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.