I don’t profess to know everything about optimization but here is what I do know.

If you take blog software out of the box, apply it to your site and write key phrase rich articles, you will be doing better than most sites. You determine key phrases to target by using tools provided by Adwords, Overture or WordTracker.com. I normally use Overture because it is free and easy to use.

However to hope to be #1 for a highly contested key phrase and beat other websites with that phrase, you need to custom code your blog software. My webmaster customized Movable Type to be search engine candy. Here is one of my highly optimized Olympics pages:

http://www.amoretravelguides.com/blog/torino-winter-olympics-2006-sestriere.php

Things that you can learn about the page which will help you:

1. The Title is the key phrase I am targeting. The key phrase = the first words at the top of the page, mid page and very last words on the page
2. The metatags were coded to provide key phrases from the Movable Type key phrase field
3. The url is not the typical Movable Type underscore url. Search engines like dashes better so the url has dashes separating the key phrase
4. The category repeats the main key phrase
5. Suggested reading is a rotating script to give the appearance of fresh content to the search engines
6. The image name and the image alt tag is the key phrase

I am doing extremely well for the Torino Olympics 2006 for a new site. It has been a nice doorway for me since I started building the category early and the competition wasn’t strong. I am not sure if I will hold my position when the big websites with huge link popularity start blogging on the Olympics. My guess is that I will be found for obscure phrase combinations and less popular topics rather than the key phrase I am targeting when high PR sites start focusing on the Olympics.

Hope this helps. There is a lot of information on the web about search engine optimization. This is a just a brief overview and as I said before, I am not an expert.

I’ve seen this comment / suggestion more than I can count… and it makes sense.

However, I have never been able to find an example of an “optimized” article.

Can someone point me towards a place where I can read two articles side-by-side… one as the “original” and one as the “optimized” so that I can see a real life example? I don’t care about what the article is about either.

Thanks in advance.

Who said “The harder I practice, the luckier I get”?

I agree writing skills really can help when it comes to blogs, certainly if you have a passion about a subject your likely to write more than the average joe blogs who just wants a blog on travel to get a few clicks from adsense.

your blog is likely to stand out from joeblogs.

The average person trying to make money from their blog are likely trying to create lots of them and unless they outsource the writing there is no chance all their blogs are going to do well because its like a race against the clock to post to each of your blogs in the day.. i.e over 10 i mean. Some blogs might not get touched in a given day, or if they do the post will likely be just a blurb about what another site has said and thats it.. while that does get traffic.. it probably wont get a fan base who sign up for your rss or visit your site often.. because there is nothing that is distinctive about those type of blogs.

So Jackie has an interesting take on things.. maybe its better to focus on only 3 or 4 blogs at the very most and write extremely good content and more of it..which can lead to loyal readers and the potential of being taken on by a company to blog for them for a paycheck instead of just adsense clicks or potential of providing services and products specifically to those loyal readers.

Food for thought and a challenge

All I hope is that having the excitement and enthusiasm will be enough to keep me writing in a niche that is quite popular already… I don’t think I’ll be earning any executive salaries on my one blog alone.