If you want want to make money using your blog, you need traffic, and if you want targeted traffic google search engine optimization must be part of your strategy.
The internet has 3 major search engines – Yahoo, Bing (formerly MSN Live) and Google. Of these search engines, Google owns the majority of the search engine market, therefore, if your site is not ranking well in Google for your chosen keywords you are likely missing the chance to reach lots of buyers.
So what is the key to web site search engine optimization?
1) Research
Always spend some time to do your keyword research. You can spend lots of time creating content but if the keywords you target are not going to bring you any traffic then your efforts are in vein. You need to carefully select keywords that are relevant to your content, are keywords people are actually searching and keywords that you are able to compete for. For instance there are thousands of searches for “golf” per day but you stand very little chance of ranking for that phrase. By comparison you could compete very easily for the keyword “golf equipment retailer in Hunstanton” but it is not likely that there are many people searching for that phrase. Something like “women’s golf shoes” would probably be a good phrase to target.
Once you have built a keyword list, you can create content that includes those keywords. Always keep your content natural and never stuff stuff your articles with too many repeated keywords. Write naturally, ensuring it reads properly. Search engines can detect manufactured, overly keyword dense content, and as opposed to boosting moving your ranking up they will move your ranking down.
2) Unique content
The first rule of content creation is don’t republish content that has been used on another site. The content on your blog must always be unique. If you publish duplicate content, your web pages may be flagged by Google’s duplicate content filter and you won’t rank well for those pages. However if your content is unique you can be assured that your web pages will be indexed and therefore you have a very good chance that they will rank.
Generating unique content does take time so you may want to consider outsourcing part or all of your content creation. You can find competent article writers at websites like E Lance, and typically should be paying around $10 to $15 for a 500 word blog post.
3) Back links
The third key to google search engine optimization is back links. Google considers each link to your site as an endorsement of your content and will in turn rank you higher. One great way to generate back links to your site is by commenting on other blogs. Most blog owners will allow you to include your web address in the comments box which will link back to your web site. Target blogs on similar subject matters to your own blog as relevancy of content is really important. If your blog is about golf, a link from another golf blog will have a lot more effect on your search engine ranking than a link from a “cookery” blog for instance. By participating actively on blogs you can quickly build up a number of highly targeted links to your site.
So, in summary spend just a small amount of time researching before creating your content. Secondly create content that is unique and lastly build a network of links to your website from other relevant websites. If you follow this very easy google search engine optimization strategy you will have tonnes of targeted search engine traffic finding its way to your site in no time at all.