SEO's Virtuous Circle - Blogger, Twitter and You

Getting a contextual link from a well ranked external site to your own is one of the key tools in SEO. For example - a contextual link from the BBC's homepage to yours would send you soaring up Google for that particular keyword phrase.

Of course, most of us have no chance of getting a contextual link from the BBC's homepage. And the question is, what can we do instead?

A combination of Twitter and Blogger offer an interesting set of free tools that provide a little bit of 'link juice' that will benefit most sites for particular keyword phrases. It requires that you write at least one blog entry per week, and continue to do so for at least 3 months (the longer the better).

Your goal is to build a Blogger page that...

1. Builds page rank over time.
2. Links to pages on your site (starting with your homepage).

These links are done via blog posts, and must be contextual. That is, the text in the link must contain the keyword phrase you want Google to rank your site for. Don't overdo these links, and avoid duplication within a single blog entry.

It works best if you pick several keyword phrases, and assign each one to a particular page on your site. Make sure each page's content is focused on that keyword. For example, if you're looking to improve your ranking for the keyword phrase 'seafood restaurant', make sure you link to a page about one or more seafood restaurants.

You should post new articles to your blog regularly (at least once a week). Each post must contain original content. Don't republish someone else's article, as duplicate content won't be indexed in a way that benefits you.

Twitter is an excellent way to pick up followers on a particular subject. People interested in your topic will discover you in Twitter, and start to follow you. They receive a notice each time you submit a new 'tweet'.

Use Twitter to announce each new article in your blog. Keep doing this week in and week out for at least 3 months (more if you can - longer is better). Over time, you'll find people start linking directly to specific entries in your blog. This boosts the search engine ranking of your blog, and this carries over to your own site.

It can be a slow process to start with, especially if you have a brand new site. As with most things, patience and perseverance pay off. And over time, it gets easier and easier.

As your blog becomes more important in the eyes of search engines, so too will your site. What's more, the older the original contextual links to your site get, the more valuable they become.

It's a virtuous circle, delivering ever better search engine effectiveness.

You'll find more articles about SEO on my site, including one that explains how to take advantage of the all important contextual link.