Blog Directories Can Bring Big Traffic to Your Blog

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by: Jay Gaulard
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Word Count: 556

When the Internet was young, search engine traffic came at a premium price. Websites could buy their way into search engine listings, but there was no guarantee that the purchase would result in a significant amount of traffic.

Today, the rules are much different. In some ways it's much easier to get great traffic from search engines, but in other ways it's even harder. A website has to have a lot of clout before Google or Yahoo will list it in their top returns, but there are many ways to make your site more attractive to the search engines.

If you're trying to build traffic for a blog, the best thing you can do for increased traffic is to blog and ping. This slightly humorous-sounding term simply means that you let blog directories know each time you make a new blog post.

By cluing in the blog directories whenever you add a new blog post, you're building traffic in two ways. You might get an initial rush of traffic from the blog directory as readers click through to see your new entry. The real magic happens when the search engines follow the link from the blog directory back to your blog.

The search engine then finds other material to index. As you keep getting more links to your blog, the search engine has more pages to index. Eventually you'll find your blog turning up in searches. You won't be in the top couple of pages right away, but you will see your search engine traffic rise.

Blog and ping might sound a little complicated, but it's actually very easy. Most major blog platforms ping the major blog directories automatically. If you want to ping a blog directory that's not listed in their default list, you can usually add it manually.

What if you don't actually have a blog yet? Well, it's time to hop on the bandwagon. Blogs are useful for conveying your personal thoughts to anyone and everyone, about whatever subjects you choose. You can keep in touch with far-away relatives or just give yourself a creative outlet.

Lately, though, blogs are used quite often as marketing tools for businesses. The business blog can take many forms, from an informal journal kept by a CEO to a formal, frequently-updated record of new products.

Setting up a new blog is not difficult at all, and you have several options to do it. Most often, new bloggers set up a blog with one of the popular blogging platforms. These platforms offer standard templates, or you can create your own to match your company's color scheme or your personal preferences.

Once your blog is set up and ready to go, don't forget to make sure that it pings every blog directory possible. Blogging without pinging the blog directories is like spinning your wheels: you're doing something, but you're not making any progress.

If your blogging platform does not support pinging or doesn't submit to the directories you want, you can use software to accomplish the same thing. It's available under many different titles, but the basic function is to take your most recent blog post and send it to several blog directories. Your links start building up, your search engine traffic increases, and you are one happy blogger.