The document provides guidance on blogging best practices for the Georgia Department of Defense. It covers topics such as getting started with blogging, writing blog posts, adding images and videos, customizing blog layouts, privacy settings, following other blogs, dos and don'ts of blogging, formatting, design, marketing a blog, and managing blog comments. The document aims to educate bloggers within the department on how to effectively create and maintain blogs.

1. Georgia Department of Defense<br />Blogging Tactical Guidebook <br />Produced by the Public Affairs Office<br />June 2011<br />Table of Contents<br />Guide to SEO4<br />The Beginners Guide to SEO5<br />How to Create a Blog56<br />Getting Started with Blogging57<br />Getting Started with Blogger63<br />Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging67<br />152 Dos and Don’ts of Business Blogging68<br />Blog Comments Dos and Don’ts72<br />Tips for Better Blogging73<br />Social Media Roundup/7 Tips for Better Blogging74<br />Understanding Alt-Text76<br />Alt Text Helps People and Search Engines77<br />Add Alt Text to Images for Better SEO79<br />How To Use HTML Alt Tag in Image of Blogger (Blogspot) Blog?80<br />Blog Post SEO82<br />The Blog Post SEO Checklist: Before You Publish the Post83<br />Blogger Blogpost SEO Tips and Tricks85<br />Guide to SEO:<br />82550152400The Beginners Guide to SEO<br /> <br />How to Create a Blog:<br />Getting Started with Blogging<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Getting Started with Blogger<br />Getting started with Blogger<br />Blogger offers an easy way to collaborate, discuss, or share your thoughts with others. <br />This guide can help you familiarize yourself with the main features of Blogger and get started writing your own blog. <br />To start using Blogger, simply sign in with your Google Account. (If you use Gmail, Google Groups, or orkut, you already have an account.) If you don't have a Google Account yet, you can create one now. <br />Contents<br />Create a blog<br />Write a post<br />Add an image<br />Add a video<br />Privacy and permissions<br />Customizing your layout<br />Follow other blogs<br />Create a blog<br />To get started with Blogger, visit the Blogger homepage, enter your username and password, and click Sign in. Enter a display name and accept Blogger's Terms of Service. Then click the Create a Blog link and get started!<br />Pick a name and address (URL) for your blog. Then, choose your favorite template (this is how your blog will look when you publish it). Now get greative, add information to your personal profile, and customize how your blog looks, if you feel up to it. Start blogging now!<br />Write your post<br />Once you've signed in to Blogger, you'll see your dashboard with your list of blogs. Here's what you need to do:<br />Click the NEW POST button and enter anything you want to share with the world.<br />Next, you'll see the Create New Post page. Start by giving your post a title (optional), then enter the post itself:<br />When you're done, click the Preview link to make sure it's ready to go:<br />Once you're satisfied with your post, click the Publish button. This will publish your new post.<br />Add an image<br />You can add an image from your computer or the Web to your blog. Click the image icon in the post editor toolbar. A window appears prompting you to browse for an image file on your computer, or enter the URL of an image on the Web. <br />Once you've selected your image, you can then choose a layout to determine how your image will appear in your post: <br />The 'Left', 'Center', and 'Right' options allow you to customize the way your blog text will flow around your image. <br />The 'Image size' options will determine how large the image will appear within your post.<br />Click UPLOAD IMAGES to add your image, and then click DONE when the notification window appears telling you that 'Your image has been added.' Blogger will then return you to the post editor, where you'll see your image ready to be published to your blog.<br />You can also publish images to your blog using your mobile device, Google's free photo software Picasa, or a third-party service like flickr. Learn more<br />Add a video<br />To add a video to your blog post, click the film strip icon in the post editor toolbar above where you compose your blog text. A window appears prompting you to 'Add a video to your blog post.' <br />Click Browse to select the video file from your computer that you'd like to upload. Note that Blogger accepts AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real and Windows Media files and that your video must be less than 100MB in size.<br />Before uploading your video, add a title in the 'Video Title' box and agree to the Terms and Conditions (you'll only have to do this the first time that you upload a video with Blogger). Then click UPLOAD VIDEO. <br />While your video uploads, you'll see a placeholder in the post editor showing where your video will appear. You'll also see a status message below the post editor letting you know that your upload is in progress. Depending on the size of your video, this usually takes about five minutes. When it is complete, your video will appear in the post editor.