Running a blog, writing quality content and maintaining your search rankings is not an easy task for a one man band. Us bloggers don’t have a team of SEO experts taking care of our blogs, we are forced to do it ourselves. It is very difficult to be first on Google for common search terms, but if you have a Specialty blog like Jewlab, then you will find it easier to be first on Google for less common keywords.

I have put together a few tips based on my own experience that I believe everyone should follow, It will almost guarantee better placement for your blog, especially if paired with quality content and constant updates.

The first rule in blogging is to constantly add quality content, You need to write at least one post a week to be considered a good blog. The posts have to be relevant to what your blog is about, and they have to be very keyword rich.

Lets start from scratch

1. Install wordpress on your server its the best blog software there is when it comes to being SEO friendly
(I suggest Signing up with Bluehost, You get a FREE domain name for life, its only $6.95 a month and you can set up as many domains as you want on one account - Oh, It also has Wordpress pre-installed. Refer to this post for more information)

2. Install the following Plugins on your blog:
All in One SEO Pack
Google XML Sitemaps
Gregarious
WP-Stats

3. Create a Keyword rich first post and keyword rich about page. My about page should give you a good idea on how to do this.

4. Share your site with Stumble, Digg, Technorati and other Social Networking sites

5. Add a ping list to your blog
Past the following links into your dashboard > options >writing page (under update services)
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://www.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://rpc.feedsky.com/ping
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
This will notify Blog Directories etc every time you write a new post

6. Create up to 10 Catagories (Must be keyword rich yet specific for example Hebrew Fonts | Jewish Content | Jewish Fonts | Jewish Wallpapers | Jewish Web Hosting etc.
Every time you write a new post you should choose up to 5 catagories

7. Make sure your catagories are displayed on the main page, with a sidebar widget or the default category view

8. When you write a post make sure you create a good keyword rich title like “Free Jewish Fonts”. Make the whole article keyword rich (At least the first half before the read more button)

Follow these simple 8 steps and you will see a tremendous increase in traffic!