Blog search engine Technorati is now tracking nearly 27 million blogs and there are about 75,000 new blogs launched every day. How can a business blog stand out with this kind of competition? Like anything else, there’s no silver bullet answer. One thing you can do is to optimize your business blog using many of the same optimization tactics you would use with your web site. Business blogs can generate traffic without search engines, but WITH search engines it can be even better.

With blogs, there exist as many or more optimization opportunities to optimize as with a web site. While most blog software is more search engine friendly out of the box than many web sites, the opportunities for business blog optimization are readily available. While there are an abundant number of blog optimization tactics available, this article will focus on a short list that can make a difference for any blog - business or personal.

Why optimize your company blog?

• Increase rankings of the blog on BOTH regular search engines as well as blog and RSS search engines
• Increase traffic to the blog from multiple sources such as social search (Yahoo MyWeb, Google Personalized Search) and social bookmarking sites (del.icio.us, Digg, Furl or Blogmarks)

A blog is just a website that uses a content management system, so most standard SEO tactics apply. There are also optimization tactics specific to blogs.

• Consider keywords when writing your blog post titles. Some blog software allows plugins that can suggest keywords. Otherwise, you can use Google Suggest or one of these free keyword suggestion tools: Digital Point, SEO Book or the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Keywords should NOT determine your content.
• Optimize the template. Make sure post titles appear in the title tag and append the title tag (hard code) with the most important phrase for your blog.  Example: 
  “Blog Post Title Here - Your Blog Name Here”
  "Your Blog Name Here" should be included on every blog post title tag automatically.
• Use the blog post title as the permalink. If you’re using keywords in the blog post title, then they will occur as anchor text in the permanent post link. While you’re at it, just make the post title a permalink.
• Make it easy for your blog readers to subscribe and include RSS feed subscription buttons or “chicklets” in a side bar or on a dedicated Subscription Info page. Here’s a handy RSS Feed Button creation tool.
• Optimize Categories. When you create categories for your blog, be sure to consider keywords in the titles. When you post, be sure to default to a general category that is relevant no matter what the post is about. Choose multiple categories on each post when appropriate.
• Social bookmarking sites can be excellent sources of traffic to your blog, so be sure to make it easy for readers to bookmark your blog posts. You can do this by adding some code to your blog template for each of the major social bookmarking sites. Here’s a tool for social bookmarking links. Here’s another tool that uses icons instead of text links.
• Ping the major RSS feed and Blog search engines each time you post. This can be configured with blog software such as Movable Type or WordPress to work automatically. If you’re using Blogger.com, then you can do this manually with Pingomatic or Pingoat.
• Trackbacks. Be sure your blog software is configured to send a trackback ping to blogs that you cite within your posts. Pay attention to press releases distributed by PRWeb. If you cite a release and ping the trackback link, the press release will in turn link to your blog. This is better for driving traffic than for link popularity.
• Comments. When you make comments on other blogs, they need to add value. Do NOT comment just to get a link. Your name will be linked to the blog url that you enter.  Do NOT use keywords in the field for your name, use your name or blog name.
• Submit your blog to RSS and Blog directories. Also submit the blog to regular directories such as (DMOZ, BOTW, JoeAnt, GoGuides, Microsoft bCentral, etc) that have categories for blogs.
• Link building.  Whenever you publish your website address, be sure to publish your company blog url as well.  Be attentive to link opportunities for your blog as you would your web site. Remember that a useful resource like a blog can be a lot more attractive to link to than many company web sites.  As you establish a good syndication and distribution network for your business blog, your linking strategy can shift from push to pull. Pull strategy linking means that you can achieve significant numbers of new links simply by publishing new, useful content.
• Offer RSS to Email. Anywhere from 10% to 40% of your blog traffic can come from individuals that perfer to read blog posts via email. There are several free services available for this including: FeedBlitz, Squeet, Zookoda (this one is more for using blog posts as a weekly newsletter) or RMail.
• Use blog analytics. Tools like Feedburner Pro will provide you with basic information about your feed subscribers, referring traffic and most popular posts. Regular web site analytics tools like ClickTracks or a blog stats specific tool like Performancing Metrics will give you information about the actual blog web pages. Monitor your blog stats as you would your web site stats for trends, problems and opportunities.
• Offsite tracking - Use RSS feed subscriptions to running keyword searches for terms relevant to your blog. Tools include Google Alerts, PubSub, BlogPulse and IceRocket .This will help you become aware of mentions of your blog so you can respond in comments and take part in the dialogue. You can also establish networking relationships with other like-minded bloggers, thus enhancing your content distribution network.

The important thing to remember is that no matter how many optimization tactics you employ with a blog, there is no substitute for quality content. Blog optimization is only as effective as the quality and usefulness of the content you’re optimizing. 

Blog Optimization Resources:

Business Blog Consulting - Blog Marketing
Online Marketing Blog - Blog Marketing