<br />Want to see this in action? Click the link to watch a video on how to add a video to your blog post:<br />Adding a video to your post <br />Customizing your layout<br />Your template is a fun way to customize your blog. When creating a new blog, you're first asked to choose a default template, this is the basic design of your blog. You can choose from customize your blog's design using our intuitive drag-and-drop interface. You can also add powerful gadgets such as slideshows, user polls, or even AdSense ads. Changing the fonts and colors on your blog is easy too. If you want more precise control over your blog's layout, you can also use the Edit HTML feature. To edit your blog's layout, follow these steps: <br />Click the Layout link from your dashboard below the blog you would like to customize.<br />From the Page Elements sub-tab, click Edit to edit existing gadgets, or Add a Gadget to add new ones.<br />To add a new gadget after you've clicked Add a Gadget, simply click the plus sign next to your desired gadget. You can choose from gadgets by category, or search for a specific gadget in the top right of the pop-up window. <br />4762500<br />Once you've added the necessary information to your selected gadget, click SAVE. Your layout changes will appear instantly. <br />4114800118745<br />Privacy and permissions<br />By default, your blog is completely public, and can be read by anyone on the internet. However, if you want to keep it private, you can do that, too. You cna change these settings on the Settings | Permissions tab.<br />Under the 'Blog Readers' heading, you'll probably see 'Anybody' selected as the default. When you change this to 'Only readers I choose,' you'll get an Add Readers button.<br />Click the Add Readers button and then enter the email address of a person to whom you'd like to grant access to your blog. To add multiple people, separate their addresses with commas.<br />3743325424180For each address entered, the Google Account associated with that address will be given access to view your blog. If an address is not associated with an account, that person will receive an invitation email with a link allowing them do one of three things:<br />Sign in to an existing account.<br />Create a new account.<br />View your blog as a guest (no account required).<br />Follow other blogs<br />With the Blogger Following feature you can keep track of the blogs you follow via your Reading List on the Blogger dashboard. There are several ways to become a follower of a blog. One of the easiest ways is to visit a blog that has added the 'Following' widget, ad then follow these steps:<br />-1905033655Click the FOLLOW THIS BLOG link under the 'Followers' widget. <br />You'll then see a pop-up window with the options to either follow publicly or anonymously. <br />4676775-171450Select how you'd like to follow the blog, then click the orange FOLLOW button. You're now a follower of the blog! If you chose to follow the blog publicly, your profile picture will be displayed on the blog with a link to your Blogger profile.<br />When you become a follower of a blog, the blog will also be added to your Reading List on your Blogger dashboard. Additionally, you can become a follower of any blog or URL (even if the blog doesn't have the 'Followers' widget) by adding the blog to your Reading List on the dashboard.<br />Dos and Don’ts of Blogging:<br />152 Dos and Don’ts of Business Blogging<br />19 Dos & Don’ts before you start<br />Do host your blog on your own domain<br />Don’t spend hundreds of dollars hosting your blog when you are first starting out.<br />Do make sure your blog can handle traffic from social media sites<br />Don’t go for too cheap/free hosting plans. You do not have to spend a fortune since you can get a decent host for less than $20 a month.<br />Do brainstorm 30-40 topics for your blog before you start<br />Do have 10 posts written and posted before you launch the blog<br />Don’t create filler posts to have 10 posts for launch<br />Do invest money to get a professional blog template<br />Don’t think that you have to spend a fortune creating a professional looking blog. A professionally designed template can cost as little as $400<br />Do comment on other blogs in your field before starting out<br />Don’t spam other blogs just to get your name out there<br />Do define success metric for your blog before you start blogging<br />Don’t set unreasonable success goals that are too difficult or too easy to achieve<br />Do understand why you are blogging<br />Don’t think that blogging will solve your business problems<br />Do understand the time commitment it takes to blog<br />Don’t think that blogging will take less than couple of hours a week<br />Do use an SEO friendly platform. By the way: Word press is the best for blogging!<br />Don’t use a CMS for a blog. We used Joomla for our blog, and it was too much headache<br />31 Dos & Don’ts After you start<br />Do commit to a regular posting schedule<br />Don’t kill yourself if you are not able to keep up with your schedule<br />Do understand that traffic and comments will take time to come<br />Don’t get too frustrated if takes months before you see any comments on your blog<br />Do spend a reasonable amount of time every day reading other blogs<br />Don’t spend hours every day reading other blogs<br />Do select the categories for your blog carefully<br />Don’t have more than 10 categories for your blog<br />Do optimize your blog for SEO or hire someone to help you do that<br />Don’t think that anyone who claims to be an SEO expert is actually one<br />Do get a feedburner account for your RSS management<br />Don’t get hung up on RSS membership fluctuation<br />Do Install Google analytics to track your daily visitors<br />Don’t get stuck on daily fluctuation in traffic or unusual traffic hikes<br />Do Analyze keywords people are searching on to get to your blog<br />Don’t stuff your posts with keywords to get search engine traffic<br />Do invest the time to add pictures to most of your blog posts. Use a site such as istockphoto.com to purchase images for your blog<br />Don’t steal images from other websites!