Amongst the commercial blogosphere there is huge interest in the dark, and mysterious art of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. There shouldn’t be. Not because paying attention to Search traffic is bad, or that wanting to rank higher in Google is evil, simply because it’s not rocket science, and anyone can do it. Even you.
If you want get more traffic from Search engines, this post is for you. Read on….
The Big SEO Secret: It’s Easy
Before we get to the list, (I don’t mind if you scroll, but this next bit is important too…) let me explain what i mean by “it isn’t rocket science”: Manipulating Search engine rankings for sites that naturally find it difficult to get incoming links and attention, say affilate sites, many ecommerce type operations and much of the web1.0 shopping experience sites is very hard, and it takes a lot of skill and knowledge to achieve.
It’s become harder and harder over the last few years to game Google, and many SEO’s are now wondering if it’s time to give up trying to “manipulate” G results and simply start feeding Google more of what it wants — the unfortunate result of which is a huge increase in workload, namely copywriting and Linkbaiting.
That’s the thing most SEO’s won’t want to tell their clients. That there is no magic wand, mystical powers or Search engine hoo joo to be had anymore, it’s all down to 3 things:
- Copywriting
- Links and
- Networking
That’s not to say those tasks don’t require skill, but it really is that simple.
I’ll give you a full checklist in just a minute…
Avoid the Snake Oil Merchants
There are still die hard SEO’s out there that spend all their time trying to game the system, but most of them are pretty shit at it, only a very few have enough resources to manage it. There are also, a whole slew of con merchants masquerading as SEO’s, just as there are fake designers in the web design field, basing their credentials on the fact that they’ve read a few articles, or bought a keyword tracking tool.
These people are idiots, and should be avoided at all costs.
At the end of this article I’ll point you in the direction of a few quality resources for further reading.
3 Ways to Immediately Increase Search Engine Traffic
Now you’ve patiently read though all of the above, or impatiently skimmed to the bottom, it’s time to get into this list.
1. Write Better, More Specific Copy and Linkbait
Good copywriting encompasses many things, titles, subject matter, the post and url’s to name the most important. It also goes hand in hand with The Art of Linkbaiting. Here’s a checklist for more search engine friendly copy:
Title’s are everything.
- Titles should be short, snappy, and attention grabbing – think about how you skim through your RSS reader every day, and bear that in mind when writing titles.
- Preferably, title’s should contain keywords related to your topic — that should come naturally, if you have to jam them in there, its either a bad title, bad copy, or you’re a lunatic.
- If your blog software writes titles like this: My Blog Title | My Post Title, you need to change them to this: My Post Title – My Blog Title. Many people will tell you it’s even better to ditch the “My Blog Title” bit all together, in order to not dillute the important keywords in the title, but they’re forgetting the importance of branding, and with blogs, establishing some brand recognition goes a long way toward gaining links and attention.
- Titles are akin to advertising, and the best ones make promises, and deliver
By far the best resource out there for blog titles is Brian Clark’s Magnetic Headlines series of posts on the excellent Copy Blogger site.
Body Copy
There’s been much written, both online and off about copywriting, and as a writer of small talent, it’s not for me to get into the in-depth details of it. I am good at linkbaiting though, and am constantly studying what kind of post are being linked on del.icio.us, Digg and other “link sites”.
It’s the much discussed art of linkbaiting that this post will focus on. Remember, we’re talking about getting search engine traffic right? Here’s a checklist for writing good linkbait (we’ll discuss why links are important a little further down).
- Study the popular bookmarks on del.icio.us to get a feel for what people are linking to
- Such things as HowTo’s and Lists are always good fodder for linkbait and you should be aiming to get onto those pages by writing appropriate copy. (you want to be there, because being there will gain you links, and links = traffic, more on that soon…).
- Use html lists, headlines and other visual means of breaking up posts in order to make them easier to read and skim
- Link out, link often and link generously — Really, forget any rubbish you may have heard about depleting page rank, or any concerns you have over sending away traffic, and work on providing links to great resources your readers will love — they’ll thank you for it, and link to you for it.
- Fight bloggers block by getting inventive, and doing some research.
Some of the best blog specific resources for copy writing, and linkbaiting are:
2. Make it Easy for People to Link to You
All of the above tips on writing more attractive, useful and linkable copy are geared to two things:
- Providing what your readers want
- Gaining links
Links are the currency with which one trades on the web, the lingua franca of the internet and key to ranking, and traffic. Hint: They’re really, really important ok?
Essentially, you’re looking for this:
- Links coming to your posts, from many different sources
- Links preferably have relevant keywords in the text used to make the link and again preferably come from sites on a similar topic
- Links from trusted, authoritative sites
Apart from writing great linkable copy, there are a few things you can do to make sure that your posts get linked, and hence ranked aswell as get more bang for your buck per link.
