Internal links can be just as important as backlinks when it comes to blog SEO, the big difference being the amount of control you have over your internal links. You can install a plugin that will add links to related post automatically; however, you have little control over these links.

If you have the time, and if you have a good handle on where you blog has been in the past, it can be a much better idea to add links to your previous posts yourself. If possible, place the links within the content of the post rather than just tacking them onto the end of the post.

As time goes by, don’t be afraid to review some of your older posts with links forward to new posts with relevant content. This can be particularly useful when later posts contain more up-to-date information. The older post is likely to show up in search results so any traffic that flows from those results should find a link to the post with up-to-date information in a prominent place.

Controlling your internal links means you can control where the ‘link juice’ flows. Do this as naturally as possible.

What is the purpose of a blog? More importantly, what is your purpose in hosting a blog? If your answer is purely SEO then I suggest you think again. Blogs can and do help with the overall search ranking of a site when optimized effectively, they are however far more powerful than simple SEO.

Blogs designed for pure SEO are often not terribly user friendly. In fact, whilst they may rate well early, overtime they will struggle to maintain high ratings. Because they are not user friendly, they can scare away more potential business than they attract.

You can often look at a blog as being your receptionist in your business. Most businesses look to hire an attractive yet very efficient person for this role. They are the first and often last person a visitor will see when they visit your business. They are certainly the first person they hear when they telephone.

Your blog is no different. Yes, you optimize it to rank well in the search engines. That is what SEO is all about. Because it ranks well it will receive endless traffic and where is that traffic going, to your blog. The first face the internet visitor is going to see is your blogs. Is it ready? Is it user friendly? Does it say “hi, welcome to …… what can I do for you?”

From your blog, you need to funnel your traffic to your website where the final act can be delivered, be it a sale, newsletter signup or contact form. How your blog is presented will determine whether or not your traffic is funneled to your blog, or back to Google for another search option.

If there is one fact that is hard to dispute, it is that blogs are easier to optimize for search result placement. Done effectively, search engine optimization can take a blog to the top of the search results fairly quickly which results in increases in traffic.

One argument I hear is that this traffic is going to the blog, not to the website and it is through the website that sales are made. This can actually be an error in thinking. Blogs can actually make the sale and the website becomes the portal to complete that sale.

If you can approach blogs as being a part of your sales team and not just an advertising vehicle, your sales will increase and with it your customer loyalty. The interactive nature of blogs helps a website to build relationships with customers and potential customers. If your product or service is of an acceptable standard then you find those customers returning time after time.

Undertaking a good search engine optimization program on a blog is not difficult. Using software such as WordPress, together with plugins desinged to make SEO easier, your blog can start to climb the search rankings fairly quickly. The more pages of good content you provide, the easier it can become. Gaining a ranking does lead to increases in traffic, traffic that is free.

Do blogs help to deliver more traffic to your website? Blogs will only deliver more traffic to your website if your content draws them to it. Having good content with a professional page, a suitable placed call to action and a product/service that is related to your blogs pages will increase your traffic.

What should be looked at is not the increase in traffic. It is the increase in sales that is the most important metric. The extra traffic to your website may only increase marginally compared to the amount of traffic your blog receives. However, that traffic going to your website is often there to close the deal. You can achieve conversions well over 50% from blog traffic. Compare this to the 5-10% conversion from direct search traffic to your website, and your blog is paying for itself very quickly.

Make your blog a part of your sales team and let it do the selling for you - after all, your blog is receiving the extra traffic - make it count.

Some bloggers are quite precise in the way they handle their blogs. They perform very tight blog SEO strategies to ensure their blogs rank as highly as possible in the search engines. Sometimes you can go to extremes and find you are harming you blog or your blogs reputation.

One tactic I have seen used is to turn comments off on certain posts. The reason? They have crafted their post with carefully placed  keywords and they feel that comments will dilute the keyword ratio.

Let’s be clear about one myth about keywords, there is no specific keyword ratio that works better than another. Obviously your keywords do need to appear regularly.  However, to say 10%, or 5% or 7.5% is not accurate. Keywords should appear naturally within the content. Effective blog SEO places keywords in the title, in any headings and then throughout the post.

Will comments dilute this keyword ratio? Probably not. If you feel that comments may dilute your keyword ratio, rather than turning comments off, you can respond to comments using keywords within your response. This can help to maintain your keyword ratio if you insist on using one.