<br />Do optimize images before you use them<br />Don’t spend too much money on image optimization software. XT has a free version and you can pay $ to purchase the software<br />Do keep your blog conversational<br />Do create a series of blogs about topics you are an expert in<br />Don’t pretend to be an expert on everything<br />Do create a meaningful about us page<br />Don’t make your about us page too corporate<br />Do get to know other bloggers personally<br />Don’t calculate every blogging relationship in dollars and cents<br />Do create a robot.txt file<br />Don’t copy a robot.txt file from anywhere without really understanding it<br />Do allow users to subscribe to your blog via RSS or via email<br />Do use a full RSS feed<br />27 Dos & Don’ts Topics:<br />Focus your blog on specific niche<br />Don’t think that 100% of your posts have to be on one topic<br />Do keep a running list of topics that you can write about<br />Do share case studies and client success stories on your blog<br />Don’t share client success stories without their written consent<br />Do be authentic<br />Don’t do something you are not comfortable with<br />Do be honest<br />Don’t share too much information<br />Do share your knowledge with your readers<br />Don’t think you cannot sell your services through a blog<br />Do write a post each day<br />Don’t post a blog each day. Writing a blog and posting it are two different things. 3 strong posts a week can do wonders<br />Do use Hittail to get suggestions for long tail keywords<br />Don’t follow Hittail suggestions blindly.<br />Do interview leaders in your industry<br />Don’t assume that just because you are just starting out, industry leaders will turn your interview requests down.<br />Write “how to” articles<br />Write a “secret to” post<br />Write a tutorial post<br />Do create a 101 post<br />Do write a post about the top 10 blogs in your niche<br />Don’t use random judgment to determine the top 10 blogs in your niche instead relying on Google PR, technorati rank and Alexa<br />Do write a post that reviews books in your niche<br />Don’t write a review about a book you never read.<br />Keep most of your posts to less than 700 words<br />Do write pillar posts that explain topics in great details<br />21 Dos & Don’ts of marketing and promoting your blog<br />Do plan on investing time and money to market your blog<br />Don’t think that marketing your blog means posting regularly!<br />Do use your blog as a way to increase your brand online<br />Don’t rely on your blog as the only way to increase your brand online<br />Do allocate sometime in your weekly schedule for blogging activities<br />Don’t stretch yourself thin to keep up with blogging activities<br />Do spend at least 50% of your blogging time off your blog (commenting, emailing, reading other blogs)<br />Don’t conduct networking blogging opportunities without a plan: planned comments and emails can help promote your blog if done correctly<br />Do use your blog to market your business tactfully<br />Don’t make your blog a sales brochure for your business<br />Do create content for social media sites<br />Don’t make all your content targeted for social media<br />Do use social media sites such as Digg, Stumble upon, Reddit to promote your blog<br />Don’t submit your content to these sites. Find a friend who can submit the content for you<br />Establish relations with other bloggers in your niche<br />Don’t spam other bloggers in your niche<br />Do invite guest bloggers to post on your blog<br />Don’t let your guest bloggers write without any guidelines<br />Do write guest blogs<br />Don’t write a guest blog in a topic that does not relate to your niche at all<br />Do use contests to promote your blog<br />4 Dos & Don’ts of bloggers:<br />Do Ask people in your company to blog<br />Don’t force people to blog if they don’t like to do so<br />Do review the posts of your colleagues before posting them<br />Don’t fix more than grammar or spelling mistakes in a colleague’s post<br />10 Dos & Don’ts comments:<br />Do create and enforce a comment policy for your blog<br />Don’t hide your comment policy. We are guilty of this one<br />Do encourage comments on your blog<br />Don’t allow abuse to the comment on your blog<br />Do respond to comments on your blog<br />Don’t think that you have to respond to every comment<br />Do reword your commentators by linking to them<br />Don’t link to commentators on your blog for the sake of linking. Remember, only link to good content<br />Do visit commentators blog and leave a comment<br />Do email commentators to thank them and start a relationship with them<br />11 Dos & Don’ts of links coming in and going out:<br />Do check your technorati ranking every day<br />Don’t think that technorati is the authority site on blogging!