It is worth cataloguing the basic principles to be enforced to increase blog traffic and search engine rankings.

1. Create a blog with valuable content, products or services. (Duh…)

2. Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.

3. Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target readers. Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your blog page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.

4. Submit your blog pages i.e. every blog page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if you have the budget, its optional though. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.

5. Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your blog pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your blog is doing.

6. Monitor your competitors and the top ranked blogs to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.

7. Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites or blogs and the keywords they used to find you.

8. Make your readers visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.

9. Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your blog or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.

10. When selling products through your blog, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.

11. When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.

12.Don’t look at your blog as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.

13. Keep your blog design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages (something I just realised recently)

, find what they want and buy products and services.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Search Engine Optimization, Traffic Secrets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.