Blogging is nothing but a wandering mind's cheap therapy without readers. Readers do not come to a blogs unless there are distinct keywords, an appealing title and a little finesse on the writers part. Think of a blog without optimization as an island without bridges, ferries or airplanes directing to them. We thought blogging optimization does not have to be rocket science, so here is a quick 5 step best practice for bloggers out there that want to turn some heads.

1. 5 Blog Best Practices

2. 5 Blog Best Practices Keywords, Tags and Hyperlinking Post Titles Social Bookmarking Call-to-Action Footers Reserved Release Content

3. 5 Blog Best Practices Keywords, Tags and Hyperlinking The point of any blog is to be read and posts cannot be read unless they can be found. Search engines use keywords, tags and hyperlinking to find your blog so it is very important to complete this sometime forgotten task. Keywords: Make sure your posts use keywords that are topic specific to the post. (example: A post on ISVs should not only use the acronym, but use value-added reseller) Tags: Tags are used to identify topics within the post. They also make it easier to find similar posts internally on the company blog. Search engines sometimes use tags to index web pages as well. Use a maximum of 10 tags Hyperlinking: Hyperlinking is very important to use on words that need definition, other topics you are referring internally/externally and profiles of post authors. Search engines use hyperlinks to measure post importance.

4. 5 Blog Best Practices Post Titles Post titles are very important to garner readers. Titles must be written in a certain way to be search engine compliant and pose a question or answer. Examples: What’s the best way to market software? 5 best ways to market software. 10 ways to reach critical mass for new software. Is Google going to pose a threat to the MS operating system?

5. 5 Blog Best Practices Social Bookmarking Social bookmarking is a great way to increase relevance of new postings. Self-bookmarking can be construed as unethical through some services, but for others it could be very useful to improve SEO. Search engines use commonly bookmarked posts to measure relevance and it gives authors a chance to control the message more effectively. Services: Services to use: Delicious.com, Stumbleupon.com, reddit.com, buzz.yahoo.com Services not to use: Digg.com, NewsVine.com Techniques: Tag the post Include a description

6. 5 Blog Best Practices Call-to-Action Footers Business blogs require a call to action with each post. One of the best ways to do this is having a standard footer after each post describing the business offerings in 50 words or less. It is also important to have a hyperlink or email address box for readers to be added to the post mailing list. Example of Footer: Become an Intel® Software Partner Program member today, and together we can deliver powerful solutions that help customers do more. It is easy to do. Just start with the enrollment and create a project using the links below.

7. 5 Blog Best Practices Reserved Release Content Reserved Release means the company is trying to get the reader to act on a call to action. This can be offering a free white page, recent webinar slideshow, or access to hidden and useful content. It will require the reader to sign up for the program, but they will be emailed the desired content once they input all their information. This is a highly effective way to garner leads and increase membership to a community. Example: Blog Post Footer

9. Tweetmeme – (http://tweetmeme.com/)Tweetmeme makes it easy for users to tweet your post and keeps a running tab of the most popular articles.

10. Add to Any (http://www.addtoany.com/) – Add to Any adds a icon for subscribing to the blog posts or sharing the posts around the web.