But there are a select few of blogs which receive repeat visitors. So what makes them different from the rest? It’s time to find out. Read on below. We’ll help you implement strategies that will allow your site to get more with less.

Be able to show proof – if you take a look around the web today, the most popular sites are inevitably those that have personal twists. For example, weight loss blogs that show pictures and outline the daily struggles of the dieters tend to do well. Similarly, you can make your site stand out in the internet marketing niche space by posting your weekly/monthly goals and if you met them.

Write the right content – anyone will tell you that you should write good content, but are you writing the right content for your audience? It is important to give the visitors what they want in terms of information, entertainment, or humor. If you’re not sure if you’re meeting visitor needs, check the comments to see if it is read and appreciated. Write more on the topics that get a link back from other sites or are shared by readers.

Use internal linking – keep your visitors hooked on your website. One of the best ways to stop them from leaving is to use internal links. Point them to other pages that they might be interested in. If you’re using WordPress, download the “related posts” plug-in. Similarly, you can manually insert the links within the post itself.

Encourage readers to comment – when there is a conversation going on in your blog, it is now possible to create a “community”.  In this sense, people will keep checking back at the site to see what others have to say. And of course, to check out if you posted a new article.

Get them to sign up – another effective way to keep your visitors coming back is to get them into your mailing list. Receiving regular newsletters from your site on their inbox will inevitably make a significant percentage of your readers convert into buying customers.

Individuals who are not fond of reading extensive amount of texts find podcasts a good alternative. An increasing number of people are also starting to use it because of its flexibility. They can listen to tutorials, stories, and motivational speech on the way to work or when they are traveling in general. Podcasts are also being used by large companies these days to attract more customers. So if you are interested in giving this a try yourself for your blog, what are the tactics you should adopt? Below is an overview:

Start with the content – podcasts aren’t like articles. In many cases, the writing styles on most articles are not good for podcasts because it has a sales tone. In general, it is important to have the same idea on the blog posts as on the podcasts. To minimize the work, be conscious of how you write the article and given it a light-hearted spin that is direct to the point.

Get the equipment – some believe that podcasts equipment is expensive. This isn’t the case. There are kits available at an affordable price. These already include the microphone, headphone, recording software, and editing software. There are even free audio recording programs that are available for free. Basically, the cost is minimal but the benefits of podcasting are great.

Record and publish the podcast – after getting the equipment, the next step is to use it of course. Instructions should be included in the kit you get; these may vary depending on the software. Once the recording and editing is finished, the podcast is ready for publishing. Be sure to put it on a prominent place on your website. Make it a point to create a RSS feed for the podcast as well.

Advertise the podcast – make your community aware that your website has a brand-new feature. Promote the podcasts through email, write an announcement, and get your contacts to promote it for you. Using your social media accounts, especially Facebook and Twitter, is another sure-fire way to generate interest.

“Duplication” can mean different things though. In this article, the types of duplicate content and its shortcomings will be discussed.

What is Duplicate Content?

Duplicate content has received a lot of flak for a variety of reasons. For original article writers, it is theft if the other publisher has not been given permission to publish the content. But it is also damaging to the site where the duplicate is published because the search engines strive to provide unique content to their readers. There is a problem with this too though because of “semi-unique” articles.

To exert minimal effort while receiving maximum benefits, a number of website marketers have resorted to “spinning” articles using rewriting software. This makes the content 70-90% unique. In essence, duplicate content can come in three forms including complete copy (100% copy pasted), semi-unique, and rewritten articles (same ideas, different words).

How to Avoid Duplicate Content

If you’re writing and publishing original content on your website and blog, you’ll certainly want to stop others from piggybacking on your efforts. There are countless people who will unscrupulously publish your content and give no credit to your site. Similarly, there are also those that will rewrite and spin the articles on your site for their own ends.

An increasing number of web owners are now disabling the right click function on their sites. This discourages most content thieves from grabbing your articles. You can do the same. Then there is also the challenge of auto-blogging software that takes the text of your site through RSS feeds. You can also block some web pages with the “robots.txt” in the meta tag; this stops the search engines from indexing the page.

At the end of the day, people will still try anything they can get away with. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to stop marketers from stealing the ideas you publish and rewriting your articles. Just focus on providing fresh and interesting insights to your readers and they will keep coming back to your site.

Here’s why Google+ should become an important part of your blog marketing efforts.

The Real Growth is in the Horizon

Google’s Senior Vice President for Engineering Vic Gundotra recently reported that the social network now has 90 million users. Almost getting ahead of Twitter and its 100 million tweeps, this growth claims that Google+ is not dying. In fact, this is just the beginning for the young social network.

Google+ was already integrated with Gmail, Google Docs, Chrome, Google Reader and YouTube. Other than that, the search engine giant redesigned its menu header to incorporate its social network. Meaning, they also unified their various offerings. In turn, it’ll be easier for bloggers to share content from one platform to another using Google+.

