Top blogs are usually well ranked for some specific keywords in main search engines like Google and Yahoo. You can not compete with them at those keywords. But you can apply some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to increase traffic to your blog. Here are a few SEO techniques you can apply for your blog:

- Optimum Permalink Structure

This is the key when it comes to SEO for blogs. Use below permalink structure for your blog

  • Login to WordPress
  • Click on “Settings”
  • Click on “Permalinks”
  • Select “Custom Structure”
  • Insert this “/%category%/%postname%.html”
  • Go to “Sitemap XML”, and click on “rebuild the sitemap”

- Tagging

Not enough importance was given to tagging by many bloggers. Actually tagging is very important if you want to increase your blog’s search engine traffic. Make it a habit, and think about the tags first before writing a blog post.

  • Start with asking this simple question to yourself “If I were looking for this post in Google or Yahoo, which keywords I would be choosing”.
  • Answer this question, and then put those keywords into your blog post.
  • Do not forget to add those keywords as your blog post tags too.
  • Only use the tags that exist on your blog post.
  • Do not to exceed 5 tags per post.

- Use Platinum SEO plugin

This simle yet brilliant plugin generates all SEO relevant META tags automatically. It automatically avoids duplicate content.

  • Download Platinum SEO Plugin from the WordPress plugins directory.
  • Unzip the files, and upload them to your blog’s `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
  • If you are already using All In One SEO, deactivate it. Do not worry, your current All In One SEO settings will also be imported to Platinum SEO.
  • Go to Plugins menu.
  • Activate the Platinum SEO.
  • Go to Settings>Platinum SEO, and then make necessary adjustments.

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