Your One tip for Blog Rankings?

[TR123]

If you could give just one tip to new bloggers to increase their google ranking what would it be?

[Kevin]

content and links
more original posts means more pages and keywords for google to crawl.

Also, try and use keywords when linking to your site (more incoming links will boost your ranking for certain keywords). For example, in your signature here use Graphic Design (http://www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/) instead of www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/

you can check your rank on the web (for example here (http://www.rankingcheck.com)

your position 16 on google for the term 'graphic design blog' the more content you have the more i expect your site will rise in this ranking since its your domain name as well

the next big update on google is expected in the next few weeks. for the term 'blogging tips' i was on the second page and now im not in the top 5 so they must be updating (although it was the domain bloggingtips.org which was on the second page and switching to the .com might affect my rankings in the short term)

[TR123]

Thanks for the tips

Weird though if I type 'graphic design blog' in google I come up number 4 in the list, I guess that's because it forces me to the google.co.uk site

Interesting one about the signature, I didn't realise that would make a difference.

[Kevin]

yeah your no 4 for the uk - your .co.uk domain will help you with that :)

[StephenWelton.com]

I have now begun to adjust things accordingly and used the key word search tool to make sure things align. Do you think that the content also surrounding the link itself is important for the keywords and searches?

[Kevin]

the keyword you use for links to your site is very important. text around the link doesnt matter. eg it doesnt matter if a keyword is 4 words from a link or 5 paragraphs as its counted as a keyword from the page.

[shypys]

Thanks for the info Kevin. I'm changing to Hacks and Tech Tips Blog (http://easyhacks.blogspot.com)

[cmanlong]

Anchor text in linking makes a huge difference when it comes to keywords. Also make sure you follow good anchor text practice when it comes to internal links as well. Another factor that plays a small role is title text when linking. The title isn't nearly as important as it used to be but I have found it does help, and it can sometimes get a persons attention when they scroll over your link. The title isn't an option though if the blog or forum doesn't allow <a href="url" title="title"></a> format for links. One last linking practice I follow is that when linking to an outside page from my blog I always try to have it open in a new page so as to not have the reader leave my blog.

[samhdrew]

My friends say that keywords are really important. And it helps a lot if you use the appropriate ones. If you're going to submit your blog to directories to get more traffic, better choose the right category.

[drvenom]

Nice very helpful one.I didnt know anything like this was available around i guess lot of discovery still remaining

[Mani Karthik]

the keyword you use for links to your site is very important. text around the link doesnt matter. eg it doesnt matter if a keyword is 4 words from a link or 5 paragraphs as its counted as a keyword from the page.

Small correction there Kev - Actually text around the keyword also matters - but not as important as the anchor text - which is the most important factor.

But, a paragraph written about blogging tips and if your link is embedded in it - with your keyword as anchor text - your site would get more weightage than a scenario where - a site related to business or stock(unrelated to your blog) links to you with your keyword as anchor text.

So you can't say text around does not matter completely.
:)
Cheers!
Mani

[blogginginc]

Also make sure you follow good anchor text practice when it comes to internal links as well.

This is very important when you try to rank for non competitive keywords with 3+ , and when you are using a blog, try to link from each post as much as you can to other posts, using the long tail keyword as anchor text for the link.