Search Plus Your World

Google’s Search Plus Your World lets you boost your blog site’s visitors. With its integrated personal and social search, other users who are logged in to their Google+ account can see the content you shared on the social network. Whether its effect on the search engine optimization industry is positive or negative is still a debate. But one thing is for sure: Google+ is one social network that bloggers shouldn’t ignore.

The Inevitable Change in SEO

Because of the search algorithm changes and the release of Search Plus Your World, Google+ can definitely help you get ahead of your competitors. Despite the outcry of other users and social media sites that the search engine giant is ruining its results, this is an inevitable change.

Whether personalized search turns social in the coming months or years, people will continue to whine about the changes. As a blogger, you can either decide that you don’t really want visitors to your blog or adapt to it and make the switch. Regardless of this, the search result will continue to change as the Internet matures.

Google is where most online content marketers including bloggers, base their traffic source. That’s why they create SEO strategies that will help them rank on the search engine giant’s result pages. If you’re one of them, the mentioned changes imply that you should start creating your blog’s online presence on Google+ now.

Similarly, directory submission still gives your site a reasonable amount of backlinks but these are typically low-value links unless your site is listed in the Yahoo directory or DMOZ. So given all the challenges in backlinking, how can you ensure that your site will get the link juice it needs to rank high on the search engines? On this article, we’ll teach you how to piggyback on high-PageRank sites.

Create a WordPress.com blog – by this, we mean actually opening a free WordPress blog, not simply using the WordPress platform for your money site. The free blog has the WordPress.com extension. As a result, it is seen to be “trustworthy” in the eyes of the search engines. What you must do is to insert a reasonable amount of anchor texts into the free blog. This passes the link juice to your main site. Also, be prepared to do some promotion for this free WordPress blog. The more authoritative it becomes, the more valuable the links to your site becomes.

Post on Yahoo Answers – every marketer who has used Yahoo Answers for marketing has seen dramatic increases in traffic. It also gives your search engine ranking a boost. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone. Basically, you just need to open a Yahoo account to start posting on this section. There are a variety of levels on the platform. If you are a regular poster, your suggestions will carry heavier weight. Make sure not to spam the platform too aggressively; otherwise, your account will be flagged.

Hub Pages and Squidoo – the concept around this is similar to opening a free WordPress blog. By posting an article on these sites with a link back to yours, you are increasing the authority of the main site. In addition, it is also possible to include Amazon and eBay affiliate links on Hub Pages and Squidoo. So you can essentially make money on two levels through this promotional tactic.

The sites listed above are just some of the higher PR pages you can check out. There are many more Web 2.0 sites that provide similar features to these.

Keyword Density – this is simply the ratio of keywords to the overall text. The preferred keyword density ranges from 2-4 percent. Generally, within the text of an article, there should be one keyword per 100 words. This is standard practice by many SEO firms because it works. You may include more keywords on the meta description, tags, and categories. All these add up and can help your site a lot. If you’re outsourcing your article writing, there are keyword analysis tools that are available for free. These allow you to instantly check the keyword density on the articles.

Keyword Frequency – “keyword frequency” by itself determines the keyword density. But what you have to understand is that aside from the main keyword, secondary keywords or supporting keywords should also be added. Include additional 3-5 secondary keywords within the body. Each should appear at least once. Generally, the more supporting keywords you add, the better it is for your site. Just make sure that the article would still read well after these additions.

Keyword Prominence – the search engines will also consider keyword prominence. In essence, the keyword phrases you chose must appear on the title, sub-headings, and scattered throughout the text. In addition, it should also be included in the first and last paragraphs. Do these things and you’ll see the difference in the ranking of each optimized page of your site.

Keyword Proximity – this is related to the use of secondary keywords. If you’re using keywords within an article on an unrelated topic, for example, the search engines have the algorithm to detect these. Including related text will be highly beneficial. You shouldn’t worry too much about keyword proximity if you’re writing a unique, relevant, and on-topic article around the keyword.

After the Google Panda update, on-page keywords have taken on additional relevance in the eyes of the search engine. Follow the keyword placement tips we’ve outlined above and you’ll have strong on-page factors that will help you reach the top SERP ranking.

So it is certainly important for you to write cohesively, compellingly, and most of all provide valuable information. At the end of the text, include the call to action. If they liked what you’ve written so far, they are likely to respond. The call to action you write can vary; for instance, you may want them to download certain software, buy your products, or refer the page to their friends. These actions should bring something to your business.

There are a lot of “marketing gurus” out there who make “call to action” or CTA sound complicated. After all, they don’t want their secrets to be used by everyone. But the thing you should remember is that there is no great mystery surrounding CTA. You just need to provide a direct and concise instruction to the reader about what you want them to do. Here are some tips you should follow:

Create urgency

You’ve probably fallen for this at one time or another; almost every web user did. If you’re visiting travel sites, for example, you’ll typically see a big red sign that says “only 2 rooms left” or “last room, hurry!” – this may be or may not be true. But it works. Product marketers, on the other hand, also try to create a sense of scarcity. They’ll put “this offer is limited to the first 50 customers, buy now!” or “only 2 left in stock”.  These tactics create urgency and compels people to make an immediate purchase.

