Gimzoo

Crosslinking your blogs

Many people have more than one blog.

I have three, for example.

One thing you can do, to help boost their traffic levels and search engine rankings, is crosslink them.

What I mean by crosslinking, is linking one blog to another as you would link any other blog or static website.

If you also have a traditional static website, be certain to crosslink it with your blogs too.

There is some thought that Google might not like crosslinking. That is not really a problem for blogs. I have crosslinked my three blogs, with very beneficial results.

There are some tremendous advantages from crosslinking.

First of all, you will gain extra traffic. Readers of your Blog A might also be interested in what you are writing on Blog B.

Google (and the other major search engines) value the number of incoming links. The added links add to your backlink total.

The search engines also value quality of backlinks. Because you write the anchor text leading from one of your blogs to another, you can control the quality of link text.

Link text, also called anchor text, is the keyword phrase you place on the clickable link. In most cases, it's the blog title. You can change it to "cat photos" or "Chicago Bulls news blog" or anything you want. The search engines value anchor link text very highly.

You can also boost the link power of your crosslinks by "theming" your blog posts to make your blogs "similar" in theme content. By writing a post in one blog about the other blog's topic, they become essentially themed the same way in the eyes of the search engines.

As you can see, there are many reasons to link your blogs and websites to one another.

Simply make them cover the same "topic".

You'll get double the bang for the buck.

Keywords you are targeting

Every blog has some main keywords.

For example a baseball blog would want to rank highly in the search engines for the search term "baseball", or perhaps for a certain Major League Baseball team.

In your own blog, you have important keywords that find your blog, when someone enters a phrase of words into the search box.

Because of the importance of those words to your blog, you want to be certain to use them on a frequent basis. Keyword density on the blog page counts.

Keyword density is the number of times your most important search term appears on your blog page.

Keyword density is one of the major considerations taken into account by the various search engines. Their computer program, called an algorithm, calculates where a web page should be placed in the search results.

One of of those factors, and with search leader Google they number around 100 in all, is keyword density.

Because of that inclusion, you will want to take steps to ensure those important words and phrases appear on your blog.

A phrase can be in any order.

For example, "cat photo blog" might be your most important phrase.

It also works as "photo blog cat", "cat blog photo", and even shorter as "cat blog".

The difficulty lies in the fact that the variants are weaker than the most important phrase. They are, however, still valuable.

To gain their benefit too, in case searchers enter the terms in that manner, be sure to include the many phrase variations in your posts. By writing the variable forms of your main keyword phrases, you accomplish three important goals.

The first goal is to get the maximum density of the words themselves on the blog page.

The second goal is to have them in various word orders, to score high search engine rankings on all of them.

The third goal is to make your writing interesting to your visitors by varying the way you structure your sentences

Be sure to remember, however, to write for your readers and their interests first. Write your posts normally and naturally.

By writing your main keyword phrases, in more than one way, you gain three benefits at the same time.

While your readers will notice your writing to be more interesting, they will be more inclined to link to your blog. They will also be more anxious to return to read more of your interesting posts.

The unseen benefits, at least to your readers, will be the higher search engine results for your main keywords regardless of order.

Good writing will pay off in more ways than one.

Use those important keywords in your blog posts.

Viral Marketing: Catch it today

Your blog could use a little viral marketing.

What? You don’t want your blog to catch a cold?

While you might be able to catch a bad flu bug, viral marketing for your blog is a good thing.

What viral marketing means is getting other people to help market your blog for you. If you provide the right idea, it will spread all over the internet, faster than the common cold.

Because interesting and fun ideas are highly probable to be sent from one person to another, you should catch the viral marketing fever. The great thing about it is the low cost, which may in fact be zero cost, and the fact that other people are sharing your marketing workload.

You are, in fact, utilizing other peoples’ internet resources, including their websites, blogs, and e-mails, to do your marketing for you.

What is viral marketing anyway?

Viral marketing seeks to spread the message of your website or product, from person to person, in the same way as cold or flu virus. One person catches the viral marketing concept, and then passes it along to one or many other people. In fact, viral marketing messages have been known to spread around the entire world, in less than a day.

Many companies, both large and small, have used viral marketing, which is simply good old fashioned word of mouth, in many new and creative ways.

Perhaps the single most famous case of viral marketing is that of Microsoft’s Hotmail e-mail system. By simply placing a link, at the bottom of the Hotmail based e-mail, many people signed up for the free service.

Since e-mail is such a ubiquitous use of the internet, the idea literally flew around the world. As a viral marketing campaign, Hotmail was a tremendous success.

Bloggers, as usual, are also on the cutting edge of viral marketing campaigns. By means of highly mimicked ideas, referred to as “memes”, bloggers are able to use viral marketing techniques to enlarge their readership.

People will happily relay your marketing message for you, if you satisfy their basic human needs. Those personal motivations may include being popular, being part of the in group, or simply wanting to get things that are offered free of charge. A strong viral marketing tool will tap into those human emotions.

How do I start my own viral marketing program?

To start your own viral marketing campaign, you need to reach out to your readers. You must provide them with an idea they will want to share with everyone they know. That desire on their part, to spread the word even without asking them, is at the heart of viral marketing.

