Are you receiving the amount of Google referred traffic you'd like? The answer is probably that you're not. When talking with clients, the subject of Google traffic and SEO is almost always raised. For new blogs (or web sites), garnering search engine traffic is understandably difficult. What can you do to improve your blog's SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Below are some of the issues and activities that I have found most helpful. In retrospect, I'm posting them here as I find I often bring these up in (almost) daily discussions. 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 ...

When I launched my first blog, I thought it would be easy. I read a bit about it on the Internet and saw some of the successful blogs that had been launched. Because I had a strong technical background and access to top-notch graphic professional, I assumed I was in for an easy ride to popularity and riches. After reality hit, I realized it's not that easy, I worked without a plan or any concrete guidance, which was my first mistake. What were my others? Read on and learn. Find out how you can plan your next blog for an exceptional launch, or improve your existing blog to be more successful. 1) Create an Action Plan Much in the same way we create business plans, we should also do the same for successful blog launches. Among the more obvious, some things you'll need to pay extra attention to are: Domain name. Is it easy to remember. Does it describe the blog? Measurable goals. Does your plan include tangible goals that you can measure and evaluate? Does it include contingencies. Budgeting. Have you evaluated and included all foreseeable expenses? What about a financial buffer - What happens when an unexpected expense occurs? 2) Use Reliable Hosting Make sure ...

I had an interesting discussion about blog and web site traffic sources with a colleague of mine over the weekend. He was looking at the changing landscape of web traffic, especially how his blogs were outperforming his "traditional" web sites. He alluded to an earlier post of mine "Why Blogs May Be Better Than Traditional Sites", and suggested that the changing face of how data is accessed, shared, exchanged, mashed up, etc. should also be reflected in the web statistics of blog owners. He suggested (among other things) that traditional linking, wherein you ask a site owner to exchange links is an antiquated method that simply does not hold true in today's changing webscape. I disagreed until he suggested I take a look at the number of social web sites that are driving traffic to any one of my blogs. I chose my Linux (Ubuntu) based blog, selecting the statistics for a full year (July 17, 2007 to July 17, 2008 - Since it I didn't start promoting it until July) and was rather surprised by a couple things. I assumed that Google would still be the prime traffic source. I also assumed that all the links from other (non-blog, "traditional" ...

When I launched my first blog (a Linux based niche blog) at Ubuntu Linux Help, initially I did not have much content. As content built and traffic grew, I ended up writing some posts that went viral. Three of them were: Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications. Why I Quit Windows and Switched to Linux. Why is Linux Faster than Windows? I enjoyed the traffic those posts provided (and still provide to this day) as they helped my blog grow. I think they were popular because they provided a valuable resource as well as elicited fair bit of discussion, as some of the posts and resulting comments were very outspoken and opinionated. One of the above posts (Why I Quit Windows and Switched to Linux) was a very personal story describing some of my career experiences and how they effected my professional life and thoughts. Imagine my surprise when I found another blog with the identical content on it. So much so, that the author who scraped my content claimed it as his own! At that time I had more than enough technical knowledge to initiate actions that would catch-out scrapers, but I’d not yet fully experienced some of the nitty-gritty administrative ...

Last week I was presenting a seminar to the local business centre. The seminar explored the use of quality content to improve and increase search engine traffic. For years I’ve always espoused that one key element is content, content, content! That it’s a primary must to ensure that a web site (or blog) always ensures that the content is of high quality, that it’s in-demand, remains current, and fills a specific niche (preferably one with less competition, if possible). I’m taking a couple months reprieve from the seminar track as I’ve a fair bit of work to catch up on. Doing so also presents me with the time to develop my seminar track for the next year “Blogging to Grow Your Business”. While developing the content (and bouncing ideas off some of my seminar regulars) on of them challenged a chapter I working on. In particular was the issue that the success of a blog (for that matter a web site too), was NOT incumbent solely on quality, in-demand content. Several others also voiced similar issues, and it occurred to me that we’re comparing apples and oranges. Most would ...