Before we get to the good stuff, it’s important to touch on some of the issues which negatively impact your SEO and resulting traffic. The following are issues I encounter almost all of the time (and mostly because the blog owner does not realize the following issues).

Negative SEO Issues:

• Make sure you retain the services of a professional web hosting provider. If the server hosting your account is often unavailable, that means Googlebot also cannot access it. The more often this occurs, the less traffic will be referred to you (because your blog will not be as prominent in search results, as it could be).

• Don’t participate in “keyword stuffing” when writing your content. Keyword stuffing is the action of adding keywords to your content, beyond what  in context, renders as reasonable. Excessive repetition of any particular word or phrasing via  content description, title tags, (any other) meta tags and the post content tends to raise a red flag with the search engines. Read what Google has to say about keyword stuffing and if you have suffered a negative as a result, you can resubmit your blog (after fixing the issues first) for consideration.

• Do not link to or exchange links with lower quality spam or splog sites. To be quite blunt, doing this associates (and places) your blog in a bad neighbourhood. Here is a direct quote from Google:

…Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links…

• Don’t duplicate your content or the content of another blog or web site. Distinctive and original, in demand content will serve you best. Copying content from another source, even with permission, is nothing more than a copy. The original site with the original copy will garner search engine traffic – Not the copied content.

Blogs Links and SEO:

In my opinion, an important aspect of improving your blog’s value (to Google as well as readers) is ensuring valuable (high ranking) inbound links point to your blog – and that you in turn link (outbound) to valuable, relevant content. Below are some of the aspects I’d commonly advise and blog (or site) owner.

• Allow your links to develop some age. The older a link is, generally, the more circulated it becomes. Old, well established links are ideal for your blog.

• The popularity of the inbound link also has a positive effect on your ranking. For example, a blog with a PR (Page Rank) of 6 provides more benefit that one that has a PR of 3. But don’t rule out the value of lower PR inbound links. I’d enjoy the value of one or two hundred inbound links from a PR3 blog anytime. So what I’m I suggesting? Consider the value of the inbound links by also examining their PR. One tool I use to accomplish this is a Firefox plugin called SEOQuake. It’s a simple tool that allows you to see the page rank of any site you wish. You get get the plugin directly from Mozilla’s SeoQuake SEO extension page.

• One thing (you may have less control over) is the anchor text of the inbound link. Anchor text is the text used for the link itself and… the text immediately surrounding it. That text should be relevant to the content it is linking too. Anchor text of “Baking” pointing to a page about painting is just not going to work well.

• Again, remember that outbound links are important. According to Google’s official blog “Linking out: Often it’s just applying common sense“.

Your Blog and Your Domain:

Many are not aware that your domain name registration now appears to have an effect on your SEO.  To backtrack, in 2005, Google’s patent application specifically addressed this issue by saying:

“…Domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith…”

• So it is probably a good idea to register your domain name for a longer period (than just 1 or 2 years). Incidentally, you can read United States Patent Application #20050071741. The gist of the pertinent sections of that patent application allude to the following additional issues for domain SEO:

“…the age, or other information, regarding a name server associated with a domain may be used to predict the legitimacy of the domain. A “good” name server may have a mix of different domains from different registrars and have a history of hosting those domains, while a “bad” name server might host mainly pornography or doorway domains, domains with commercial words (a common indicator of spam), or primarily bulk domains from a single registrar, or might be brand new. The newness of a name server might not automatically be a negative factor in determining the legitimacy of the associated domain, but in combination with other factors, such as ones described herein, it could be…”

• This essentially suggests that Name Servers (DNS) hosting your domain record is better contaning  a mix of different domains from different registrars. It appears Google considers this “Good”.

Finally, further advice is to ensure that you keep your domain on focus. For example, if your domain name contains keywords such as trees, weddings, real estate, law, or some other topic; ensure that your content is specific to the subject matter that your domain name suggests. If for example, you plan on launching content that is not directly related to the subject of the domain, then it may be advisable to launch it under a domain name that is more suited to the subject matter.

Keywords:

One aspect I think most of us are aware of is the issue of keywords. Specifically that we should place appropriate keywords in our document Meta Tags. (What is a keyword meta tag? – You can find out by reading Phil Bradley’s  “Meta tags – what, where, when, why?“). However did you know that the Meta tags for keyword, description and so forth do not have the effect they once did? Quite frankly, in my opinion they are a waste of time, and only useful for smaller search engines or directories, etc. that still use them – Which is why I still use meta tags.

In my opinion the only valuable use of keywords is to place the within your content! The post from Search Engine Watch, “How To Use HTML Meta Tags” says it best with their quote “Meta tags are not a magic solution”.

