A Simple Blogger SEO Trick

If you use the Blogger platform for your blog there is a simple SEO trick you should be aware of.
A basic principle of Search Engine Optimization is to feature your keywords in your URL. Missing out on an opportunity to have you keywords featured is a disaster.

Despite the fact that the URL of each individual post is automatically generated,understanding how this is done can let you manipulate the result.

When your blog post is first saved by Blogger, the URL is created and is fixed permanently - you cannot edit it later. The URL is formed by a combination of your home page URL and the post title. If your blog is "YourBlogTitle.blogspot.com" and your post title is "Everything I have learned to date about Boating" the URL for this post would be something like - "www.yourblogtitle.blogspot.com/2010/08/everything-i-have-learn"

Look at what was included in the URL. The year and month are added: - No real SEO value there, and in fact they would dilute any keywords that did feature. The start of your title was added but due to the limit on characters the end was removed. Critically, the whole subject of the post and the primary keyword "boating" was not featured.
This is going to put your post at a disadvantage for search engine traffic looking for boating even if the content is good. The automatically generated URL is light on keywords and unrelated to the topic of the post.

How To Do It Right:
Before you start your post, type your keywords into the title space then click "Publish Post".
This saves your post and generates it permanent URL. By typing "Boating" then publishing, your URL would then be:
www.yourblogtitle.blogspot.com/2010/08/boating

Now that your keyword is locked into the URL you can go back and edit your post, adding your originally planned lengthy title.
This is a simple manipulation that can make a big difference in the SERPs.
I bet you wish you had known this earlier.

Indexed, Promoted, Why Stress about Content?

There is a common argument played out on forums every day. Which is king? Content or Backlinking?

My answer is simple. Backlinking is great, and effective at improving your SERPs, but backlinking yourself is not as effective as others backlinking for you.

Why would others do your work for you? The same reason search engines value backlinks. A backlinks is seen as a vote for the content of a particular site. Bad content may get a few adsense clicks before it is lost in the mass of information that is the internet. Quality, engaging content that offer value to the reader will be linked to on social bookmarking sites, emails and blogs. This will see its authority rise and an increase in traffic will result.

So which is better, content or backlinks? Both are important. But if you ask me, I prefer it when others do the work.

If you are going to bother, write quality, original content and you will see the rewards.

Waiting to be Indexed

When you start a new site from scratch your first goal is to be indexed by the major search engines. If you don't promote your site, eventually the search engines will probably find it but you will be waiting a while. Building backlinks from other sites that are already indexed leads the search engine spiders to your site and speeds up this process.

On top of that, once your site is indexed, all of these backlinks help build your site's authority, improving its position in the search engine result pages.

There is a third benefit as well. Readers follow backlinks to your site. Before indexing, these referrals will be your only source of traffic. I use the example of a recent blog I started. I bought a .info domain name for $1, then used the free hosting available on the blogger platform (I often use this combination to test the water on new topics as it gives the benefit of a custom domain for only $1 for the first year. Domain registration goes up the following year but generally 1 year gives you an idea if the niche will be profitable).
Looking at the period before indexing by Google, the blog received over 900 unique visitors and direct adsense earnings were a little over $5. As many of the backlinks created were on revenue sharing sites such as SheToldMe, there was other indirect revenue generated as well.

$5 does not sound like much but if the entire cost of your sites domain and hosting for the first year is only $1 it is not a bad ratio. Given the fact that organic traffic converts much better than referral traffic, it is safe to assume that site revenue will dramatically increase once search engine traffic arrives.
Using this method, the second year domain / hosting cost is around $10. If you can also cover this cost within the first few months of a site's lifespan, there is plenty of time for the site to generate profit in the remaining period. I am now finding that after 2 years, the bonus search engines give to "aged" sites makes even average sites too valuable to let go.

The bottom line is that you need to wait for a new site to be indexed. By using revenue sharing sites and creating backlinks, the same techniques that speed up your indexing also drive traffic to your site and can cover the cost of running the site before the real game even begins. If your new site pays for itself for the first two years before you even begin to receive organic traffic you are maximizing your chance of realizing a respectable return.

Something to consider.