Comments are a valuable component of any blog. It is throught he comment interaction that you can develop relationships with other bloggers. This invariably leads to increases in links,  one of the most important aspects of blog SEO.

Don’t switch off your comments, use them to help your blog SEO program and ultimately boost your rankings.

Most blog SEO articles concentrate on the on-page or on-site SEO activities that can be undertaken to increase rankings and visitors. There are off-site activities that can also help.

One of the best tools for off-site blog SEO is Google’s very own Blog Search.  You can use Blog Search to find other blogs that are ranking for the keywords you are using. Before going any further, there is a downside to using Blog Search. Don’t expect to enter a keyword and find a nice listing of blogs that rank for that search term. Blog search will often return web pages that are not from blogs so you will need to do a little filtering.

Find blogs with posts that are on similar topics to your own and work them. By working them I mean link to them where it will benefit your reader and comment on their posts.

There are two blog SEO effects of commenting. Comments can often (not always with auto nofollow of  many comments) provide links to your pages.  If you comment on enough blogs with comments that are meaningful and add to the conversation, you will find that other readers will come to recognise your name. They will get curious and follow back to your blog.  If they like what they see they will start to comment on your posts and perhaps even link back.  Visitors and Links - that is exactly what blog SEO is all about.

Commenting can be one of the most powerful off-site blog SEO strategies avaiable. The effect of commenting can far outweigh social marketing or social bookmarking especially if you do a time comparison on the two strategies.

Many bloggers leave the structure of their URL’s as the default. When it comes to blog SEO this can be not only a mistake but a wasted opportunity.

Whenever possible, you want each page on your blog to stand out. Blog SEO requires a URL structure that is easily read by your users whilst adding value when crawled by a search engine spider. Default URL’s often include fancy symbols, generally the ? symbol and simply number each page (post). This leaves an untidy URL such as:

yourdomain/wp/index.php?p=77

Not easy to remember and not easy to reference. Of course it would be nice to have a URL that provided a little more information such as:

yourdomain/wp/blog-seo-and-url-structure/

That is nice, neat and easy to remember and easy to access. More importantly,  URL’s like this can have keywords included - an important part of blog SEO.

There are several ways to change the URL structure of a blog. With WordPress there are several plugins that provide you with the option of changing the URL structure.  Consider you URL as part of your blog SEO - there are many advantageous to be had.

One of the fundamentals of blog SEO is gaining quality inbound links. Inbound links may not be all that hard to get particularly if you use article marketing and social networking. The hard part is getting the ‘quality’ inbound links.

There are many arguments as to the worth of link swapping, or link exchanging. The consensus of most in the industry is that, whilst they may deliver extra traffic, when it comes to blog SEO and rankings they have little value - if the search engines determine they have been exchanged.

The problem with link exchanges is that your link often get placed either in a sidebar or buried on a page away from the front page. For blog SEO purposes, this is pretty useless. Quality links are those that appear in content, in context, with appropriate anchor text. That is a lot to ask from someone.

If you frequent any of the social bookmarking or social networking sites then it pays to really socialize. If you can build some ‘close’ relationships on these communities you can do as many others do, create mutually beneficial link exchanges - inside content with appropriate anchor text pointing to individual posts - the cream of links.

When you around the blog world you will start to notice that certain blogs seem to link to other blogs on a regular basis. These loose partnerships are developed over time but as part of your blog SEO strategy, they are very effective. A slight word of caution. Networking should be for the overall purpose of networking, not just personal gain - give as much as you receive - if not more.

Traffic from search engines is important and the only way you can get this traffic is by ensuring your blog SEO strategies are effective. For the novice, these blog SEO basics will help to gain that traffic.

• URL Structure
  Getting your keyword into the URL is important. Re-structuring your URL to keep it simple and clean makes it easier for the search engine spiders to index. Where possible, modify the URL to show the title first with the blog name to follow. For WordPress users there are several plugins that can help to modify URL’s
• Page Titles
  Like URL’s, getting keywords into the page title is important. You have two audiences with page titles, the search engine spider and the reader. You need to make your title catchy enough to attract the reader whilst keyword effective for the search engine.
• Duplicate Content
  Avoid duplicate content at all costs. If your posts are entered into more than one category you may find that the spiders index the content twice - or more. Use the robots.txt file to no index possible duplicate areas.
• Meta Tags
  Be sure your Meta Tags are unique for each page where possible. The page title should appear in the Description tag.
• Image Tags
  Ensure that all images have appropriate alt tags. Also see whether or not the images are placed effectively with related text close by.

