It was a short week with Thanksgiving, but there were lots of SEO blog posts out there. I continue to find the most useful information on the Sphinn site, but I like to follow specific bloggers instead of reading what goes ‘HOT’.

After ‘browsing’ (hard to get motivated on Black Friday) through over 200 blog posts, here are a few I would like to share through our SEO White Hats blog.

http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/keyword-trends-google-analytics-greasemonkey/
Firefox add-on that shows referring and keywords trends in Google ANalytics

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/footer-link-optimization-for-search-engines-user-experience
Randfish SEO for footer links. There are some good SEO tips here including the use of nofollow and the fact that footers are de-valued by search engines, particularly Yahoo!

http://searchengineland.com/sempo-to-ring-nasdaqs-bell-15612.php
SEMPO will ring the NASDAQ bell on December 1st. Congrats SEMPO!

http://www.saadkamal.com/google/bloggers-best-practices-guide-by-google/
Google releases Best Practices for Blogs

http://searchenginewatch.com/3631829
I usually don’t read lists or follow web design threads, but here is 25 Design Best Practices for Your Small Business Web Site

http://seo2.0.onreact.com/searchwiki-power-to-the-people-great-news-for-seo-20
How GoogleSearchWiki and SEO2.0 might change the algorithm from links to people.

http://www.1stsearchenginerankings.com/2007/06/08/google-bounce-factor-research-data-is-in/
Does Bounce Rate affect SEO? Google Bounce Factor Research Data.

http://www.newedgemedia.com/blog/index.php/2008/11/seomoz-toolbar-a-review/
Review of seoMoz Toolbar. I did install it, but I am not currently running it. Randfish quickly responded to the review reminding everyone that LinkScape is in beta.

http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2008-social-network-analysis-report/
A stats heavy review of leading social networks showing users and traffic of sites like Facebook, Digg, Flickr, Plaxo, and more. Good post if you are asked about current user and traffic levels of a particular social network platform.

With Web 2.0 and new media, many companies embraced blogging. But only a few are doing it right.

When executed correctly with a strategic and credible approach, blogging can build thought leadership online and foster dialog between customers and brands.

In this post, I’ll discuss some of the ways you can use blogging to reach these business goals. But first, what are most companies doing wrong?

The biggest mistakes I see are corporate blogs created merely for the sake of doing so. “Other companies are blogging, so we should too” (even if we have nothing to say). And then there are the blogs that function as thinly veiled undercover marketing tools, fake blogs or flogs.

In the blogosphere, there is nothing more important than credibility. What’s more, social media communities will turn quickly upon disingenuous and self-serving attempts at blogging. Worse, they won’t forgive and they won’t forget, so don’t shoot your blog in its digital foot.

So how should you blog if you want to create thought leadership? Corporate and executive blogs are communication platforms, and to get noticed and stand out writers need to share provocative ideas. Whether that means new perspectives on industry issues or discussing strategic concerns, thought leadership happens when you post original and relevant ideas.

Still, having great ideas is only half of the equation. With no attention or readers, your ideas will fall on deaf ears no matter how revolutionary they are.

In order to maximize your visibility and reach, start by researching the most popular bloggers in whatever vertical your going to be writing about. Then, comment on their posts and start a conversation. This helps you get your foot in the door and gain credibility by association. Chances are they’ll link to your blog too, which is a big help from a what marketers call an “influencer.”

As you write, make sure your posts utilize search-engine friendly titles, keywords, and links. A little SEO can go a long way propelling your blog to the top of the rankings, which lends further credibility to your words.

Add video and sound to your blog as well. Studies show that blogs with interactive media, especially video and podcasts, capture more returning visitors and offer a “stickier” user experience.

Don’t overlook social media channels either. By adding social bookmarking buttons, readers can digg, del.i.cio.us, Facebook, etc. your content and expose it to their networks. Again, being connected to these key “influencers” is a proven and effective method to build thought leadership.

None of this will happen overnight, however. It may take months of blogging before you start to build readership and gain recognition. Monitoring your blog with web analytics will provide further insight into your efforts while showing you what content is the most popular with readers.

Remember that a corporate or executive blog must create dialog between management, customers, and readers. Companies and brands can leverage blogs successfully to share information that otherwise would remain internal. Blogs humanize companies by giving a face to an organization, and well-written content can create loyal brand supporters. Always enable comments on your blog to foster conversation.

Allocate the resources for your blog before you start writing. If it’s a company blog, make sure you or whomever manages the blog has time to update it frequently, ideally posting new content every two or three days. Nothing looks worse than a blog that hasn’t been updated in three months.

