One of the most important things you can do to optimize and promote your blog is to use tags. Many web sites use tags to help users organize information.

Technorati is probably the most famous for using tags along with del.icio.us and Flickr.

Many blog systems already categorize posts which Technorati can recognize when you ping it. Pinging is a whole other topic, but in the meantime, be sure to check out services like: pingomatic.com, pingoat.com, pings.ws and feedshot.com.

First, sign up with Technorati and complete the profile. You will need to claim your blog by adding some code to the template or making a post with information like the one below:

Technorati Profile

Once your blog is claimed and registered by Technorati, then your posts should start showing up on tag searches according to the categories you associated with them. If you’re using a blog system like blogger, you’ll need to insert tags.

Here’s the format:
[a href="http://technorati.com/tag/word" rel="tag"] word[/a]

If you need to use a multi-word tag, here is the format - inside the brackets. Add a plus + sign:
[a href="http://technorati.com/tag/multi+word" rel="tag"] multi word[/a]

According to Technorati, you should be able to place rel=”tag” inside the [a href] tag of any link and that should work too. Format - inside the brackets:
[a href="http://www.toprankresults.com" rel="tag"] tag word here [/a]

Here is an example how multiple Technorati tags might look. I usually put them at the end of the post.

Tags: Technorati, blog optimization, tags

For other useful blog optimization tips, check out: “make your blog stand out“, “WebProNews” and this blog optimization article.