The Maine SEO Blog

We’ve begun, of late, to suggest our clients not only optimize their sites, but their blogs too.  Here are some easy ways to start:

1. Keyword-rich titles. Since your blog titles become your page titles, make them keyword-rich and, at the same time, enticing to your readers.  Using negative titles can often be a good hook (like “5 Ways to Lose Money this Holiday Season”).
2. Optimize your categories. Category names have an obsene about of SEO benefits: they are links, usually apart of the URL, and can also help readers make decisions (for example, when looking into your archives - which categories interest them).  So, category titles should be keyword-rich and descriptive.
   There’s a discrepancy as to whether or not it’s better to assign a blogpost to a single category or more than one.  Typically, your blog will choose which category it is designated to, and Google will index it under that category.  Duplicate content is the issue here, so watch out!
3. Link Building. Ping back your own blogposts as often as you can - as long as they provide a good resource for what you’re talking about.  Link to other sites as you would on your website - to quality sites and blogs.
4. Post often. Blogs tend to get crawled and indexed more because of how often new content is added.  For a new blog, posting 2-3 times a week should be a priority.  After your blog has collected a certain amount of trust and readership, posting at least once a week (depending on how much you have to write about) is important.
5. Bonus out-of-the-box idea: Set your blog to follow comment links. This way, your readers will more likely leave intelligent comments, knowing they get a link out of it - and therefore starting a more interesting coversation.  Of course, you’ll need to monitor your comments that much more heavily.

So if you have a blog or are thinking about starting one, remember…SEO is just as important there as for your website!!!

Nicki Hicks
Maine Blogging

My boss has recently been interested in the benefits of using LinkedIn - his most recent blogpost being about the advantages for small business people and entrepreneurs using LinkedIn.  In addition, I recieved an email from LinkedIn this morning about their newest addition: LinkedIn Applications.  So, I figured it’s high time I do a little investigatory work myself…

The first thing I noticed - while Facebook profiles will, more often than not, outrank it; searches for people with LinkedIn profiles will rank incredibly high (usually the first page).  My profile, for instance, is the fourth result in a search for my name, the fifth being a SERP for my name in LinkedIn:

So…what does that mean?  In all honesty, not all the much.  I mean how many people search for my name other than me?  The catch: searching for your friends, colleagues, classmates, or even businesses.  Say I was searching for the Via Group - an advertising firm right here in Portland.  (Admittedly, they just connected with me on LinkedIn.  But let’s say for the sake of argument I was searching for them.)  Their LinkedIn profile is ranked eighth in a search for “via group”.

Pretty powerful.  Another cool thing about LinkedIn?  They follow THREE of your links! (Most social media sites will usually give you an area to add links for your business, blog, what have you; but will nofollow them.)  For example, my Facebook links are nofollowed (SeoQuake will strikethrough nofollowed links):

Conversely, my LinkedIn profile not only follows my links, but also allows me to choose my own anchor text - even more powerful:

Moral of the story: If you don’t already have a LinkedIn profile (whether personal or business), get one!  And while you’re at it, follow me -

Nicki Hicks
Find me on LinkedIn