Writing a blog means writing about what you know and then making sure it is keyword analyzed. None of these tips cost me money, only time. If you’ve got the time, you can optimize your blog into a substantial income generating machine. The following tactics are what I do to give the search engines something to crawl about as well as to make money. Here are 20 Free SEO Tools that will increase your traffic, give you higher page rankings in the search engines and convert readers into customers.
1. ARTICLE MARKETING: There are hundreds of article directories that need articles on almost any subject you can think of. In addition, article writing is a great way to drive targeted, highly responsive traffic to your blog. I turn every blog post into a keyword dense, promotional information piece guaranteed to create traffic. Doing this will not only strengthen your search engine visibility, it has been known to increase sales. But, best of all, it’s absolutely free.
2. BACK-LINKS: These are links that link back to your blog. I make it a practice of reading at least 1-2 blogs a day that my peers create. When I read something I’m interested in, I comment on it then follow up on the comment with an email to the Blogger requesting a link exchange. The theory is, if a blog has enough relevant links linking back to it, your search engine page rank will increase, therefore causing more traffic sent your way, as well as it boosts credibility to your blog.
3. SIGNATURE ON EMAILS: I know this is old, but it works. Each time I send an email, I include my blog link under my name. Most email programs allow you to include signatures. Great promotional tool to use when you are forwarding those wacky emails to all your friends.
4. PUBLISH A NEWSLETTER: Your subscribers are loyal to you and will be more likely to buy the things you recommend to them because they trust you. Use your built in list to market your favorite products and services.
5. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING: DIGG, SPIN, SCOOP, DE.LICIO.US, TWITTER, DROPJACK, REDDIT, SIMPY, etc.
Social Bookmarking is becoming the new method for surfers to find information on the internet. Make your blog posts easy to find by submitting your posts to as many social bookmarking sites as you can and watch your traffic grow.
6. FORUMS: Answer questions in forums and discussion groups. Yahoo! Answers has a wonderful method to publicize your blog by allowing you to present your advice to people posing serious (and not so serious) questions on a variety of topics. They even allow you to include your link in your answer.
7. LINK REFERRAL: A traffic magnet that I use daily. I review other business websites, give honest opinions, and in turn I receive targeted traffic. Tip: Use your forum to post and respond to questions. This gives you an added bonus.
8. MY BLOGLOG: Kind of a social bookmarking-blog-traffic enhancer site. I just signed up yesterday and I received 20 visitors in the first 30 minutes. Join Inforids on MyBlogLog
9. SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION: Using Web CEO, I submit my site to all the major and minor search engines. There is a free version as well as a paid version. However, I find that the free version suits my professional needs.
10. BLOG OPTIMIZATION: Again, Web CEO comes in handy. I use it to correct errors that my eyes can not see. It is the program to use that will remedy the nuts and bolts of any website or blog.
11. KEYWORD DENSITY: Should be at least 3% in order for the search engines to crawl your site.
12. BLOG DESIGN: Having a clean site design that is uncluttered and easy to navigate doesn’t hurt. Don’t ‘crowd’ your site with an over abundance of advertising, the search engine spiders might consider your blog to be spam if you do.
13. CONSISTENT BLOG POSTING: The recommendation is to post at least 3-4 times per week. Personally, I post Monday – Friday, treating my blog like a job. It helps cure any procrastination urgings I might feel.
14. RELEVANT CONTENT: It is imperative that you create relevant content. Don’t mix a potpourri of information on a blog that is supposed to be about digital cameras. Resist that temptation to step outside of the box, instead contain your flow of information as it relates to your niche subject.
15. RELEVANT ADS: This is also true for the type of advertising you allow on your blog. Health and vitamin supplements don’t belong on a blog about video email software.
16. DEEP LINKING: Create strong internal links to other blog articles in other postings. The search engine spiders love this. It allows them and your readers to crawl around your blog longer and deeper.
17. RSS FEEDS: Use FeedBurner to help distribute your blog to the rest of the blog reading world. RSS Feeds are like hungry virtual Venus fly traps waiting for your information to satisfy its information craving. Use it to your advantage and create strong backlinks as well as free distribution of all your content.
18. USE KEYWORDS, TAGS AND LABELS: Tagging creates a point of reference for your reader as well as the search engines. Remember when we were children and we played the game of tag? Getting tagged then was bad; however having tags for your blog posting helps to categorize your work; it helps readers find what they are looking for.
19. BLOG POPULAR: Give your audience what they are looking for. There are times when I go to what’s popular on Yahoo! or I will just use Web CEO to tell me what all the search engines are showing as popular for the day and write an article or blog about that (I keep the topic relevant to my content though.)
20. COMMENTING: Yes, Comments are the great source of traffic to your blog. So, comment on high page rank blogs like mad, also pay some attention on your comment writing style & its relevancy to the topic.
Ok, these are just 20 Free SEO Link Building Tips (by LaTease Rikard). Let us know if you have more, put comments below, the list is always free to grow!
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