<br />Do monitor incoming links to your site<br />Do visit blogs that link to your site and leave a meaningful comment<br />Do create link worthy content and links will come in<br />Do email other bloggers telling them about good content posted on your site<br />Do not spam other bloggers with every topic you post<br />Don’t get frustrated if it takes a while for links to start coming in<br />Do select your links in your posts carefully. You are telling your readers that you vouche for the quality of each link<br />Do link to other blogs in each post: we usually try to link to at least 3 other blogs in each of our posts<br />Don’t link for the sake of linking<br />6 Dos of formatting and design<br />Do keep a blog log and journal any changes (design, plugins, etc) in the blog<br />Do use your picture next to each blog post<br />Do include a clear RSS button on the left/right nav<br />Do use a tag line next to the name of the blog to inform new users the topic/niche of your blog<br />Do display your most popular posts<br />Do display your pillar content in your left or right navigation<br />16 Don’ts of business blogging<br />Don’t require visitors to login to view your blog<br />Don’t require visitors to login to leave a comment<br />Don’t quit too fast<br />Don’t vent frustrations concerning clients/co-workers/bosses in your blog<br />Don’t dig deep into your personal life, try to keep the blog’s focus business related<br />Don’t post anything you don’t want Google to pick up<br />Don’t use adsense on your blog<br />Don’t quit blogging if you cannot keep up with your schedule.<br />Don’t over post. 3 posts per week are plenty.<br />Don’t start another meta blog: There are too many blogs about blogging<br />Don’t start another SEO blog<br />Don’t offer blog coaching services if you just started blogging or if your blog hardly has any comments on it!<br />Don’t think you will make a lot of money directly from blogging<br />Don’t think that content is enough to get people interested<br />Don’t badmouth your competition<br />Don’t allow others to high jack your blog<br />7 Random Dos of business blogging<br />Do think about hiring a virtual assistant to help you with auxiliary tasks for your blogs<br />Do consider hiring a ghost blogger!<br />Do read and subscribe to Chris Garrett on New Media daily<br />Do read and subscribe to Copy Blogger daily<br />Do read and subscribe to the invesp blog daily<br />Do be patient<br />Do have fun<br />Blog Comments Dos and Don’ts<br />A blog without comments is like having a conversation with yourself.<br />Having people commenting on what you’ve written and leaving remarks on other’s blog posts is what makes the blogosphere go round.<br />What are the do’s and don’ts when it comes to blog comments? As a WordPress blogs two of the most commonly used anti-spam comment plugins are Akismet and GASP (GrowMap Anti-Spambot Plugin) and these can save you a lot of time trawling through pointless comments and blatant attempts at getting backlinks.<br />Blog readers<br />If you frequently comment on other people’s blog posts, the next four tips are for you…<br />Add something constructive to the debate<br />Anyone can write “Nice post – thanks for sharing” or something similar. If you want your comments to stand a good chance of being published you should try to add something to the topic being discussed.<br />For example if someone has written a top 10 reasons style blog post, you may want to chip in with one or two reasons of your own to create further discussion.<br />Engage with other blog readers<br />A blog with lots of comment is a better place for everyone. If you’ve got a genuine interest in the subject matter you should debate it with other people who’ve left comments. Responding directly to what others have said and having an in-depth discussion can help you portray yourself as an expert in your field.<br />Consider your own reputation<br />If you’re posting comments on other people’s blogs, you should remember that what goes around usually comes around. If you’re deliberately abusive or critical without any foundation you may find yourself getting a taste of your own medicine via comments on your own blog.<br />You also need to consider your own reputation and that of your business. A bad reputation can spread very quickly online nowadays.<br />Register with Gravatar.com before leaving comments<br />Make your comments more individual and memorable by registering an avatar for your blog comments at gravatar.com<br />Choosing a photograph of yourself is a good idea and will help make your comments more personal as well as standing out against those who have a generic avatar.<br />Tips for Better Blogging:<br />Social Media Roundup/7 Tips for Better Blogging<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Understanding Alt-Text:<br />Alt Text Helps People and Search Engines<br />A picture may be worth a thousand words, but an image on your website won't be worth anything to search engines or a vision-impaired person if it doesn't have alt text. <br />What is Alt Text?<br />Alt text (short for \"
alternative text\"
) gives people and search engines a way to \"
read\"
images or audio clips on a website. Technically speaking, alt text is the alt attribute of the image tag. Its code looks like this: <br /><img alt=\"
