YNOT – Blogs are great for generating traffic, but to get the results you’re hoping for, you have to make the right moves. In order to make your blog a traffic magnet, you need to get the following things right.

Post regularly
The more often you post on your blog, the more likely it is to remain on the radar of the search engine spiders. And that means once you make a new post, they’ll be right there to check it out.

In addition, regular posts, particularly if they’re good quality posts, will inspire people to subscribe to your RSS feed, which will let them know every time you’ve posted a new item. Return traffic is good traffic.

Research keywords
You absolutely must do keyword research. It’s amazing how well blogs can rank for good keywords. Why not take advantage of that good keyword karma?

Simply go to Google’s keyword research tool and check which keywords related to your planned blog post are particularly popular. Once you’ve made a list, type them into the Google search box and find out what the competition looks like.

You want to aim for keywords (and keyword phrases!) that hit the perfect intersection between “highly popular” and “not too competitive.”

Use a keyword phrase
Next, focus on using the primary keyword you’ve targeted for your post. Use it in the title, in the first sentence of your post, in the last paragraph or sentence, and several times throughout.

If you can work in a few subtitles with your keyword, and bold a few as well, so much the better. Also use at least one keyword as “anchor text” for a link to related info on a recognized authority’s site. This could even be an article of yours on that subject, posted somewhere else.

Finally, be sure to post your article under the appropriate category and use the keyword in your tag.

Bookmark your post
Be sure to bookmark your post on several social bookmarking sites. If your blog is set up correctly, it should be pinged automatically. If not, be sure to ask the bookmarking site to ping it.

Build backlinks
Build a few anchor text backlinks. The easiest way to do that is by writing a few articles or creating a Squidoo lens or two about your topic, and then adding backlinks from those to your blog post. If you already have a suitable Squidoo lens, just update it and add a link to your new blog post.

Elisabeth Kuhn is an online marketing expert and a professional copywriter who provides coaching and consulting to help new businesses and solo entrepreneurs develop strategies and optimize their marketing plans.