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Anyone who runs a website or a blog quickly learns the importance of
traffic from search engines. While SEO basics are becoming common
knowledge for designers and marketers, blogs face different issues with
search engines than traditional websites.

With blogs you have less control over the coding that is used.
Depending on what blogging platform you are using, you are probably
typing directly in an internet browser to add a new post. The program
then generates the coding. Most modern blogging programs have been
designed to create blogs that are built with search engine-friendly code. However, some control is lost for the blogger.

There are a few areas that can often be troublesome for bloggers who are attempting to optimize for search engines.

1 - URL Structure

Most blogs create URLs that contain a lot of random characters, like
question marks, and no keywords or anything of value. A page will rank
higher in search engines when its URL contains words or phrases that
are part of the search. Therefore, getting keywords in your URL is
important. In addition, many search engines won’t index pages that have
auto-generated URLs, like the standard blog post page.

What can you do to have URLs that are more search engine-friendly?

Some blogging programs allow you to choose what type of URL (or permalink) you want to be created. For WordPress
users, from your dashboard click on “options” and then “permalinks.”
From here you will have 3 standard choices, plus the option to create
your own custom permalink structure. For this blog we have entered the
following in the custom textfield, “/%category%/%postname%/”. This
tells WordPress to create permalinks that include the category of the
post followed by the name of the post. Feel free to use this for your
blog, or see some other ideas at The Undersigned and at Geek Notes.

2- Page Titles

One of the most important on-page factors for search engine rankings
is the page title. Unfortunately, many bloggers do not change their
page titles. In WordPress you can standardize how you want your page
titles to appear by editing some code in the header.php file. Open up
header.php and look for the title tag. The code between the title tags
is what you want to edit. For this blog we use the following code:

This will create page titles that start with the name of the post and
end with the name of the blog. Alternatively, you can get the SEO Title
Tag plugin http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin/ that will
easily allow you to create titles for your posts and pages.

For Movable Type users, the page titles can be changed on the settings tab. Blogger users can get more information from Control Your Title Tags in Blogger.

3 - Duplicate Content

No search engine likes to see duplicate content. Whether it is two
pages on the same site with the same information or multiple pages on
different sites with essentially the same information or content, the
results can include pages being cast into Google’s supplemental index
rather than the main index. Duplicate content is a major issue for
blogs, as category pages and calendar/date pages often cause search
engines to find the same content on multiple pages.

There are a few ways for bloggers to overcome duplicate content
issues. One method is to use the robots.txt file to instruct search
engines on which pages should be ignored, leaving just the primary
pages to be indexed. For more information about creating a robots.txt
file for blogs, and to see an example, visit Not So Boring Life.

Another option for WordPress users is the Duplicate Content Cure plugin.

You can also control how much content appears on your categories pages
by choosing to have those pages display only the beginning of posts
rather than the entire post. In this case the reader would click
through to the main post page to read the entire article and search
engines may not recognize the category page as having duplicate
content. WordPress users can do this by editing the archive template.
If you are using the default Kubrick theme, open archive.php and look
for . Change “content” to “excerpt” and that’s it.

4 - Meta Tags

When designing a traditional, static website you have the
option/ability to enter meta tags (descriptions and keywords) for each
page. Although these tags a less influential on search engine rankings
as they used to be, it doesn’t hurt to have them in your pages.
However, most blogging programs do not give the user the option to add
meta tags when writing a post.

For WordPress users the Add-Meta-Tags plugin will allow you to enter meta tags for any page.

Movable Type users should see the article from Anders Jacobsen and the article from Miles Evans. Blogger users should see the article from ORblogs.

While this is just a quick summary, these are the most important SEO
topics that bloggers will face (as compared to those issues faced by
traditional websites). By understanding the unique qualities that a
blog has in comparison with a static website and knowing what options
and resources are available, you can create a blog that is ready for
search engines.

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Like the other leading social media websites, del.icio.us
can be a great source of traffic for your blog. In order to make the
most of del.icio.us, follow these steps and you’ll be on your way to
driving thousands of new visitors to your blog.

