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Having a top rank in Google is the holy grail for anyone who has a website. Organic Google traffic is free advertising and how most bloggers (especially those just starting out) achieve visitors and traffic to their site. It all comes down to a simple numbers game. Essentially, more traffic = more money-making opportunities from your blog. The question is, how do you get ranked higher for my blog posts using Blogger?

Before I tell you how, let me give you a quick lesson is search engine optimization (aka SEO). There are two main components: “off-page” and “on-page” optimization. “Off-page” SEO refers to tactics such as link building. The more websites that point their links to your blog/website, the better. It’s a democratic way of showing Google that your site must be important if lots of people are pointing to it. Even more important with “off-page” inbound links is the actual link text (anchor text) that is used to point to your site.

Here’s my proof. If you search Google for the term “click here” you’ll see that Adobe Reader and Apple’s Quicktime software are in the top 3 results. Why? Because so many other sites are linking to these two sites with “click here” as the anchor text to download their software. That’s the power of “off-page” SEO which you as a blogger can’t do much about besides writing such great unique content that generates lots of links.

So with “on-page” SEO you have complete control over how well you’re optimized for Google. This includes keywords in your post titles, title tags, using header tags (h1, h2) and other tactics. Now the one we’re going to focus on in this article is the blog title tag.

Title tags are one of the most (if not the most) important “on-page” elements to ranking high in Google. Search engines such as Google weigh the importance of each word in the title from left to right. So ideally you want your blog post title all the way to the left and your actual blog name to the right. Below is a perfect example of how this should look. 

Blogger templates by default don’t come with search engine optimized (SEO) title tags meaning you aren’t maximizing your blog to rank better in Google. If you take a look at your existing Blogger title you’ll see that blogger displays the blog name first then followed by your post title. They have it backwards so let’s get your blog setup properly.

We’re going to have to make a quick edit to your Blogger template which might intimidate some of you but it’s very small and painless. All I ask you to do first is to backup your template just in case you make a boo boo. That makes it easy to revert back without much headache.

Step #1

In your Blogger dashboard, go to “Layout” => “Edit HTML”.

Step #2

In the template code, do a search for this: <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>. It’s usually in the first 5-10 lines of code in your template near the top.

Step #3

Replace that bit of code with the following code:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'>

<title><data:blog.title/></title>

<b:else/>

<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title>

</b:if>

Step #4

Save your template and go back to your blog. Click into any individual post and look at the page title.

All your blogger posts are now much better optimized to rank higher in Google. I’m not going to promise you a night and day difference but you’ve taken a step in the right direction. Now just go post unique high quality content so people searching Google will find your blog first!

There is really no point in marketing your blog until after you have published 15-20 quality posts on your blog. You want people to come back to your blog and if you do not have anything useful or interesting on your blog then your marketing efforts will be useless.

Blogs are so widely used these days that it is not very hard to get traffic to it. You will want to make sure you have already set up a RSS feed through the Feedburner plugin. This is an easy way for people to keep in touch with you.

Here are a several ways to get traffic to your blog right away:

Create Viral Content (Word of Mouth)

People are first attracted to a blog's content. So if you create great content it will spread by word of mouth and people will want to visit you. Some examples of viral content are; How To's, Lists (6 Ways To, Top 10 Reasons, or 3 Must Have), Tutorials. Anything that is new, humorous, interesting or enlightening will usually spread via word of mouth. 

Submit To Blog Directories

There are many directories you can submit your blog to. MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog are among the best blog directories. These two blog directories will help your blog get “found” and help you find other blogs to do the next step…blog commenting. 

Blog Commenting

If you take a sincere interest in others you can get a lot of traffic from commenting on other blogs. The point of blog commenting is to find posts where you can add value. 
Caution: You do not want to come off as “spammy.” So don't just add "great post" or something else generic. Take the time to write a thoughtful comment. 

Blog Carnivals

A blog carnival is where bloggers submit a blog article on a certain topic and all of the articles are compiled on the host blog. It is sort of like a magazine in that a blog carnival has regular editions. Being active in a blog carnival can be a great source of traffic depending on your market. Check out Blog Carnival's list of active carnivals or host one yourself. 

