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Okay, so last week we went over a brief history of the blog and we reviewed how this relatively new platform has radically transformed the way that people consume information online. Now, our attention turns to the SEO power of the blog.

Incorporating Blogs Into Your SEO Strategy

Search engine optimization is a multifaceted strategy for boosting the placement of websites within the result pages of major search engines. This strategy includes targeting specific keyword phrases, building links and producing large volumes of fresh, relevant content.

Blogs allow you to simplify and streamline the fundamental practices of SEO. If you want to understand how SEO works and what it takes to achieve enhanced search engine rankings, a blog is the perfect vehicle. If you already have an SEO strategy in place, incorporating blogs into your game plan will only enhance your optimization efforts.

What Makes Blogs So Search Engine Friendly?

So why do search engines love blogs so much? Well basically, blog platforms are simple content management systems that offer users a straightforward way to implement the basics of SEO. Consider this stuff:

SEO Tools
Blogs feature easy-to-use tools for adding links, optimizing images, inserting keyword tags and including Meta descriptions.

Fresh Content Updates
Updating your blog with fresh content everyday is easy to achieve, because adding new content to a blog platform is so simple. The more frequently you post, the more relevant your blog will be. If you have a blog that's updated all the time, search engine spiders will visit your site more frequently.  

Optimized Site Architecture
With a blog, optimizing your site architecture is a breeze. You can add keywords to your URL slugs, organize your content items in clear categories and create navigation tabs with a click of a button.

Link Love
Blog platforms let you add links with the click of a button. You can link to internal pages with ease, build out your blogroll for reciprocal link love and attract inbound links like crazy by commenting on other blogs, featuring tons of linkable multimedia content and creating a sense of community within your specific niche.

It's really the simplicity of blog management that makes this platform so attractive to SEO. You can be the most technologically challenged kid on the block (like worse than Da Bee), and still harness the power of the blog to achieve positive SEO results.

So embrace this platform. Love it. Use it. Realize that it's here to stay. Understand that this tiny little content management tool has transformed the world in a real and permanent way.

Now go forth and optimize the begeezus out of everything that goes on your blog. Harness the power of the blog, and watch your rankings and traffic soar.

--Chris Stout

There are a lot of important factors that go into a successful Internet company. If you’re involved in affiliate marketing, you want to drive traffic to your site and the sites of your affiliates of course, and if you’re doing SEO copywriting, you want to make sure that your content is readable, relevant and fresh.

Do What You Say You Will Do 

Another thing you want to be sure to do whether you are an advertiser, copywriter, project manager or anywhere else along the SEO business food chain is fulfill your obligations in a timely manner. When you make a deal to provide content to a site, or to buy content, or to attract traffic to a certain site, or to pay for that traffic, you are creating a relationship. Just as with individuals, these relationships are built on trust and no matter how great your product is or how green your money, if you don’t have trust, you have nothing.

Building Goodwill 

This attitude can help you in all aspects of your business and your daily life. People often come to expect that others will be unreliable and wait until the last possible minute to fulfill their obligations. Surprise them by doing what you say you are going to do even before it’s expected. This will make your business partners and those you interact with in your personal life feel special, like they were worth a little extra effort, a little inconvenience. In contrast, being delinquent in your obligations will make those you are dealing with feel like you can take them or leave them, which is not what you want in life or in business.

Relationships 

Remember, even the nameless, faceless Internet business is all about relationships. Take care of your relationships and they will take care of you, and your business and hopefully your personal life as well, will prosper as a result.

--Craig Berger

The Art Of The Subhead

Aren't subheads wonderful things? Seriously, you know they are.

Wait, you (gasp) don't know what subheads are? Or, even worse, you don't think subheads are that amazing? Seriously, it's time for a little re-education -- don't force me to get all Clockwork Orange on you (I'll do it).

For those of you who don't know subheads (or those of you who don't properly love the subhead), let's go through a quick refresher course.

Subheads: This Is A Subhead

See that right above here? It's the bolded, slightly larger text telling you what you're going to read in this section -- that's a subhead.

