Recently, I took a look a look how the “Modern Business Life” website was ranking in 3 of the biggest search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN (Bing). I was pleased to find that the results were extremely positive.
Below I have listed some of the search terms, as well as their search engine position. Bear in mind that these are organic rankings only (no pay-per-click campaigns):
Google:
Brad Martin Business - #1 Ranking
Modern Business Life - #1 and #2 Ranking
Brad Martin Author - #4 Ranking
Brad J Martin - #5 Ranking
Yahoo:
Modern Business Life - #1 and #2 Ranking
Modern Business - #1 and #2 Ranking
Brad J Martin - #2 and #3 Ranking
Brad Martin Business - #4 and #5 Ranking
MSN (Bing):
Brad Martin Author - #1 Ranking
Modern Business Life - #1 and #2 Ranking
Brad Martin Business - #3 Ranking
While these may seem like fairly targeted search terms, bear in mind that the name “Brad Martin” is fairly common, and in direct competition with the country music star by the same name. So, how did I do it then? The answer is in the R.A.N.K method of blogging that I have developed.
The R.A.N.K. Method of Blogging
The R.A.N.K. method for blogging is a simple framework that I developed for helping you achieve higher search engine rankings with your blog. While there are many technical tricks in the magic bag of search engine optimization, this method offers some simple guidelines to follow that will help you yield improved search engine results.
R - Relevance
Quite possibly the most important thing that you can pay attention to when writing for your blog is it’s “relevance” to the search terms for which you would like your article to be found. In other words, you would not expect an article about cows to yield good search results for the keyword “skyscrapers” (regardless of your meta tags). Ensure that the information you are writing about is relevant to your keywords. Take some time before writing, and determine what keywords you would like for people to search for in order to find your article. Focus your post on this topic, and mention specific keywords throughout your writing. Ensure that your content is relevant to your desired search terms.
A - Accessible
After you have written a “relevant” article, you want to ensure that it is accessible to search engines and users. Ensure that your post has a meta title, description, and keywords defined in the code. Many blogs will either have this built in, or have a free component that you can use to add this into your post. For example, Wordpress has a free extension that you can add to your admin console called “All in One SEO”. This is a great resource. Also, ensure that you post is accessible to users. For every blog post I make, I submit it to at least 3 social bookmarking websites such as Digg, Yahoo Buzz!, and Biz Sugar. You may not get a million hits from this, but it does put you in their indexes, and people can continue to find you in the future through these sites.
N - New Content
Ensure that you continuously offer “new content”. This seems simple enough, but the more content that you have around a given subject, the more of an authority you are seen as in a subject matter. Offering new posts often about a particular subject will most certainly build credibility with readers looking for information on that subject, and will help your search engine rankings as well.
K - Keep it Up
It is important to understand that getting a decent search engine placement (whether it be in blogging, for your website, etc.) is an iterative process. You must keep your efforts up. Don’t expect to put one article out, and suddenly rank #1 in Google. You must continue to make every attempt to grow your reader base, and continue to offer content that is of value to those coming to your site. Keep trying to spread the word about your blog through email blasts, community forums, and other forms of social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
If you follow these basic guidelines, you will find that your blog is not only more valuable to your readers, but is also organically ranking better among the various search engines. Good Luck!
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Tue, Dec 22, 2009
Business and Work, Internet, Modern Business Life General