Optimizing your Blog for Google Search

In addition to participating in the AdSense network, you may also be
interested in having your site ranked in organic Google search. In this post,
I'll highlight some important points for search optimization. While there's no a
magic formula to make your site show up first on a search results page, there
are some good practices when it comes to links, design, content, and the
structure of your site.

First of all, as a reminder, Google organic search and AdSense are independent
of each other. Displaying AdSense ads on a site won't change the ranking of the
site in Google search in any way. So it follows that sites containing AdSense
ads don't receive special treatment in Google search.

Ranking in Google search is based on many different algorithms, and optimization
for search is a long, continuous process. For these reasons, and because the
techniques might

violate our guidelines, we recommend avoiding any techniques that claim to
optimize your ranking very quickly or radically. If you have concerns or
questions, you can consult other webmasters on a number of forums, including
Google's official
forum for webmaster-related issues.

We encourage you to monitor the quality of your site's backlinks -- links from
any site directing to your site. To increase your site's popularity, check if
other sites that discuss similar topics or have a similar reader base are aware
your site exists.

Outgoing links are also important and should comply with our

guidelines. When you create a link to another site, we recommend first
asking yourself: "Is this link going to be useful for my visitors?" or
"Is this link likely to be clicked by my visitors?". Don't participate in
link schemes or buy/sell links that pass PageRank, as it is against our
guidelines and may hurt your site's performance in our search results.

Here are some tips for structuring your site:

• Your pages should have a clear hierarchy and relevant internal links. We
  also recommend
  
  creating a Sitemap and using
  Google's
  Webmaster Tools. These tools are useful, user-friendly and will provide
  information such as where your backlinks come from or which queries visitors
  used to reach your site.


• tags that are explicit and useful for the user. For example, avoid a
  title like "Homepage" or "Welcome to my site".Use


• For images, use ALT attributes to describe appropriately what the image
  is about. We've recently created a quick and useful
  YouTube video on
  this topic.
  

Also, adding original and compelling content on a regular basis may help Google
crawl your pages regularly. It can have the added benefit of attracting links to
your pages too. Finally, design your site with your users in mind, and be
patient and consistent in your efforts. To attract quality backlinks and develop
your optimization strategy, it's important to keep a clear structure for your
pages and regularly add organic content. The above
content has been written by "Ambroise Fensterbank - Search Quality Evaluator" at
Google Adsense Official Blog
If you liked the above content and would like to
keep yourself updated about all the latest happenings in the blogosphere then i
would suggest you subscribe to my RSS Feeds or Email Subscriptions.

Google Analytics - Your Blog Analyzed

While your current website host probably already provides some basic information, here are just a few of the reports that Google Analytics has to offer:

• New Visitors vs Returning Visitors


• Absolute Unique Visitors


• Average Pageviews per Visitor


• Average Time spent on Site


• Traffic Sources (Referring Sites)


• Visitors Geographic Location


• Keywords used to find Your Site


• Most Popular Pages


• Top Exit Pages


• Track Your AdWords Campaigns

First you will need a Gmail account if you don't already have one. Then you will
need create a Google Analytics Account. Installing Google Analytics does not
require knowledge of HTML, but there is a piece of HTML that must be copied onto
every page you wish to track.

• In the lower left hand side of the screen, Click on: Add Website Profile


• In the box, enter your URL. (For example: www.yourwebsite.com or
  yourblog.blogspt.com.)


• Set your Country and Time zone, and hit Continue.


• Your Tracking code will then be displayed in a large box:


• Highlight the code and Copy.

If you have a web designer maintaining your site, you can copy the tracking code
into an email and have them copy the code into a header or footer include file.
This will make sure the code is automatically loaded onto each page.

For Blogs:

If you are using Blogger, copy and paste the HTML 'snippet' of Code just before
the body tag at the end of your template. The code only has to be copied once to
track all of your posts.

• Sign into Blogger


• Click on the Layout Tab


• Click on Edit HTML

It's always a good idea to back up your template before you make any changes.

• Click on Download Full Template to back up onto your computer.


• Scroll down to the bottom and paste the tracking code just before the
  body tag.


• Click on Save Template at the bottom of the screen.

Back in Google Analytics you will see: Tracking code not detected under the
status column.

Click on Check status or Verify Tracking Code under the Status column. (Don't
worry about Conversion Goals (0) right now.) Once your tracking code has been
verified, the status will change to: Receiving Data.

It will take about 24 hours before you start seeing any data.

Check back the next day and familiarize yourself will all the reports. The
longer you have have Google Analytics installed, the more interesting and
valuable the data will be.


