SEO Tips # 202 – Blogging

For most Blogs, daily updates are probably best, but weekly or even monthly updates might work just as well, depending on your topic and subject matter.

In either case, stick to a schedule. If you usually post daily but sometimes let weeks go by without posting any new content, you’ll lose many of your readers.

Remember SEO principles apply to Blogging too plus you have the added advantage of regular robot visits if you stick to your schedule consistently.

SEO Tips # 201 – Adding the new content

Remember the ultimate way to add new content, articles and focused information is on a regular, consistent basis.

For example rather than dumping 8 new articles on your site all at once, try to publish them in cycles of one new article each week or even one new article every two or three days.

Make this process a habit and the search engine spiders will be visiting you consistently and crawling your site deeper and you will see some significant benefit by the time you reach 80 to 100 pages of well written content on your site (including some boosts to relevancy.)

Steady consistent updates at regular intervals replicates the effect and benefit of “news” related sites. With news, there are new stories and information constantly being published and updated. Make your Web site literally a buffet for the search engine spiders as well as for your visitors too.

What does Google have to say about Web sites that contain little or no original content?

Source : ( Google Webmaster Support Forum )

One of the most important steps in improving your site’s ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content.

However, some webmasters attempt to improve their page’s ranking and attract visitors by creating pages with many words but little or no authentic content. Google will take action against domains that try to rank more highly by just showing scraped or other auto-generated pages that don’t add any value to users. Examples include:

  • Thin affiliate sites: These sites collect pay-per-click (PPC) revenue by sending visitors to the sites of affiliate programs, while providing little or no value-added content or service to the user. These sites usually have no original content and may be cookie-cutter sites or templates with no unique content.
  • Doorway pages: Pages created just for search engines
  • Auto-generated content: Content generated programatically. Often this will consist of random paragraphs of text that make no sense to the reader but that may contain search keywords.
  • Scraped content: Some webmasters make use of content taken from other, more reputable sites on the assumption that increasing the volume of web pages with random, irrelevant content is a good long-term strategy. Purely scraped content, even from high-quality sources, may not provide any added value to your users without additional useful services or content provided by your site. It’s worthwhile to take the time to create original content that sets your site apart. This will keep your visitors coming back and will provide useful search results.

There is no problem in being an affiliate as long as you create some added value for your users and produce valuable content that gives a user a reason to visit your site. For example, you could create product reviews, ratings, and product comparisons.

If your site has been removed from our search results, review our webmaster guidelines for more information. Once you’ve made your changes and are confident that your site no longer violates our guidelines, submit your site for reconsideration.

A Wordtracker keyword research question….

QUESTION: Why do you recommend that people use Wordtracker with the “” quotes turned on? I think I can find more words with the quotes turned off.

ANSWER: Your objective in research for organic optimization is not to collect thousands of keywords.

When you leave the quotes in Wordtracker turned on, it forces the keywords to be considered as “whole phrases” or “clusters of words” that are very revealing. They are often much more telling than single words and will often reveal interesting content opportunities.

Now if you are searching for huge lists of words for some other reason such as PPC? That might be fine, but I still find more interesting and revealing behavioral trends with the quotes on.

One person caught me by surprise one day when they said they were not using Wordtracker for SEO research or optimization. Apparently they were creating crossword puzzles! Go figure.

In any case, we teach students how to look deeper than researching keywords. We believe that it is much more powerful to research exactly how keywords are being used to reveal search behavior.

Quotes of The Day

…in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work.  - John Ruskin

It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either.

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. – Mark Twain

Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invaribly they are both disappointed. – Albert Einstein

“Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands – and then eat just one of those pieces” - Judith Viorst

“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” – Bertrand Russell

Time is God’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. - Anonymous

“I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time.” – Anna Freud