- Encourage readers to submit your posts to Digg and del.icio.us, or more specific link sites depending on your subject matter. Those categories in del.icio.us for example, are exported by users to their own blogs (targeted, keyworded link text = good), and they often kick off a knock on effect [pdf] that can have wild implications for your Search traffic.
- There are varios widgets for most blog software to do the above for you, just have a search through your blog softwares list of plugins.
- Where possible, make sure your urls contain your keywords. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not because Search engines pay particularly more attention to urls with keywods, but because people often just paste urls into comments, blog posts and forums where they are automatically linked by the software. Those links, contain the keywords, and it’s keywords in links, from authoratitive, trusted sites, that are what we want.
- Place a “link to this post” widget on your blogs templates
- Ask other bloggers in your niche for links — but don’t make a pest of yourself, nobody likes to be hassled, and some people turn down link requests on general principle (me for example..). See Trisha’s thread in the Performancing forums on link exchanges for a lively discussion on the merits of the dreaded link exchange. — My personal advice is dont bother, do the other things listed here and all of it will fall into place.
- Network like crazy, see below…
Although there are lots of posts out there on links, I couldn’t find much that would add value to what i’ve written above. If you have resources to share, please post them in the comments.
3. Networking, the Unsung Hero of Blog SEO
You read little about networking in this context. Many bloggers into SEO are facinated with the technicalities, despite it being a very simple thing to do and thus miss one of the biggest opportunities to gain links, readers, and traffic.
Done right, a well built network of contacts, friends and like-minded bloggers can seriously help you get the link love you need, both directly and indirectly. Here are a few tips and resources for working your network for better Search traffic:
- Read Chris Garrett’s Networking for Blog Success
- Comment and participate on blogs within your niche — Get to know the people around you
- Email with them, LINK to them, they’ll reciprocate, trust me.
- Expand outside of blogs — find forums, newsletters and groups in your topic
- Use social bookmarking sites to discover related topics (see right hand side) and hence expand your groups, newsletters, forums and blogs search even further
- Above all: Be generous. If you respect your network, and work hard to be part of the community surounding your topic, the rewards can really pay of — never abuse it, it tends ot backfire in all kinds of horrible ways.
4. Bonus Tip
There’s always a bonus tip, didn’t you know?
If you’re really set on learning more, more than my overview here — and if i really can’t dissuade you from getting caught up in what i consider a massive waste of time for the majority of bloggers (technical seo) then at least pay attention to the right people 
Here’s a list of my favorite, and most authoratitive SEO blogs:
Escaping from the Egyptians is easy – you can do it immediately in three simple steps:
1. Cross desert on foot.
2. Part Red Sea.
3. Cross seabed on foot.
Are you saying to rank in a search engine is the equivalent in difficulty of a biblical miracle “sherwoodseo”? Strange thing to infer from someone with that login if so …
Was it deliberated to not put the right link to Loren Baker’s Search Engine journal?
It certainly wasn’t Sergio, thanks — fixed now.
Yes, clear and simple is the point.
http://digg.com/tech_news/3_Ways_to_Immediately_Increase_Search_Engine_Traffic
Chris, I’m just exaggerating to make my point When anyone sees the terms “SEO” and “immediate” in the same sentence, skepticism is in order. SEO takes time, and is considerably more difficult and intricate than these rules of thumb imply.
*Not* because Google makes it difficult, but simply because – for any given competitive space – there are 9 other players on Page 1 trying to push you down to Page 2.
That said, Nick did hit all the basic priciples. It’s just a matter of setting realistic expectations – something that all legit SEO’s make a point of doing for their clients.
Actually it isnt. While the post is not the definitive resource on the entire subject of seo (that terms should be abolished, it’s an oxymoron), it is however, for most blogs pretty close to all you need to know.
“If your blog software writes titles like this: My Blog Title | My Post Title, you need to change them to this: My Post Title – My Blog Title.”
Anyone know how to do this in blogger?
Thanks for the tips Nick, they are always useful as not only a reminder but a helpful light in the dark. I’m still doing my own thing, pottering in the dark with my blog as it were, ignorant of technical SEO – probably ignorant of normal SEO as well – but I dig the culture that my blog is in, and I think I’ve done the right things…
I’ve even been invited to write elsewhere! I’m pleased with my success and I hope that the great ideas keep coming from you guys to help all of us on to bigger and brighter things.
In your dashboard, go to:
Presentation
Theme Editor
Header (right side)
Look for the “title” tags and rearrange it so it looks like this:
I am new to WordPress and blogging, so, I figured someone else must be too.
I added a | to separate the posting and the blog name for my blog.
but it *is* simple and clear, Sherwood. There’s no dark magic involved, and I think that’s the point.
It’s worthy to note that this article has hit the digg.com front page recently.
