It has become alarming to see some great sites tagging excessively, so I thought I would cover this issue without pinpointing anyone in particular.

It is important to not put so many tags in your posts. Like keywords, the density should be low. For sites that contain a lot of posts that talk about the same subjects, but not exactly be the same, it might be best to use something different than another post.

Though I have no definite number that is generally acceptable, you can use tools like Website Grader to see if you are excessively tagging. For Blondish.net, I use anywhere between 1 to 5 tags. Considering my front page has 8 articles, my front page could have a collective tag number of between 8 to 40. Obviously, 40 is a lot, so I have to try to make sure the tags I use are fewer than that.

Now, keep in mind tagging and keywords are not exactly the same. Tagging is just another way to organize an article in your’s sites navigational system. However, sometimes the search engines do pick up these tags. In fact Lorelle, writes a great article even way back in 2006 that I think is still quite relevant called Keywords Versus Tags.

Although there are great SEO plugins that can help for your site, make sure you are applying the same concept in using keywords there too. This is where you can use a few complex keywords, rather than use the tagging system to stuff words in.

So as an overview:

- Make sure to use only a few tags per article
- Be clear with your tags
- Optional: Use a SEO plugin if you want to write more complex keywords, rather than rely on the default tag system.

What is your policy on tagging?

[This is a guest post by Philip Golobish. Philip Golobish is a professional SEO consultant for Slingshot SEO, an Indianapolis, Indiana. When he's not sweet talking Googlebot, Phil can be found headbanging at the local music show.]

According to a 2009 SEOmoz poll of SEO professionals, “keyword use anywhere in the title tag,” is one of the top five most influential ranking factors on a search engine’s results page. The reason it’s important is pretty simple: usability. For example, say you maintain a heavy metal music blog named “Axes and Anvils” and the site’s name is all you include in your title tag. With only the site’s brand name to work from, search engines and searchers can’t easily identify what your site is about when they see it on a results page (for all they know, your site sells wood cutting tools and iron working implements). However, by simply adding the keyword phrase, “heavy metal music blog,” to your title tag, search engines and their users are immediately given a better idea of what your site is actually about; thereby, making everyone happy. Check out some “heavy metal” title tag examples below.

Recommended format:
Keyword or Phrase < Category | Website Title

A basic example:
Heavy Metal Music Blog | Axes & Anvils

An example looking to receive some traffic from people searching for band names:
Heavy Metal Music Blog |Metallica to Slayer |Axes & Anvils

An example targeting a location:
Heavy Metal Music Blog | Cleveland, Ohio | Axes & Anvils

For the examples above, search engines will now associate the blog “Axes & Anvils” with all the keyword combinations that are included in its title tag; e.g., “heavy metal,” “metal blog,” “metal music blog,” etc.

Neat, huh?

Googlebot is a sucker for sweet talk and he loves having keywords whispered in his ear. With that in mind, the next time he stops by to index your site, greet him with something sweet by adding some of your site’s keywords to your “title tag.”

For more information about “title tag” strategies, check out this classic post entitled, “Best Practices for Title Tags,” by Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz.

Are you a WordPress user looking for a quick and easy way to add “title tags” to your blog? If so, check out this plugin called, SEO Title Tag.

What is a 404 page? It is a page that tells your visitors when they go to a specific page that it no longer exists.

Using a custom page for this is a benefit, especially to search engines like Google. The search engines index websites and all of their pages, including the 404 page.

One way is to redirect, but this is not highly encourageable. You could make a redirect, but the search engine (ex. Google) would index the page and your site when searched could read “Page not found” instead of your homepage. In doing this procedure, you could accidentally have the search engine alter the indexing by removing non-existent pages. So, in other words, that same re-direct could get your homepage de-indexed by accident.

