WAHM Blog

Since many of our blog readers are bloggers, seasoned bloggers and some newbie bloggers, I wanted to take some time today to talk about some ways to optimize your blogs. Optimization is an important step that many blogs seem to be forgetting. It does not matter if you have a niche business blog or just a daily diary blog, optimization is very important.

5 Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Readers & Search Engines

Blog Widget’s- I see so many blogs with widgets, heck I use them on my own blogs as well, however to many are an overload. Don’t get me wrong I think widgets are cool but to many widgets cause blogs to load very slow. When blogs load slow your readers leave. I have been to many nice blogs and left due to the load time. So, keep in mind that every widget you add will cause a slower load time for your readers. I have DSL and some blogs load super slow, so I can not even imagine how slow it would load for a dial up reader.

Post Frequency- The more you post the more Googlebot and other bots will visit your blog. We all know Google loves fresh content, so the more you post the more often Google will visit. If you slow down on your posts, the google bot will more than likely slow down it’s visits as well.

Anchor Text- Your anchor text is the text used within a hyperlink. The words contained in the Anchor text can determine the ranking that page will receive by search engines. Instead of using common call to actions such as “click here” or click now” start to use keywords or keyphrases in place. Anchor text is ranked in search engine algorithms.

Ping Ping Ping- When you add new posts it is a good idea to ping sites such as Google Blog Search, Technorati and FeedBurner. Automatic pinging is an option with most blog platforms such as WordPress and MovableType. You can also use Ping-O-Matic to update different search engines that your blog has updated.

Start Using RSS- Make sure your RSS subscribe button is where your readers can see it! Just like an optin box, you want to make your RSS available to anyone who would like to subscribe. Many people do use RSS internet-based aggregators to read blogs now instead of visiting daily.

Not only that, but major blog directories and engines will pick up your rss feeds! More info on RSS can be found on our RSS Squidoo Lens.

Do you have any tips that you have found helpful you would like to share with fellow bloggers?

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