Inbound links can bring new users to your site, and when the links are merit-based and freely-volunteered as an editorial choice, they’re also one of the positive signals to Google about your site’s importance…relevant, quality inbound links can affect your PageRank.

So, inbound links are desired, and quality is important.  As explained in my previous article Get me to the top, please, blogging is a great way to boost your quality inbound links.  As you add meaningful content to your website through blog articles that relate to your business you increase your chances of others voluntarily linking to your articles in order to share your content with their readers.

Once you have applied yourself to improving your SEO, you will surely like to see your progress.  As I have explained in a previous article, Google Analytics is a great way to view the progress of traffic to your site.  But, if you would like to view the detailed list of inbound links to your website, hop on over to Yahoo Site Explorer.  This tool will show you every page of your website that is indexed by Yahoo and also a full list of every page that links to your website as in inbound link.  This tool will give you a detailed view of your current inbound links and you can check in over time to see how your links improve.

Because Yahoo Site Explorer also itemizes each link, you can analyze the quality of your inbound links to see who you are attracting so far and to give you an idea of whether you want to target your blog articles to attract other readers.  The default settings for “Inlinks” will show links “From all pages” to “Only this URL”.  As you will see in the image below, if you change the settings to “Except from this domain” you will be eliminating links coming from your own website, and if you change the second setting to “Entire site” you will see all incoming links to your website, not just to your homepage.

So take the first step.  Find out how your site is doing with inbound links.  It will give you a good idea of how you might want to improve you website content, and attract new readers to your site.

So do you know how all this is helping you?

Yes, you may understand that all of these things are good for your business, but doesn’t it feel good to see the results?  Proof that this hard work is paying off?  If you haven’t already…set up Google Analytics for your website.  Google offers powerful tools for you to be able to monitor activity on your website.

This way once you post a new blog article, and inform your followers on Facebook and Twitter that you have something new and juicy to read…you can hop over to Google Analytics to see how it all pans out.  Did people find your post interesting?  Did it lead them to read more on your site?  Did people find you through the search results too?  Are people linking to your articles?  All these things, and more can be seen with Google Analytics.

Example of the Google Analytics Dashboard

Once you have created an account with Google and installed the verification code on your site (to prove that you have the right to track the site) you are on your way to new horizons.  Google gives you statistics on the number of visitors you have per day, the number of pages viewed, how long the viewer spent on your site, how they arrived at your site (google search, direct link etc) whether they were a new visitor, and so much more!  The benefit of this service is endless, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.  You can also set up custom tracking tools to look at specific features on your site that you wish to analyze.

Have fun and feel proud once you see the benefits of all your hard work!

Blogging

This is your platform, your soapbox if you will, where you can express to the world your knowledge, your skills, and the wonders of your product.  As a business owner, you might consider yourself quite knowledgeable in your field…so start talking about what you know.  For example if you are a personal trainer looking for new clients, share workout tips, write about exercise equipment and blog about healthy recipes.  All of these topic will help to present you as an expert in your field and each article that you write will also boost your SEO on the internet.

Most importantly, don’t forget to keep it interesting, and fun.  If people just think you are trying to sell yourself or your product, they won’t stick around for more.  But if they like reading your articles because of your down-to-earth, candid personality they will return again and again to find out more…and they will tell others about you.  And then you are on your way to SEO heaven!

Facebook

Here is another fun way of connecting with others to share the excitement of your business.  Sure, Facebook is a place where you can reconnect with friends from elementary school, but it is also so much more.  Start a business page, share photos of your products, write status updates about the latest news, share links to new blog articles, let your fans know about special sales and offers, invite your fans to special events…

There are so many fun ways to express your business on Facebook, and once again, it is all in your hands.  The more you put into it, the more it can benefit you and it will all connect back to your website!

Twitter

Do you tweet?  Its quick, its easy, and it is another great way to enter into the social pool and play with like-minded people.  Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so it doesn’t take a lot of your time, but another great way to share quick updates, pointers, advice, stories, links to a great article you think your followers would be interested in.  Introduce yourself, make friends and soon you will have lots of followers who want to hear your latest update, and who are drawn to your website to find out more about you.  Another boost for your SEO.

So to recap:

SEO is in your hands.  You have the power to present who you are and what makes your business special.  In an internet world where everyone can become anonymous, many people are actually looking for someone who is real.  Someone who presents an authentic, honest and fun approach to their business.  So have a good time: blog, tweet, and create your facebook world.

Think about the different elements of your website each as an employee, working hard to boost your rankings in the search engines.  As you have read in previous articles, your blog can be seen as your Employee of the Year.  Your blog (if you are using it well) is constantly being updated with content relevant to your business, and feeding the search engines with reasons to “pick you” when an appropriate keyword comes up.  So, why wouldn’t you want your blog in-your-home, rooting for your team?