The other way, is the custom page. You can do this through your content management (ex. CMS software like WordPress) or your regular html pages. Instead of just posting “404, page not found” or “you have reached this page out of error”, here are some suggestions:

1. Make your page informative. You can add “Sorry, this page does not exist”, but do not stop there. Add a way to contact you whether it be an email address posted or a contact form.
2. Add a few special links to the page that might interest your visitors. Four or five links might be nice.
3. Conform your page to match your site. A plain 404 is an annoyance to deal with already and having little information will make the visitor give up and go elsewhere.
4. Make sure to add your sidebar/ navigation to the page. It is as usefull as the special interest links and widens the possibilities that your visitor will stay and surf your site.
5. Verify that your 404 page actually returns a 404 error. You can do this by using Google Webmaster Tools.

Now, a lot of people who blog keep hearing about SEO. What is SEO? Well, basically SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization.

A lot of people like to write about it and here are some things I have learned. What I have learned is in no way a comparison with others who are much more tech savvy, but I like to try to exercise and apply what I can and when I can.

In the past, webmasters could try to buff up their traffic and thought it was all about making the Google Page Rank with doing affiliate links and link exchanges. Then, it was making link exchanges with sites that also had good Page Ranking. Since Google, Alexa (amongst others) had become a great factor in making saying what sites are popular, but it solely was based on a site’s traffic statistics. Also, just submitting a page to a search engine like Yahoo!, HotBot, The Open Directory Project, were valuable things to do for webmasters.

However, now that is not exactly the case. Things have evolved greatly. Implementations to these big dogs in the search engines geared it more to what people were searching for, using their keywords. So, if I looked up the word ‘blondish‘ in Google, my site would come up listed as second. Besides keywords, the way the page was seen (web accessibility), and quality of content were other factors that came into play that made a site more popular in the search engines.

Here are some basics:

1. Keywords. For anyone not into WordPress, using simple meta tags in the html header of your site would be optimal. Do not use too many and make sure they are relevant to your site. For those who use WordPress, like myself, I recommend implenting the widget for the tag cloud and using the Wordpress “All in One SEO pack“. You will not have to manually make your met tags. This will do this based on the pages content. I have recently implemented it and have noticed how frequent my site has been seen.

2. Quality of Content. Now, a site is wonderful to have, but even as a personal site, being a bit informative here and there between the humdrum of regular life will not only give your site quality and quantity, but make you less of a shallow person.

Now, back to quality in writing, please remember to try to be as original as possible and reference links for extra resources are a bonus. However, in the same breath try to use credible resources. Treat it like an essay and be your own teacher in proofing it before you publish it. If you have articles that require images, try to load a small thumbnail to save on loading time. I have a habit myself of just throwing up a resized image, so I will start to also adhere to this advice. I should have as I always have been saying that since the beginning.

3. Social Bookmarking sites. I actually exercise this on my blog and I need to update the script to include other places. These sites are places like Digg, Yahoo! Buzz, and StumbleUpon, and more. When you write an article, submit it to the site. It will be posted to the article’s listed in the site, in the category you wish.

4. Site Design. I truly am a fan of having a bit of color on a site, but not overly so. Sometimes simple is great, but overall, I always say it roles down to load time. It always has. There still are people out there using dial-up and it can be a pain to wait for a site to load due to heavy graphics and content. Use valid coding. You will have more web accessibility in any browser if you do so. You can use W3C as a guide if you wish. Also, use graphics that are not heavy. Try not to be too trendy. It might be hard, but make it your way. Of course, if you like popstars, anime, or celebrities, then fine, but make it unique and make sure to credit the source as well as make sure to read the usage policy.

Implementings some of these techniques may help increase your viewing status in the search engines. Just remember, it boils down to how people will find your site on the internet.

