Matt Cutts just posted a link to a presentation he made about SEO tips for Blogger. Here is a quick summary:
SEO Tips for Blogs - General
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Don’t put blog at root page of domain
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People link to main page and main blog page, so you get some extra links that way.
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Name your directory “blog“, not “wordpress”
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Might want to change your software someday
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Also makes upgrading easier
SEO tips: keywords
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Use categories that are also good keywords
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Keywords in url paths: domain.com/my-words
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Dashes are best
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Next best is underscores
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No spaces is worst
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Think about the keywords that users will type. Include them naturally in your posts
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ALT tags are handy (3-4 relevant words)
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Don’t forget image search, videos, etc.
SEO tips: Usability
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Make sure your site is crawlable
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Make your post creation dates easy to find
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Check your blog on a cell phone/iPhone
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He recommends full-text RSS feeds to get loyal users. Partial feeds get more page views, but not as much love.
Your blog should do standard pings
SEO tips: moving to a new webhost
How to switch from one IP address to another
(Optional) Reduce your DNS time-to-live
Back up your site. Bring it up on new IP
Watch Googlebot & user traffic until they fetch the site from the new IP address
Take down the old site
SEO tips: moving to a new domain
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Standard advice: Use a 301 (permanent) redirect
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Even better: pick one subdirectory and move it first
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If the traffic stays roughly the same on the desired domain, go ahead and switch
Otherwise, take some time to figure out why -
Standardize your backlinks (www vs. non-www)
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Write to everyone; ask them to update their links
Then he goes on to give tips on how to get your site popular. To read his post and download the full presentation go here.
