This post should be read after the Keyword Research post has been read.
To prioritize your Keyword List, you must calculate the R/S value, that is obtained when Results or number of competing sites is divided by searches per month. The quotients of the R/S values for each keyword phrase are then compared and used to prioritize which words will be optimized for first.
There are tools out there that will determine the competition for your keywords, but the easiest free way I know of is to plug your potential keyword phrases into Google. If you use the “allintitle:” search function, you will get web pages that have the keyword in the title, that is to say the title tag of the site includes the keywords in it.
The title tag is the name of the site that is shown in the little blue bar at the top of the browser, like the title tag at the top of this page which should read “Keyword List Prioritizing-SEO Training – and SEO tips from Pixelhead” followed by your browser name. An example of using the “allintitle” function is “allintitle:cloth bags” and Google shows 52,000 web pages that have the phrase cloth bags in the title as opposed to 490,000 pages that show up for the phrase just typed into the Google search bar.
There are many keyword tools such as Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker and Keyword Spy, but for this series, which is being done for the beginner, the Google Keyword tool will be fine.
First, look at your site, and ask yourself – generally speaking what is it about? Looking at Mybarebags.com, I see that cloth bags are being sold here. So “cloth bags” is what I put into the Keyword tool. I might also look around the site and take note of any other keywords that might apply. On some sites, depending upon the site, I might actually go through each page and see what keywords apply to each individual page…if the site owner wants the entire site optimized…
Mikael over at PetInsurancepro.com, has a post about Pet Insurance that takes care of Vet Bills. I first heard of pet insurance well over a decade ago, but as of this writing, I still have never bought any. However, I do have friends that have it, and have used it for their families pets. If you are a pet owner whose pet is no longer a pup or kitten, you might want to check out Mikael’s site.
Minnesota Attorney, Aaron Hall, has a helpful post for those of us thinking about filing your LLC’s taxes as an S corp…something we were just discussing with our book keeper this morning.
To learn what “dofollow” means, check out the PageRush dofollow FAQ. Now that you know what dofollow is, here is why you should join the movement.
10. Dofollow Rewards and Encourages Commenters
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Converting your blog to dofollow means that you will give search engine visible backlinks to people that post meaningful comments. This is a nice complement to your commenters and means people will seek out your blog and spend time writing comments.
9. Give your Blog a Kick Start
For a brand new blog, making it dofollow will attract new visitors. Think of it as a “survival of the fittest” link-exchange. The people who write the best comments get links. The best bloggers will find you, then you can set off to comment on their blogs.
8. Narrow your Niche
Authority on the internet is all about expertise. By making your blog dofollow, you in effect become more specialized. Visitors who know about dofollow will remember that your blog is the one where comments count. This little change makes your blog more remarkable, and more differentiated from your competitors. By responding to your commenters, you will naturally develop a community of readers.
7. Join the Movement
It is great to know people with common interests. Think of the analogy of moving to a new city. Even though you may be an accountant or lawyer, you are still likely to seek meet ups with other people who are new in town. In the same way, dofollowers hang together even if they are blogging about different topics.
6. Get Backlinks
Paradoxically, making your site dofollow (giving away better links) will make it qualify for lots of lists of dofollow blogs. Dofollow blogs qualify for special directories (like the PageRush dofollow list). Also, links to dofollow blogs are often passed around and shared in blog posts and on twitter. Going dofollow qualifies you to be included in that “ultimate guide to dofollow blogs” you saw last week. What is that quote… “if you see a parade, you might as well get in front of it.”
5. Take the Lead
By learning about dofollow, and sharing what you learn with your readers, you establish yourself as not just a domain expert, but also an expert in blogging. By going dofollow, you are ahead of the curve. There’s a good chance you will have some readers who are bloggers, and the more you can help them learn, the smarter you look.
4. Spam Filters are Good
As long as you have a good blog spam filter, and moderate your comments, there is no need to be nofollow. In fact, your blog will be better (more relevant and interesting) as moderated dofollow than as un-moderated nofollow.
3. Get more Content and Customers
Of course, ultimately you want to encourage commenting because you want more commenters, content, and *customers*. People stopping by in search of dofollow comments are potential customers you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Their comments are content you would otherwise have to write yourself. Its a Web win-win.
2. These Effects Compound Upon one Another
Like compounding interest on an investment, a blog post with one comment is more likely to get two comments. When combined with the backlink buzz you create by joining the dofollow movement, dofollow can be a real boon to your blog!
1. Why not?
OK, if you are superblog.com with 10,000 daily visitors, congratulations. You have graduated and don’t need to reward your commenters anymore. But lets face it, when you are climbing the ladder you’ve got nothing to lose. Your PageRank isn’t going to leak out to commenters, instead you are going to create a loyal audience and build your reputation at the same time.
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