You’ve probably spent a huge amount of time working on search engine optimization to produce quality and compelling content, include targeted keywords on each page, get incoming links but never once spared a thought for generating a sitemap in your SEO campaign.

HTML Sitemap

In general, HTML Sitemaps can be very handy for your human visitors, and it’s a nice additional way to help search engines make sure that they know about all of your pages as well.

XML Sitemap

It’s always a good idea for your XML Sitemap file to include all pages which you want to have indexed. If you have pages such as tag or archive pages which you prefer not to have indexed, it’s recommended to add a “no index” robots meta tag to the pages (and of course, not to include them in the Sitemap file).

If your CMS or website doesn’t allow you to generate XML Sitemaps, there are lots of tools available online and here’s one of them

Win/win Situation

This is a win-win situation for you, your website visitors and the search engines. Put simply you’re nuts if you’ve not included a sitemap as part of your overall website promotion strategy.

The good news is that it’s never too late to start. You can create a sitemap page today but there are some rules to creating an effective sitemap that you need to follow.

General Guidelines for URLs in XML Sitemaps

• A Sitemap can contain a list of URLs or a list of Sitemaps.
• A Sitemap file can contain no more than 50,000 URLs and be no larger than 10MB when uncompressed. If your Sitemap is larger than this, break it into several smaller Sitemaps.
• Specify all URLs using the same syntax. For instance, if you specify your site location as http://www.example.com/, your URL list should not contain URLs that begin with http://example.com/. And if you specify your site location as http://example.com/, your URL list should not contain URLs that begin with http://www.example.com/.
• Do not include session IDs in URLs.
• Do not include direct image URLs in Sitemaps.
• The Sitemap URL must be encoded for readability by the webserver on which it is located.

More information can be found at Google Webmaster Central.

Alright time is flying by in our SEO Keyword Challenge. We have already looked at several stages in the article process including, Research and Analysis, Article Creation, and Building the Article. Now it’s time to focus our energy on publishing the article.

I hope no one jumped the gun on this because this is going to be the most important step of our entire process.

Today in this article we will be discussing the importance of your category, tags and social bookmarking. We want to ensure everything is as perfect as it can be before we submit and publish our article for the SEO Keyword Challenge.

The Importance of a Category – Selecting the right category is of most importance. What you are doing here is building the core of your article relevance. (the foundation) So all your future inbound links and SE ranking will be determined by this. Do not place the article in many categories. Make sure the category is most suited from the article at hand. If you don’t have one simply create it.

Selecting your tags – Lets’ keep this nice and simply and only use tags that are directly related to our article and specific to our keywords or keyword phrase. Many people over do the tags. The selection should be a nice and simple and a compliment to your article. Avoid using to many unrelated tags.

Social Bookmarking – This is going to be the most important part to our article ranking in the top 5 spots of Google search engine. Please promise me you will not be lazy when it comes to this section. You have to submit your article to many social networks. here is a list of things we have to look our for and practice.

• Do Follow

• Proper Category

• Proper Tags

• Unique Title

• Unique Description

Now I will explain each in a little more detail for our members that are participating in the challenge.

Do Follow – Don’t waste your time in any community that doesn’t offer a do follow link back to your article. If it’s NO Follow they do not pass the page rank juice and will compete with you for your own keywords. This is very important to look out for ok everyone? Please see the Firefox addon to see if a page is do or no follow.

Proper Category – Make sure the site has the proper category for you to submit your article. This is very important because any links going back to your article that are unrelated or not relevant is a waste of your time.

Proper Tags – Similar to what I said about your blog post you have to make sure you post relevant tags on your article. Please make note that you should change up your tags on every bookmark you make. So make sure they are all different and relevant. We want to avoid any type of duplicate content.

Unique Title – When submitting and book marketing your article make sure to use a unique but relevant title for you story. Do not copy and paste your information. Also ensue that every site you submit to is different. This is why I said do not be lazy make it count.

Unique Description – Similar to the title your description must be unique as well. Simply no copy and pasting your first paragraph. Make sure you sue simile and relevant keywords during this process but please do change it up for every bookmark you do.

An example or a unique title and description

I just released my SEO Keyword Challenge article this morning. When I submitted it to blog engage I created a new title and description. This way I have created a unique quality do follow back link for myself.