Creating thought leadership online is tricky business. As you can see, many companies are prone to the mistakes and mishaps that arise when their blogs are used for the wrong reasons. In the blogosphere, credibility is paramount.

Developing thought leadership is about gaining credibility with readers and establishing yourself as the authority on whatever topic you write about. Do this and you’ll become one of the “influencers” I mentioned above. Key influencers are, by definition, thought leaders.

Nick Yorchak is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox who is actively engaged in the art and science of blogging. Nick enjoys experimenting with social media and its many business applications. For more information, contact Nick at Fusionbox.

Many online forums on the subject of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are available. They are useful for learning about changing SEO practices and discussing how to best implement different techniques. However, some forums are preferable to others, depending upon their level of activity and the subjects they cover. Read on to learn about how to find the most useful SEO forums…

To start, you can get a list of these forums on any search engine by searching for “SEO forum” or “SEO + Forum”. If you prefer, the DMOZ.org web directory also has a useful list of SEO and other internet marketing forums, which can be found under the subcategory “Computers / Internet / Web Design and Development / Promotion / Chats and Forums”. The next step is to separately evaluate these sites to see which one best meets your needs, works well on your computer, and has sufficient activity to be useful.

Some ways of determining whether or not a forum is active include checking how many members there are, how recently new messages were posted, and how many users are currently logged in. Check to see if SEO categories you find interesting are covered – different forums include specific subjects like web directories, small search engines, Alexa rankings, blogging, specialized searches (image, news, product, etc) or domain names. They might also feature other marketing topics like affiliate programs, PPC, or banner ads.

Certain search engine optimization forums provide useful boards for particular activities like offering to sell SEO services, initiating link exchanges, selling web sites, requesting paid SEO services from other members, or asking for web site reviews. Other forums don’t allow some of these actions. Make sure the forum doesn’t have a lot of offensive posts or “spam”; some boards have too few moderators to find and prevent this behavior. Looking around the forum will also confirm that its pages load fast enough for your internet connection and it is compatible with your web browser.

After reviewing these factors on each forum you find, register for membership in the active forum which offers the most useful features for you. Evaluating the individual SEO forums in this manner before signing up will save time, which otherwise might be spent registering for forums which turn out not to be useful for one reason or another. Finally, don’t forget to save your password and bookmark the site’s URL after registration.

Not only should a blog optimize its home page for search engines, but the individual posts as well. This will enable it to keep receiving traffic to each entry long after they are added. Here are some tips on how to optimize individual blog posts.

1. Put one or more keywords in the title which people are likely to query. Give each of the posts their own description and title tags; don’t just use the name of the blog for this. Each of the individual entries should have its own page as well, rather than appearing on a single long page.

2. Use these keywords regularly throughout the blog entries, but not excessively. A keyword density analysis tool can be useful for determining if the density is excessive (over four percent) or too low. Try to optimize the density without including awkward-sounding sentences.

3. Keep the content of each  individual entry on a single topic; create separate posts if you want to write about two or more distinct subjects. For example, if you post recipes on your blog, don’t put two individual recipes in the same entry, even if they are both breakfasts or types of soup.

4. If you allow comments at the end of your blog posts, be sure to check them and delete messages which are irrelevant to the topic. These comments could harm the keyword density or link to sites which cause the page to be penalized by search engines. While comments make individual blog posts harder to optimize, they do help attract repeat visitors.

5. Try to gain links on other blogs and web sites which point to your individual posts. In addition to the direct traffic they provide, these links will help optimize the search engine ranking of the blog. It is best if the links use words related to the individual entries in their anchor text.

6. If posts are about a current pre-arranged, date-specific event (such as a holiday or anniversary), attempt to enter them as early in the day as possible, or late the previous night. This will give the search engines a better chance of indexing these entries before they are no longer relevant.

Following the above-listed tips should help you more effectively optimize each of your individual blog posts, so that they will show up higher in search results and appear there more quickly.

Google seems to love blogs. If you use your blog correctly it can be a great tool for boosting your rankings and visibility. Here are a few tips and reminders of how to make the most of a blog from an SEO perspective.

1. Consistency: this is the number one rule or a reason. If somebody (anybody) isn’t posting to the blog on a regular basis the blog loses most of its power to attract users to the rest of the content on your website. A blog with sporadic posts at best lacks any credibility, so blog often. Here are some thoughts that might help.