This alt text describes what the image is\"
src=\"
http://whereimagelives.jpg\"
/> <br />Don't know if your website's images have alt text? Jump to the end of this article and learn how to check. <br />Help Visually Impaired People & Search Engines \"
See\"
Your Images<br />Search engines are blind when it comes to images, and so are some people. At least 10 percent of Web surfers use assistive technology to help them browse websites. Make sure your images can be seen by everyone. Visually impaired people use screen readers that read text on websites to them, and hearing-impaired people use software to tell them what an audio clip is about. When you take the time to find and include an image on your website, including descriptive alt text ensures it's visible and adds value for all your visitors. <br />For search engines, alt text is the one thing that tells them what an image is. Alt text can also help your website rank better in search results if you include the important keywords that best describe the image and its purpose on your site. <br />For example, a drug company's website might include a chart showing the results of a clinical trial for its flagship product, MiracleDrug. The image will help a search engine understand what the page is about if its alt text says something like, \"
Chart of MiracleDrug clinical trial results.\"
<br />That same text will also help the web page rank higher in a web search or image search for the keywords, \"
MiracleDrug,\"
\"
clinical trial\"
and \"
clinical trial results.\"
<br />While including important and relevant keywords in the text of alt tags can help your site rank well for these keywords, don't be tempted to stuff irrelevant keywords into alt text. This won't help vision-impaired people understand your web pages, and search engines are smart enough to recognize keyword stuffing as an attempt to game search results. They won't reward you for it. <br />Usability Perks of Alt Text<br />The \"
alternative\"
aspect of alt text has an added bonus for all people: If a website is loading slowly, or if an image fails to load, the alt text takes the place of the missing image. <br />190502540<br />Title text is similar to alt text, and can be applied to both images and links. In many web browsers, title text provides a usability bonus I'm fond of: If you hover your mouse over an image, you'll be able to read the title text. It's like having an on-demand caption for images and links, which helps anyone, not just visually impaired people. <br />You can see how title text works in the image to the right by hovering your own mouse over the image. <br />You can use the same text for an image's title text and alt text, or switch it up if you like, formatting it like this: <br /><img alt=\"
Alt text describes the image\"
title=\"
Title text will show up upon hover\"
src=\"
http://whereimagelives.jpg\"
/> <br />Adding Alt Text to Images on AboutUs.org<br />If you want to add alt text and title text to an image to the Wiki section of a page on AboutUs.org, follow these instructions and add the last part: <br />[[Image:FileName.jpg|Description of the image]] <br />Do Your Images Have Alt Text?<br />5657850167640<br />The free Home Page Analysis on every website's AboutUs page can tell you whether images on that website's home page have alt text. Check it out by searching for your website at the top right (example: MyWebsite.com) and click the \"
Home Page Analysis\"
tab in the left-side navigation (pictured at right). Then click on \"
Links & Images\"
. <br />The AboutUs Site Report will check the images on an entire website for alt text, and let you know which specific images need alt text. <br />How To Add or Change Alt Text<br />The HTML for an image with alt text will look like this: <br /><img alt=\"
This alt text describes what the image is\"
src=\"
whereimagelives.jpg\"
/> <br />If you can edit the raw HTML code for your images, you will add alt text by adding the alt=\"
This alt text describes what the image is\"
part. To improve or change the alt text for an image, find its HTML and change the part in quotes after alt=. <br />If you use a content management system (CMS) that makes it easier and keeps you from having to dive into HTML, you will want to go into the edit or settings mode for that particular image. There should be a field called \"
alt text\"
, \"
image description\"
or something similar that you can fill in. <br />Add Alt Text to Images for Better SEO<br />If you’re like most website owners – or bloggers– you enjoy adding images to your website. But do you know that adding alt text to your images can improve your site’s visibility to search engines – and people?<br />“Alt” text in an image alt tag is actually “alternative” text – an alternative way of understanding the image. Search engines can’t “see” an image- but if you add accurate descriptive text to an image alt tag, you’ll be telling the search engine what the image is about. You can also help a web page rank higher in search results for your important keywords if you include them in the alt text for images on that page.