I’m considering using Drupal (inspired partly by this nice Performancing.com site) and I just blogged about my desire to have search friendly (non-numeric) URLS in Drupal here:
http://deflexion.com/2006/07/drupal
Since you agree that this is desirable, I’m wondering why you don’t do this, for example, why is the URL of this thread (node/322) pretty meaningless? Is it difficult to do this Drupal? Thank you!
Well, when we set up the site initially, the PathAuto module was not ready for primetime — at least I didn’t think so after testing it.
Since then, it has been updated, and i’d now recommend it, having used it on other sites — but although I should probably install it here, Search engine traffic has never been a high priority at Performancing, it’s just not that type of site and I just havn’t got the time for one more module install unless there’s some serious benefit to be had…
I may well do it, but it wont be today
Just to add to what Nick said, I use pathauto on my photography site and it works well but I started that site on a newer version of drupal plus had it installed from day one. We have a lot of links coming in to the oldskool drupal urls now and we would probably end up with a bit of a mess of duplicate content or redirects on our hands.
Actually chris, you can now set it to just apply to new posts only…
How so? If were talking about SEO for general search results (not Technorati, not blog search) then blogs don’t have to achieve a certain subset of characteristics. This is the wide-open playing field, where your photography blog might have to compete against Fuji.
Again, my point is not to bash the principles outlined. Just to temper your expectations, and not underestimate the task at hand.
>>temper your expectations, and not underestimate the task at hand.
I’d agree with that. And with these 3 steps alone, you could indeed compete — Im not saying it’s not hard work, just that it’s nothing that most people with a little web savvy couldn’t acomplish if they set their minds to it.
Besides, you’d want to be #1 for photography? I’d rather be #3 for Nikon S345 Auto Jobbie — or whatever, you know what i mean…
__ Disclaimer : I am a professional SEO __
SEO is not magic, it is not science, there is no secret and yes everyone can do SEO in theory (Like everyone can become a marketer, physician, cook or whatever by studying and developping the relevant skills).
Concerning Blog optimization there is not much to say for the technical part, as blog structures are quite standardized, well built and most of time well coded (use of semantic markup, dense network of links…)
There are 3 axes to SEO : structure, content, and popularity. The structure is OK for blog, so SEO for blogs consist mainly in working on the 2 others : content and popularity. But it is not easy to write, it must be learnt. And it is not easy to develop popularity. In fact SEO is not about tricks, it is about quality and accessibility. Quality of structure, quality of content, and popularity.
>>content and popularity
If you want to be strict, you could boil that down to just popularity — but content, good content, begets popularity.
we seem to agree, though the terminology differs — with blogs, what you’re saying roughly translates to content, links, networking…
Well you are right, there is an interdependency between content and popularity… even between structure and popularity, as a bad usability due to wrong structure will affect popularity
Well Nick I don’t know what to think about you now. I thought you were smarter than this… having tried your hand at SEO and having all those SEO friends over at ThreadWatch. Maybe I just haven’t caught on to your game yet (seems too tame for controversy link bait, yet too bitter to engender a blogger lovefest). It is sooooo easy to bad mouth SEO these days. I just noted yet-another-PR-firm getting into the SEO game, and they, too took the easy route implying SEO is evil, you may not even need it, etc. I didn’t have you listed as one who takes the easy route.
Anyway I disagree completely. Sure, in this day and age of conflicted search engines, hidden SE agendas and blah-gers, it sure is easy to get traffic. But that’s not SEO, and I know you know that.
It honestly sounds to me like you’re bitter, Nick. Has being locked into Drupal gotten you down? In my experience, when you are SEOing and get frustrated by your inability to get the specific terms you want, it’s time to take a day off. Settling for “traffic” instead of the traffic you want is admitting defeat, as is rationalizing your status quo as “good enough”. I wish everyone in my markets would accept the staus quo as good enough. That would make my SEO job so much easier.
All i see is insult, and no argument — if you have something intelligent to add to the conversation, please be my guest….
yowza!
New poster here – and I appreciate your article.
In theory, your argument makes complete sense – but what percentage of “would be bloggers” do you believe actually integrate these three components successfully and build and maintain first page keyword results – or – consistent, quality traffic.
A reletively tiny percentage i’d imagine edmond29. The truth is, it takes an enormous amount of work to really make a blog work, not to mention a lot of patience!
Technorati reckons it’s tracking something like 50M blogs — i’ll be over half of them are dead blogs though, blogs started with good intention but soon given up on..
A recent study said that 7% of bloggers were in it for the money, but i’d guess that less than 1% will make anything worth writing home about…
Beautiful, Nick, and so much information in a single post. I haven’t gotten through it yet, but I’ve “saved” it in my Bloglines folder.
Wow, Nick. No insult intended. You called people “idiots” in your post, didn’t you?
