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If RSS is the Yahoo backdoor, is a Blog Google's? (Part 2)
By Tinu AbayomiPaul

Setting up Your Blog for the Best Chances to Be Included in 
Google - and Your Best Bet For Staying In

Here are the top 8 items you need to be concerned with to get 
your blog prepared to be recognized and listed well by Google. 
The 8th item will clarify one of the most important factors if 
you want to stay in.
 

1- The Location of Your Blog

Your blog is doing you the least amount of good on someone else's 
server. If you have Blogger, you can change from the blogspot 
version to have Blogger FTP your files to your server for free.

2- The Links on Your Blog Template

By links, I don't mean what you link to when you post. I am 
specifically referring to the links in your blog. If you don't 
edit your blog template to include links to the main part of 
your site, you're making a mistake. How is Google going to find 
a link that isn't there?

Edit your chosen template to make sure there is at least one 
link from your blog directory to the rest of your site.

3 - The Frequency of Your Updates

A wise webmaster recently said that the best thing you can do 
for your search engine efforts is to add a new page to your site 
a day, and to make one change to your site a day.

Why is this such great advice?

Because Googlebot does not need to re-spider your site if it 
never changes. It probably will - but I've noticed the more 
there is a legitimate need for it to return, the more likely it 
is that you'll get re-spidered.

Posting to a blog, or an RSS feed, and leaving it to stagnate 
will bring you zero traffic. Furthermore, when people see an 
abandoned piece of web real estate, they leave. It's like tuning 
into a TV channel and seeing "snow". Most people can't stand it 
for more than a few seconds, and will either turn the channel, 
or turn the television off.

There are even shorter attention spans online, from both search 
engine robots and people. If you want either to return, update 
constantly.

4 - The Right Keywords for Your Blog

When you're selecting keywords for your blog, your best bet 
is to pick keywords that have a medium to high yield and low 
competition. The essential difference is this - would you rather 
be ranked #107 for "internet marketing" and get no traffic, or 
be ranked number one for "learn internet marketing" and get a 
few hundred?

5 - The Placement of the Keywords on Your Blog

Here's where your primary keywords need to be :

.        in the title
.        in the description
.        in your post titles where applicable
.        in the name of the links to individual posts
.        in the text that links your posts


If you look at the front page of my blog, you'll see the phrase 
"Free Traffic Tips" everywhere. And yet, the pages don't sound 
ridiculous.

This is because I set up my blog so that every page and every 
post utilizes these words. If you set up your blog correctly, 
and get in certain habits when you post, you'll find that your 
site will begin to rank for the term that best matches your 
topic.

6 - The Length of Your Blog Posts

Always remember this. "Posts are paragraphs, sentences are 
spam." Your posts should be at least two paragraphs. If there is 
little to no content on a page, there's no reason for it to be 
indexed unless it is the only page available for that term.

The only time your post can be shorter than that, and still be 
effective, is if you're linking to something else. It won't 
always work out that you'll have several paragraphs worth of 
content to discuss. But do your best to stay above 90%.

7- The Frequency of Your Archives

Remember the wise webmaster's quote earlier? Well, here's a 
question - if one new and updated page on your site is good, do 
you think creating or updating three pages of your site can be 
better?

It sure can.

Daily archiving makes a huge difference. If you have this 
option, use it. If you don't switch. If you need more room on 
your server, get some. It's worth it.

When you combine daily archiving and having individual post 
pages, each time you post, your site generates a new page for 
your post, updates the day's archive page (or creates it if it's 
the first post of the day), and updates the index page of your 
site.

Combine these date-stamped pages with real content and you've 
got great spider bait.

8 - When, and Where You Are Linked

If you have Blogger, you'll want to make sure your blog is 
listed as "public", so that it will appear on Blogger's 
recently updated blogs pages whenever you make a new post. 

There is some speculation that this is what gets your blog 
spidered so quickly by Google if you use Blogger to post. And 
the answer is yes, if you are willing to wait about 48 hours, 
this will get you spidered.

Once.

And IF your site is indexed, it will probably be dropped out the 
next day, if this is all you do. This has been documented in 
public on other sites.

What hasn't been made public yet is that your best bet for 
staying spidered is frequent and regular updates. Let Google 
know that you're not trying to use Blogger to spam its database. 
Provide useful content that updates at regular intervals. 

All these tips help you get ethical attention from Google. You 
don't need to do anything dishonest or underhanded to get your 
site spidered, or listed. So, if your site fills a need that 
Google has for sites, and you have a quality site, you can get 
listed.

With just these tips. you have enough to get a good blog into 
Google. 

It'll be up to you to stay in.

================================================================
Can you really get spidered by the Googlebot in less than 24 
hours? Is there more you can do to get your blog into shape for 
inclusion? What if you're using another blog system? Find out 
more at http://www.freetraffictip.com/bizblogs .
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