<br />There’s another good reason for using alt text: accessibility. When people with visual impairments surf the Web, they use screen readers – a technology that literally reads the content of a web page to them. An image can’t be read, however, unless there’s alt text associated with the image. By including good descriptive alt text, you’re helping people get the full meaning of your web page – people who might be your next customers.<br />The free website visibility report included on every AboutUs website profile page tells you whether the home page of that site has image description tags – alt tags – for any images on the page. The new AboutUs Site Report, which we’ll unveil later this week, tells you about the image alt tags on every page of any website, up to 50 pages at a time. That gives you a great leg up on improving your site’s visibility and standing in search results.<br />How To Use HTML Alt Tag in Image of Blogger (Blogspot) Blog?<br />For the sake of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) you should have to maintain some criteria during writing a Blog post.<br />At the time of writing any post, if any optimization is done in order to get rank well in search engines like Yahoo, Bing and Google, then this is called On Page Optimization.<br />Now a day, the search engines are emphasizing on the On Page SEO more. Without any Off Page optimization, if you just do some On Page Optimization on your page; it’s enough to get rank well in search engines. It’s proved by me. I experienced it on one of my Blog and doing better in SERPs.<br />597217552070Adding ALT Tag (Alternative Text or Alternative Name) in Image is one kind of On Page Optimization.<br />Now, you can ask me why the Alt Tag is needed for a Image?<br />Well, the so called search engines especially Google Bot can’t read the images you add on your post. Suppose, you added a image of “Computer” on one of your post. You added this photo because you want to tell the search engines what this post is all about. But this is really sorrowful matter is that, Google Bot won’t be able to detect your image. Search Engine Bot can’t read the image; they can read just any kind of text.<br />So, using ALT tag in your image means, adding a text about what kind of image you are using. In other means, if you use the AlT Tag in images; if the browser’s image load option is stopped, then your browser will show you the Alternative Text; so that you can easily understand that what the image was there.<br />Alt tag in images helps you with search engine positioning in making your website on top on SERPs.<br />Snatching the example; if you used an ALT tag on you Computer Image; the search engine robot would definitely detect your image that it is a computer image and this post is all about a Computer.<br />So, How Can I add a Alt Tag in Blogger or Blogspot Blog Post?<br />In WordPress Blog it’s easy to use the Alternative Name or Text (Alt Tag) during adding an image by default. But, if you Blog in Blogspot/Blogger platform you have to interfere into the HTML code.<br />Here the process of adding the Alt tag has been mentioned stepwise-<br />Add an Image as usual method in your new post.<br />Now click on the Edit HTML tab from the Post Editor Box Toolbar.<br />Find your Image HTML Source code. Which is like <img src= “http://shamimnasir.com/seo.jpg”>. If you want to add a img Alt tag where the Alternative Text will be “SEO”. Then, just put a code like alt= “SEO” after the iamge souce link and within the end tag. For example: <img src= http://shamimnasir.com/seo.jpg” alt= “SEO” /> . Here an Alternative Name “SEO” has been added which can be readable by the search engines.<br />Try to use your post keyword (Just one keyword) on your Image Alt Tag. It will give you visitors from Image Search of the search engines too.<br />Whenever you make a new post on your Blogspot blog, then after adding an image on post, click on Edit HTML tab and inset the alt html tag manually.<br />Happy Blogging.<br />Blog Post SEO:<br />The Blog Post SEO Checklist: Before You Publish the Post<br />A couple of weeks ago I came across this widely-recommended post sharing a great blog post checklist. While it does tackle some essential SEO aspects, I decided to create a more SEO-focused version offering you a quick one-reference checklist on making sure your post is SEO-friendly enough to go live (the list is not too long because SEO is not — and should not be — your main concern when writing a blog post, and I mentioned only \"
MUST-do\"
points to never forget about):<br />The Checklist:<br />1. Make sure you have used relevant keywords.<br />2. Optimize the post URL \"
slug\"
<br />3. Optimize the post title tag<br />4. Optimize the post images<br />5. (Inter)link to old posts<br />Now, let's discuss each point in more detail:<br />1. Make sure you have used relevant keywords<br />Using the right tools for keyword research is essential for three important reasons:<br />They allow you to make your writing more diverse (by suggesting synonyms, related terms and definitions); <br />They let you brainstorm more post topics and subtopics (by suggesting related topics and neighboring terms); <br />They account for your content organic rankings. <br />left0Additional help:<br />Use this post listing some keyword research tools to start with to choose a preferred online thesaurus and dictionary to research synonyms, related terms and more! <br />Get this FireFox addon by Wordtracker FireFox addon that lets you run some basic keyword research in your browser sidebar to never leave the blog post editor page; <br />435292513970Consider using Wordstream's FireFox addon (paid) that lets you research keywords and shows you the count of each keyword in your post editor: <br />2. Optimize the post URL \"
