Wow! It’s Amazing! You Have Your First Blog

Now that you have trudged through tutorials on developing your blog; learning how to add posts, pages, comments, and choosing the best layout and template, how do you get folks to come on over and check your blog out? When you search for your blog through a search engine why does it seem like you cannot find it without typing its full name into the search engine? How did those other websites get on that first page of search engines such as Google, Bing, YAHOO, AOL, Ask and others?

SEO and Your Blog

Working your blog into top position on search engines requires skill in SEO (search engine optimization). It is the mightiest skill that you will acquire, although one of the hardest to maintain. This is because Google and many other search engines are continuously updated, and the information on SEO can be confusing to a newbie.

However, you are not a shrinking violet and SEO can be easy to use by someone that is determined to learn how to use it step by step, and applying it to their website.

Google and Its Inner Workings

Let’s use Google as our example because it is the leading search engine on the WWW. Almost 20 years ago Google introduced the world to an easier and more efficient way of finding what we want on the Internet. We could go to Google, type in any word and get what we were looking for. Due to the simplicity of this, Google’s fan based grew, and when your fan base grows on the Internet, BAM! You are the leader in the game. Why does this work? Well this little secret will help you along the way.

Google Rankings

Many web developers found out the secrets involved with being on top in Googles search histories, but there were many that did so with the idea of flooding the market with content that was of low quality just so they could seem like the leaders in their markets. This led to Google releasing updates that were created to make it fair for all to be able to be seen. After update, after update, Google finally came up with its Penguin update in 2012 which penalized websites that did not depend on SEO best practices and spammed Google’s search engine denying anyone else the chance of being seen. (for more info type Penguin update into your search engine) Does this update keep you from becoming well known in the search ranking? No, if anything, you now have the opportunity to find out what Google deems a good website that is entitled to be on that first page of its search engine.

Those That Know, Care

There are many just like yourself that didn’t know what to do to make their site grow and become Google-friendly, and now that they have taken the time to develop websites by utilizing smart SEO practices, they are willing to share their knowledge with you. Each year as information is updated, many knowledgeable web-developers add the updated information for those that need it to survive in the big, often-times confusing world of rankings and search engines. The most used study for the SEO factors is found in the Search Metrics Ranking Factors study. This study will point out what the following points mean to your website:

• Backlinks
• Social Signals
• Keywords
• User Experience and more

You can download a copy of this study, which is updated yearly at: http://www.searchmetrics.com/

A Little About Keywords

Although keywords are an important part of search engine optimization, they are not as highly important as content in today’s online market. Throwing keywords all over your webpage that do not correspond to your content, can send your rankings plummeting to the bottom of Google’s heap. Do your keyword research. What are you trying to get your visitors to read and or buy into? If you are a novice, you may be saying, what the heck is a keyword? Well in a word, words. That’s it, keywords are just words. Go ahead, try it. Type any word into Google’s search engine, or the one of your choice and see what happens. The reason we tell you to research your keywords though, is that if you do not choose the right ones you will have lost time and effort on a word that will not raise your rankings and you will be in a maze of newbie hell. Make sure that the keywords you choose are related to your content. Here is a very resourceful online tool to add to your SEO arsenal, it is found at http://tools.seobook.com. By typing in any website in the box provided, let’s say, the website of your competitor, you can find out what are the top keywords they are using and utilize some for your own page. This may seem a little “crafty”, but I would like to use the word, “clever” on your part. It is a big world out there and you have to nudge where you can nudge to get ahead, and this type of nudge is actually legal, and before you know it you will have an enormous list of words, 2-phrase words/ and 3-phase words. One of the reason so many individuals that do online marketing/content creation like Google the most, is how many fancy do-dads they have to offer in the way of software to help with your project. Another tool that is always good to learn to use is the Keyword Planner tool. You get this when you sign up for a Google Adwords account. With this tool you can find out what words, on your crafty list of words, are searched more often on the Internet. Smart huh?

Social Media and SEO

The Social Media network of people out there in WWW land is enormous. If you have not been a part of this grazing field of potential customers or visitors for your site, what are you waiting for? Not only will this increase your ranking, oftentimes this is free advertising. If you have a Facebook page, tell your friends and family to push your page to their friends and family. The best thing about the Internet is the connections we make are so vast. Make sure that your page includes all of the social media icons, I always like to click on “tweet-this” when I like something on a page. Be sure to remember not to be irritating in your presentations of your sites on these social media outlets, spamming too much can be a turn off and you do not want people to start blocking you. One social media site for business professionals that is becoming really hot today is linkedin.com, this site is the place to be if you are interested in business-2-business networking, finding potential help for your business, and joining discussions that can help you get more tips and ideas about growing your website/blog.

The Icing on The Cake-Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a fee software offered by Google to help you keep up with the trends, data, and performance of your site. Building a webpage and not having Google Analytics, or an Analyzing tool of your choice is just plain careless building. You have your bricks with no mortar, your hammer and wood but no nails. How are you going to know if all of the things that you are learning about SEO, or are going to learn, are working if you are not watching what your site is doing. That is equivalent to writing a book, wanting it to sell, and never marketing it. So go to Google, or wherever and get your analyzing tool.

You Can Do This

Well, this is a lot of information to digest, but if you built that website, planned it, picked out all of the right colors and even generated some content that you want the world to see, if you did that? Then you can do what it takes to see that your website is cushioned with what it needs to thrive out there in the big bad WWW when you are not around. Don’t leave it out there all alone sitting in the big wind of the Internet, being pushed around by SEO rich websites. Dive on in, and while you are at it take some of these tutorials that Google offers for free on how to achieve Search Engine Customization.