I didn’t come here for an argument. I was surprised to see you call out SEO as unnecesssary, refer to all but a few as fakes and idiots, and then proceed to act as seo for your audience. That’s all. I’ll skip further commentary out of respect – it’s your house.
As for SEO, when did SEO become so well defined? SEO is about optimizing to rank. Whatever it takes. As all the bloggers add text to the web, the SEO adjusts to outrank “good copy”. As they stuff keywords into thier URLs and link to each other, the SEO has to adjust to out rank that as well. You’re right it’s not rocket science — it takes more creativity than rocket science. I know – I’ve done rocket science.
SEO changed years ago from what all those free SEO pages say is important. They are ranking factors, but not competitive SEO. Why would anyone give away the real competitive tactics on the web for free?
Im baffled, you seem to have read something entirely different to the article I wrote…
I suggest you reread, or just call it a day and move on..
Quick update, im not sure how i managed to forget it, buti missed out a pretty damn important resource in my list in the original article. I’ve added it now, but for those reading the comments here it is again:
Todd Malicoat’s Stuntdubl
A long time online friend and one of (as you can see from the article) very few that i think truly know their stuff in the field.
I didn’t make the short list.
Great post!
No great mystery to SEO but it takes work and time and patience.
In one set of blogs I have I have done standard optimization (keywords, great titles, dead on content, (alt tags ’cause Yahoo likes them)) and then just blogged on. After doing horribly for the standard sandbox time each one of the blogs began to rank decently. So I just kept at it. People linked in, I asked for links, I linked out, I tracked back to other peoples very smart posts – the key thing being that there was no magic or deep dark secret.
Two things which are worth doing for a new blog are remembering that MSN and Yahoo do send hits and those hits are just as organic as Google hits so sign up. And two, sign yourself up for things like stumbleupon and rss feed aggregators. These don’t directly boost your rankings but it gets your name out there.
@Jay: Promoting RSS feeds and bookmarking at i.e. del.icio.us really can help to shorten the sandbox period.
To boost that effect you can promote every RSS feed from all these secondary blogs (del.icio.us, Flickr, …) through FeedBurner.
Regarding how to make a web page more linkable, I just launched a site that might help:
http://bookmarkit.org
Instead of having a seperate ‘submit this!’ button for del.icio.us, Digg, Tailrank, and every other bookmarking site on the planet… you only need one link to bookmarkit.org.
This site will redirect you to your preferred bookmarking site based on settings stored in cookies. One link: no fuss, no muss for web masters.
Great post and great comments along the way. I blogtipped you guys – keep it up!
>>>the SEO adjusts to outrank “good copy”
Maybe that’s why people don’t think much of the SEO industry? And with 2000 or 3000 quality, non-contrived links pointing at it, isn’t that a bit tough to pull off anymore?
Great post.
I try to the list everyday
Exactly. There are a whole bunch of folks out their claiming to be good SEO’s when the reality is that the majority are nothing more than webmasters (able to correct bad urls, tweak on page stuff) pissing around submitting their clients sites to 2nd or 3rd rate directories, whining about dmoz editors and scratching their arses and looking puzzled when you mention “good copy”.
I’d say close to 95% of so called SEO’s are rank amateurs.
These days, the real seo is in linkbait — everything else is either spamming (and you really have to be hardcore, AND good to do that these days) or a waste fo time con job on clients.
SEO my arse…
Does this also meen Backlink-Networks?
I have found a link-network which includes all the advantages, what you think about it?
Google shouldn’t have anything against it – those are after all only a few small buttons.
Excellent article! Topical and well researched, this has everything a SEO Blog lover could want- and if it hasn’t it will find it for you! I am ‘beyond’ impressed! Top work!!.
I can’t emphasize this enough: get backlinks, lots of them… contextual relevant if possible.
@molica: Reading the 2nd comment and both last comments contain a link to that blogspot site. Good style and pretty relevant! Looks like I could throw a flag for comment spam.
nope not really.. i’m telling people to go to my blog where i speak about link building and how to get better rankings. Have a nice day !
well finally one good, whole and hell of info in one post..not to comment about seo as its real and good seo can bring great results.. but the tips mentioned here are sure shot typo for good link popularity.. isnt it?
I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction as far as what key words I should be focusing on. My website is pretty all encompassing with regards to the baby world and I am very interested in having this thing take off.
We are in the very “infant” (pun indeed intended) stages of creation, so any help would be useful.
Please email me if you have the time.
Thanks
Destiny: There are many valuable articles around here on performancing.com about keyword research. Check them out.
Brilliant blog, thanks for sharing this information.
This blog is a great pool of information for the rest of us out there, I will reccomand a visit to this resource.
Thank you
Thanks for intresting information.
Great blog, thanks for the information. I take it this info doesnt just work for blogs it works for websites aswell?