The above information was taken in from

Ezine Articles.


If you liked the above content and would like to keep updated about the latest
happenings of the blogosphere and this blog then i would suggest that you
subscribe to the RSS Feeds or subscribe via email.

SEO Tips

Millions of blogs, and only the top 10 results. It seems like a recipe for headaches and back pain. If you don’t mind, I’ll see if I can give you some pain medication in the form of tried and true methods for getting your blog to show up in those top 10 results.

Headlines: Should be no more than 60 characters, How to’s and top 5 or 10 lists usually work the best to bring in readers. It is also easy to digg a “How To List” or “Top 10 list”. If your keywords are “Internet Business” or “Movie Critiques”, an example could be “The top 5 movie critiques for online shoppers.”

. Text: Make your paragraphs no more than 6-7 sentences. Lists and bullet points are easier on the eyes and help people read your whole post. Obviously your keywords are an important consideration, have your keyword research handy when writing any post. First and foremost is your reader though, so don’t sacrifice semantics/readability for your keywords.

Links: Link to influential blogs or sources as much as possible (no more than 8 links in one post though, you don’t want the reader to get all confused by the abundance of outbound links). There are at least two reasons for this: 1) If you link to an influential blogger, they will see your link, and possibly reciprocate one back to you if your article is good enough. 2) Trusted sources are worth their weight in gold if you want to be seen as an industry expert and to keep your readers coming back for more.

Ultimately you will want people to read what you write on your blog. That’s why we have to prepare your blog in such a way that the search engines will find it easier. There are ways to get immediate traffic to your site using Stumbleupon or Digg or some other social bookmarking service, which we use extensively. But the real value in having your post or article go “viral” is for the links that almost automatically come from people who like what you have written. Relevant, keyword targeted text links from a high profile blog or site counts alot towards how well you rank for a particular keyword phrase. Use Stumbling and Digging as much as needed, but first write good content, and make your site search engine friendly.

Last but not least, make your RSS feed readily available at the top of your page somewhere. That is usually the first place people look for an RSS feed if they like your post, and if someone wants to link to you or a post of yours, you should give them as many options as possible to do so. An RSS feed is great for publishing content that will then get read and possibly linked to more often.

Search Engine Optimisation

For some people, learning about SEO means
refining skills they already have. If you are new to blogging or Web writing, or
perhaps an old hand but one who never thought about SEO, here is some very basic
essentials you should, and must, know. Here are all the questions about SEO you
always wanted to know, but were too embarassed to ask your blogroll buddies.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search-engine optimization.
Basically, optimizing your site means you make it friendly to search engines so
they think it’s really cool and they tell others it’s really cool. They do that
by showing it very high when someone searches for key phrases related to your
site.

Why do I need SEO?

You don’t, if you don’t want people to read your
stuff. If you do, you should really learn about it. If you never think about SEO,
you might get lucky and happen to be optimized by chance. But if you have a blog
on photography, you want people who search for key terms related to photography
to find you.

Great. So how do I start
this SEO thing?

There are plenty of companies who charge a lot
for SEO services. For many people, there are just a few key steps to get your
mind thinking a little more like a search engine. Before you write content,
think about this:

• Would I search for anything I just typed
  into the title of my page or blog post?


• If I did type that in, would I stay if I
  read this post?

How do I write for SEO?

There are really a few simple steps to writing
your first optimized page. This isn’t sophisticated, and doesn’t get into subtle
nuances. But if you follow these basic tips, you will be taking the first steps
to writing content for search engines as well as people.

• Decide what you want to write about it.
  Now go do a search to research the article.


• What did you just type in? That’s
  probably your keyword phrase right there.


• Just to be sure, do a little keyword
  research. A good free resource for beginners is the Overture Keyword
  Selector Tool. Type that same search term in there, and see if anyone is
  searching for it. Try a couple variations as well. For example, you may find
  that more people search for photography tutorials than search for picture
  tips.


• Now write. If it helps, write that
  keyword phrase you are targeting on a sticky note and post it on the top of
  your monitor.


• If you have the ability to use meta tags
  with your page, reinforce that keyword phrase there in the title,
  description and keywords. Do not go too long, but keep focused to terms
  directly related to that phrase.


• Use the keyword phrase in your title and
  in your first paragraph.


• Repeat it as appropriate, and don’t just
  think about the words that appear. Take advantage of alt tags for images,
  and name pictures with those keyword terms. Use it in headers. If you plan
  to link to other sites, use the phrase when appropriate there.