My article title on my blog is, Social Networking Tips for Online Success but when I submitted it to blog engage is was My Personal Social Networking Tips.

If anyone has questions about this or needs help you can leave a reply or post in our SEO Keyword Challenge forum topic where many members have been gathering to share tips and tricks.

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Thanks,

Brian

To date in our SEO Keyword Challenge we have looked at Research and Analysis, and Article Creation. What I’m trying to do here is help our members build the most accurate, informational article on their keywords as possible.

Understanding what your competitors are talking about and ranking for is of most importance in order to our rank or be competitive along side them in the search engines.

In this article we are going to take the information we got from our marketing research and start building the physical structure of our article.

Now that we have the structure of our article down we should start writing our articles. The sooner we can accomplish this the sooner we will start ranking for our keywords.

Take all the information you wanted to use from your competitors and the research you did on your own, Rewrite the data to represent unique content and start writing your articles.

Need help with our first paragraph? Don’t’ understand how to make it keyword rich? Don’t worry I’m here to help you. Simply join the forums and post your questions. I’m more then willing to help you achieve this 45 day SEO keyword challenge.

Day 6 to do list

• Create your blog article title

• Create a keyword rich first paragraph

• Create your article body and link to a high quality website or page

• Create your list post section and bullet points

• Create your conclusion and closing requesting some Q and A from your readers

Please DO NOT publish your article unless you are 100% sure your first paragraph is accurate to your keywords. If you have any questions or need help please come see mi in the forums.

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Thanks,

Brian

In the first day of our SEO challenge we started researching our competitors articles.

We did this to see if the articles they had were updated and filled with the best possible content.

One way to out rank our competitors is to ensure we have the most accurate information and updated article on the web.

We also wanted to see if the articles had keywords in both the topic titles and first paragraphs. We will be discussing creating topic titles in more detail in our next SEO Keyword Challenge update.

Make sure to keep updated in our forum discussions on tips and tricks.

In today’s article I would like to put more emphasis on the article creation. This includes the structure and more specifically the props that will be used in the article. This is only the preparation and not the actual article creation.

List Post – The list post is always popular. It allows for easy skimming within an article and has proven many times to be to be of the most popular types of blog articles.

Images – People really like to see images in a post. An image can say a thousand words but please do remember the image should represent or best describe the article at hand.

Statistics – Providing proof to your readers that your content and information is reliable is of most importance. Perhaps if you have an aged blog you have already done this but the person visiting this article is now to your blog. If you can find statistics make sure to add it and share the information in your post.

Stages of progress to date

Day 1. Research and Analysis

Day 4 to do list

• Create a list of a minimum of 5 bullet points representing your article

• Find an image that represents your article and keywords

• Research for statistical information regarding your keywords

• Start developing the structure of your article and placement of each section

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Thanks,

Brian

The first thing we will want to do in our SEO and Keyword challenge is research and analysis.

We want to ensure the articles that contain our specific keywords and keyword phrases have the correct and most updated information possible. We want to determine areas in which our article can be better then theirs.

We don’t just want to rank for a specific keywords we also want to ensure the individual visiting our article is getting the information they are looking for. This will ensure the longevity of your articles ranking.

The first thing we want to do as part of our research is to analyze our competitions information and content. Go to Google and start searching your desired keywords or keyword phrases.

At this point we will have a good idea of what we are up against. The important areas to take note of are the topic titles and first paragraph of the written content.

Topic Titles – We are looking to see if many people are ranking from their topic titles. Are they using keywords in their titles and if so perhaps we should be as well.

Written Content – The most important part here is within the first paragraph. Take a look at their content and within the first paragraph see if they are using the same keywords that are in their topic titles.

After reviewing the topic titles and first paragraphs of their content make notes on a note pad if they did in fact use their keyword in the title and first paragraph. If they did you might have some extra work involved with out ranking them. Don’t worry we will discuss these steps at a later date.

Content Quality – Have a read through the entire articles and determine if they are providing the visitor with the most updated correct answer possible. Make notes on where the articles need improvement because this is where you will be making the significant difference in the quality of your own written article.

• What’s missing?

• What’s out dated?

• What needs to be added?

• What can I do better?

As mentioned above these questions should be written down in front of you and as you go through the first page results of your desired keywords you will start accumulating enough information to use when we start preparing our own article.

