Search engine optimized copy isn’t enough these days. You need quality backlinks for sites with higher PageRanks as part of your overall SEO and SEM efforts. So while you’re hiring a freelance copywriter for your blog or website, check out these tools and see how your backlinks are doing.

http://www.backlinkwatch.com/ Use this super-cool SEO tool if you want complete information about the quantity and quality of links pointed at your site.

http://www.online-utility.org/webmaster/backlink_domain_analyzer.jsp This is a free SEO tool that will give you an analysis of up to 1000 links and give you the domains of backlinks.

http://www.bad-neighborhood.com/text-link-tool.htm There’s a lot of talk about bad neighborhoods on the Internet and how having a link to/from a bad ‘hood can effect you. Use this tool to scan the links on your website as well as the pages that your website links to, and see possible problem areas.

http://www.dead-links.com/ This one may be obvious, but have you checked your site for broken links lately? Sure you have control over internal links on your site, but pages get changed every day. Keep you links up to date.

http://www.domain-pop.com/ Use this backlink checker to get an analysis of your domain and IP popularity, identify potential link partners and find link exchange networks.

http://www.majesticseo.com/ Majestic-SEO claims to be the biggest backlink and anchor text database. It offers detailed reports about a sites backlinks and anchor text.

http://www.seomoz.org/linkscape/ This is SEOmoz’s main product. Linkscape, give you access to link information on more than 38+ billion URLs across over nearly 240 million domains.

Now, remember, these are just backlinks tools. There are also site graders, keyword tools, search engine simulators and more out there. As a freelance SEO content copywriter, I use many of them to gain insight into proper anchor text, competitive analysis and more.

Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content writer for blogs and websites. He’s based near Raleigh, North Carolina and has clients around the world. Contact Jason Pedley today - mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.

Looking for visibility, traffic and links to your blog?

Directories are a good place to start. I’ve compiled a list of blog directories with a PageRank of 6 or higher.

Feel free to submit until your hands cramp.

Google Blog Search:  Do you really care about PageRank for this site?

Yahoo Blogs Directory:  Do you really care about PageRank for this site?

Yahoo Local:  Do you really care about PageRank for this site?

BlogLines.com:  PR 9

Technorati.com:  PR 8

DMoz:  PR 8

BoingBoing.com:  PR 8

BlogCatalog.com:  PR7

BlogDigger.com:  PR 7

Blogged.com:  PR 7

IceRocket:  PR 7

GlobeofBlogs.com:  PR 7

BlogPulse.com:  PR 7

BlogTopList.com:  PR 6

Best of the Web:  PR 6

Ezilion.com:  PR 6

Weblogs.com:  PR 6

Eaton Web:  PR 6

BlogsByWomen.com:  PR 6

BlogScholar.com:  PR 6

BlogsCanada.ca:  PR 6

BlogHop.com:  PR 6

LSBlogs.com:  PR 6

BlogBurst.com:  PR 6

BlogUniverse.com:  PR 6

Blog-Directory.org:  PR 6

Crayon.Net:  PR 6

Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content writer for blogs and websites based near Raleigh, North Carolina. Contact Jason Pedley today - mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.

Hey, I’m an SEO Content Copywriter serving my clients out of my Raleigh, NC area home. So it’s natural that quite often the topic of my blog deals with SEO.

But today I’m going to touch on five reasons why blogging is beneficial and NONE of them will be SEO related.

1. Just about anyone can do it. If you’ve used Microsoft Word, navigated a website and had a username and password, you can use WordPress software (my blog platform of choice). Just like Word, you can add links, create basic text effects like bold and italics and insert images as you see fit. There’s even a special button in WordPress that allows you to paste text from a Word document in a way that doesn’t create a mess with your formatting. So if you prefer to type in Word, you can easily import your post into WordPress with a click on a button.

2. It’s a conversation. A huge difference between blogs and static websites is the ability for your blog readers to leave comments…and YOUR ability to respond to them. On top of this, blogging gives you the power to ask questions of your audience. Get into their minds and get their feedback without expensive surveys - just blog about it.

3. There was once a time when it was ok if your business didn’t have a website. For those businesses, there was this thing called the Yellow Pages. Today, if your business isn’t online, you’re practically invisible. A blog is a quick and easy way to shorten the online gap between you and your competition if you’ve never competed online. It doesn’t matter if you’re a one-person consultancy or an employer of 100+ people. The only way to gain validity in the online space is to BE in that space.

4. A personal touch. Back in blogging’s infancy, it was a personal thing. Something you did to journal the growth of your child, or your three-week trip to Europe. Blogs still maintain that personal touch, but on a business level. Blogs allow for clear and intimate communication between you and your customers. That’s part of the two-way charm of blogging…you say something, people say something back.

5. It’s more than words. There are thousands of add-on and plugins for WordPress. From image galleries to podcasting plugins, you can customized, design and build until your blog is just right for you and your business.

See, I didn’t mention the SEO benefits of a blog once in this post.

Is a blog right for you? A 10-minute call to SEO Content Copywriter Jason Pedley could help you decide.  Not only can Jason manage the creation of your blog, he can help manage posts and comments, create an editorial calendar and get your blog exposure through commenting and other online outlets. Contact Jason today for a consultation.