• Routine – the most consistent bloggers incorporate it into their schedule.
• Keep the goal in mind – it might be tough in the beginning, but once you start to see the fruits of your labor (more traffic/more leads) blogging becomes a lot easier to do.
• Keep it casual – the best part about blogging is that the medium is so informal. Write posts as if you were sending an email to a buddy who wants to know what you do. I like the Cranky Developer title – it gives the blog some character.
• Multiple posters – get several people in the office set up to post on the blog and make sure they’re committed to contributing on a regular basis.
• Potpourri – writers block? No clue what you’re going to post about today? Put something random in. Not every post has to be topical (though the majority should). A light post now and then breaks apart your more serious and informative content.

2. Optimize Your Titles: most blog software will create a permanent separate page for each post in addition to the most recent ones in order on the main page. These individual pages are a great opportunity to rank for keywords. The trick is to carefully word the post title – Wordpress takes that and makes it the page title as well! All you have to do is keep your keywords in mind and you’ll create a powerful new page on your site every time you post.

3. Hyperlinks: remember to link back to the rest of your content. Also link to any authority sites that might be helpful to a reader. And especially link to any other blogs that might have given you an idea for a post. If your blog has led users to it from the search engines, don’t leave them with a dead end. Ideally, you want to funnel them into the rest of your site but don’t be afraid to send them elsewhere if the information is valuable – they’ll remember that.
4. Multimedia: when it’s appropriate I’d suggest throwing in a picture to illustrate a point and break up text. Users see a big block of text and perceive that it’s too much information to take in (like you might be thinking right now!). A picture gives the reader a break.

So there’s some food for thought. Remember it’s simpler than it looks to get the most out of your blog.

Getting on the blogrolls of other bloggers can improve your search engine ranking and increase direct traffic. Both people and search engine “spiders” see links on blogrolls as important recommendations for the blogs they list. Here are some tips for getting your blog on more blogrolls…

1. Posting original content on your blog with new ideas, hard-to-find information, or useful tips makes other bloggers more likely to add it to their blogrolls. On the other hand, this is of little use if the blog isn’t promoted sufficiently enough for many people to know it exists.

2. Leaving positive, interesting comments on relevant blogs with a link to your own weblog (if this is allowed) might attract the other blogger’s attention to it. The chance for this to work effectively is increased if you regularly post high-quality comments in this manner, rather than just once.

3. If another blogger posts an interesting entry on a subject related to your blog, consider linking to the entry from your own blog and encouraging readers to have a look. Post a comment on the other blog responding to the entry and mentioning that you linked to it. Other bloggers will likely appreciate this, possibly getting you on their blogrolls.

4. Consider offering helpful tips to a blogger who asks for assistance with a technical problem or other issue, and mention that you also have a blog. You may gain a regular visitor or even a link on his or her blogroll, but don’t expect this sort of benefit as a certainty.

5. Make sure the name of your weblog fits well on blogrolls (preferably not too long or short) and is attractive to click on. In general, it is also helpful if the blog title either provokes curiosity and/or refers to the topic of content it offers.

6. A few blogs actually provide their own tips or instructions for getting on their blogrolls. Have a look around blogs on related subjects and see if you can find any directions of this type. Some are specific, others only specify what sort of blogs they consider for their blogrolls.

Even after getting on one or more blogrolls, keep in mind that the links can always be removed. If your blog is not updated for weeks, becomes too promotional, or stops covering the subject other bloggers are interested in, blogroll links to it might be replaced with other blogs.

SEO and SMO are two general website promotion methods, each with its own techniques and strategies. They can be combined or applied separately but simultaneously. Website owners or marketers may also focus on one of the two methods and ignore the other. Read on for details regarding both methods and a comparison of SEO versus SMO…

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing websites and pages so that they will show up closer to the top of search results, thus bringing more visitors to them. It also includes making sure the search results will provide information which makes them attractive to click on for search engine users, as well as gaining inbound links on other similar websites, which also improves search result rankings.

SMO, or Social Media Optimization, involves using “social media” systems to promote a website. According to wikipedia.org, this includes using social bookmarking services (such as Digg and StumbleUpon), video sharing websites (like YouTube), blogs, internet communities, and picture sharing services to promote a website. Submitting a webpage to del.icio.us and encouraging visitors to the webpage to recommend it (perhaps by putting a del.icio.us logo link on the page) would be an example of SMO.

As to the question of comparing SEO versus SMO, the best method to focus on partially depends upon the individual website being promoted. SEO is less effective for time-sensitive pages, such as news articles; they are likely to no longer be relevant by the time when search engines finish finding and indexing them. Using SMO can more quickly attract internet users to such webpages. Some social bookmarking services, like Reddit, specialize in news.