slug<br />I use these basic rules to make sure my post URL is going to be SEO-friendly:<br />I make it meaningful (this is why I recommend using /%postname%/ variable in WordPress setting); <br />I make it short (about 5-6 words in it); <br />I make sure there are important keywords in the URL. <br />left0Additional help:<br />Be sure to read this post on URL File Names as well as this one listing some SEO Best Practices for URL Structure <br />Drop by this old but still valid post on SEO Friendly URL Structure for WordPress Blogs <br />3. Optimize the post title tag<br />The only reason why I am listing this after the URL slug is that titles are more for people than URLs. While you are almost free to make your URLs for robots rather than people (because people pay little attention to the actual address), title tags determine your page click-through, social media success and overall performance.<br />This is why my rule of thumb is to optimize the title tag for the keywords (as this is still the most prominent place to put your keywords at) while still primarily thinking about its \"
viral\"
component (making it catchy and, well, cool).<br />Note: This is especially valid for blog post titles where rankings are (most often) not the major concern.<br />left0Additional help:<br />Check this post listing criteria of an effective page title <br />Find out how long the title tag should be <br />4. Optimize your post images<br />If you are like me, you love visual data representation and use plenty of screenshots and other types of images in every post. The good news, this makes your readers' life easier. The bad news, images may dramatically effect your page load times.<br />Be sure to note:<br />You need to make sure your images are optimized for the web in terms of the size; <br />You want to use \"
Alt\"
text for images for both SEO and accessibility. <br />left0Additional help:<br />Learn the difference between image Alt Text and image Title (note that WordPress editor usually forces you to use a title tag and doesn't care about the alt text, so be sure to insert an alt text for each meaningful image); <br />Read my detailed guide on how to optimize images for search engines; <br />Learn how to optimize image size to make your pages load faster. <br />5. (Inter)link to old posts<br />Internal links are crucial for rankings. Besides that, they make sure the stolen posts still have links back to your domain.<br />Read more: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/the-blog-post-seo-checklist-before-you-publish-the-post.html#ixzz1Q0fJzSpe<br />Blogger Blogpost SEO Tips and Tricks<br />Want to improve SEO on a Blogspot Blogger blog? This tutorial discusses how bloggers can optimize their blog using SEO techniques to improve indexing of their Blogger Blogspot blog and achieve a better ranking in search engine results. In this article I will be discussing the following Blogger help tips for SEO: <br />Adding Your Blogger Blog to Major Search Engines<br />Optimizing Blogger Post Titles<br />Utilising Meta Keywords and a Meta Description<br />Using Keywords in Alt Tags and Image Titles<br />Using Target Keywords in Your Post Content<br />Optimizing Blogger Title Tags<br />Optimizing Your Blogger Permalinks<br />Making Use of HTML Heading Tags Within Posts and Post Titles<br />Adding Breadcrumb Navigation to your Blogger Blog<br />Get Your Blog Listed by Major Search EnginesGetting listed in the major search engines is a must if you want to get traffic from search engines. I have written several in depth articles about how to add a sitemap to major search engines and how to add your blog to Google, Yahoo and MSN so I will not repeat myself. Follow these articles for step by step walkthroughsOptimize Your Blogger Post TitlesMajor search engines lend a lot of weight to titles so it is important that you craft your post titles carefully. To optimize your post titles make them keyword rich and ensure the title clearly explains what the blog post is about. Try to put your keywords at the beginning of your title for best results and avoid repeating your keywords within the title. Avoid long titles as Google only displays about 65 characters in the search results anyway. Title tags are important if your Blogger blog is to attract traffic and rank in search engine results. On your blog home page the blog title appears between the title tags while on each individual post page it is the name of the article itself. While the title tags themselves are unseen by the visitor to your blog they are read when search engines crawl your blog. Search engines use title tags to display your post title as a headline in search engine results. Search engines also display a description of the article either by extracting it from the post content usually by picking up the first 150 characters of your post or by reading the meta description of the post if one exists. Meta descriptions can be crafted for individual posts in Blogger to good effect. Make descriptions unique for each post and ensure they contain your target keywords and keyword phrases to encourage search engines to extract