Whilst these are only basic blog SEO tips, if you optimize with each of them in mind, you will give your blog a great boost in the search rankings. Depending on the blog software you use, there may be plugins or utilities available to help with these tasks.

If you have a website then the smart thing to do is to have a blog associated with your website. If you have a smart blog SEO program the spinoff is that it can aid your websites SEO program.

Blogs have the characteristics that search engines love, fresh content, a site that appears to be growing at a steady rate, keywords that appear with a host of variations and, with appropriate blog SEO strategies, a lot of inbound links.

You add all those characteristics together with smart blog SEO strategies and you have a blog that ranks highly for a variety of keywords. Links from the blog to website can help to boost the websites rankings as well.

For website owners, the benefits are invaluable. A boost in the websites rankings can lead to an increase in organic traffic. A blog with the correct blog SEO program should also rank well and receive its fair share of organic traffic. If the blog is well setup then much of that traffic can be funneled through to the website with hopefully an increase in conversions.

The biggest plus to website owners is the blogs ability to connect with customers and potential customers along with other related websites and blogs. The dialog  that can be established  can lead  to a real boost in brand or product awareness along with the development of an company’s reputation. Clever use of blog SEO along with social marketing and bookmarking can further that exposure.

The more traffic a blog receives, the more traffic that can potentially flow through to a web site. The more exposure a blog can get, the more opportunities there are for inbound links to both the blog and the website. These are all healthy steps to gaining a high position in the SERP’s which is after all the ultimate aim of both website and blog SEO.

For many businesses, having a blog is an integral part of their marketing strategies. Blog SEO is similar to website SEO where the aim is to get to the top of the search engine results pages.

To achieve this, a company that specializes in blog SEO can provide services that will further the commercial goals of your business. This achieved in a number of ways.

Metrics and statistics are a cornerstone in blog SEO, however, the most important metric of all, and the most honest, is your bottom line. Are you achieving your targets?

The only way to achieve targets is by selling and before any sale can be made, or a lead generated, or for that matter, an inquiry received; your website must be found. Building a web site and maintaining it will not generate any traffic unless you undertake some website or blog SEO programs.

Blog SEO is not simply a matter of submitting your web site to search engines. Sure, you can build the most perfect web site in the world, but they will not come unless your web site ranks for the terms your customers are typing into search engines.

The link between your blog or website, the search engines and the millions of internet users is the blog SEO specialist. Their role is to have your business promoted to a position within the search pages where potential customers can find you.

In simple terms, blog SEO oils the wheels of commerce by bringing potential customer who have already shown interest in a products or services such as yours to your blog or website.

Why do we go to great lengths to undertake blog SEO programs? That sounds like a silly question. We all know that the only way to get a decent placement in the search engine results is by telling the search engine all about us.

So what exactly are you telling the search engines about your blog and what should you be telling them? The term keyword is bandied about alot and yet it is only a descriptor. Search engines want to know more than just a list of keywords. The want to know all about your blog - and that is where blog SEO comes in.

Do you need to tell the search engines what each post (page) is about? No. Search engines are not human, they cannot think or understand meanings. In fact, search engines are only interested in words. They are becoming smarter when it comes to deciphering un-natural word groupings, but they cannot put a word into a picture as a human does.

Search engines are really only focused on word matching. I enter a search term and the search engine goes through its data base trying to find entries that match that word or group of words. The search engine then delivers those results as a list based on the rankings for each page found. Blog SEO is all about (a) telling them that your page exist and (b) getting your page the highest ranking possible.

The word matching process is labeled ‘keyword’. In simple terms, a user enters a search word - called a keyword - and the matching process begins. If your blog SEO has been successful using that keyword then you may well find yourself with a high ranking for that page.

Why undertake blog SEO. To get ranked by the search engines so that internet users can find your pages and come and visit. If no one knows you exist, no one will come. Very simple philosophy, however, blog SEO is darned hard work.

One prime area that can influence your blog SEO is in your comments. This area is often forgotten when it comes to boosting the number of keywords on your page.

