The most essential component of a blog is not only its keywords, but also the timeliness of its content. It is timely content that is going to attract the search engine and also readers. This means that you must have content that is unique, expert or original. When your readers add their own comments and links to your blog this expands the search ability of your content. It should also be content that is focused on one topic and that seems specialized, fresh and new.
Another essential component of Blog content is that it must be up to date, just as any news article is. This is also what marketing and advertising experts call "hot content.” Cutting and pasting articles from other sites simply won’t work because the search engine sites will simply ignore what you come up with. Nobody wants to read yesterday’s news. Or you will get a complaint if the page is indexed in the search engines and the content belongs to someone else. When it comes to hot content, originality is key!
Another crucial reason why your content must be original and fresh is because on the blogging page, your content is arranged in reverse chronological order. The most recent content is presented at the top of the visible page and provides immediate access to topics that are most timely (meaning the blogs you have just written.)
Another great thing about a blog is that it is of a viral nature. It can be distributed for free through an RSS, Atom or XML feed that allow readers to subscribe to your entries just like they would a magazine or newsletter. This means that users can subscribe to blog content. This brings repeat business to your site and increases your chances of the affiliate links inside your blogs of being picked up and spread by other affiliate marketers.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125316.html
Thursday, June 28, 2007
SEO - Can a Blog Based on Personality Be Good SEO?
There are very few people on earth who can get away with writing a blog that is based solely on their personality. Usually the individuals who can get away with this have some sort of reputation that precedes them such as a famous lobbyist, actor, columnist, author or humorist. Blogs that cover too many subjects or whose posts wander all over the place are not as friendly to the big search engine spiders.
As personality based blogs are not really guaranteed in terms of SEO, unless your own name is already highly ranked in the search engines you need to choose a theme for your business blog. If your name brings up zero references when you Google yourself then you are not likely to be a good candidate to write a blog.
Sticking to one theme for a blog is called niche marketing. Remember that a theme can also include different topics. For instance a blog that has a gardening theme could have articles on fountains, growing tomatoes and lawn furniture. The trick is to choose a theme that is broad enough to encompass what you want to sell but not so large that you attract everyone on the web to your site.
Although attracting large numbers of people to your site sounds like a good idea you have to remember that these visitors are more likely to be just surfers and not what internet marketers call targeted traffic. Targeted traffic refers to individuals who are interested enough in your theme to actually point and click and by. Untargeted window shoppers do nothing but strain the capacity of your domain and may even leave unwanted comments on your blogs. Perhaps the Kings of unwanted responses on are those Nigerian scam artists. Usually they are soiling a blog with their spam within days of anyone mounting a blog anywhere on the Internet.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125327.html
As personality based blogs are not really guaranteed in terms of SEO, unless your own name is already highly ranked in the search engines you need to choose a theme for your business blog. If your name brings up zero references when you Google yourself then you are not likely to be a good candidate to write a blog.
Sticking to one theme for a blog is called niche marketing. Remember that a theme can also include different topics. For instance a blog that has a gardening theme could have articles on fountains, growing tomatoes and lawn furniture. The trick is to choose a theme that is broad enough to encompass what you want to sell but not so large that you attract everyone on the web to your site.
Although attracting large numbers of people to your site sounds like a good idea you have to remember that these visitors are more likely to be just surfers and not what internet marketers call targeted traffic. Targeted traffic refers to individuals who are interested enough in your theme to actually point and click and by. Untargeted window shoppers do nothing but strain the capacity of your domain and may even leave unwanted comments on your blogs. Perhaps the Kings of unwanted responses on are those Nigerian scam artists. Usually they are soiling a blog with their spam within days of anyone mounting a blog anywhere on the Internet.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125327.html
Seeing a Blog As a Dual Marketing Tool
Blogging is only successful if you can see it as a dual marketing tool. The third part of the blogging business triad is a dual product. There is the product you are selling on your website (or from others) and then there is your opinion. You can’t sell a product through blogging unless you can convince the reader to “buy” your opinions. Whatever you decide to sell make sure you can back it up with your reputation because when it comes to blogging what you are blogging can be gold.
The trick to writing a great business blog is to realize that you are not just selling your products, you are also selling yourself. If you can’t sell yourself then others are not likely to buy from you. This is why writing a blog can actually be detrimental to individuals who are selling a product they don’t really believe in or who are simply just terrible when it comes to expressing themselves. A lack of enthusiasm is also really damaging and stealing from other sites can actually sabotage your business completely.