Skim through the contact and start taking notes of all the best and most beneficial information all the articles have. In no way am I suggesting plagiarism but re writing the information in your own words is perfectly fine.

Day 1 to do list

• Research your competition.

• Analyze their topic title and content. (specifically the first paragraph)

• Take notes on where the articles can be improved.

• Make notes on important factors you might want to mention in your own article.

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Thanks,

Brian

I got a lot of positive feedback regarding our 45 day SEO and Keyword challenge.

Many members are now checking Google Trends for keywords they will be trying to rank for.

I have a lot of ideas over the next 45 days I’m going to be sharing with you but I do need some more member participation.

I also want to take a moment and clear up any questions you may have regarding this challenge.

The challenge is for educational purposes so that members who don’t know how to target a specific keywords or rank in Google can get quality help from our community.

You are allowed to pick any keyword or keyword phrase you want. I have already selected mine on my SEO marketing blog.

How to select your keywords

Google Trends

If Google trends has no data it means the keyword isn’t searched enough. This doesn’t mean it won’t bring you traffic it just means it’s less competitive. I would suggest picking something that doesn’t have high search traffic information on it.

when does it start?

The challenge will run from Friday May 15th 2010 to Monday June 31st 2010. Ask any questions you may have here in this topic or in our blog forum discussions.

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Thanks,

Brian

Blog Engage is hosting a 45 day SEO keyword challenge and all members are welcomed to join in the fun.

In no way is this meant to be a competition but if any members decide to select the same keywords to rank for you may end up seeing each other fight for top spot.

The goal of the challenge is simple; select a word and rank within the top 5 spots in Google for it but within 45 days. This can be a keyword or keyword phrase.

Don’t overshoot your target. Make it simple enough so you can achieve success. Anyone interested in participating make sure to leave a comment here.

We will allow the challenge to go a full 45 days. This will give us ample time to reach the first page of Google assuming we pick realistic keywords.

How to select your keywords

Google Trends

How it works.

1. Write an article about the challenge on your blog.
2. In the article state the keyword you will be trying to rank for.
3. Link back to our 45 day SEO Keyword challenge in your article. (optional)
4. Post a reply here with letting us know you will be participating.
5. Join the forum discussions and share your ideas
6. Help one another find ways to rank higher if we are having issues.

When does it start?

I would like to market and promote the idea a little and give our members time to pick the keywords. I was hoping to start the challenge within the next 48 hours. The challenge will run from Friday May 15th 2010 to Monday June 31st 2010.

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Be sure to add me as a friend, bbrian017

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Thanks,

Brian

Am I the only one out of all of my friends who know about SEO? I mean seriously, whenever I bring out a topic about Page Ranks I would get blank stares.

Has this ever happened to you? It certainly has to me. It astounds me just how many people actually use SEO but are unaware of it. Whenever you use facebook, isn’t that Social Media? Whenever you post in forums, aren’t you promoting? Whenever you comment, aren’t you instigating interaction?

People do these things on a daily basis and have no idea that they are already practicing SEO. Even If we use the term all the time and is common knowledge to us, I must tell you that outside these walls, it is a very unheard of term. And these people are not stupid either, they are just uninformed.

You don’t know how many times I have to re-explain to other people what Do Follow is, and some would say that I should dumb it down, and I’m like, but this is the dumbest I can explain it! I have to say: you see, when you comment it gives you a link to your site. So what you should do is place a keyword…

Other: What’s a keyword?
Me: It’s a word that many people would search for in Google.

…on the name field so that it would count.

Other: Oh, I do this all the time, I comment on a lot of blogs!
Me: Yeah, but I checked and those doesn’t count because they are No Follow.
Other: What you mean they don’t count; it’s a link isn’t it?
Me: Well yeah, but…
Other: So they count.

SEO is seriously just a search away but only a few people actually bother with it. Isn’t this just sad? Just like with any other game, there are a lot of newbs in the blogging world. Perhaps they are less irritating because they don’t know enough to bother us, but it’s still disheartening. I mean, a lot of people have awesome content out there but are not recognized just because they did not know an aspect about blogging, like how to gain more traffic.

That is why it is our job to educate. Don’t think of it as more competition, but more people to dupe into clicking your ads. You see, teaching more people to blog can be beneficial for everyone.

Whether they like it or not, SEO has now become a reality they cannot ignore, it’s part of the real world baby!

Tini | Inzone Internet