Getting listed is one thing. Getting a good rank is another altogether.
The vast majority of people don’t click past the first page of search
results, says Pura, so it’s not enough for your site to simply be
indexed by Google. You want it to rank on the first page (which
typically has 10 website listings). To do this, you need to employ
search engine optimization (SEO) strategies
Not everyone who creates a blog hosted by TypePad, Blogger or WordPress.com
is guaranteed that his/her blog will be listed.
I remember for this very blog I am using I had the same problem. It made me give up blogging, something love doing.
I search the entire web on how to make your blog listed and I got several answers which i tried out but still it did not show.
Here I will show you some simple ways on how to over come this problem fast.
Open a Google web master tool account and submit your new blog there. Google web master provides you with detailed reports about your pages' visibility and helps you find the problems that hinder it from being shown on the on Google search engine.
Reasons Why Google Hates Your Blog
You don’t know which keywords your readers are using
The very heart of search engine optimization is understanding what
people are searching for online and aligning your own content to those
searches. When you use the same words and phrases that your audience
members use, your blog posts can be matched to online searches. If you
don’t? Well, you may as well be blogging in another language.
You don’t know how to find the right keywords
Google has a free keyword tool that will show you different phrases
being searched on, the amount of traffic they get, and how many other
sites are also trying to rank for those phrases. Spend a few moments
before writing each blog post to find the most popular phrases for your blog topic, or use keyword analysis to think of new topics!
You don’t use your keywords frequently enough
Using your keywords as frequently as is natural will help Google understand what your blog post is about. Use an online tool such as wordle.net
to produce a word cloud from your blog post. Your most frequently used
words will be the largest ones you see and you can quickly see if you’re
using the right phrases often enough. But beware of over-using your
keywords and being labelled a spammer.
You are trying to rank for too many keywords in every post
Keeping it simple is definitely the best approach when you are
optimizing your blog posts. Focus on a single theme and choose one main
keyword to avoid diluting your SEO efforts.
Your blog headlines don’t even mention your main keyword
Strategic marketing aims your message like a laser rather than
spraying it into the wind, and the same applies to SEO. Your headlines
(h1 text) and subheadings (h2 text) are given more weight than regular
text, so they’re prime candidates for your keywords and phrases.
You don’t bother putting descriptions on your images
You might include images to catch your readers’ eyes, or to help balance your text, but Google can’t see
your images and unless you attach a description of some sort, your
image will be ignored. Attach an image description using the ALT tag or
caption, and don’t forget to use those keywords.
You never link to your old blog posts
Creating links between your blog posts
makes it easy for your readers to discover other content, which
naturally keeps them hanging around for longer. From an SEO point of
view, Google pays particular attention to links, making them the ideal
location for your keywords.
You never link to other bloggers
Although it sounds contrary, you will also get some SEO benefit from
sending your readers away from your blog by linking to other blogs. You
might do this with a “best-of” list post or with a blogroll—however you do it, but Google sees you sharing high-quality content with your audience, and rewards you for it.
You don’t fill out your page title and description fields
Meta data
is the code name for the information you can use to advertise your blog
post to Google. When you search on Google, the results are displayed as
a post headline in bold and a brief description underneath. Search
engines can work this information out but you are better off writing
these yourself and popping those keywords in.
You don’t make your URLs search engine friendly
Using recognizable words, especially your keywords, in your blog post
URL will help Google to make sense of your blog posts. The bonus, of
course, is that your blog posts will be easier to remember for everyone
else. So take a minute to edit your blog URL before you publish.
Your blog has broken links all over the place
Broken links occur when a URL points to a page that no longer exists.
It might be that you changed the URL slightly or you deleted the blog
post, but broken links give the impression that you aren’t maintaining
your blog. Broken links also stop Google from crawling your blog posts
and when you put the two together you get a big SEO cross against your
name.
Your blog doesn’t have a sitemap
A sitemap is a website page that has all the links and pages of your
blog mapped out. Sitemaps make it easy for Google to index every page on
your blog, which can affect how quickly you appear in search engine
results. Most content management systems will have a plugin that will
create and submit your sitemap to Google, taking all the hard work out
of the process.
You copy your content from other bloggers
Smart people don’t try to reinvent the wheel. They draw inspiration
from the world around them. Google rewards original content but
“original” refers to the wording rather than the concept. If you lift
large amounts of content from external sources, and Google will mark it
down as duplicate content and give you no SEO points. Adapt or
attribute. Always.
You don’t publish blog posts often enough
Google loves fresh content and new posts on your blog are a great
incentive for Google to come back and visit. Some bloggers publish when
they are inspired. Some bloggers write every day. The question you need
to answer is how often can you publish valuable and relevant posts to your readers.
You never use bullet lists in your blog posts
Google loves bullet lists. Not quite as much as headlines,
subheadings and links, but a lot more than regular text. That, of
course, means you should use lists to break up long passages of text and
pop your keywords in, especially in the first couple of words of each
list item.
You don’t have a presence on any social media platforms
Google is always looking for ways to return search results that are valuable and relevant. Social recommendations
are becoming a huge influence on how search engines view your content
and that’s exactly what active social media pages are. So go and get
social, and build a community around your blog.