Link to Other Blogs

When you link out to others in your blog posts you create a “trackback” or ping that lets the other blogger know that you have linked to them. In return, most bloggers will visit your blog. This is a great way to meet new people and establish relationships with other bloggers. Be generous and link often! 

Host a Contest

Contests are a great way to get traffic to your blog especially if you have some great prizes. People love to win things so it can be a great way to connect with others and let people know about your blog. 

Forum Posting

Discussion forums can be powerful if you take the time to become a regular contributor. It's not enough to pop into a forum once and expect to see people coming to your site. Find a few forums in your market and visit there a few times and week. Seek to answer questions because this will also help you establish your expertise and credibility. Make sure to add your blog in your signature file. 

Article Marketing

The more articles you have on the web that point to your site – the easier it is found by your target market.

Write keyword focused articles and find places to submit them to. Try to find established Ezines or Newsletters within your target market that will agree to publish your articles. You can also ubmit them to Ezine Articles or Idea Marketers. 

Social Networking

Social media is the all the rage online today. Social networking and bookmarking sites have made it really easy to connect with people and share information. These sites are for making connections and getting to know people. In return you will make friends and these friends can be valuable resources.

The key is to get, and stay involved. You can find social media sites for many different niches. Here are some good sites to start with: Twitter, StumbleUpon, Sphinn, BloggingZoom, Fetch, Linkedin, Ryze, and Facebook. 

Press Releases

If you can find something different or unique about your blog it may be news worthy enough to write up a press release. If done correctly, you can get a lot of traffic and if important enough you might get picked up by mainstream media. Submit your press releases to PRWeb, PRlog, and I-Newswire. 

Team Blogging/Group Writing Projects/Guest Posting

After doing the above on a consistent basis, you will notice that your visitor and subscriber count will be growing and you will have met a lot of people.

These connections are valuable and can help you grow your blog even more. Find bloggers in your market who are willing to team up and write together or allow you to guest post.

Doing all the things above will also help you create backlinks which will in turn help increase your Page Rank, which is what Google uses to determine the relevancy of your blog. You can monitor your backlinks via Yahoo Site Explorer.

You can easily promote almost any type of website using YouTube and other video community websites, simply by creating a basic video which displays your URL and a few other images or informational messages related to your business niche. Posting a short video can create a wealth of free traffic coming from highly targeted visitors who are searching for your specific niche.

When somebody logs onto YouTube, they are prepared to be taken to a video which is going to offer a solution to what they are searching for. So keep that in mind while creating your promo video, you want to send the correct message to your visitors. Providing useful information is the key to getting the visitors to go from your video, to your website.

Each video that you create should be targeted to one specific keyword or key phrase each. If you optimize your video description using your keyword, and also insert your keyword into the title and the tags of the video, then you will have the best chance to rank high in search engines for your keyword. If you can write a well optimized description and title, and then build a few backlinks to the video, using the keyword as anchor text; then you have a good chance of ranking within the top 2 pages of Google if your keyword is not extremely competitive.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your video under 90 seconds long, unless it is a How To video, or something that the viewers are going to be able to watch for an extended amount of time. The worst thing that you can do is create a video that people do not want to watch, that will almost completely eliminate your chances of sending visitors to your sites through the videos.

In order to be able to produce almost an unlimited amount of great videos, you should have a nice set of pictures to use in your video. Using images that send a clear message and also grab the viewer’s attention is a must!

There are free resources online for those who are not familiar with how to create a video. If you have a set of images, you can go to a site called Animoto where they allow you to create a free account and use their free online software to put together a professional quality video at no cost. It’s a very simple process that will create a short 30 second video that you can also upload to YouTube directly from their site.

If you would like to place a link in the description of the video, you can do so by putting the entire URL, including the HTTP into the description box. This will allow the users to simply click the link directly next to the video as they watch it.

