Blogs and search engine optimization

Blogs have an advantage on the search engines over traditional web sites.



You are all familiar with the various search engines. They include Google, AltaVista, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves, Exact Seek, Yahoo, AOL Search, and many others.



As you know, when you conduct a search on the various engines, your own web site may be far down the list of results, if it can be found at all. The process of getting your site moved higher in the search results, commonly called search engine result placements or SERPs for short, is an industry of its own. It is called search engine optimization or SEO.



Attempting to get to the first page of your site's most important search requests or "keywords" is an ongoing challenge. To be Number One on Page One in the SERPs, for your search terms, is the holy grail of search engine optimization.



Blogs give you a distinct leg up in that quest.



First of all, the search engines like Google love fresh content. Since a blog is updated at least once a day, there is always fresh material for the search engine spiders to crawl. New keyword filled articles are great "spider food". The search engines gobble it up like candy.



Because of the frequency of new blog posts, the search engines will return more often to your blog, than they will to a static traditional site. On the internet "content is king", and blogs provide abundant and regularly updated content.



In effect, every new blogging entry adds a brand new article to your web site. As each entry contains new keywords, your site can gain visitors searching for previously unused terms. The fresh posts add new content and extra roads into your site. That means customers, who had never been to your site before, can find your business in new and exciting ways.



Another bonus of blogging is the links. Bloggers are linkers; almost addictively so. Incoming links to your blog boost your search results in the engines. Outgoing links connect your blog to the online world. In a future article, I will discuss linking more fully; as I will examine every aspect of blogging. Links to other sites' content are what the internet is built upon. Blogs provide exactly that requirement.



As you begin your blogging adventure, you should find your site moving up ever higher, in the search results.



That means more visitors to your site. They are looking for what you have to offer to fill their needs.



That means potentially many new customers for your business's products and services.



All because of a blog!