From Zero To SEO

In my previous post I explained why keywords obtained by Wordtracker should be used as fast as possible. Today I’ll tell you how I learnt to use maximum number of keywords in less time.

Firstly let’s take a look at the simplified content generation process. It contains three critical steps:

• Keyword analysis
• Content writing
• Content indexing

All steps are time consuming. But you can reduce time dramatically if you know what can be thrown away.

Keyword analysis

Unused keywords

You can spend much time on keyword analysis. But more is not always better. Avoid unused keywords, because they are waste.

You know that keywords become obsolete very quickly. So why wait? Get rid of them. Instead of keeping unused keywords, give them to somebody who can use and ask for a backlink. You may sell them too.

I’d like to note that usually high competitive keywords remain unused. On my experience, if you have hundred keywords in a list, then more than a half of them will not be used at once. I know it’s difficult to resist the temptation to put them all in one post. But don’t push them. Otherwise unused keywords become extra keywords.

Extra keywords

For some of you this may seem strange, but extra keywords exist. If you usually write common blog post for about 250 words long, then it’s difficult to put more than 15-20 keywords into it.  Use others in next post. Don’t spend time trying to push everything into one post.

Extra pricing

Also I don’t recommend you to spend time on analyzing CPC of each keyword from list even if you are planning to start your pay per click campaign. Remember that keywords obtained by Wordtracker may not be in the Google Keyword Tool. Wordtracker gets keywords from metacrawlers, rather than the search engines themselves. But it doesn’t mean that you should throw away any keyword. Low competitive keyword generates traffic even if its estimated CPC is $0.05.

Instead of estimating each keyword, give an overall niche estimate or calculate average CPC for keywords you want to use and get them done. Remember that your goal is to reduce content generation time.

Content writing

Drafts

Drafts are waste. It’s neither keyword nor content. You did keyword analysis and wrote a post, but content is not used. What if you have many drafts? Finish drafts one by one instead of collecting them. Do it as soon as possible, because content become obsolete. The longer post is in draft, the harder for you to finish it.

Give your friend drafts for review. Perhaps you’ll get valuable feedback and fresh ideas. It motivates to finish writing. This trick works for me, so it will work for you too.

If you used to work in batches then minimize batch size. Pair of posts is an excellent backup. You may follow your defined posting frequency without interruptions.

Mistakes

Readers don’t like mistakes and may leave your blog. That’s why it’s important to correct them.

I make a lot of mistakes, because English is not my native language. Sometimes I read my post several times and correct something again and again. This war is endless.

Short break is the best anti mistake technique after spell checker and review. I often put post aside for a while. After 2-3 hours I read it again carefully. There will be something to correct.

Indexing

Waiting

Waiting is waste. Don’t wait until content is indexed by Google. Let people know about it. This is the simplest trick that works.

Here are some tips:

• Ask someone for backlink.
• Ask your friends to visit your blog and read post.
• Create discussion in forum.
• Comment someone’s blog.
• Digg post.

Share/Save

Today I’ll tell you how to improve your Blogger blog’s ranking in the SERP. This trick is already known to SEO experts, but many bloggers unaware of it. If you don’t believe me, go to Blogcatalog or Technorati after reading this post and analyze dozen of Blogger blogs. You will see that trick is unknown.

I started my new Blogger blog recently, because I couldn’t resist temptation to check how keywords obtained by Wordtracker generate traffic. One day I was checking Google index and suddenly realized that I made a mistake. I didn’t change Blogger’s default title format [Blog name]: [Post name].

This format stops your blog from ranking high on search engine. The most important relevant keywords should be near the beginning of the title. This is well known rule of the search engine optimization.

You can check this post title format. It’s well optimized – post’s title goes first, then blog’s title. To make the same format, follow this instruction and improve your blog’s ranking in Google.

Login to Blogger dashboard. Open Layout tab and click Edit HTML button. Find the following string in the code:

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

Replace it with:

<b:if cond=’data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;’>

<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title>

<b:else/>

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

</b:if>

Click Save Template button and check titles in browser. Now titles are the same as Wordpress bloggers have [Post name] | [Blog name].

You can optimize archive titles, if you put Blog Archive gadget on your blog. When you click month in archive, page title will have the following format [Month Year] | [Blog name].

<b:if cond=’data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;’>

<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title>

<b:else/>

<b:if cond=’data:blog.pageType == &quot;archive&quot;’>

<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title>

<b:else/>

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

</b:if>

</b:if>

Don’t forget that old titles will appear in index until Google changes them.

Share/Save

Good news for me. My “You don’t need Wordtracker if” post is back in the Google index after 6 days. This time it’s ranking on page two and three for two keywords “need wordtracker” and “don’t need wordtracker” respectively.  See Rank Tracker ‘s screenshot.

This is major drop in the SERP. My post was on the first page when Google removed it from index. At the same time, Google returns 231,000 and 130,000 results for two mentioned keywords. Hence position is very good for fresh post. I hope it will be on the first page one day.

Share/Save