Have you created a list of your top 10 blogs? If not, you’re missing out on opportunity to improve your search rankings. It’s easy, smart and can help your business blog get inbound links.
I’ve talked about creating your own Top 10 lists before, and it still makes sense, even more so given the way SEO works today. Besides providing valuable, relevant information for your readers, you also: Read More→
What goals have you identified for your blog and website? What do you want your blog to do for your business? No really, it’s not as obvious a question as it might at first appear.
I’ve been working with executive coaches and consultants for well over fourteen years now, helping them improve how they show up on the Web. In that time, I’ve seen a number of changes to the way websites look and function. It doesn’t matter if you use a traditional website, or a blog, or a blog as a website, the principles are the same.
Yet many professionals aren’t clear about their content marketing goals; their website and blog goals and expectations are vague. I made some notes for one client and thought I’d share them with you here. I came up with 5 goals your site should strive to accomplish in the first minute or two. One of them is a big challenge… Read More→
We have at least two audiences when we write on the web: people and search engines. My clients tell me it feels hard to write well for both, and in my experience, it’s because they’ve skipped the first step in the process: Keyword research. (Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
If I were to optimize my web copy for what I believe to be my main keyword phrase, I’d certainly be helping Google know when to serve up my post in search results. But my post still might never show up if the keyword phrase I’ve used and optimized for is not one that anyone uses to search!
That’s why keyword research is so important – I want to use keyword phrases that people are actually using when searching online! Then, not only does Google know when to serve up my post, but now I match how people are looking for what I have! The likelihood that I’ll get found, get known and get clients has just increased dramatically. Read More→
What are the most important SEO tips for your blog to get good search results? It may be easier than you think to start getting onto the first page for keyword searches.
Most of what I’ve learned about search engine optimization techniques I learned from Scribe SEO Content Optimizer. This honey of a software tool tells me how well a post is going to be understood by those search robots.
Since search engine spiders are nothing but algorithms, I don’t understand how they work, but Scribe sure does. I just follow what the Scribe report on each post tells me. I don’t have to understand it, I just follow the blog SEO tips and I get better search engine results.
I can tweak the title and the keywords before I publish. Once I get a Scribe score of 100%, I can pull the publishing trigger with full confidence.
Here are a few things I’ve learned:
I don’t publish unless I get a 100% score. If I’ve used my keywords too much, it tells me and I can go back into my post and use synonyms.
Sometimes this happens when I write about topics that don’t really have synonyms like Facebook, or “search engines.”
When I first started blogging in 2004, I did it intuitively. I wrote for my readers. I knew nothing about search engines, keyword indexing, SEO. I just wrote what was most important to me, and what I thought was most relevant to readers.
I was lucky. Blogs are naturally search engine friendly. I got good results without knowing what I was doing. I don’t leave that to chance and luck anymore. Competition is much more than it was back then.
I use Scribe for my own blog and won’t work on a client blog who doesn’t have it. I am an affiliate and encourage everyone to use it… and not because I get a few pennies for referrals. I don’t think anybody should be blogging without Scribe.
How can you learn basic search marketing for blogging in 5 minutes or less? Do what all the smart and savvy bloggers and content marketers do: use Scribe.
At the end of this post I’ll give you a link for a special discount code which expires on Friday November 5, 2010 at 5 p.m. CT. In case you don’t understand what Scribe can do for you, here’s the best way I can describe it, along with a screen shot of what a Scribe report looks like.
Scribe SEO Copywriting is a practical tool you install and use for each blog or web pages you want to publish. Once installed, you can get a report BEFORE you publish, which tells you how optimized your content is for search engines.
Before I started using Scribe, I assumed (because I’m pretty smart and I’ve been getting good search results) that if I wrote quality headlines and posts, using the keyword phrases I wanted to focus on, those little search robots would be pleased…
Wrong! By using Scribe, I learned which pages and posts were getting 100% scores… and which were only ranking 52%, 78%, and 90% with the little darling spiders. In seconds, after writing a draft, a report is generated, telling me what’s wrong with my headline, use of keywords, description, etc.
All I have to do is make a few corrections and usually I can get a 100% score on the 2nd try.
Trust me, I’m no geek. This is so easy a 3rd grader can use it. Do yourself a favor and try it out, you can always unsubscribe from the monthly fee ($27 for 300 analyzes a month). I am an affiliate, I recommend it, and I love it.
Here is a sample analysis…
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I don’t know why it took me so long to learn this SEO stuff, but I DO know that I wouldn’t post one more blog post without using Scribe SEO Tool. Thank you thank you, Brian Clark of Copyblogger. You’ve saved me from oblivion.
At first I thought, an SEO tool? – well, that must be for programmers and geeky types. Why would I mess with that, I’ve got too much information packed into my brain and the thought of learning SEO secrets made my head swim. Besides, blogs are naturally search engine friendly…Then I thought, oh heck, I trust Brian Clark, let’s give it a whirl and I can always unsubscribe after a month.
I can’t live without it now. I just love it when it tells me I’ve got a 100% score on a blog post. Now, when I hit publish, I’m confident my post will be understood for the right reasons by those search spiders. Read More→
Attracting ideal clients to your blog and driving blog traffic is part of Blog Outreach: everything you do technologically and personally to let the search engines and people know where you are on the Web.
I talk about this in my free ebook Content Marketing with Blogs. To maintain a successful business blog, you have to pay attention to four key areas, and neglect in any one of these will cause blog failure.
When you work on each of these four areas, your blog is the best marketing tool on the planet. When you know how to attract people AND search engine traffic to your blog, you’re a smart blogger. Read More→