snippets from them. To find out more about adding a meta description to an individual post please see my article Adding Meta Tags to Blogger Blogspot Blog for Better SEOAdd Meta Tags and Blog Description to BloggerAdding meta keywords and a blog description to your Blogger Blogspot blog can boost your rankings by helping visitors locate your blog using keyword and keyword phrases. To find out the best method of inserting these into your Blogger blog please refer to my article about Adding Meta Tags to Blogger Blogspot Blog for Better SEOUse Keywords in Alt Tags and Image TitlesOptimize the images used on your blog by making use of the alt tags and image titles. For some tips on SEO and images please refer to 10 Tips to Build Site Traffic for a Blogspot BlogUse Target Keywords in Your Post Content190501571625Make sure you know your targeted keywords and use them within your post content. One of the factors in determining rankings is the relevance of the targeted keywords in relationship to the text that appears in the post content.Change the Order of Post Title and Blog Title for Better SEOOne key change you can make to Blogger that will markedly improve the SEO of your blog is to adjust the title tags.By default Blogger title tags are not optimized for search engines. The name of the blog appears before the name of the article which is not search engine friendly. Since search engines read left to right and give preference to what appears first having your blog name display before your post title is significant. To improve SEO it pays to adjust the order of title tags so that the your post title appears first:<br />Blog Title | Post TitletoPost Title | Blog Title<br />To find out how to adjust the title tags of a Blogger Blogspot blog please refer to my article Adjust Blogger Title Tags to Improve SEOOptimize Your Blogger PermalinksHand in hand with a title tag is the permanent permalink that is created when a post is published. If the title of the post is more than about 35 characters long you will strike problems with Blogger because it will shorten the title to a 35-40 character permalink. Some very ugly results happen because of this factor. For instance imagine a permalink such as: <br />http://blogknowhow.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-create-improved-permalinks-for.html<br />4048125760095A totally useless permalink results because the blogger keyword has been left off. Learn more about crafting titles and working around the limitations of Blogger permalinks in my article How to Create Search Engine Friendly PermalinksImprove SEO by Making Use of Headings for Post TitlesHeading tags are important for optimal SEO. Most Blogger.com templates use html header tags sized &lth2> or &lth3> for the post title. In the past major search engines like Google gave precedence to tags with &lth1> ahead of anything else but how important &lth1> tags are today is less certain. You could tweak the heading size of your post title if you wish however take care to ensure the look of your template isn't compromised. A bigger font will result and this may mean other parts of your blog will need to be adjusted to compensate. To find out what size your blog title is look for the following lines in your template. <br />&ltb:if cond='data:post.title'>&lth3 class='post-title entry-title'>&ltb:if cond='data:post.link'>&lta expr:href='data:post.link'>&t/a>&ltb:else/>&ltb:if cond='data:post.url'>&lta expr:href='data:post.url'></a>&ltb:else/>&ltdata:post.title/></b:if></b:if></h3></b:if><br />As can be seen this template blog title is in &lth3&gt. To change the size of the tags just substitute the appropriate header tag where &lth3> appearsImprove SEO By Making Use of Heading Tags Within PostsHeading tags can be used to good effect in your posts. Make sure you have only one &lth1> heading per page if you have one at all and reserve this for your post title. Make use of &lth2> and &lth3> headings throughout your post to emphasize key points and targeted keywords. Major search engines do take notice of &lth2> and &lth3> headings when crawling your blog. To add emphasis to a heading within your blog simply enclose the heading in &lth3> tags. Add Breadcrumb Navigation to your Blogger BlogThere is a hack that can be used to add breadcrumb navigation to a Blogger Blogspot blog. Adding breadcrumb navigation can boost your SEO of your blog as well as improving how readers get around.190503141980A breadcrumb provides text-based navigation by displaying the visitor's location within a blog. A breadcrumb provides shortcuts to enable visitors to quickly get around your blog and jump from one part of your blog to another. For example a breadcrumb for a post about meta tags would be Home > Meta Tags >Add Meta Tags to Blogger for Better SEO. An anchor text such as 'meta tags' tells search engines about the subject of the linked page. Search engines view a breadcrumb with a text link to relevant keywords in the post as important.To find out how to add a breadcrumb navigation to your Blogger Blogspot blog please refer to my article Add Breadcrumb Navigation to a Blogger BlogThis article has focused on providing you with solid Blogger SEO advice, tips and tricks for the Blogspot Blogger. It will help you achieve good SEO results for your blog. Good luck. If you have time let me know about your experiences.<br />