Your Blog Can Work Harder!

Your blog already does double duty for you by adding content to your website—which Google loves—and drawing people to your website—which you love. But it can do more. And since writing a blog is not the easiest task, why not get every benefit you can?

You’ve probably already optimized your blog site, right? You have your name or website domain in your blog’s URL, and your blog title uses your top-most keywords, as does the short description (inside the HTML meta description tag) about your blog’s main focus.

Naturally, you write magnetic copy, and every post is tagged with keywords and links to at least one other blog items on your site. You also know that every blog entry is the equivalent of a web page, from Google’s perspective, so you’re building your reputation, adding followers and improving your Google ranking all at the same time.

And, of course, you have a sign-up widget, a blog roll, a link back to your website, links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, delicious/Digg/Reddit, etc., an RSS feed and a cloud index. You announce your new blog posts on Twitter and Facebook, HOWEVER . . .

More to do!
There is still more work your blog can do for you!

1. Make sure your website points to your blog, so you get all the credit Google can give you. Your blog host has a page where you can tell them the name of your web domain, and your website host has instructions for setting up the “C-Name record” that networks need to link one place to another . Do the blog site first.

Then, if you can understand the instructions for setting up C-Name record at your host site, do it. (Be aware that the instructions are for programmers and the questions make no sense to the layman.) If you have problems, do not hesitate to call them. If the technical support person does not understand what you are trying to do, call back later and talk to someone else. They do this all the time.

2. Add your blog to your website menu and make sure it is in your sitemap. Again, why not get the maximum Google credit for your efforts?

3. Make your blog a micro-site by adding an About page and a Contact page and other pages for services, products, etc. Give each it’s own URL with keywords, title tag and meta-description.

4. Add a category widget to your site and assign each post to a category. Google loves it, and it lets your reader find topics more easily.

5. Use a picture in each post and include a roll-over description (which pops up if the for some reason the picture doesn’t appear). This gives Google a little more content to feed on. Go into the HTML code and look for the Alt tag (alt=“ ”). Put your description between the quote marks. Don’t forget to use appropriate keywords.

6. Up your keyword density to 2-4% per post, write at least 500 words and use a keyword in the last sentence of your post. Google loves all this.

7. Blog about topics that are of interest to different segments of your audience, so you attract new people to your blog. Be sure to use keywords appropriate for that audience so you come up in Google search engine results for more search terms.

Now you’re really cookin.’ Make that blog earn it’s keep!