More on getting a top ranking blog.
This is a follow up to last night’s blog post, Quick Blogging Advice. I was thinking about what else I could have told my former co-worker on how to get his blog to the top of the search results. I was thinking about what set of strategies I could tell my friend.
I say set because no one task will ever get you to the front page of the results unless you’re just plain lucky. If you put 4 SEO consultants around a table to discuss strategies they will have 6 ways to accomplish the same thing. Search engines take into account a wide range of factors – there could be as many as 200 different factors. So what tactics will work best for my friends fledgling blog?
Smaller blogs like mine are becoming a barometer of works and what doesn’t work. I can only do limited on page SEO (although the HeadSpace plugin is awesome) yet I managed to achieve a Page Rank of 3 and it has been as high as 4.
Outbound Links: I link my blog to other blogs I find to be relevant to my interests, be it social media, SEO or web video. I also link to other sites in the form of reviews – not paid reviews – reviews based on my own personal experience, like my recent review of SMS services for Twitter. Google has a strong appreciation of outbound links using them as a test as to whether or not you are providing value to the reader.
Inbound Links: Linking has been one of the strongest SEO factors around for many years. Much has been said about anchor text and anchor text will continue to be an important factor. However, search engines like Google are looking for the natural link more than anything else. Every time I comment on a blog I link back to my blog. Most times unfortunately the blog is a no-follow, but from time to time I luck out and get a link back.
Content: Content will never fail to be the number one factor in search engine rankings. Links, keywords and any other SEO factor you can find will always have its roots in the content of a page. I don’t post everyday, but I do post frequently overall. Video is also a very strong drawing card. Look for a post from me this weekend about video on your blog.
Social: This will be one of the bigger factors over the next little while. How often is your site referenced in social environments. As I said earlier, many sites may use the ‘nofollow’ tag, however I am starting to wonder if Google really does ‘no-follow’, or do they just remove any link value. If a site appears frequently in social environments then it must have some importance and search engines will be taking that into account.
On Page: Folow SEO Best Practices and optimize your pages by paying attention to page titles, URL’s (permalinks) and the use of tags such as H1-H4, image ALT tags and keyword placement will make your pages stronger.
So there you have more of the basics. There will be an increasing emphasis on outbound links and social interaction. There will be less emphasis will be the continued devaluation of directory links and of pages ranking highly simply because they have a boatload of links. SEO is a fascinating dance where the ‘expert’ always seems to be half a step off the beat – but that’s what makes SEO so challenging.
