While blogs are an established marketing tool on their own, they are valuable for more than just direct publicity. Blogging is not exactly a well-paid publication platform, and while it is possible to create an income from a blog, it is sometimes not the primary goal for an online marketer. The real payoff of a blog comes with the SEO potential that it can create. Whether on-site or off, a moderately popular blog can quickly become your greatest SEO resource.

So before you invest in hundreds of off-site articles for your SEO campaign, take a look at the potential impact 100 on-site blog posts could have. Controlling your own content is always valuable, especially when it can lead to potential sales and clients. Put your creativity to good use with these five methods for turning blog content into a powerful SEO currency.

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VAClassroom is hosting the Keyword Research and Optimization Clinic on April 29th and 30th, taught by yours truly . Check out the audio below to hear what you’ll learn.

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If you’re reading this right now, I think I can safely assume that you’re at least somewhat familiar with SEO (search engine optimization) and the concept of keywords, However, you might not have heard much about keyword phrases, something which can be effective at driving traffic from visitors who are more likely to make a purchase from your site.

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SEO can be easy or hard - it's your choice, really; here, we'll focus on doing things the easy way. Search engine optimization is a term which covers various strategies for making your website more visible in the search engines and maintaining this visibility.

There are paid methods of search engine optimization like Google AdWords and other pay per click advertisements, but what we're going to talk about here are free SEO methods to drive traffic to your site through the search engines.

To make things very simple, there are two things which you need to focus on here: you need to make sure that your website tells the search engines exactly what its content is about and try to get other people spreading the word about your website to the search engines.

Getting your site noticed by the search engines and making sure that they know what your site is about is done through on-site SEO. This includes filling your website with high quality content which is relevant to the topic of your site and including headings, subtitles and image alt tags which use words which make it easy for Google and other search engines to determine what the topic of your site happens to be. There's obviously a lot more to it than just this, but this is a good start towards letting Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines understand what your site is all about. If you don't make it clear through your content and other onsite factors, the search engines won't be able to tell and people will have a difficult time finding your site through search queries.

Getting other sites to spread the word about your site consists of what is known as offsite SEO. This largely has to do with building links to your site from other sites; this is by far the most important part of offsite SEO, so this is where you should dedicate the majority of your energy. If it can get you links, it should be a priority for you.

Some examples of link building strategies include writing articles and submitting them to directories, commenting on other people's blogs, contributing to blogs as a guest writer, building and maintaining a Squidoo lens or other secondary website, using Facebook and Twitter, writing and submitting press releases, creating online videos, using social bookmarking services like Digg and Stumble Upon, leaving comments on forums and anything and everything else that can help create more links to your site from relevant sites.

You could easily write an entire book on building backlinks alone, but since we're just going over some of the basics here, you'll have to keep reading to learn more about link building and other traffic generating SEO strategies.

For experienced internet marketers, the value of SEO is well-known and almost unquestionable. Most marketers know how valuable a top search spot can be, and many invest thousands of hours into trying to rank their websites right at the top for their desired search terms.

However, while webmasters and internet marketers know how valuable a well-ranked website can be, most local business owners do not. Lead generation and customer acquisition for most local businesses is focused on short-term offline solutions, and the idea that search results could bring any valuable leads is almost completely foreign.

Small businesses, online or offline, can benefit from SEO. If you are an SEO consultant looking to contact small businesses for a campaign, or just a small business owner looking to increase your client or customer count, these search engine strategies could be the best way for you to expand your business, market yourself, and increase your income.

1) Appear in local search listings.

Local search is becoming the next big search marketing movement, with a range of companies picking up millions of dollars worth of extra business simply through appearing in local search results. By targeting the right search terms, your business could be able to increase client or customer count without directly increasing marketing efforts.

2) Become a lead generator for your area.

If you control the local search rankings, you also control the potential for other businesses to expand. Once you have built a favorable search position, get in touch with local businesses and offer them the chance to have leads driven directly to them, all for a small monthly fee. Then, fire up your local websites and aim promotional materials straight at them, generating huge amounts of instant business.

3) Create a local information and marketing network.

Most communities are dying for an inspiring local business network, and with some basic SEO that wish could become a reality. Rather than charging for leads, offer businesses a presence on your top-ranked local information and directory website.

4) Control your reputation.

If you desire an inexpensive and powerful PR asset, a well-ranked website can be one of the best tools available to you. By controlling the search engine rankings, you also control your searchable PR and marketing efforts, and can use that power to create positive buzz about your business.

5) Sell directly online.

Why sell from an outlet when you can do so directly online? If your business is product-based, setting up an eCommerce website and offering your products online can save you time and money, all the while increasing your total revenue. A range of free, SEO-friendly online shopping systems are available, giving even the most technically inept business owner the ability to create an online store.

6) Expand within your city.

If your business wants to grow, SEO can be the best way to bring it up to size. By ranking high for more search terms, you dramatically increase your visibility to clients and customers. Generate enough buzz and business online and your company could gain enough cash-flow, power, and online influence to expand within your city.