So far you know the basic onsite SEO techniques for blogs (and websites). If you don’t, read SEO for Blogs Part I. Now what about offsite SEO?

What I’ve learnt in a few months of blogging is that Google indexes faster Blogger blogs. This is only natural and normal, as they own Blogger. If you have a personal blog, that’s a good place to start. It’s free, rather reliable and you might generate some revenue with Google Adsense and other affiliate programs. Wordpress.com has very clear policies related to Adsense and other ads. If you plan your blog for PayPerPost, simply forget about getting a free blog on Wordpress.com. Better get your own domain and download the wordpress publishing platform from Wordpress.org. But enough about this! Back to offsite SEO.

These SEO techniques will boost your blog’s rankings in the SE.

• It’s in your best interest to get as many inbound links as possible. Some you cannot control, (any blogger can simply post a link to your site on his/her blog if she/he finds your content interesting and useful). But for those inbound links you can control, there are some rules:

• Try to get links from relevant sites (aka. related sites) – for example, if your blog is about nature; get links from other nature-related blogs. Our duty, as bloggers, is to create a network of useful resources for our readers. Yes, this is subjective – you might consider useful a blog about shoes. And an inbound link from such a blog will not hurt you, but it will not boost your SE rankings either. With a little bit of luck, just your PR. (page rank)
• The inbound links should have an anchor text that contains your keywords or keywords relevant for your site. A “click here” has no SEO value.

It’s vital for SEO success to generate quality inbound links. Many bloggers find this a challenging task. But if you have quality content many bloggers will link back to you. Content, content, content! And conclusion: onsite SEO is vital for offsite SEO. No, I’m not done!

You should also try to create an opt-in email list for a periodic newsletter. And don’t be afraid to communicate with fellow bloggers. Don’t be afraid to ask for links and don’t be sad or discouraged if you don’t get them immediately. There’s always the articles publishing option for getting inbound links and that’s a pretty good idea for the start.

Submit your blog to blog directories. Here is a list:

• http://www.blogarama.com/
• http://blogdex.net/add.asp
• http://www.blogdigger.com/addFeedForm.jsp
• http://www.bloghop.com/addblog.htm
• http://www.blogmatrix.com/join
• http://www.blogsearchengine.com/add_link.html
• http://www.blogstreet.com/bin/add.cgi
• http://www.blogstreet.com/bin/add.cgi
• http://www.blogwise.com/submit
• http://www.fastbuzz.com/channels/insert_public.jsp
• http://www.feedster.com/add.php
• http://www.geourl.org/add.html
• http://www.newsisfree.com/contact.php
• http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
• http://www.readablog.com/AddFeed.aspx
• http://www.syndic8.com/suggest.php?Mode=data
• http://www.technorati.com/ping.html (a MUST!)

This is a short list to start with. I count on you to find more.

There are other linking strategies you might want to consider. I am not going to go into details now, as I plan to write an extensive article about this soon. But you might find this post on linking strategies useful. And don’t ignore the power of social bookmarking sites. Yes, I’ll post soon about these too. In the meanwhile check out digg.com!Well, that’s about it. Follow these steps and you should do just fine. Remember: SEO takes time and effort, hard work and dedication. Don’t expect over-night results.