On the other hand, SEO is often preferable (versus SMO) for pages with an entirely commercial purpose. For example, posting a link to a webpage selling portable television sets in a blog’s comments or on a forum would likely lead to it being removed because it would be viewed as “spam”, and such a page probably wouldn’t meet much success on social bookmarking services, unless perhaps if it was offered at an unusually good price or had very unique features. In some cases, SMO efforts can create inbound links which benefit SEO as well.

SEO and SMO both offer some of the same benefits, and are more complementary versus other promotional methods. Appearing near the top of search results, being listed as a Wikipedia source, becoming a highly recommended link on Digg, or having many inbound links from other websites all help to improve a website’s credibility, increase the number of website visitors, and don’t necessarily require spending money.

Blogs are often an effective way to increase website traffic, especially from repeat visitors. Posting new information to blogs on a regular basis, putting blog entries on separate pages, and suggesting them to blog directories can often increase the effectiveness of this technique.

The use of blogs adds fresh content to a website, making visitors more likely to return. A website which rarely or never adds new content may receive traffic from search engine results, but is less likely to gain many users who frequent the website regularly. Like repeat customers in a store, repeat visitors are valuable because there is no need to spend time or money attracting them to the website.

Blogs can be especially effective for creating an increase in repeat website traffic if they are updated predictably, such as on a particular day of the week or time of the day. For example, the owner of one popular website adds an entertaining and informative message to his blog every Monday; this reminds users to visit the website on Monday, whereas they would be more likely to forget if the blog was updated at random intervals. Blogs can increase search engine generated traffic as well, but this is much more likely to be effective if each blog entry appears on its own separate page. Using an index page of entry titles (with or without partial excerpts) linked to pages the blog entries are located on will allow users to conveniently access them without loading entries they have already seen, as well as making it possible to more easily optimize the entries for search engines.

Allowing users to post comments to blogs can also increase traffic, as do many interactive features. Although concerns regarding offensive or “spam” comments apply, visitors to the website will be more likely to return if they can post comments, check to see if other users responded, and reply if they desire to.

Blogs also are eligible to be listed in blog directories like bloghub.com, blogcatalog.com, and blogarama.com, potentially producing an increase in traffic, and they can be indexed by services like Google Blog Search (blogsearch.google.com) and technorati.com as well. Many blog directories accept submissions of new blogs free of charge, although most of them require registration. The forms for registering usually do not require much personal information. Having a blog on the website also makes it possible to exchange links with related blogs, another good way to increase traffic and improve search engine rankings.

In combination, all of these characteristics give blogs great potential to increase a website’s traffic.

RSS feeds allow websites to notify users of new or changed content so that they don’t have to remember to visit the website frequently. This makes it easier for internet users to keep up with new information from websites of interest, and helps website owners remind users of their websites. Read on to learn how you can subscribe to RSS feeds and/or create one on your website…

SUBSCRIBE: You will need to download and/or sign up for an RSS reader application before subscribing to RSS feeds, unless your web browser has a built-in reader (like IE 7.0 or Safari 3). These are usually free, and offered by a variety of websites, including Google, NewsGator, and RSSReader.com. Some are web-based, while others are stand-alone software applications. Then find a feed you are interested in and click the link to subscribe to it, or enter the feed’s URL directly into the reader. Many popular websites feature one or more feed, including Yahoo! News and CraigsList.org.

CREATE: There are several different methods to create a feed for your website or blog. You can enter the code yourself; some websites provide instructions on doing this, and it doesn’t appear to be especially complicated. You can also use software such as “FeedForAll”, hire a programmer, or use a blogging service which will automatically create your feed (like TypePad). According to webreference.com, it is also possible to convert portions of your website into RSS feeds using the DreamWeaver web design program. Books on how to create these feeds are available, such as “Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds For Dummies” and “Beginning RSS and Atom Programming,” which are both listed on Amazon.com.

USES: These feeds can be applied to a variety of website content in addition to news articles. They can also be used to notify users of new website features, updates for software they download or purchase from your website, information on website downtime, or new accessories available for a particular product. If it isn’t obvious, be sure to explain why users should subscribe to your RSS feeds, and give them instructions on how to subscribe as well.

While RSS feeds have become quite popular, keep in mind that some users will continue to prefer more traditional notification methods like e-mail groups and newsletters, either because of their personal preferences or older computer hardware.

Overall, RSS feeds are not very difficult to subscribe to or create, and can be applied to a variety of useful purposes.