SEO For Your ActiveRain Blog

Tips and Tricks for Maximizing Search Engine Awareness

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)is the subject of many a question and many a blog entry on ActiveRain. Let's face it though, most of us are here to use the ActiveRain platform as an easy solution for gaining some always-needed marketing exposure in our own towns. Here are some easy techniques anyone can use to get the most from your ActiveRain blog without having to understand how all the SEO stuff works.

A Very Short Intro:

The best description of good SEO that I have heard to date is "We are obsessive observers". Good SEO practioners are constantly watching what works and what used to work but now doesn't. The search engines are continually changing and websites must adjust to the changes or risk losing ground with regards to their search engine ranking. Some things remain constant. That is what this article is about; the things that don't change.

Your ActiveRain blog has some interesting features built into the coding. For example: the Tags you enter into the area below the main body of your article, are dynamically inserted into the Keyword Meta Tag when the page is published! Here's another feature: The title you enter is wrapped in a Header Tag (an h2 tag for those of you that are familiar with HTML). If you have an understanding of how basic SEO works, you understand why this is important, if you do not; don't fret about it. Just accept that it is important.

Nuts and Bolts:

• Tags -- As I mentioned above, the tags you enter at the bottom of your blog become part of the "keywords" for your article. The search engines will see them. Keep them specific and keep them short. For example, "Denver Real Estate" is good. It is short and specific, "Kitsap realtor serving poulsbo, bremerton, silverdale and all of kitsap county including military and construction" is not good.
• Title -- Whenever possible, get your keywords into your title. The title is a very important factor for the search engines. If your article is about First Time Home Buyers, try to get it into the title in a natural fashion. Don't forget that humans will be reading your article, so it needs to flow naturally. Your title will be inserted into the title bar at the top of the browser and it will be wrapped in an H2 tag on the published page. Search engines watch for H1, H2 and H3 tags.
• 1st paragraph -- The first three lines (approximately) of your article will be dynamically inserted into the "Description Meta Tag" on the published page. This is what the search engines will display right under the title of your article. It is also what ActiveRain uses on the blog dashboard and the main page. If you can, use the first paragraph to summarize what your article is about. Humans won't see it, but the search engines will.
• Bolding -- Draw the readers attention to what you want to highlight in your article. The search engines also pay attention to bolding as a way to identify what is most relevant about the article.
• Italics -- The same as bolding. Draw your readers attention and the search engine's attention to your keywords.
• Link To Your Article -- Develop links to your new article from outside ActiveRain! If you maintain another blog, link to your ActiveRain article from the other blog. Add a link from your main website if you can. There are dozens of ways to link to your article. Make sure to use some article keywords in the link.
• Link From Your Article -- Use the hyperlink tool on your ActiveRain blog to send the search engine to another of your articles or your website or even someone else's article on a similar subject. These links help establish the theme of your aritcle to the search engines.
• Lists -- Use lists like this one, the organize your article for both the human reader and the search engines.
• Images -- Always, always, always enter a description of you picture or graphic. Use one of your keywords in the description. This text will show up when a reader hovers over the image on the published page. 

That's it! Short and simple. Of course there are other techniques you can use. These are the tricks that can be used easily and quickly. If you are like me, it takes long enough to write the article and you don't want to spend a whole bunch of additional time tweaking it for good search engine visibility.