If you produce valuable content, Google and other search engines will be able to gather all they keyword information without any coded directions (such as meta tags).

SEO Tools for Your Blog:

In order to facilitate better SEO, there are some blog tools (WordPress plugins) that I use (and which you may want to put to good use as well). Two of the best free ones (in my opinion are:

• All in One SEO Pack provides automated (SEO) out of the box. Specifically, it takes care of titles, descriptions, keywords and duplicate content.
• Google XML Sitemaps generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap for your blog. This helps googlebot better crawl your blog. It reduces the crawl time and improves speed.

In conclusion, I’d like to remind everyone who is new to SEO (and blogging). The focus should be to provide quality and in demand content. Having said this, don’t misunderstand me. Quality content is critical (that what readers are looking for) – But quality content isn’t the “key” to blog success. However, this is another topic for another day; which I have touched on in an earlier post Quality Content is Not “The” Key to a Blog Success.

Before I forget, there is one tool I really should mention, it’s the Canonical URL’s plugin. What this does is help resolve the issue of someone visiting your blog using a different URL. This is also common fro individuals who have registered more that one domain, but have them all pointing to one hosting account. Because they are different domains, this could suggest “Duplicate Content” – Not good. To learn a bit more, check out the Google video below:

What issues have you encountered with regards to Blog SEO? What do you do that I didn’t include here? Have a thought? A comment? Let us know below! – Cheers!

• easy to remember
• be related to the content
• reinforce your branding
• not easy to confuse
• easy to spell

All too often someone has spent the time to thoroughly research their domain name and had someone register the name on their behalf. Another scenario is that the developers have researched and registered the domain. But what happens if the relationship breaks down or the developer’s business closes?

I’ve often encountered domain name issues , as well as mediated such disputes between clients and their former site or blog developers. Invariably the scenario involves a breakdown in communication in which the rightful owner realizes that they don’t have control over their domains. In other cases the domain name is held for ransom and in others the original developer is no longer in business, among many other scenarios.

Recently I was contacted by a client who needed more cost effective and responsive hosting. The primary issue at hand was that the original developer had passed away and there was nobody to update their site or tend to hosting related issues. Upon examination, I found that the domain was not registered directly to them and as such (from a technical perspective) they did not appear to be the rightful owners. This resulted in the inability to move to a different hosting provider. They had no usernames or passwords to access and edit the domain name records, they had no current payment receipts proving their ownership, nor did they even know who the real hosting provider or domain registrar was. The hosting service was a resold account from a third party provider. The domain name was also resold from a third party. I was able to return control of the domain back to them, but it took three weeks of phone calling and faxing to the registrar to accomplish this, additionally it did help to garner the support of the hosting company.

How did this happen? What are some of the caveats?

When you have a domain name registered on your behalf by a third party, make sure that the email address used for the “Administrative Contact” is YOUR email address. This ensures that any transfer of the domain (to someone else) needs to be approved by you (because you get the email request). Additionally, this also enables you to change other information pertaining to your domain name registration record.

In the above case, the client did not have their email registered as the Administrative Contact (or as the Registrant). In fact the developer used his name, email address and other personal credentials within the registration record. In my opinion this is a big no-no! What happens if the developer is unable to provide services? Can a blog or site owner really wait for an extended time period to gain access to their domain name so they can move to a new hosting provider?

I’m not suggesting that the world of web developers or designers is frought with unscrupulous characters intent on seizing control of your valuable domain names. Rather I’m suggesting that you ensure you’re involved in the registration process, that you ensure you protect your interests. For those not familiar with hosting systems, there will always be a learning curve. Avoiding that learning curve could in some cases be very costly!

When registering a domain name, or having someone register it on your behalf, make sure you are aware of the following:

The Registrant is the legal owner of the domain. The Registrant should always be you, your business, etc. NOT your web developer, web designer, hosting company or anyone else. Period!

The Administrative Contact has the credentials and access to change the domain record information. This should be you, your business, etc. NOT your web developer, web designer, hosting company or anyone else.

As I alluded above, the web developer had listed himself as the owner and administrator of the domain, which resulted in the client having to wait an excessive time to garner access to the domain. And I may add it was only through shear “consideration” on the part of the registrar that they obtained access to their domain prior to it’s expiry and (hopeful) re-registration.

The Technical Contact should be the individual with the technical knowledge to resolve issues with the domain (commonly the hosting provider).

Are you currently listed as the Registrant and Administrative Contact of your domain name? If not, your name could be at risk. Here is one of the tools I use to help clients view their registration records: whois.domaintools.com