You don’t share your blog posts on your social media pages
Social media pages are fantastic for building a community—see above.
They are also the perfect vehicles to share and promote your blog posts!
Don’t be afraid to share your new blog posts across social media and
ask your community to share the love. You are building social currency
that Google loves to see.
You don’t invite blog readers to leave comments
Comments give your blog the kind of freshness that search engines
just love. Comments also show that your blog posts are still relevant to
readers. Invite readers to leave their thoughts and continue the
conversation or blog about something a bit controversial to get the
discussion started!
You don’t know where your biggest referrers live
Google Analytics will show you where you have the greatest numbers of
people sending traffic to your blog. It’s worth knowing who they are so
you can give them the attention they deserve. Your analytics will also
show you the keywords that led people to your blog, how many times they
visited, and which other pages they clicked on.
Your blog content will age like a b-grade actress: badly
Blogging about topical subjects is a great way to start a
conversation but it might also date your blog posts into irrelevancy.
Creating helpful, educational content, instead of editorial content, is
just one way you can create a library of blog posts that will be
relevant again at a later date. Mixing different types of blog posts
will also keep your readers interested.
You don’t write about topics people are interested in
If you ever ask yourself if your blog posts are interesting enough,
you’re asking the wrong person. If your blog isn’t getting much
attention from readers then Google isn’t going to give it a second look.
You can discover a wealth of potential topics from comments on other
people’s blog, surveys, keyword analysis, trending Twitter topics, and
simply asking your current readers. Don’t be shy!
You have advertising that is irrelevant to your blog topic
Paid advertising is more than ok but if you have a lot of advertising
that is irrelevant to your blog topic then it kind of makes you look
bad. Google is getting really good at picking out poor poor-quality
websites and lots of irrelevant advertising can give off all the wrong
signals.
You don’t have share buttons so people can’t spread the word
Social share buttons let your readers promote your words of wisdom
without ever having to leave your blog. Apart from the extended reach,
the more often your blog posts are tweeted, liked and commented on, the
more value they have … and the more Google will notice you.
Your guest posts are replicated on other sites, word for word
Opening your blog up to guest bloggers is a fantastic way to add
depth and variety to your own blog topics—not to mention giving yourself
a break from writing! But if your guest bloggers publish the same
content, word for word, on their own blog, then you don’t get the kudos
from Google for original information. Ask your guest bloggers to give
you exclusivity or at least a few weeks’ head start.
You write about too many topics and Google is just plain confused
If you have a lot of different passions, that’s wonderful, but
blogging about them all on the same blog will get you nowhere. In fact,
from an SEO point of view, your blog will look like a big pile of books
on the floor: too hard to categorize. Keep it simple and Google won’t
get so baffled.
What Works and Google Likes to see on Your Blog
What Works and Google Likes to see on Your Blog
Add keywords to your website content.
Keywords
can be a single word or a short phrase of up to four or five words.
These should be terms that are relevant to your site and which people
are likely to use when they search Google. Obviously they need to be
relevant to what your site is about. “You want to choose three to five
keywords that you really want to focus on,” says Pura.
Use meta-tags to add more keywords.
Meta-tags are hidden code — visitors to your website don’t see them,
but the Google search engine “bots” that scan your site will pick them
up. You can add these meta-tags to your site yourself if you have a web
design program or if you know how to do HTML coding. If not, you can
hire or assign a web designer to add them for you. Pura says you should
add no fewer than 10 meta-tags and have no more than 20.
Find keywords that aren’t overly competitive.
Pura suggests you use Google’s free Keyword Tool
to figure this out. This web tool lets you gauge the popularity of
particular search terms, as well as the level of competition you face by
using them. Highly competitive keywords can have tens of thousands of
websites fighting over them, so you are less likely to wind up on page
one of Google if you pick these.
Seek out backlinks, web pages that contain links back to your site.
“The biggest factor for search engines today is backlinking,” says
Pura. “It’s what they are looking for. If you have multiple websites
linking back to the page, Google thinks this is one of the best pages.”
You
can get backlinks through blog posts in which you link to your own
site, reciprocal links (having others link to your page in exchange for
you linking to theirs), press releases you issue with your web address
listed, Facebook pages listing your site, and articles you write and post on other websites with links back to your site. Be creative.
Create a listing for your site in Google Places.
This tip is for retail businesses with physical locations. It lets
Google link your site to a map listing, so when people look for your
business or search using keywords linked to your business, they will
find a Google map listing — and can click through to your website for
more information.
Have content that is relevant to your site.
Use articles or other material that is specific to the services you are
providing. Don’t use filler that is only tangentially related. Google’s
latest algorithm ranks sites with original, relevant content more
highly than those with content repeated elsewhere.
Consider buying a sponsored Google listing.
Google Adwords
is a program that lets you get your site listed on the right-hand side
of the Google search results page. However, this piece of Google real
estate comes with a price tag, which varies anywhere from 5 cents to $5
(and up) each time someone clicks on your sponsored listing, says Pura.
The fees are negotiated with Google and depend on how many other people
want to use the keyword you have chosen.
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