The comments sections provides many benefits for blog owners. Its primary function is to provide a communication pathway for your visitors. This communication pathway is two way. Your visitors can leave comments, make observations, leave hints and ask questions. However, I wonder how many blog owners respond to these comments and respond in a manner that boosts their blog SEO.

If you do respond to your comments, do you do so using keywords associated to the page. So long as you do carefully and you don’t look like you are spamming your own comments, dropping the occasional keyword into your comments may make good blog SEO sense.

It must be remembered that comments contain indexable data so why not use them to increase the keyword use in your blog SEO program.

How often do you need to submit your blog to the search engines as part of your blogs SEO strategies? Good question but a very short answer. In reality - once - when you first establish the blog.

Search engines are pretty good at finding information for themselves - they don’t need constant reminders. If you do want to remind them, just submitting your sitemap as a part of a blog SEO strategy is enough to have them come back and visit.

You are better off ensuring that when the spiders do come a trolling, everything is ready for them. Some components are very important and using a spider simulator as part of your blog SEO routine can be a good idea. Spider simulators let you see what the spider sees. This is particularly helpful for identifying broken or super slow pages. These pages may prevent your page from being spidered successfully.

Other on page areas to look at include:

• Meta tags: page title, description and keywords
• Page headings and content
• Keyword use which matches your meta tags for keywords
• Internal links
• External links (that you have some control over)
• Alt and title tags for videos and images

Submitting your site a million times will not improve your rankings and as a part of blog SEO activities is a waste of your valuable time. Spend time optimizing the above points and leave the spidering to the search engines.

Your blog can be likened to a book. A nice cover, perhaps a short bio about the author (you do have an About page don’t you?), and either interesting lead in articles or short excerpts. You work hard, you have the right keywords, you have great content and you are getting traffic through the search engines. Great! Everything is working fine - or is it?

Getting your blog SEO right is only the first step. Good SEO strategies will see you listed on the front page of the search engines and will start to generate traffic. What happens when that traffic arrives on your blog?

I have come across many articles through search engines or social sites, articles that have been good enough to attract me to their site. The problem I have found is that I cannot go any further. Comments are hidden with the link not obvious - often a fancy graphic that blends well with the site - but doesn’t flag itself as a comment link.

Some sites have the ‘Home’ link hidden. Once I have read an article I often like to visit the home page to see what the latest article is - no link - or at least - no obvious link. Like most internet surfers, I don’t have time to hunt around to find these links so I leave the site and move on.

These sites have done everything possible to get me there. Their use of keywords has obviously been good, their blog SEO practices have been spot on - their site has let them down. As bloggers we have to avoid the blinker approach, an approach where you focus all your attention on one aspect of your blog which ends up being detrimental to the overall affect.

Blog SEO is important, so to is content. Your sites design and user friendliness is also just as important. Once you have attracted your visitor you want to keep them for as long as possible before finally moving on - preferably through a convenient link. Don’t stop just at keyword optimization - work on your whole blog.

Interesting question.  Do you concentrate on the various blog directories or do you concentrate on blog SEO? The real answer is most likely, ‘both’.

If you are wondering where you should concentrate your efforts then I suggest you forget the terminology for now. The real question becomes, do you concentrate on people (blog directories) or search engines and their spiders (blog SEO).

If you are looking to concentrate on people then your blog needs to reflect that. The content needs to be written in a user friendly manner. If your main focus is search engine rankings, your content needs to be keyword rich. Whilst you can write friendly keyword rich articles, it can become very taxing trying to produce it on a daily basis.

I hate to sound like I am sitting on the fence, however in this case I going to have to suffer a few splinters. I don’t see why you cannot do both, but in a less taxing manner. Write your articles in a user friendly manner; make sure there are an adequate supply of keywords within the articles. Whenever possible, write a full keyword rich article.

The user friendly articles, whilst still containing keywords, are going to keep your readers coming back. If you have the occasional keyword rich but slightly reader unfriendly, your reader are not going to be to troubled. It is the overall image that is going to be important.

What is your preference and does your blog reflect it. Writing for the masses enables you to use the various blog directories to their fullest. Writing for search engine spiders may not attract the masses but it will place you highly on the results pages for the various search engines. Write for both, and you will have one of those special blogs that attracts thousands of visitors each and every day.