Some useful places to read more:

Jem’s article on Help Your Friends Rank Better
Google’s article – Google Webmaster Guidline
Wikipedia’s article about Search Engine Optimization

Sitemaps are important because they allow the search engines like Google and Yahoo! to index your entire site and leave it available for other internet users to find. A sitemap is defined:

A site map (or sitemap) is a representation of the architecture of a web site. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion.
From Wikipedia. Original definition by Peter Morville, Information Architecture on the World Wide Web, Feb 1998, pp:58

A sitemap allows search engines to crawl your site more efficiently and index fresh material from any website. If a webmaster has move or deleted material, the search engine would recognize and change the search engine results to reflect the website change. Although having a sitemap eliminates most of the work that a webmasters takes in submitting a website to search, it does not totally eradicate the effort.
Sitemaps accepted by search engines are general coded in XML format, not HTML. However, a webmaster may create a sitemap structure with HTML for their visitors. For WordPress users, this can be easily done with the installation of Dagon Design Sitemap Generator. (Of course there are plenty of other sitemap plugins too.) Currently, the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator plugin is not an accepted sitemap, however, there is a great plugin that Google recognizes, which is the Google XML Sitemaps plug-in. Once one or both of the plug-ins mentioned have been installed, it is best to go to Google Webmaster Tools to inform them where to find the sitemap.

Sitemaps are not another new fad as they have been around for years. It was not until 2006, that search engine moguls like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN got together to create the guidelines behind a proper sitemap. Since then, sitemaps have been used as a vital technique for search engine optimization. Why? Well, as said earlier in the article, a sitemap would tell the search engine how fresh the content of a page is on any website and post it so internet users can find information they need. Sitemaps would recognize new material and direct crawlers to the information for indexing.

Outside Related Links:

• Sitemaps XML format – Sitemaps.org
• Major Search Engines Unite to Support a Common Mechanism for Website Submission

Do you have a sitemap for your site? Any other benefits you can think of when having a sitemap for your site?

Having a blog is a wonderful tool. It opens the possibility for the writer to give a piece of their mind to the world. However, for those starting out and not knowing what to do, it can be frustrating. Some bloggers just have a web journal to post their daily ramblings without expectations of driving traffic to their websites. This article is for those who want traffic and wonder what they can do to set their site a bit above others.

Of cource, there are naysayers in blogging that do not wish to have content, but really, how interesting is a site with just a blog and nothing interesting to learn? Publishing content does not have to involve allowing visitors to download graphics or programs, but it is a plus. It is all about sharing quality information.

Here are some tips.

1. Write what you know and are interested in doing. There are so many hobbies and activities that the topic possibilities are literally endless. Some people feel like this tip would interfere with their privacy. It may, but it also depends on how it is written and what the subject may be about. If a person knows their business is going to have easy access. Do not blog defamatory statements about work. Writing about the people and situations at work are fine and may lead to some backlash, but on a legal standpoint, if the information is not libelous about the persons and events stated, and the company is in no way used in a defamatory manner, then by all means, write away.

2. Write in-depth articles. Do not leave an issue unexplained or open-ended.

3. Write frequently. The more you write, the more the search engines will crawl your site and index your pages with the updates.

4. Do not write to stuff your content section. Stuffing content is easy to spot as most articles will be written poorly and hold no genuine information for a visitor to bring away from the site.

5. Do not be afraid to use outside sources to help your articles. No one is perfect or knows everything, so linking resources are a nice way for your visitor to read information, and in the end, your article will not be open-ended.

6. Do not write fad articles. Be unique! Fad articles are articles that are seen a lot and give very little information that is different from one site to the next. If you write on a particular subject that might be considered a fad article, make it yours if you know something that no other has addressed on that same subject and convey it in a way that does not make it sound monotonous.

Content is important. Within the content a search engine like Google can index a site and make the site easily accessible. So, in the end, be unique, write frequently, and write proudly!

How do you keep your content unique?

Anyone can make a site. No matter how much was invested in the site (ex. time, or money), and how good it looks or even how it is structured, alone it will not build the key traffic with internal and external links.

If a webmaster wishes to drive links, there are some options out there. However, there is one that is not recommended, but an easy way one for novice webmasters. It is link buying. Link buying is highly discouraged by Google. Link buying places the site on varied sites that the submitting webmaster has no control over. That does not mean advertising is frowned upon. Using proper advertising with places that have related content to the site to be advertised is very immportant. Already visitors are on the site and not only will it benefit the webmaster offering advertising (monetarily and content-wise), but it will drive the necessary traffic already geared to the topics offered on the website.