Diversify To Protect Online Income

To be successful at earning an income online you need to build your organic traffic.
Organic traffic converts much better than traffic referred from social bookmarking sites such as digg and stumbleupon which are also nofollow links.

The problem with organic traffic is that it will always remain at the mercy of the search engine algorithms. The internet is constantly evolving and search engines need to evolve with it. Website owners do all they can to positively influence the search engine results to promote their site. The search engines focus on delivering the most relevant results to their users and aim to prevent lesser quality sites from manipulating the system.
This means that one day you will be on the first page of google, receiving the traffic this brings then the next you are nowhere to be found as their algorithm changes.

You never know when a website is going to suffer as a result of algorithm changes or receive a penalty due to undesirable practices in the eyes of google.
Because of this I am continuing to diversify my online presence. A quick check recently saw that well over 50% of my adsense revenue is coming from the one site - hubpages.
I love this site because the articles I post their get such a boost in the search engine results making it (currently) the easiest place to begin earning online. I am becoming more aware that I have a lot of eggs in the one basket and if the favorable light search engines see hubpages under was to change, my income could suffer.
Anyone looking long term should be looking to diversify publishing content in a variety of places online. This includes your own websites and blog as well as third party publishing platforms like hubpages. Not only do you decrease your risk but you build an increasing number of locations you can use in future to backlink to your new sites.
So apart from all of my own sites and blogs where am I writing?

The usual suspects including:
Infobarrel
Xomba
and
Squidoo


Plus I am trying some of the newer sites including...
The Infomine
Earnwrite

I am also trying a new freelance publishing site (for the committed only) that charges an annual membership fee of $23.88. Articles making the front page pay between $10 and $100. I normally steer clear of such schemes unless I have a lot of time to dedicate to the venture but the site only went online in June 2010 so there is little competition. Getting on at the ground floor can pay off so I am having a go in the name of diversification. It is called Fortitude.

These are just a few options but how many you use depends on the stage of your online "career". If you are starting out, easy is best. You have nothing to lose so go for the easiest way to get a start. This means hubpages.
Once you have used this site to learn the basics (check the forum for beginner tips) the next move would be to start developing your own blogs. See this post for advice on this.
Only after these two bases are covered, your revenue starts to increase and you have regular traffic, is it time to diversify. Having said that, due to the boost search engines give "aged" sites, the sooner you start the better.
For me, the time spent writing on sites other than my usuals is time well spent when you are in it for the long haul.

Don't Forget Internal Links

When everyone is talking backlinks, backlinks, backlinks it is easy to forget about internal links. It is wise to remember that search engine results are not based on one or two variables. By some reports there are hundreds, each with a different weighting.

Backlinks are an important component but to be successful you need to consider more.

It is likely that on small websites with one or two pages that internal links contribute little to SERPs. If you are writing on large publishing sites with hundreds of thousands of pages, internal links will take on a new importance.

If I am testing the water on a new topic with a blog I may or may not commit to, I often don't bother to link internally more than those links that are automatically generated. When I intend to continue posting long term, I try and start the internal links when I start the website or blog.

I often praise Hubpages as great place to publish content online. The reason for this the massive boost it gives in the search engines. New writing can be indexed in hours or days rather than months. On top of this is the secondary boost received by content after it has "aged" - generally from 6 months to a year after publishing.

This effect can be greatly improved by internal linking. Creating a web of links between related articles using appropriate anchor text has real value. I have literally dozens of articles published there that have a PageRank of 2 with the occasional 3. This network leads to significantly more traffic but also has a secondary role.

If at any time in the future you decide to create your own website on this niche topic, you have a ready made source of quality resources to backlink to your new site.

If a site has high authority like hubpages, linking to your own work, or having others link to you, is like a mini version of the internet itself. Your pages will be seen as the important ones on the site and be given a boost.

Remember, the more variables a search engine algorithm has, the more you can get an advantage over the masses by mastering a significant component. Keep this in mind when starting a long term blog or writing on a site like Hubpages.

How To Correctly Use Revenue Sharing Sites For Backlinks

There is much written about the benefits of backlinking but are you getting the most out of your links?

When building your own backlinks you should have a few priorities:

Ensure they are Do Follow links

The higher the site PageRank the better

Use Adsense Revenue sharing sites to create additional income.

