How To: Get your Blog indexed in Search Engines in less than One Month!

I spent over an year working on getting the pages of my other websites indexed in search engines, and in process I discovered many tricks and techniques to get most out of search engine optimization and get my pages indexed in search engines in a short time. [I launched this website on 1st Nov'06, and doing a search in Google, MSN or Yahoo! using site:www.bloghash.com will make things clear to you].

Having committed numerous mistakes in attempt to get my other sites indexed in search engines, I have learnt a lot [from my mistakes ;)] about what to do to begin with and what should never be done at all. [I did pay the price of not doing things right]. While I insist that SEO is fairly simple task to perform if you get your basics right, there are still many of us who doesn’t know the benefits of following search engine guidelines when they develop their websites. Anyways, let’s go through the technique I employed to achieve such a quick indexing.

Note: I am sharing all the steps that I have followed and I hope that this should work for you too. In case, it does not work as expected, drop in a comment and I will try to analyze your site and suggest whatever I can to get you up and running. [If I miss mentioning anything, I will add it to this post later].

First things first: Please go through my another post in this site [Effective Search Engine Optimization of WordPress] [applicable to other blogging softwares too] and ensure that you follow all the tips mentioned there. [Failing to do so may result in unsatisfactory results]. After which continue to follow steps outlined here for better results.

Second comes after first: Submit your sites to as many as search engines as possible. Don’t just sit there waiting for search engines to discover and crawl your website. Follow the simple steps listed in my post on Search Engine Submission. [Absolute must]

I assume that you have done both the above steps. Ok, let’s move on…

Tip#1: Original content is always most wanted content! - Don’t duplicate content from other articles and sites. This may penalize your site and remember that if your site is penalized, it may take a very long time to revive from such a situation. Keep these points in mind when you write content for your site:

• Keep it simple, crisp and clear.
• Write articles on topics that will be of interest to many people.
• If your article is big, split it into multi-part articles.
• Conclude your article whenever applicable and possible.
• Don’t rant in your blogs.
• Aim at sharing and gathering information, not just anything.

Tip#2: Ping major blog syndication sites as and when you post new content. My list as of 18th Nov is as mentioned below: [Add this list to your blogging software for automatic pinging]

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping?u=http://www.bloghash.com/feed/
http://www.bloglot.com/rpc/
http://ping.blo.gs/?name=BlogHASH&url=http://www.bloghash.com/feed/

[Don't forget to replace my website's name with yours ;)]

Tip#3: Submit your site to high traffic blogs directories. My recommended list is on Yahoo! Directory.

Tip#4: If you have written some good articles in your site and is worth everyone’s reading then submit it to Digg.com and expect some quality traffic in return. The idea here is not to get traffic but to get visitors who may like your site and keep coming back. If you write a lot, then digging every article that you write is highly recommended. [Don't even think of spamming those sites ;)].

Tip#5: Participate in forums, discussions and digging as much as you can. When you move on Internet from one site to another, leave a trail behind. This will help in long term since you are leaving your website’s address behind your visit, in those websites. My website’s 8-10% traffic is from those comments alone

Trick in Tip#5: When you are commenting or sharing your view in any website on a topic similar to yours, then instead of using www.your-domain.com in your signature, use www.your-domain.com/link-to-your-post. This will gradually help in building back-links from all over the web. Different topics - Different links from your site in your signature.

Tip#6: Install Google/Yahoo! Sitemaps plugin [available at http://www.arnebrachhold.de/] and submit your site to Google and Yahoo! sitemaps. Whenever you post a new article, the sitemap is automatically updated and search engines will keep indexing your new content without having to discover it. Not only Google, but Yahoo! and Microsoft will also use the same sitemap going forward. [Also follow the FAQs on http://www.sitemaps.org/]

I wish to conclude my article, hoping that you find it useful and it helps you achieve your goals to get your pages indexed in search engines as soon as possible.