Remember that unlike other business situations, blogging means that you have to sell is yourself. Others have to buy into your beliefs and opinions and give you credibility as an expert. If you seem like the type of writer who doesn’t know what he or she is talking about or can’t back up their opinions with research or facts then the blog may even damage your sales.
A successful blog can become a prime piece of web space upon which others will want to post their advertising and links if you can create a blog that attracts thousands of visitors. However keep in mind that in order to keep your readers that you will do much better through convincing them through the written word that you are behind the people who link to you rather than just linking to whoever offers.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125329.html
The trick to writing a great business blog is to realize that you are not just selling your products, you are also selling yourself. If you can’t sell yourself then others are not likely to buy from you. This is why writing a blog can actually be detrimental to individuals who are selling a product they don’t really believe in or who are simply just terrible when it comes to expressing themselves. A lack of enthusiasm is also really damaging and stealing from other sites can actually sabotage your business completely.
Remember that unlike other business situations, blogging means that you have to sell is yourself. Others have to buy into your beliefs and opinions and give you credibility as an expert. If you seem like the type of writer who doesn’t know what he or she is talking about or can’t back up their opinions with research or facts then the blog may even damage your sales.
A successful blog can become a prime piece of web space upon which others will want to post their advertising and links if you can create a blog that attracts thousands of visitors. However keep in mind that in order to keep your readers that you will do much better through convincing them through the written word that you are behind the people who link to you rather than just linking to whoever offers.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125329.html
Some Blog Themes are Better SEO Than Others
If you have absolutely no idea what the theme of your blog should be one suggestion is to look at several indexes of large portals on the Internet and see how they categorize themes and topics. Clickbank at www.clickbank.com provides a good example of what the main topics on earth are. However in general popular blog categories include news, society, culture, politics, religion, ecology, commentary, technology, business to business, art, information, recipes, web site building, humor, how-to, troubleshooting, rants and product reviews.
There are of course some topics that are more difficult to write about and that really do require some credentials or authority. For instance many people are tempted to write about politics, however the problem with writing this type of blog is that you can seriously turn off prospective buyers by maintaining certain opinions. The same goes for religious, medical or technology blogs. The most successful blogs are those who are written by someone who has some kind of expertise about a subject, otherwise you are just another weirdo on the Internet with an opinion.
The idea is to provide expert content on your blog; content that is backed up with research and facts. Remember that you are competing with the real news when you write a blog so it should be as well researched and credit given where credit is do. This means no plagiarizing or paraphrasing other people’s ideas. One mistake that beginning bloggers make is pitching ideas from other sources that are well recognized by readers. Unique information that is borrowed for the purposes of making yourself look brilliant usually makes you look very unethical. In fact the only thing it identifies you as is an expert plagiarist. As a rule of thumb, if you are printing and idea that has been printed before, it is not unique!
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125527.html
There are of course some topics that are more difficult to write about and that really do require some credentials or authority. For instance many people are tempted to write about politics, however the problem with writing this type of blog is that you can seriously turn off prospective buyers by maintaining certain opinions. The same goes for religious, medical or technology blogs. The most successful blogs are those who are written by someone who has some kind of expertise about a subject, otherwise you are just another weirdo on the Internet with an opinion.
The idea is to provide expert content on your blog; content that is backed up with research and facts. Remember that you are competing with the real news when you write a blog so it should be as well researched and credit given where credit is do. This means no plagiarizing or paraphrasing other people’s ideas. One mistake that beginning bloggers make is pitching ideas from other sources that are well recognized by readers. Unique information that is borrowed for the purposes of making yourself look brilliant usually makes you look very unethical. In fact the only thing it identifies you as is an expert plagiarist. As a rule of thumb, if you are printing and idea that has been printed before, it is not unique!
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125527.html
Why Blog Ranting is Bad SEO
Although connecting emotionally with your readers is recommended, it is not recommended that you “lose it” or be too opinionated in a blog. This is because this makes it less business like. Also ranting emotionally about a topic makes you look like an upset sixteen-year-old girl writing in her diary. In gambling they call this “tilting.” An emotional outburst in writing can clear an online room just as fast as displaying immature or raging behavior can in real life. People just don’t tend to trust opinion that is attached to a libidinous display of emotion.
