6.5 Search Engine Optimization

Any blog owner who wishes to get traffic without constant promotion and marketing will have to use some form of search engine optimization. While search engine optimization is a hotly debated topic, most experts agree on two things: in order to best optimize for search engines, you must establish reciprocal or one-way inbound links; and you must also optimize the content on your pages for specific keywords.

The first phase of any search engine optimization project is researching those keywords. Before you start to optimize, you must determine which keywords will pull the most traffic for the least amount of effort. You can do this by purchasing a subscription to Word Tracker or you can do this by using Overture Inventory to search "aggregate search" records for all possible keywords for which you could potentially optimize your blog. Record all of the returns you receive for an Overture Inventory search you perform on your given keyword. Your next step will be to analyze the site or page supply for your keywords. You can do this by searching for each of the returned keywords on Google. Not only will you want to record the search return data in terms of numbers, but you will also want to look at the top competitors for those keywords (i.e., are the PR 9 home pages or are they a deep page for an unranked site?) Optimal keywords for search engine optimization purposes will have high search counts, low site returns, and low-quality competition in the top slots.

Your next step should be to perform onpage search engine optimization. You can do this by using your selected keywords as titles and headers on different pages of your blog. You will then want to fill those pages will good information about the keyword in question; additionally, you will want to optimize it for a keyword density of 1.5%.

The last step in your search engine optimization campaign is to perform offpage optimization. You can do this by submitting links to directories that contain a selected keyword in the link title. You can also join link swap programs and swap with other high-quality blogs.