Once you have chosen a number of sites you can go ahead and create your backlinks. What you need to be aware of is that like most things on the internet, there are good ways and bad ways of doing this.

When creating backlinks you are hoping for two benefits.

1) Some people will follow the link and you will receive a small amount of traffic this way.

2) The backlinks give your site more authority and help drive organic traffic. This is your primary goal and the most important aspect of backlinking.

Writing Backlinks: - The basics

• You want the title of your backlink to contain your keywords but NOT be the same as the title to you primary content. Try and paraphrase your title in a form that would be a potential search request. If your original content was called "How To Blow Your Nose", create backlinks such as "Blowing Your Nose", "Blowing Your Nose - The Benefits", "Learn To Blow Your Nose" etc.
• If the backlinking site allows you to create links from within the text, make the most of this opportunity. The words you choose are called the 'anchor text' and these should be your keywords. You should NOT use "click here" or something similar. The value of you backlink is increased by using the appropriate anchor text.
• Do not cut and paste to quickly create the same backlink at multiple sites. This is a waste of time. You need original text with each link. They can be similar but not identical.

You can use sites like SheToldMe and Redgage which share revenue but do not allow you to choose anchor text. Complement them with sites like Snipsly, also adsense revenue sharing but with the ability to create multiple links with your chosen anchor text. This will give you a good variety of keyword rich backlinks from multiple sites all pointing to your primary content. By using Redgage you can also have all of you links automatically posted to Twitter, thereby creating links to your links.

With practice you can create a unique backlink in just a minute and you should try and get into the habit of making three or four quick links to every new bit of content you post online.

What Does Do Follow Mean?

When it comes to promoting your work online, the term "Do Follow" is all important.

Do Follow is an attribute associated with links between sites. Any link on the internet is either Do Follow or No Follow.

No Follow does not mean that the link does not work. As an internet user, you notice no difference between Do Follow and No Follow links - both take you to the designated site. The difference occurs when Google's search engine spider crawls the site.

A link that is Do Follow counts as a backlink and as such give authority to the site that is linked to. This helps it place higher in the search engine results pages.

A No Follow link still takes the reader to the destination site but in the eyes of google does not count as a link and so does not build authority for that site.

This does not mean that No Follow sites should be discounted completely when promoting your work. Famous sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon are No Follow and can drive traffic to your site. Unfortunately, apart from the direct referral traffic you receive from these sites the links are worthless when it comes to improving your search engine rankings.

There is a point that should be noted here: Do Follow and No Follow apply to Google only. Yahoo and Bing do count No Follow links although it is likely they have less weight. The whole discussion about Do Follow links is important mainly because of Google's massive market share.

OK - Now you know what a Do Follow link is - or do you? Some sites have links that start out as Do Follow only to change to No Follow links after a period of time. One such site is Xomba.com

You get an initial boost and ongoing traffic from a link there but no permanent ranking help. This does not mean the site has no value, you just need to take this into account when allocating your time.

Do Follow Sites I Use:

Shetoldme: Do Follow links with adsense revenue sharing and good PageRank. Quick and easy to use as only short summary required. Lasting results. Should be your first choice for instant backlinking.

Hubpages: Excellent authority and ease of use but full length article need to be written. Two links to any domain allowed before the article is deemed "overly promotional". Articles here get indexed very quickly by google and they offer revenue sharing on both adsense and amazon. Hubpages is my favorite place to write articles of length and it offers writers a much quicker way than blogging of monetizing their work.

Snipsly: Quick bookmarks with adsense revene sharing.

Redgage: The fastest of the lot to create backlinks with the added benefit of linking to twitter to automatically tweet all of your posts. They also have a non-direct form of revenue sharing.

This is a short list and I have only included sites that offer both Do Follow links and revenue sharing to maximise your use of time. There are plenty more Do Follow sites that don't offer revenue sharing (like DoFollowDigg) that you can use for backlinks if time permits.

Remember that if you write quality, original content, other will link to your site for you and that is when your site truly does well in the SERPSs. Try and get into the habit of backlinking to every post you write from each of these sites. You will definitely see the benefit in the long run.