Unless you are a well known columnist or humorist who is selling a book, blogs that take the form of a rant are usually not recommended for a business blog. The structure of this type of writing usually reads like therapy to other readers. If you want to or froth at the mouth about your favorite controversial then you are much better off to write a personal blog. Not that there is anything wrong with personal blogs, its just that the rant is not a particularly effective business marketing tool.
Rants can work if they are liberally sprinkled with effective keywords. One way to write a successful rant on a business blog is to sift through news stories, articles and informational products about your theme or topic and then write a response or your own insights to the “news.”
Also, if you are too emotional on a blog you might discourage others from responding to you. This is because they may not be that enthusiastic about leaving any pings back in case you attack them personally. They also might get the impression that you will remove any opposing points of view form the blog. This is a bad impression to leave as pings (responses to your blog) are a valuable source of natural SEO content on a blog.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125636.html
Unless you are a well known columnist or humorist who is selling a book, blogs that take the form of a rant are usually not recommended for a business blog. The structure of this type of writing usually reads like therapy to other readers. If you want to or froth at the mouth about your favorite controversial then you are much better off to write a personal blog. Not that there is anything wrong with personal blogs, its just that the rant is not a particularly effective business marketing tool.
Rants can work if they are liberally sprinkled with effective keywords. One way to write a successful rant on a business blog is to sift through news stories, articles and informational products about your theme or topic and then write a response or your own insights to the “news.”
Also, if you are too emotional on a blog you might discourage others from responding to you. This is because they may not be that enthusiastic about leaving any pings back in case you attack them personally. They also might get the impression that you will remove any opposing points of view form the blog. This is a bad impression to leave as pings (responses to your blog) are a valuable source of natural SEO content on a blog.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125636.html
SEO - Should You Share a Blog?
Sometimes it is difficult to keep up with a blog especially if your blog is part of a field in which there are many changes or developments such as celebrity news or technology developments.
There are several blogs on the net where several contributors share one blog to make sure it is always fat and juicy and laden with fresh information. In this blog format it would not be unusual to see six or seven lawyers contributing to one blog or a group of book reviewers writing reviews (possibly hired by someone who is linking to a big book store like Amazon.)
Whether or not you want to share your blog comes down to how you want to identify yourself to your readers –as an expert who knows more than the rest or as an expert who is open to other people’s opinions. However these types of shared expert blogs often blossom into genuine information and reference material portals that can bring you a lot of attention, traffic and business. The idea is to not let any other expert that you are sharing a blog with outshine you. Such arrangements work best if a firm schedule is set about whose turn it is to write a blog and if certain themes are assigned by the group and then stuck to so that nobody is treading on anyone else’s toes.
Another possibility is to join a web site that already has multiple blogs on it. This is a good option if you want to build an audience quickly as many of these blog sites, such as wordpress.com all ready have a lot of traffic and your blog is hosted under the umbrella of their advertising. However the problem with this tact is that you don’t have your own unique URL, which can make you slightly harder to find in the search engines.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125662.html
There are several blogs on the net where several contributors share one blog to make sure it is always fat and juicy and laden with fresh information. In this blog format it would not be unusual to see six or seven lawyers contributing to one blog or a group of book reviewers writing reviews (possibly hired by someone who is linking to a big book store like Amazon.)
Whether or not you want to share your blog comes down to how you want to identify yourself to your readers –as an expert who knows more than the rest or as an expert who is open to other people’s opinions. However these types of shared expert blogs often blossom into genuine information and reference material portals that can bring you a lot of attention, traffic and business. The idea is to not let any other expert that you are sharing a blog with outshine you. Such arrangements work best if a firm schedule is set about whose turn it is to write a blog and if certain themes are assigned by the group and then stuck to so that nobody is treading on anyone else’s toes.
Another possibility is to join a web site that already has multiple blogs on it. This is a good option if you want to build an audience quickly as many of these blog sites, such as wordpress.com all ready have a lot of traffic and your blog is hosted under the umbrella of their advertising. However the problem with this tact is that you don’t have your own unique URL, which can make you slightly harder to find in the search engines.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125662.html
SEO - Choosing Blog Fonts and Colors
Part of having a cohesive blog design is to choose one or two fonts and two to four colors and stick with them on your site. The best looking sites are minimalist in design. A site that has too many different types of fonts and colors on it just looks unprofessional.
