In class today we will optimize our blogs for search engines. We will do so by:

• identifying keywords & integrating them into:
• meta tags
• blog title
• headlines
• body of blog post 
• tags

Step 1: Identify potential keywords that describe your blog

What is your blog's specific focus?

What are 3 other blogs that are similar in content to your blog? List them.

What sets your blog apart from these 3 blogs? (In other words, what is your niche?)

Based on this analysis, you should have a number of potential keywords you could use to describe your blog. Now use the Google tools we discussed in class last week to identify additional keywords. Use:

• Google Adwords: Type in a keyword or keyphrase you identified through your previous analysis to see what additional keywords Google is suggesting. 
• Google Insights: Use Google Insights to identify related & breaking keywords and to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames. This should tell you how competitive a particular keyword is.
• Google Search: Run a Google Search on each potential keyword to see how many results there are for each 

Pick your 2-3 best keywords (should capture the essence of your blog & not be too competitive) and proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Integrate these keywords into your blog

Log into Blogger and navigate to the "Settings" tab. Now spend some time rewriting your title (if need be) and your blog's description. The goal here is to incorporate the keyword(s) you identified in step 1 without breaking the flow of the text.

Remember you are writing this for two audiences:

• Audience 1: your readers - they want the text to read well
• Audience 2: search engines - they are looking for keywords to help them determine how to categorize your blog

Your goal is to make both of them happy!