1 - Use Powerful Headlines/Titles

Headlines and Titles are always important for getting your blog
posts read, but they are especially important for drawing traffic from
del.icio.us. Some readers will bookmark a page without even reading the whole thing, influenced primarily by the title. Even more important, as your post starts to move its way up the popular pages
on del.icio.us, the title will either entice people to click or it will
not stand out enough to get them to take action. If you look at the
items that make it to the front page, you’ll see a predictable trend
that almost all of the items have very effective titles.

2 - Be Original

Think about what makes you decide to bookmark a page. If it’s
information that you can find at a number of different websites or
blogs you’re probably not going to bookmark it. Be original, provide readers with something they haven’t seen before, and make them want to bookmark it before the forget where to find it.

3 - Use Lists

While lists aren’t a prerequisite for getting to the front page of
del.icio.us, it’s another consistent trend that you’ll see. Why do
lists work? For one thing they’re easy to scan and readers can quickly gauge the content without reading word-for-word. Numbered lists, such as this one, also tend to work well.

4 - Encourage Bookmarking

If you actively encourage your readers your bookmark your posts they
are more likely to do it. This can be accomplished by placing a
sentence at the beginning or end of your posts, or it can be
accomplished with buttons and widgets that let readers bookmark with
one click. Whatever your method, for the best results you should place
the link to bookmark in a prominent spot where readers will see it. WordPress users can use the Antisocial Plugin (an SEO-friendly version of the Sociable Plugin) to display buttons for various sites, including del.icio.us.

5 - Encourage Others to Join Your Network

Building a network is one way of sharing links with other users. It
certainly doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get more of your pages
bookmarked, but it makes it easier for others to see your bookmarks.
del.icio.us provides a great tool to make this easy. When you’re logged
in, go to the settings page and you’ll see a link for “Network Badges.”
From that page you’ll get some code to paste into your blog that will
encourage visitors to join your network (Mine is on the sidebar if you
want to see an example and join my network).

6 - Write About Hot Topics

When you’re looking at the del.icio.us front page you’ll notice that many of the popular bookmarks are technology-related.
This is a common trend, so if you write about technology you have a
better chance of getting bookmarked. Visit the page regularly to see
what is hot and learn how you can benefit from knowing other users’
bookmarking habits.

7 - Get Your Posts Popular with Some Other Social Media Site

This may not be easy, but many of the pages that are popular on del.icio.us are also popular on other social media sites. This is actually how I made it to the del.icio.us front page for the first time. My article 83 Top Webmaster Resources became popular at D-Zone,
and the increased traffic that came from D-Zone lead to a lot of
bookmarks and a spot on the del.icio.us front page for a while. Using
other social sites as a gateway is a proven tactic.

8 - Show How Many People Have Bookmarked Your Post

The del.icio.us Tagometer will show readers how many people have bookmarked the particular page
they are viewing. It’s a great way to remind visitors that other people
are bookmarking the page. If no one has bookmarked the page yet, it
will say “be the first to bookmark this page!” Here’s an example from
our post Find the Perfect Colors for Your Website.

9 - Use FeedBurner’s “Save to del.icio.us” Feed Flare

FeedBurner users can insert a link into their RSS feeds that will allow readers to bookmark. It also shows the number of bookmarks
and the most popular tags from within the RSS reader. To active this
FeedFlare, login, click on the Optimize tab, click on FeedFlare and
check the box.



10 - Allow Other del.icio.us Users to See Your Bookmarks

By default your bookmarks are viewable to other del.icio.us users.
You can change them to be private in the settings tab, but if you’re
bookmarking your own pages you will be decreasing the chances that
others will see your pages. Leave this on the default setting.

By using these 10 tips you’ll be able to increase the number of
bookmarks your posts get, which will help you to bring floods of new
traffic from del.icio.us. If you have any additional tips for our readers please leave a comment. If you’re a del.icio.us user feel free to leave your id or a link to your profile in the comments and grow your network.

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