Search engines are after one thing ? providing their users with the most relevant and up to date information to match the search term that was used. Search engine results are no good to users when the information doesn't relate to the search term. Nor are the results any good if they are old. People expect the most up to date, fresh information that is relevant to them.

That's why search engines love sites which are highly focused on a specific subject and which have regularly updated content. If you add material to your web site every day, you will get noticed by the search engines. If the information you add to your web site is directly centred on the precise focus of your site, all the better as far as the search engines are concerned.

That's why blogging can improve your search engine ranking. Blogging allows you to add content quickly and easily to your web site. However, you need to ensure two things:

1. The blog must be hosted at your domain ? not at blogspot.com. or any other of the blogging hosts.

2. The blog must contain relevant content and links which are well within the focus of your site.

A blog which is an online journal won't help your site's search engine ranking because the content isn't that relevant to the focus of your site. An online journal style of blog is unlikely to have keywords in the entries.

What this means is that your blog needs to contain hints, tips and short articles. It can contain summaries of articles which are carried in full on other pages. In short, your blog needs real, valuable content.

If you add real content to your blog pages, at the very least a couple of times a week, you will notice your blog gaining interest by the search engines. You will also see that your blog becomes a much more important 'entry point' for people who visit your web site. That's an indication that your blog page is gaining ground in the search engine rankings. And that will be due to its regular updating.

For more answers to questions on blogging you can get a free guide to the Top 15 Questions on Blogging from http://www.infoselling.com/blogging/howtoblog.htm

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has specialized in the way we use the Internet. He is an author of 27 books and thousands of articles. He runs Infoselling.com where you can get a FREE report on how to sell your own information products, ebooks, reports and articles online.

http://www.infoselling.com