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.