It serves a few purposes. One of the most important is that it helps readers (regular folk) digest what you're writing. When someone sees huge unbroken pages of text, it's discouraging, even for the most avid readers. A well-placed subhead will help break up the text into smaller portions.

Think of your writing like food -- you don't want to stuff something un-chewable in your mouth. Do as your mother always instructed and cut your food (and your writing) up into smaller portions! I promise, people will thank you.

Subheads And The Mystery Of The Algorithm

Let's look at a page of text from an algorithm's point of view. For ease, let's use this one.

Heading? "The Art Of The Subhead." Check.

Subheads? " Subheads: "This Is A Subhead" and "Subheads And The Mystery Of The Algorithm." Check.

Meta? "Using subheads will not only make your text easier to understand, but it'll help you rank in search engines. With subheads, your rankings will improve!" and "Subheads, using subheads for ranking, seo subheads." Check.

Text? Mentions subheads. Check.

Ranking: If someone searches for "subheads" this page might be a good one for them to read.

This, then, is exactly why you should use subheads when you're thinking about search engine optimization. The algorithm will look at your heading, your subheads, your Meta and text to determine your topic.

If all of these things have the same theme (subheads), then you'll get a better chance of ranking for that theme. (Getting some in-bound links with your theme as your anchor text wouldn't hurt either, but that's a whole other discussion.)

Now, go forth and multiply, write something, edit your subheads and keep your theme solid and on topic!

--Morgan Greenhalgh

A Brief History Of Blogs

The Web Log Is Born

ProFootballTalk Blog

The True Danger of the Internet

I’m not talking about phishers or predators, although those threats are very real. I’m referring to losing touch with our fellow human beings. In this world of the information superhighway, where anything we want or need is a click away, it’s easy to forget why face-to-face interaction is important. But it is important. Traveling to work, getting into your cubicle, performing your online business, then going  home and ordering stuff on Amazon while having food delivered and talking in a chat room is no way to live.

The Internet Solution

Loving the Internet

How To Ensure Success When You Redesign Your Wesite URL Structure

Recently here at CKMG, we've added to our arsenal of abilities the following: Massive Site Overhaul and Complete Restructuring of URLs. And by massive, we're talking about a website that is no less than 3,000 pages. How does one make sure to deliver on the promised and necessary improvements to a website, while maintaining the all-important Page Rank that the current iteration of the site has amassed? A troubling question, on some level -- but another terrific challenge for the team at CKMG.

Some Things To Consider When Changing URL Structure

I think the number one consideration when changing around a site's URL structure really doesn't shift too much from a major point of consideration for all web development practices -- and that's logic. Does what you are doing make sense? For instance, in the project mentioned above, the website had grown and grown with the addition of hundreds of pieces of unique SEO content over a period of months. As the website moved into a period of greater maturity, the need arose for a tighter, more logical structuring of the URLs.

Specifically, there were a number of articles on the site, all of which seemed to stem directly off of the root URL of the site. As it became more obvious how to properly and logically organize the information on the site into more clear compartments, the use of sub-categories in the URL structure became mandatory.

Think about it like this -- if you merely collected bills for months on end, and then one day ended up with a file cabinet full of manilla folders, you'd get confused. Sure, they are all bill folders, and that's all that is in the file cabinet, but good luck trying to get to the exact folder in any short amount of time. So you add some extra hanging folders and label those -- maybe you add one for "Utility Bills" and another for "Credit Card Bills" -- you sub-categorize. This makes finding things that much easier, and shortens your bill-paying time. In a word, you add more logic.

The Key To URL Structure Is Organization 

The project we are currently around the corner from concluding is really quite similar -- we added subcategories. This logic reads well with the search engine spiders, and makes more sense to the site users. And that is always the goal. Beyond that, when considering how to maintain PageRank -- the number one goal is always proper organization. Keep all of your old site version URLs in a logical order, gathered into a single column in a spreadsheet and then map out against that column the new site URL structure, so that every single old page has a corresponding new page that makes more sense. And make sure you have someone fastidious with details on top of the project! 

--Matty Byloos