part of the search engine optimization process.

Last, but definitely not least, who will do the writing? Wanting your blog to have your personality is great, but don’t try doing the posts yourself if you have no writing skills. There are professional content writers who can handle that for you, many of whom you can find right here. Our writers are some of the best and most experienced in the industry, and they have a knack for finding that just-right “custom” feel that you’re looking for. Be unique, be creative, and be successful. A custom blog can help you.

If you want high page rank and increased number of visitors, then you must keep your blog fresh. If you do not constantly post to your blog, it will eventually stagnate, and will do no good to your SEO. Though blog posting is a good way to get high page rank, but coming up with fresh blog posts is a difficult task.

Let us discuss some tips to keep your blog fresh.

1. Brevity is the key

Most of the times, you cannot come up with new blog posts, as you are unable to make long posts. It is better to write shorter blog posts that are easier to write. If you decide to write about 500 words each time, then it will take a lot of time for you to scoop up some matter to write. Besides, readers also do not like extra lengthy posts, and they prefer short and helpful or entertaining posts. So keep it short as far as possible.

2. Work in advance

It is difficult to find time everyday to write a post, so you can write a few posts when you get time and schedule them in your blog. This also helps you in overcoming the writers block. There are some days when you cannot think of anything to write. If you write some posts in bulk, it will help you.

3. Encourage blog posting by others

You can allow your readers to participate by being guest bloggers. This will increase their interest as they will get a chance to voice their opinion. It could be an open blog where people can talk about their views on the subject matter. This will bring more readers. This will also reduce your work load.

4. Read others’ blogs

You should go through others’ blogs- it is not just entertaining and educative, but it will also give you ideas about the kind of content you can add to your blog.

5. Add audio/video

With many options available in today’s blogs, you can add audio or video files to your blog as well. These can also be how-to instructional videos for your readers.

By following these tips, you can always keep your blog fresh.

Everyone who owns a website knows the importance of search engines for drawing traffic. Getting your website rated consistently high on a search engine requires meeting several qualifications over a long term period. Although many search engine optimization services promise results through directory submissions or spun articles that are rewritten using a program, real success requires something called Organic SEO. Just like a plant, a websites reputation in the eye’s of a search engine must grow too. Cheating or using illicit methods to promote your website can cause a short term enhancement in your website’s ranking, but it risks possible blacklisting of the site and is no means for growth.
Naturally growing your websites search engine ranking requires time, commitment, and a solid internet presence. Rankings are driven by three things, how often your website is visited, the content which your website has, and links to your website from other places on the web. Your websites content is what drives visits and linking, so be sure to focus directly on quality content.
If you are considering using a search engine optimization service to enhance your r rankings then only use providers that focus on quality content and web promotion. Avoid those who offer questionably cheap services that don’t focus on long-term improvement.
Consider also actively participating in forum discussions. By creating an active presence under a forum that relates to your website you can often draw interested people who will spend more time on your website than search engine traffic. These people will often be return visitors who will actively use and promote your website.
Another way to establish your authority in a certain topic is to run an active blog. Blogs serve as a medium to bring visitors from others websites to you, and vice-verse for your website. By engaging in this mutual traffic process you are allowing other blog owners to post your links where they feel appropriate. By being a part of the blogging network you are dipping your toe into almost every blog related to your topic.