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SEO Lies

Top five lists are the meme of choice for any good Web 2.0 blog, especially when writing about SEO. How To Split An Atom is a Web 2.0 Blog and currently I am writing about SEO. Thus, I really considered just throwing together a top 5 list of “killer SEO tips”. Then I decided not to be such a shill and instead compiled a real list of ways that your average blogger can improve their traffic without selling their soul.

Now, let me preface this by saying that the only real way to improve your traffic is to continue to write compelling, original, and entertaining copy (either that or just have enough cash on hand to pay people to visit you). However, there are ways to give your site that little boost it needs.

Be A Web 2.0 Warrior

Stumble Upon, Reddit and Digg are your friends. If you finish writing a piece of original prose that you think is worth slightly more than the calories you burned writing it, submit it to some of the social networking sites available to you. Chances are pretty good that you are not going to make it in over the latest iWidget rumor, but like pinging blog directories, submitting to social networking sites increases the overall visibility of a post.

SEO Trickery


There are far too many sites trying to give you the latest, greatest and definitive guide to blog SEO. Most of it is really just rehashing tried and true methods so I’ll summarize everything you’ll ever read right here.

  • Meta Tags are Dead.
  • Inbound Links are Gold
  • Write a Lot of Content
  • Extenuate your keywords in your text.

Niche Comments Are King

Comment on other people’s blogs. Before you run off to spam the blogosphere listen very carefully. Comment spam is awful and counterproductive, instead, pick and choose among the content that actually interests you and give the authors of that content useful feedback. Since most blogs (except for these of course) have “nofollow” attributes set to the comment fields, commenting won’t help your SERP, but it might compel other authors to take a look at your blog.

Web 2.0 As Easy as ABC

Always Be Closing.

If you send a lot of emails, add your blog to the signature tag. If you have a business card, advertise your blog there. If you need to communicate formally in any way where contact information can be shared, share your blog.

You need to realize that 90% of getting visitors is saturation. If you put your content in front of enough eyeballs, and make it easy for people to pick it up and read it — they will.

Work With The Community

Bloggers are friendly folk, work with them and share your resources. Join communities like MyBlogLog and connect with other authors in your field. Finding readers is sometimes as easy as putting yourself out there to be read. No one is going to come looking for you (unless you are giving stuff away). You have to be proactive.

Here are a few places where you can find more information about building traffic that your average SEO site won’t tell you (I’ll update this as more articles filter in).

An interesting article on search engine submissions over at Blogger Lounge.

Will these tips make you a million dollars a month in Adsense revenue? No. However, they might go a long way towards increasing the number of visitors that make it to your site. Once they are there, by dear readers, it is up to you to keep them coming back.

  • del.icio.us
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Fark
  • Mixx
  • Propeller
  • TwitThis