Many people don’t even realize it, but if your blog does not sit on your domain name, it is not helping your search engine rankings.  Check the domain name of your blog.  Does it end in wordpress.com, typepad.com, blogspot.com or something of the sort?  If so, your blog isn’t in your home.  I am sure it would be much happier to be a member of your team, living in the spare bedroom, or even above the garage.  As long as it is in your home!  So, check right away to see where your blog is living, and if it is not on your own domain name, fix that asap!

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about this.

Every article that you write on your blog offers you an opportunity to tell search engines “Keep checking back, I am adding more all the time”.  Search engines visit your site depending on the frequency that you actually add information.  So if you had your 10 page website designed in 2005 and you haven’t edited or added new pages to it since, it is pretty likely that search engines don’t visit it much.  Not very exciting for the search engine, huh?

If you start out with a 10 page website and then add 4 articles to your blog per month, you are also making it that much more likely that you will be found in search engines.  Over a year you will accumulate to 58 pages, over 5 times the amount of chances that Google will choose you when someone searches for a keyword associated with your business.

And to get to the nitty-gritty details…what you write about is really important too! If your business is web design, but your blog articles are about daisies, you are not helping your cause too much.  The search engines will read every word in each article to determine when you match a search engine query.  So if you are writing about how to grow daisies, it is unlikely that a search engine will list you in the results of a search on web design.

So if you want to improve your rankings (SEO):
Start a blog
Commit to writing a few articles a month to start
Write about topics related to your business

These are the first steps.  From there, have fun with it!  Write in a manner that engages, entertains, and informs.  If people enjoy reading your blog they will also want to subscribe to it, suggest it to others, link to it, and eventually you will be drawing in new clients too!

Image courtesy of Smashing Magazine

Have you seen this image before?  The ubiquitous circle with two arcs?  You have probably seen it on tons of website, and if you have no idea what it means, you are not alone.  Many of my clients are not aware of how this little icon can help simplify their lives.

It comes in all different colors, but it is there to tell you one simple message:  “subscribe here”.

There are so many blogs on the internet these days – you can learn about anything and everything.  Whether you want to stay up-to-date on your niece’s travels through Europe, or the latest cell phone innovations, RSS will bring the articles to you.  This way you don’t have to check each individual blog to see if there is anything new…you can just subscribe using the RSS link, and voila! the updates are delivered to you.

But…how does it get to you?  Well the next step is to have a “feed reader” which will gather the subscriptions for you.  There are tons to choose from!  Personally I am very happy with the one that I use: Newsfire, but if your computer does not meet the requirements for Newsfire, you can also check out this list of other options.

Do you already have a feed reader of choice?  Let me know what you use by leaving a comment below.

An example of a browser which provides an RSS button for subscriptions.

This may come as a suprise to you, but the top SEO boost for your website is calculated by incoming links. Incoming links, means links from other websites that recommend you. It is important to know that search engines also weigh the quality of the link, and it is more useful to have fewer high quality links than tons of links coming from low ranking sites. All in all, lots of links are good, but over time it is best to work on accumulating links from quality sources. It is more important to be linked from businesses that are similar to yours in service and quality. It is also highly beneficial to have links from websites that are well known (and well ranked) for example if a well-established online magazine or newspaper does an article on your business and links to your site.  This has been referred to as “link-love“.

On the topic of links, search engines also “appreciate” links from your website to other websites. Search engines are known to “crawl” the web, traveling from one site to the other, and if you have created “paths” for them it keeps them moving, and gives them another chance to make associations about your website. Links from your website will benefit you as well by telling the search engine what businesses are similar to yours by nature, quality, location etc.

If you are starting to wonder how you can accumulate more incoming links, one thing to consider is to start a blog for your website. Blogs are arguably the second best way to boost your search engine rankings, for many reasons. In reference to incoming links, a blog gives you more of an opportunity for people to link to your site. If you write an article, demostrating your expertise on a topic related to your business, it creates the opportunity for another blogger to refer to your article in their blog.

A blog will also boost your website in other ways. Search engines are happier to find a website that is updated frequently. They will rank your site higher if you are updating frequently, and if you are writing articles for a blog that is hosted on the same domain name as your website, this is an easy way to tell search engines to keep checking for updates!

The topics that you write about will also help your SEO rankings. Assuming that your blog is associated with your business, the articles that you write will add numerous opportunities for search engines to associate you with keywords that you want to be found by when someone declares a search. For example if your business is selling cookies online, and you write articles about the history of chocolate chip cookies, share a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies, write about cookies appropriate for each season, or beverages that compliment the cookies that you sell… All of these topics, related to your cookies, will bring up more opportunities for the search engines to identify your business correctly with proper keywords. I will go into this in more detail in future articles, but this gives you an idea of how a blog can benefit you.

A blog also puts you in greater control of your own SEO. Most people are looking for the DIY-approach for their business, and blogging is a great solution!  You can have a blog set up for you, and designed to match your website, but from there, you are the author and can update it whenever you want. This means that you are actively boosting your SEO each time you write.

Blogs can be a huge topic to talk about and for now I just wanted to introduce the idea for you. I will be happy to answer questions as well, so let me know what wheels are turning now that you have learned a little more about SEO and blogs. I look forward to connecting.