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Beka Lynn from reLYME not only writes a lovely fashion blog, but her day job entails helping people monetize and drive traffic their blogs through affiliate programs… so when she asked to contribute some of her knowledge, I jumped at the chance. Here she give us SEO tips..

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the way in which you can drive organic traffic to your website via search engines. When people open up Google or Yahoo! searching for a certain topic, say, a 1970′s onyx ring, perhaps the search results will produce a blog post you’ve written on gemstone rings from the 70′s. That is, if you’ve practiced SEO. Where to begin?

There are websites and eBooks galore dedicated to the topic of SEO. If you want your site to survive Web 2.0, you have got to master SEO. (Rhyme NOT intended!) There are several techniques you can try. Here are five of the easiest methods to ensure that your website is SEO equipped:

1) Tagging

You are probably well aware of the benefits of tagging via social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, or Del.icio.us. Keep up your tagging efforts, and hopefully others will follow suit! Be sure to tag posts for others, as well. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

2) It’s all about keywords, keywords, keywords.

Put them all over your posts. Make sure you have keywords in your post title. Have keywords in your post, as well. I’ve heard some say you should have anywhere from three to six keywords for every 100 words of text. I’ve also heard others say that you should have a minimum of 26 keywords for every 300 words of text. Since SEO is an experimental process, you have to figure out what works best for you and your individual post. Just ensure that you’re using direct and searchable terms to describe the topic of your post. Simple words like “cake” instead of “fluffy confection” or “vintage fabric” instead of “textile remnant from the past” should do the trick!

3) It’s probably a good idea to add a sitemap to your website.

When search engine robots search your site, more searchable content will appear. WordPress has a plug-in that will accomplish this for you. If you’re not on WordPress, there are downloadable tools that will help you with sitemapping.

You could also try submitting your site to search engines directly. Avoid search engine submission services at all costs! You can submit your site to Google here.

4) Syndicate

Ezine articles and Yahoo! Answers are a means of free publicity. Is there a post you’ve written that was widely popular? Try expanding upon it, and submitting it to Ezine articles. You can add a link to your blog, or the original post that served as your inspiration for your article. Like giving advice? Search Yahoo! Answers might be a good route, as you can also add a link to your blog there. The key thing to remember is that your article or your answer can turn up in search results, along with a free link to your site!

5) Link, Link, Link

I can’t say enough about the power of linking. How do you receive links to your site? Well, the first thing you can try is to continue producing valuable content. If someone likes what they’ve read, they’re likely to share it on their site. (This is a one-way link, and the most powerful kind of link!) You could also try adding others to your blogroll, and hoping they include you as well (a two-way link). There are other tricks you can try to promote your blog in an attempt to links, but that’s an entirely different post!

These are just a few of the tried and true ways to make sure that your website is not only showing up on search engines, but also making its way to the top. For more info about SEO, check out SEOmoz. Now I ask you: what are some SEO improvements that you have tried? How have they worked for you?

Resources:

Traffic School: Let’s Get Meta Physcial

Traffic School: Pimp Your Images

Image by x-eyedblonde

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