The 4 Big Tactics I Used To Optimize My Blog

Finally, I am getting a hang of this blog thing! I figured out exactly what I want the personality and style of my blog to be, as well as what content I am going to use to fill my posts. The only problem is... I need more people to find and look at my blog (other than my mom, that is). So the next step is to use search engine optimization to make my blog more findable, which will in turn generate more traffic through my website. I’ve mentioned four things below that I did to optimize my blog to (hopefully) generate more publicity. My most recent blog post, titled "Just Checking, Pub Loo Shocker" can be viewed here.

• Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool

I used Google AdWords Keyword Tool to figure out what the most popular search terms were that pertained to my blog, and I tried to incorporate them into my most recent post. For example, I typed in the phrase "Pub Loo Shocker" (the name of the PSA mentioned in my post), and the tool suggested that most people searched terms like "alcohol" and "drunk driving", which is pretty related to my post. When talking about my Cheerio spot, instead of using "ad", the tool showed that "tv commercial" is more frequently searched. Instead of loading up my post with the most commonly searched keywords, I used them sparingly and efficiently. According to one of the NMDL resources, "10 Basic SEO Tips To Get You Started", you do not want to be accused of spamming your post with keywords because search engines are trained to ignore posts that are overly stuffed with the most common search terms.

• Change the URL to Be More Search Friendly

This Google SEO Starter Guide provided me with a few tips to create a search friendly URL. Without making the thing too lengthy, I used a few keywords to make it more searchable. Instead of the URL ending with [/just-checking-pub-loo-shocker], it ends with [/cheerio-controversy-and-drunk-driving-psa]. Isn't the second post a little bit more searchable? I feel that I may need some more work on building a perfect URL, but this is definitely a good start.

• Create External Links

A good way to build some exposure is to get other articles and posts to link back to your post! For the assignment, I created a Squidoo lens that explains how I chose my topic for writing my NMDL blog. I created the lens before I read over how to create efficient URLs (check it out at http://www.squidoo.com/how-i-decided-what-to-blog-about), but I was at least able to create an external page that links back to my blog. I also tweeted about my blog to ask my followers to give it a peek.

• Provide Easy Ways to Social Bookmark My Blog

I wasn't entirely aware of what social bookmarking was until I read through the readings assigned for the week. Come to find out, I've been using them all along! Digg.com and Reddit are two of my favorite social bookmarking websites, and I would love to see my blog make it to their front pages someday. The "Top Social Bookmarking Plugins for Wordpress" showed me that I have the convenience of adding buttons to the bottom of my posts, allowing readers to share my stories with their favorite social network or bookmarking site.

While these tips have helped me begin to pave a path to use SEO efficiently, I know that I still have a lot to learn about the technique behind properly optimizing my blog. Hopefully I can continue to generate fresh posts that will be in top search results and be shared more and more often!

NMDL Sources:

11-3: Google's Starter Guide for SEO! (pg 214), http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html

11-6: 10 Basic SEO Tips to Get You Started (pg 215), http://www.businessinsider.com/10-basic-seo-tips-everyone-should-know-2010-1#keywords-keywords-keywords-2

12-9: Top Social Bookmarking Wordpress Plugins (pg 225), http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/top-social-bookmarking-wordpress-plugins/