It is also helps to choose colors that suit your subject areas. Cooler colors such as blues and grays tend to suit blogs that are of a technical, political or authoritative nature. Warmer colors seem to suit more casual subjects. For instance a pink and yellow themed site is more suited to a blog about baby showers than it is to a rant about human rights abuses in Africa.
In general the smaller and more classic your font is, the more it implies authority and respect. An example is Times New Roman or Bookman. Arial, Verdana and Helvetica are middle of the road fonts that are offered with most blog templates as a standard font. The shorter, squatter and larger the font, the less professional your blog will look.
Additionally it is best to stick with fonts that most people would have on their computers. Keep in mind that if a computer cannot read a font it will put your site on a default font so it can be read. This can knock your layout out of alignment and give it an unattractive appearance on other people’s computers. Fonts that any computer can read include Arial, Verdana, Times Roman, Times New Roman, Georgia, Palatino and Tahoma. Keep your layout as simple as possible to avoid distortion of it on other people’s computers as well.
One warning is to stay away from the black hat SEO technique of making your keywords the same color as a web page. The search engine spiders are on to this technique and will penalize your site for it.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125728.html
It is also helps to choose colors that suit your subject areas. Cooler colors such as blues and grays tend to suit blogs that are of a technical, political or authoritative nature. Warmer colors seem to suit more casual subjects. For instance a pink and yellow themed site is more suited to a blog about baby showers than it is to a rant about human rights abuses in Africa.
In general the smaller and more classic your font is, the more it implies authority and respect. An example is Times New Roman or Bookman. Arial, Verdana and Helvetica are middle of the road fonts that are offered with most blog templates as a standard font. The shorter, squatter and larger the font, the less professional your blog will look.
Additionally it is best to stick with fonts that most people would have on their computers. Keep in mind that if a computer cannot read a font it will put your site on a default font so it can be read. This can knock your layout out of alignment and give it an unattractive appearance on other people’s computers. Fonts that any computer can read include Arial, Verdana, Times Roman, Times New Roman, Georgia, Palatino and Tahoma. Keep your layout as simple as possible to avoid distortion of it on other people’s computers as well.
One warning is to stay away from the black hat SEO technique of making your keywords the same color as a web page. The search engine spiders are on to this technique and will penalize your site for it.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125728.html
Blog Layout Templates Are Simple
The great thing about most blogging sites is that they provide you with templates that you can quickly use to design your site. This leaves you hours of time available for concentrating on the search engine optimization aspects of it.
The layout of your blog is a template. This template is going to be the workspace where you contribute blogs for the next few months. In order to prevent this space from becoming cluttered with links, it must be well organized in the first place.
Most blog software or online blogging sites comes with software. This software comes with a number of preformatted layouts that can help you put your links, archived blogs and other information away in an orderly fashion that is easy for readers to navigate.
Many of these templates are also very well designed and allow you to choose your own set of fonts and colors. There is also usually some kind of function that allows you to upload images and even directly create hoplinks. Most blogging sites come with a series of template that will put your blog elements where your readers expect them to be. These templates will allow you to set fonts and colors, decide if you want one gutter or several, and place your own artwork on the page. They will allow you to set up an archive, start a mailing list so your subscribers can be notified every time you post, and provide a standardized structure into which you can add the codes and features that will make your blog unique. Just remember that every blog host and package offers different features (some are simple but don’t allow imported art, some require HTML knowledge but offer great latitude in design).
Just keep in mind to choose a blogging template that does not conflict with your blog’s theme such as one for a teenage girl’s diary!
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125962.html
The layout of your blog is a template. This template is going to be the workspace where you contribute blogs for the next few months. In order to prevent this space from becoming cluttered with links, it must be well organized in the first place.
Most blog software or online blogging sites comes with software. This software comes with a number of preformatted layouts that can help you put your links, archived blogs and other information away in an orderly fashion that is easy for readers to navigate.
Many of these templates are also very well designed and allow you to choose your own set of fonts and colors. There is also usually some kind of function that allows you to upload images and even directly create hoplinks. Most blogging sites come with a series of template that will put your blog elements where your readers expect them to be. These templates will allow you to set fonts and colors, decide if you want one gutter or several, and place your own artwork on the page. They will allow you to set up an archive, start a mailing list so your subscribers can be notified every time you post, and provide a standardized structure into which you can add the codes and features that will make your blog unique. Just remember that every blog host and package offers different features (some are simple but don’t allow imported art, some require HTML knowledge but offer great latitude in design).