Viral marketing is based on word of mouth. To achieve that favorable and much sought after free advertising, it is essential to provide a reason for it. Give them a good reason to send your word to their personal networks.

The viral message must be simple and have widespread appeal. It must also be easy to send, to many other potential viral senders, without complicated instructions. If it is too hard to forward, it will stall out on you.

Other ways to utilize a viral market campaign

If you write internet articles, for other websites or e-mail newsletters, offering the free reprint rights to everyone will help spread the word.

Freely available articles with a link back to your website, may be picked up by hundreds of websites, and will result in an enormous increase in visitor traffic. People who read the article will often refer it to their friends, either by forwarding the newsletter or recommending the website.

Bloggers are heavy users of viral marketing devices. In blog terminology, they are called “memes”. Usually appearing in the form of online quizzes and questionnaires, the blog memes spread rapidly from blog to blog. Because of the powerful and generous linking practices of bloggers, the viral marketing tools send traffic back to the referring blog.

Most people have a close network of ten to twelve people, with many people having far larger networks, to whom they regularly forward website URLs, and e-mails.

Those numbers can cause your viral campaign to multiply exponentially, in a hurry. The use of other peoples’ internet resources, along with your own website, blog, and e-mail, can create an explosion of traffic.

Beginning a viral marketing program, by offering a free item or service may not pay off immediately. In viral marketing, which is what offline marketers might consider word of mouth or creating a buzz, a longer term view is the best position to take.

The idea is to develop a relationship with your viral marketers so they become your volunteer marketing force. That relationship won’t happen overnight, but will have tremendously long term benefits for everyone involved.

Catch the viral marketing bug today!

Search engine questions answered

Many of my readers write to me with various questions about search engines, linking, and blog promotions.

I am very happy to answer your many questions on any subject relating to search engines, search engine optimization, Google, Yahoo, and getting more visitors to your blog.

Whether you want to know more about Google PageRank, or what search terms will help people find your blog, I can help you.

Simply e-mail your questions to blogbusinessworld@yahoo.com

Don't worry that your question is "dumb".

I want to make one thing very clear.

When it comes to discussing search engines, there are no questions that can be considered bad ones.

They are all important.

In fact, most people are completely unaware of what search engines do at all.

Everyone has questions about them.

Even the experts!

Often, you simply type your search terms into the little search box, and some listings pop up. They didn't arrive there by magic.

The pages returned on the search engine results pages (SERPs) were ones that met the requirements of the search engine's computer formula. Sometimes, that involves more than simply posting on your blog.

The search engine computer program is called an algorithm. In the case of Google, for example, about 100 different variables are taken into consideration as to which pages appear on Page One of the results. They also pertain to the results on Page One Hundred.

Many of the variables include on page keywords in the written content, incoming links, the link anchor text (the words that appear on the clickable link), the Google PageRank, the blog's title tags, and so on.

One thing I will never tell you is how to do things that are considered dishonest or unethical. I only recommend what the search engines suggest in their own guidelines.

Good SEO is NOT unethical.

Many of you will have questions on increasing your number of visitors to your blog.

First of all, most bloggers want more visitors or "hits".

Do not ever feel bad about that at all. Some people think it is a bit underhanded.

It's not.

It is merely promotions, publicity, and marketing. There is nothing wrong with any of those things.

I will always point you toward free (as in no cost), and relatively simple ways to get more traffic.

I will also show you, if you want, some more complex marketing and promotional techniques.

So....

My e-mail is blogbusinessworld@yahoo.com

Ask away!

Real estate blog nets innovative realtor award

Business blogs pay off for their users in more ways than one.

When we look at business blogging, we are usually thinking in terms of marketing.

We occasionally forget the public relations aspect of displaying innovation among your business peers.

Real estate blogger, John Mudd of Tampa Bay's Inside Real Estate Journal was awarded the "Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist" (RECS) Designation by the Real Estate Cyberspace Society, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

John Mudd writes about real estate issues across the United States in general, and the Florida market in particular.

John resisted the obvious temptation to use his blog solely as a real estate advertising flyer.

Instead, John has captured a useful format for a business blog. By doing so, his blog is informative to all members of the real estate and wider business community.

The members of his profession, in awarding the internet designation, obviously agreed.

There are three important business blogging lessons that can be learned from John Mudd of Tampa Bay's Inside Real Estate Journal.

One lesson is the power of a business blog, to reach potential customers and clients, while being informative about your industry to a wider audience.

John's blog has clearly led many print and broadcast media to seek him out as an uthority on real estate.

A second lesson to be learned from John is the value of contributing articles, on your area of expertise, to various online and offline publications.

Articles provide tremendous value to your blog, from increased visitor traffic, and from the recognition of being an expert in your field.

For those interested in finding out more about writing articles as a marketing and public relations vehicle, be sure to read my "Internet Articles for Backlinks and Traffic" at SEO Chat.

A third lesson is the power of sending out press releases to advise the various media of happenings in your business and profession.

John sent a press release about his award to the highly regarded press release website called PRWeb.com.

By doing so, John has had his business story covered by journalists all over the United States.

For further information on using press releases in your business, check out my recent "Promote with Press Releases", also at SEO Chat.

I am covering John Mudd's story, from a business blogging point of view.

Note the power of the business blog, article writing, and the press release.

You should use them for your business too.