Seek and You Shall Find

Ever since I started being a bit more in depth with my blog postings, linking, mentioning key words etc., not only have my blog visits skyrocketed but the analysis on my keywords really a) are doing their job and b) are just downright funny sometimes.

Keywords are words or phrases people search for on search engine sites (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Bing). These words or phrases (keywords) are what you need to know so you can create titles and links to target specific traffic to your blog. The more targeted your blog is to what people are searching for, the more likely you are to generate traffic.

Using particular keywords throughout your site can help Google’s bots read your site better and consider it more important, thus increase your search engine traffic.  If they understand your site, then you’ll be able to get more traffic.  So, for example, if a searcher is vegetarian and wants to find a blog about cooking, he might type in “vegetarian cooking blog”, and that would be the keyword phrase.

Think about words that you think people interested in what you write about would search for.  Use them throughout your content – this is called site or blog optimization.  Make sure that you keep it varied and mix it up.  If you use the same phrase over and over again, it will look suspicious and definitely will not sound right to your readers.  Also make sure that your keywords relate to the topic of your post.
The key to keywords is to use them in moderation. Use enough so that it’s clear what you are writing about, but don’t use too many that it sounds weird.  It’s also a great idea to use keywords in the title of your post.

I am really trying to follow all the advice of other successful healthy living/fitness bloggers out there along with the research to boost the readership even more so as to attract some vendors/advertisers, but I understand this takes time. 

The number one piece of advice I seem to get over and over about increasing traffic and obtaining a successful blog following is this: 

1. Write Well and Write Often

Frequently updating your blog with useful content is the first step to building your blog's audience. The content you write is what will keep readers coming back for more. Make sure you have something meaningful to say to them and say it often to maintain their interest and keep them loyal.

I must admit this is the thing I struggle with most of all too.  I am a bad blogger on the weekend, but have felt the pressure to get that post up about how the Saturday training run went, so I go at it in spurts in between eating, sleeping, working and other 'distractions'.

What I am trying to do is start the draft, even if its just the blog post title and have it in a list of things to write about.  Right now I probably have 10 posts started or at least the topics are started.  These are mostly there for those days when I feel like I have nothing to say!  Posting about another hot yoga class or a short training run just doesn't seem to cut it anymore.  That's just not very interesting unless something horrible (or funny) goes on.

So since I have so many new readers and a lot of those of you who have been around for some time, I am putting the call out there for you to submit some questions you have either in comments or via my email link.  Questions about me, the new member of my family, Nugget, running, marathon/half marathon training, marathons, half marathons, eating, Bikram/hot yoga, shoes, running gear in general, you name it.  I will answer it either directly or through email.  Or both!

Now for some humor, here are a few of the keyword searches that have popped up in the past week or so:

• enchiladas (while this is not funny, its funny how many times and different ways it gets put into search; and I had only one post that I can recall that had enchiladas in it to begin with!)
• nature sucks
• sometimes it glitters, but often not, maybe cold or maybe hot (This one boggles my mind)
• LOTS of hits from folks looking for answers on whether or not treadmill training is good for a marathon/half marathon
• I stopped going to hot yoga and now I'm in pain
• my lip is getting fat, what could it be
• Splitting up long runs
• How long does it take to run 9 miles
• ho's before bro's

and my all time favorite (so far) is: 

• Just because you ran one half marathon doesn't mean you can lose the weight

OK so send me some questions/ideas of things you would like me to write/blog about!  Do you look at your keyword analysis on your blog?  Anything funny that people are searching for that direct them to you?  Are you interested in growing your blog?  If so, I highly recommend PBFingers blog as she has been doing a weekly segment post on Tuesdays on this very topic!!!  Do you care one way or the other if a blogger blogs once a day or once a week?