Youtube has come out with another great feature which allows users to add annotations to videos. This means that you can display a message on the video screen during any part of the video. This is great for displaying the URL to your website during the end of the video.

There are many great features on YouTube that can help you to drive more traffic to your website. Take the time to experience all of them for yourself, and you can begin to harness the power of free traffic!

Source: http://www.expertsforge.com/Internet-Marketing/promote-your-website-using-youtube-351.asp

Interactivity is what makes the web such a powerful medium and can be one of the most effective ways of engaging your visitors. Call it a form of online ?bonding?. Just as importantly, having your visitors contribute is an ideal way to produce new content on a regular basis. Here are some ideas on how to make your website more interactive.

Subscription
People like to belong. You can offer this kind of experience by having them join a ?club? of some sort, along with certain privileges that come with membership. This may take the form of an email newsletter, entrance to an exclusive part of your site or just to be part of your online community.

Contests
An entertaining way to involve users is to offer puzzles, quizzes, contests or trivia games. Having them tie in to your website's topic of interest is recommended.

Feedback
Offer surveys, feedback forms, questionaires and always a link to a 'contact us' page. User feedback is very important to maintaining and improving your site. I recommend you don't actually display your email address anywhere as it will inevitably be spidered by spam companies.

Discussion Forums
If you can build a community around your website, half your battle is won. This is achieved with online forums. Online communities are self-maintaining organisms - they visit your website regularly, they produce their own content, friendships are formed all within the context of your website. In this situations, it's a case of "come for the content, stay for the community".

Help
Give the visitors an opportunity to ask questions. This can be handled in feedback forms (or even better, in your discussion forum), but a help desk designed specifically for that purpose encourages more interaction. A help desk is a good place to post your FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

Search Engine
You want to make navigation as easy and intuitive as possible - a search form on each of your pages gives the user a one click option to any part of your site they're looking for (in theory). It also encourages the visitor to actively interact with your site rather than more passive hyperlinking.

How can you help your readers know whether your site can really help them? Do you need a web designer to make it happen? Why is content writing for the web different from any other kind of writing? You'll find answers in this article.

Web Design: Scannability

Would it interest you to know that most web users don't come to your site to appreciate the attractiveness of the design? That's not to say that an attractive web design isn't important.

However, the majority of site visitation happens because the consumer was motivated to look at your site to see if you could give them a reason to purchase from your ecommerce business.

The web is based on small resolution sizes. The words read online aren't even as clear as newsprint. The pictures are often low resolution and a computer screen can tax the best of vision.

Practical Application

One of the most cost effective applications this information can produce is that you may not need a website filled with all the toys such as Java Script or Flash design. These tools add spice to your website, but can often detract or even annoy visitors who are simply looking for information they expect to find on your website.
     
A well ordered website can reap incredible rewards for ecommerce business. Effective bullet points, keywords or phrases accented in bold type and an easy to navigate page may have a greater impact on your ecommerce web design than anything.

What this may also mean is that the web design options you can chose from may expand.

Self-Directed Design

You see, if you know what will help make your site better you can self-direct the development of the site through template rich designs that allow you total control over the text in an easy to use environment that does not require the use of complicated code or extended training seminars to use.

Obviously many web design experts would rather have you seek an alternative using their personalized service, but in the end you have a stronger interest in the success of your website than a hired web developer.

If you can utilize the tools available to make your site user friendly and highly scannable you will likely find you can achieve your own success in web design.


     
Writing for the Web

Content writing for web pages is not the same as writing for any other type of content. Thoughts must be compact and content must be scannable.

This means when you write for the web you must help your reader find the subject they are most interested in using a sub-heading or indexing system that allows a quick scan to determine if your web page contains the information they need.

Even if your website does not contain the exact information your visitor wants they may be pleased to know it didn't require extended reading to make that determination. In turn the visitor may venture to other pages of online content to determine if you have the information they need elsewhere on your site.

About the Author: Scott Lindsay - Make A Website in minutes with the Website Builder at HighPowerSites.com. Start a home business and Sell Ebooks at BooksWealth.com.