Just keep in mind to choose a blogging template that does not conflict with your blog’s theme such as one for a teenage girl’s diary!
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125962.html
SEO - Necessary SEO Objects
“Objects” are a term derived from web design talk for code that is added to your site to create a unique function. A good example is a web counter, which tells you how many people have visited your site.
A more sophisticated site object would be an RSS feed, which allows you to access news feed from another source. The idea is you cut and paste the code into your site and the information changes on a day-to-day basis as it is fed to one of your blog pages. An RSS feed is a useful thing to have on your site as it can link your reactions to current events and news to the original articles. It is also a good idea to have other people link to your RSS feed through a blog.
Another common object is a web ring or blogging form. This is a cheap way to draw traffic to your site. You simply join a ring of sites that have topics similar to yours and when people surf they have the option of clicking through a series of related blogs to get as much information about their site as possible.
As a rule of thumb it is best to put objects that directly relate to your site’s theme at the top of the blog and more utilitarian objects at the bottom. For instance if you have a list of objects that have sent you a number of links but they are not affiliates then you should put them closer to the bottom of the page. Something like a web counter with a high number of visitors on it is best placed at the top of the page as it can convince your readers that others enjoy reading your column too. It can also help convince bigger sites to link with you as well.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125995.html
A more sophisticated site object would be an RSS feed, which allows you to access news feed from another source. The idea is you cut and paste the code into your site and the information changes on a day-to-day basis as it is fed to one of your blog pages. An RSS feed is a useful thing to have on your site as it can link your reactions to current events and news to the original articles. It is also a good idea to have other people link to your RSS feed through a blog.
Another common object is a web ring or blogging form. This is a cheap way to draw traffic to your site. You simply join a ring of sites that have topics similar to yours and when people surf they have the option of clicking through a series of related blogs to get as much information about their site as possible.
As a rule of thumb it is best to put objects that directly relate to your site’s theme at the top of the blog and more utilitarian objects at the bottom. For instance if you have a list of objects that have sent you a number of links but they are not affiliates then you should put them closer to the bottom of the page. Something like a web counter with a high number of visitors on it is best placed at the top of the page as it can convince your readers that others enjoy reading your column too. It can also help convince bigger sites to link with you as well.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125995.html
SEO - Linking Strategies for SEO
It can be difficult to generate unique content each and every day that you sit down to write your blog. This is where RSS feeds and news stories can provide a valuable source of inspiration. Many blogs simply are commentaries on what is going on in the news, rather than an attempt to announce the news. This is because you simply are not a news provider. When you provide news to your readers in this way it is called “filtered” writing.
The best way to take this reactive position as a blog writer is to always dynamically link your commentary to the source of the news story or the article. You can also link to others commenting on the same subject in other blogs. This gets your name and the name of your product out there and raises your search engine page rankings.
The reason you want to always link your ideas is two-fold. First of all the search engines rank you according to the number of links indexed on your site. The more pages it finds linked to yours, the higher your visibility will be in the web search pages. Second of all, showing your readers that you know how to research and give credit where it is due shows that you are a professional. It simply lends you an air of credibility that your readers can respect. This allows your readers to come away from the experience of reading your blog feeling like they know more than they did before they logged in to read your site. They should not feel like they just read what you have on there in the newspaper yesterday.
Whatever the theme of your blog, your readers will expect every entry to be timely, relevant, and accurately sourced. This is why you should check your links regularly to make sure that they are not broken.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125998.html
The best way to take this reactive position as a blog writer is to always dynamically link your commentary to the source of the news story or the article. You can also link to others commenting on the same subject in other blogs. This gets your name and the name of your product out there and raises your search engine page rankings.
The reason you want to always link your ideas is two-fold. First of all the search engines rank you according to the number of links indexed on your site. The more pages it finds linked to yours, the higher your visibility will be in the web search pages. Second of all, showing your readers that you know how to research and give credit where it is due shows that you are a professional. It simply lends you an air of credibility that your readers can respect. This allows your readers to come away from the experience of reading your blog feeling like they know more than they did before they logged in to read your site. They should not feel like they just read what you have on there in the newspaper yesterday.
Whatever the theme of your blog, your readers will expect every entry to be timely, relevant, and accurately sourced. This is why you should check your links regularly to make sure that they are not broken.
Christopher Angus is a SEO and Website Marketer. He can be contacted at: Sales (at) Brilliantseo.com
http://www.articles-hub.com/Article/125998.html
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