Reduce obstacles

Minimize obstacles to the customer’s ability to buy. This will boost your profits significantly. Types of obstacles include having 4-5 process before logging the user to the “order page”. This makes a lot of people feel impatient; they also think and rethink “do I really need to buy this?” In some cases, they might just change their minds. It is also important to avoid lengthy text on the sales page, so readers won’t have to muddle through.

Then finally, you should also grab their attention by using text such as “Discover” and “Find”. These increases click through rates and conversion.

That’s why it is important to set milestones in your strategy. For each day or each week, depending on what is convenient for you, it is critical to set milestones and meet them. This is an important part of keeping your disciplined and goal-oriented in a field like SEO:

Set a schedule for posting – whether you prefer to write articles on a daily or weekly basis, the most important thing is for the posting to be regular. A number of bloggers schedule their blog posts in advance for a week so they can concentrate on other aspects of marketing after writing.

Social bookmarking – this tactic can generate a lot of traffic and recognition for your blog. It comes as no surprise that successful bloggers will tell you to do this. Just concentrate on the high-traffic social bookmarking sites and make sure to ask your friends and online contacts to give your link a boost as well.

Social media buzz – then of course, you would also want your blog to get a wider readership base from friends and family. In this case, you should share new blog posts on your Facebook and Twitter account. There are tools that can automate the process for you. Basically, once a post is published, it can be distributed through your social media profiles.

Backlinking – the next step is getting backlinks through other blogs, forums, and websites. In essence, you can create backlinks whenever you post a comment to other people’s blogs as long as you insert your website URL on the “Website” field in the comment section, On forums, you can include your link on the signature.

Link analysis monitoring – if you’re engaged in heavy link building activities, it is certainly important to know whether these links are getting indexed. Use link analysis tools to determine if all your links from forum posts, blog comments, and social bookmarks are giving “link juice” back to your blog. If it’s not getting indexed, there are both free and paid indexing tools that can help.

In this article, we’ll go back to basics. Algorithms will keep changing and your blog will just be one of the millions that will be taken with the flow. But by establishing a strong foundation for your blog, readers will keep coming back. The word about you will also spread throughout the blogosphere and social media. That alone would enable your blog to thrive in the midst of changes.

• Write valuable posts regularly – once your blog is up and running, it’s not mandatory to post something every day. Writing 3-4 posts a week would do the trick. But the thing is that the articles on the blog should always deliver value to readers.
• Be more personal – to differentiate your blog from everyone else’s, it should have a personal twist. Readers appreciate it when you add personal experiences and viewpoints to the posts. Essentially, your blog should have a voice that makes it stand out.
• Engage your readers – at the end of the post, make it a point to encourage readers to share their thoughts. It is also highly recommended for you to talk to them over social media channels. This makes them feel more special.
• Comment on other blogs – aside from increasing traffic to your own blog, this will also enable you to cement new relationships. The comments shouldn’t be generic. Instead, you should tell the blogger about your own experiences. They are more likely to respond and link back to your blog.
• Stick with one strategy – one of the main reasons why a lot of bloggers fail is that they drift from one strategy to another. That is, they hear about “the next big thing” and want to jump onto the bandwagon. It is important to avoid this trap. Once you find a strategy that works, you should stick to it for some time before getting excited over something new.

Lastly, using social media can have a big impact on your blog and the number of readers it receives. This is already proven to work many times over.

The Panda update, for example, has resulted to the irrelevance of once-prominent websites. These changes can be dramatic and old business models can be shattered overnight. In this article, we’ll outline some tactics that will help you rank highly in the search engine results page (SERP) after the Panda update. Doing these tactics can lead to the long-term viability of your website as well:

• Check the site speed – some would argue about the relevance of site speed but the truth is that this is very important. If your site loads very slowly, site visitors are prone to leave. So aside from making you lost prospective sales, the search engines would also see your site as “irrelevant” since a lot of people are leaving. The site speed is a very simple thing to resolve. Switch to a web host that can guarantee excellent service.
• Bounce rate – if bounce rate played a minimal, if any, role in determining site ranking in the past, it has all changed with the Google Panda. There are indications that the bounce rate can adversely affect your site ranking in a significant way. To retain visitors, you certainly want to avoid too much hype. Most importantly, the aesthetic design of your site must be pleasing and the content must provide value to readers.
• Keyword density – using keyword is critical in on-page optimization. The key is to target the right keywords that will get your site ranked in your desired field. But remember, you also need to watch out for the density of the keywords within the content. Put too much in and Google will penalize you for trying to game the system. Put too little and it becomes irrelevant.
• Internal links – internal linking is a great way to have links on your archive and the most important pages of the site. Make sure to use your targeted keyword as the anchor text for the link. This will boost your ranking for that particular keyword.

Another aspect you need to take note of is the importance of related keywords. Similar keywords must be spread across the entire content. Google will consider these related terms and will rank your site higher for a particular subject if it deems these relevant.