Ten Ways to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

Content
Fresh, original, regularly-updated, interesting content is what the search engines are looking for. Don't use duplicate content. Don't copy and paste from other sites. Write everything yourself. Offer something valuable to your users. Write interesting, fun to read articles. 

Linking
If content is king, linking is queen.  Make sure you link to other sites within your niche. Ask them to link to you. Link to other articles inside your site. Direct people to the information you want them to read. Also, find all of the blogs, message boards in your niche. Visit these sites and contribute to the conversation, including a link in your signature to your blog.

Social Networking
Using sites like Technorati, Mybloglog, Digg, Squidoo, etc. you can reach an audience you may not have reached relying only on the search engines. Also, setup profiles on these sites and link back to your blog.

Article Submission
Write a great article...on someone elses blog. If you write great stuff on a high traffic blog, you will get a bit of juice that way. If people like what you've written, they'll come to your site to read your stuff. But only submit your top notch articles, and do this sparingly. If done correctly it can generate some pretty decent traffic.

Blog Submission
Submit your blog to as many search engines and blog directories as possible. When you do this make sure you have at least 4 to 6 months worth of content on your site. This can be a very time consuming task, but it is extremely important to do this.

Keywords
Don't just write your articles. Write your articles using keywords. Keywords are the words people type in to the search engines to find information. So if you want to be found for "Tivo" you need to use this keyword often in your article. Title, First sentence, last sentence, and throughout. Use this keyword in your links, alt tags, image titles, meta tags, etc. Also, consider writing a series of articles with a certain keyword.

Spread the Word
Put a link to your blog on everything you send out. Emails, newsletters, business cards, offline advertising, television, radio, whatever. Get the link in front of as many eyes as possible. Spread the word to everyone. Maybe do a press release about your new site. Create a buzz.

Google Sitemap
Whatever blogging platform you use, you should find a plugin or module that will create a Google Friendly sitemap. Once installed and configured, it will notify google every time your site is updated. It will also provide other valuable stats on your site.

Buying Traffic
You can use Google Adwords or other online marketing campaigns to drive traffic to your site. With these programs you pay per click, so it can get a bit expensive. But run a campaign for a month or so to gain a loyal readership.

Work Your Site
People don't realize how much work a blog is. You need to put in the time and effort to make your site great. A blog is only as good as you make it. Make sure you set aside time each day, at least an hour, to dedicate to your blog. Write great content and do it often, stick to a schedule. Offer something that nobody else can and do it in a fun and quirky way.

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