There are several ways to attract linkage. I will address them in the importance, like a top five list.

5. Free-for-All linking (FFA): An easy way to explain what a FFA is, is like a weblisting or web directory. While there may be reciprocal linkage involved, pretty much there is next to null on traffic. The real traffic lies in webmasters adding their link to the link directory. If this technique is used, it is best to text link and not use the offered banners. It is also better to not link it on the main page of the site if the directory requires a reciprocal link. There is no quality coming from the site. There are few exceptions like resource directory sites. They can be beneficial as it provides links to quality sites.

4. Linking out: Do feel free to link quality interest sites without expectations of a reciprocal link. However make a section explaining why the link is important so visitors will know what to expect before venturing to that website.

3. Affiliating: This is a fairly okay technique to drive traffic and link building. However, it is best to remember to link relevant sites. Of course, linking friends is nice, but interesting sites not only interest the webmaster, and friends, but if that should be link exchanging. Affiliates should not be friends. The misconception of affiliates is that it is a link exchange that the webmaster expect the other webowner to visit on occasional. No, it is not! Affiliating is exchanging a link in order to share relevant content and drive visitors to both websites. While one site might talk on a subject (ex. Fashion), perhaps the other with relevant topics has a slightly different opinion.

Link exchanging is nice and for friends, but it differs as it is simply a reciprocal link from another person. The site from a friend may not even have relevant topics. For example, ‘Person A’ may have a site about music while ‘Person B’ might have a site geared as a personal weblog.

In affiliating it is important not to be excessive in linking and make sure the links lead to a quality website.

2. Blog Commenting: The art of blog commenting is important. Simple comments like “Hi” or “I love your site” are often skipped over, but detailed, and relevant comments attract not only the webmaster of the site that the comment resides, but also the visitors to possibly click to go to the commenter’s site.

1. Link baiting:

Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites
from Wikipedia

This method is quite potent as it puts relevant linkage on quality content. This works great for bloggers. While a blogger might have specific focuses on blogging, they can offer interesting articles for visitors to read. Some of the articles may not always coincide with the main focus of the webmaster’s content (ex. hosting business has side articles on SEO and other tips for clients to learn how to harness more resources to build their site.)

There are many more methods to link building, but in the end always remember that quality is the key ingredient. What do you use in your own linking building methods?

In SmashApps.com, they published a post Search Engine Traffic vs Social Media Traffic? Which is Better? listing pros and cons, but it was leaning more thoward social media.

For one, Social Media is not Social Network. Big difference as one is a way of marketing while the other is the actual place online, like Facebook or Twitter. Google is tracking social network traffic like Twitter and this boosts those who have blogs and are trying to drive traffic while pushing their site’s content to the masses. Google tries to keep up with social networks, but obviously the real time results in getting news is a bit overwhelming.

The problem is not to compare the results as there are more search engines than just Google, Bing and others – and they are great at documenting information in the long run. Twitter and Facebook still have glitches from time to time in coughing up info from months ago while searching, but the search engines – they will have it documented. I think that the social networking sites are great for pushing content anytime, but will never phase out search engines, so in the long run, it really is not something that should be a competition.

Both search engine and social networking depend on users possibly being interested in what you will say. While social networks are a great quick fix for short term traffic, search engines are great for long term results. While some of the SmashApps article is a bit “pulled out of the butt”, I would agree with a few points other than bandwidth issues due to the fact many web hosts offer pretty hefty bandwidth on their eyecandy packages.

Most of this depends on your ability to target an audience that shares an interest in what you talk about- your niche. It is great to attract visitors from the social network streams OR the search engines EQUALLY, not to depend on just one or the other.

What is your insight on obtaining traffic via search engine or social networks? Which one do you feel are more effective?