SEO

• Search engine optimization: not a hard concept to grasp. Basically you are attempting to get your blog out there for new people to read and share. Ideally it is promoting yourself as any other business person would; a marketing campaign put on the internet. It ultimately helps people search for content on the web. SEO helps search engines find the blogs or websites people are looking for. They even have books to help decode the language.

• Tags: not just for graffiti artists anymore. They are the key in trying to produce good SEO practices. For this reason I always try in my blog, about marathon training\running, to include running, marathon running and beginning running advice in my blogs tag field. It essentially pulls in more readers who maybe searching using broad terms. However I understand that I have to be specific as well.
  

• Readers anymore are looking for niches: people who can relate to their individual needs. As such people in the blogosphere need to incorporate those ideas into their writing. For example I could write a post about shaving down times or a race. The tags for that post should have general terms the topic falls under but should include lowering race timing or tips for timing. This will help search engine focus right on my blog as opposed to another if timing is what an audience member is looking for. By using search engines I want to appear in organic search results. It is imperative to my blogs survival, if I want to become a real player in the blogosphere, to use SEO.

• Playing up to a niche audience: best way to gain popularity. They will share your information is you have done the other blog basics. These basics can lie in the superficial aspects like color, font size or delve further into writing, voice, professionalism. This may not seem like a part of SEO but it helps if you have a strong product to be able to sell it properly.
  

• Know where your posts rank based on audience perception: This can be measured using various tools. I embedded Google Analytics and it helps tremendously. I was able to see what worked and what did not, which will help raise a blog in the ranks. By using Google’s hot trends or just trends (difference is trends allows you to search individual words) tools a blogger can see what people are looking for right now and if viewed often enough a pattern begins to emerge. Over the course of a week the amount of popularly news coverage coincided with the top ten words being searched through Google.
  

• Don’t drink too much of the Kool-Aid: Be careful not to overdose on trend words: This is a tool that could be implemented into the blog but should not be used a prime resource. If it is a blogger runs the risk of only writing about or aiming to have the most talked about posts. Content eventually suffers if all one worries about is popularity.
  

• Free SEO companies

• Hiring an SEO company: according to Google hiring an SEO is a critical step in moving a blog from just a platform for an individual into a more legitimate resource. This is done by: reviewing site content and structure, having adequate technical advice on web development, mastery of certain regions and markets, to that having content development, overseeing online business practices, using proper keyword research and finally having SEO training. Webmaster is a suggested tool which incorporates all of these elements in order to better SEO.
  

• Be leery of shady business deals: some SEO companies are scams. Google says to look out for, “Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue, No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do, You should never have to link to an SEO, Choose wisely, Be sure to understand where the money goes, be mindful of shadow domains.”

• Add URL to Google: I did, and immediately received a visit from the engine. It came from a runner in Baltimore who was looking for advice with shaving down their times. Other advice was to use more broad headlines and specific tags to help bring people in and zero in on their interests. I used Google hot trends to help see what words\phrases are most popular. I will try to use those more just to get traffic onto my blog.

• Social networking sites: just get the word out. I use social networking sites but it was suggested that use them more often and follow through on the comments.