Archive for SEO – Page 3

Blog Like Perez Hilton: 10 Ways to Bring Traffic to Your Blog

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

The second-best thing about writing a blog is that you have an opportunity to express your opinions, thoughts, and viewpoints to the rest of the world. But the number one advantage to blogging is that it’s a meritocracy; in other words, anyone can be successful at it!

Just look at Perez Hilton. He comes from an unremarkable background far away from Hollywood, but his blogging has amassed thousands of followers and his approach has changed the way people view the entertainment industry

Of course, being a winning blogger is more than just creating good content. You have to be able to get people to read what you write on a consistent basis. Here are ten ways to increase traffic flow to your blog:

  1. Put your blog in your email signature. This is a task that you can complete in less than a minute. After you do so, every email that you send will be a marketing message that could bring you another reader. (Hint: check out WiseStamp!)
  1. Go to your target audience. Find the communities where your potential readers get together. Then determine which ones are more likely not only to read your blog’s content, but also share it with others.
  1. Use social media. Share your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and the many other popular Internet gathering places. Enlist services like StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Reddit to help spread your message.
  1. Optimize for search engines. This sounds technical and complex, but all you really have to do is watch a tutorial video and learn how you can leverage what you write without making many significant changes to it. (Handy hint: subscribe to ScribeSEOTool and learn how to optimize each blog post with a handy checklist!)
  1. Seek out similar blogs. You can comment on blogs that publish similar content, and in the process reference your own blog in the hopes of piquing the interest of that blog’s followers.
  1. Invite – and write – guest posts. Getting established bloggers to write a guest post for your blog can boost your standing in a social community – and being a guest poster can showcase your writing talents to a new audience. (See Patsi’s post about a nifty way to get guest authors to participate in an exchange program for your blog.)
  1. Conduct surveys. People love to express their opinions, and one easy way to let them do that is to conduct surveys on any topics relevant to your blog. You can either utilize a polling widget or plug-in, or just ask for responses in your blog’s comments section.
  1. Create your own graphics, photos, etc. How will this generate traffic? Because if you license them so that people who repost them must credit your blog, you can build another channel of traffic flow to your blog.
  1. Enable subscriptions. It can be as simple as creating an email newsletter or making your blog accessible to RSS feeds. Readers are great, but getting a good core of loyal followers can exponentially increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
  1. Incorporate analytics – and study them. There are so many easy-to-use blogging analytics tools out there. But the real successful bloggers pore over their results and tailor their blogs accordingly.

Image credit: wikipedia.org

About our Guest Author: Chris Martin is a freelance writer and blogger who writes about the hottest topics on the Web at www.business.com.

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , , , ,

SEO Basics for Small Business Professionals:
2 Steps Anyone Can Do

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

If you’re a small business professional, you may end up doing a lot of your website updating yourself. Without being a geek, you can take care of a few key elements of SEO basics to help prospects and clients find you online. This article explains the basics.

If you’re not using search engine optimization (SEO) to promote your business online, you’ve at least heard of it. And you’ve probably heard it’s crucial. SEO involves doing things to increase your website’s rank on Google’s search engine results pages. (Image: Wikipedia)

Typically, if you’re engaged in SEO, you’re trying to get links, using keywords in your content, and improving the technical aspects of your website to make it more search engine and user-friendly. Ultimately, we don’t know much about Google’s algorithm, but we do know that it rewards content that includes relevant keywords.

We also know that links help improve a website’s rank on Google’s search engine results pages, and we know that websites without technical issues are generally favored by Google.

Yet it’s quite common to find blogs written and published without any hyperlinking in the content at all. This is a pity, as your blog post won’t do a good job for search engine indexing. It can be a waste of your time and energy spent writing it! Read More→

Categories : Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , ,

Keyword Research: What Smart Professionals Know

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012

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→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web
Tags : , , , , , ,

Using a Business Blog:
Are You Hard to Find on the Web?

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, June 29th, 2012
Have you ever tried to find yourself on the Web? No, I don’t mean by searching for your name or the name of your business – that would be too easy. Try searching for a solution to the kind of problems your business solves, using keyword phrases your typical client might use. (Image: Freedigitalphotos.net)

Search for your business the way new prospects would search for you, without knowing your name.

When you do, you’ll know that it’s difficult to be found on the World Wide Web, because there are a lot of people and companies doing what you do. Okay, maybe not as brilliantly, and granted, maybe they have bigger marketing budgets than you, but the thing is, those search engine robots don’t care who’s big or small or even who is a qualified professional doing great things.

That’s right, search engines like Google and Yahoo only care about words and links. I know, cold and cruel, nasty little algorithms, but that’s life on the Internet. A business blog is the most common publishing platform that smart professionals use to get found on the web.

So what do the others (not-so-smart) do? Some people have found success by using expensive web site designs and hiring Search Engine Optimization experts, but there’s only so much Google juice they can get out of a site. You still need content and lots of it.

What’s needed in the online search world is a lot of content, using keywords, published frequently and attracting inbound links from other people and connections. This is why a business blog is what successful people use to get found, get known, and get clients.

I don’t want to confuse you, so let’s cut to the chase: what’s needed is for you to publish 2-3 times a week on a business blog, writing about the problems you solve for people. Oh, and it helps a lot to have some video. …And to update social media sites about what you’re blogging about. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Writing for the Web, Writing Great Blog Content
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

Edit Your Content: 12 Things NOT to Miss

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, September 16th, 2011

Here’s a checklist for editing your blog content before you publish. For any content that is vitally important, i.e. sales content or articles delivered to clients, I use Barbara Feiner, a professional editor. She not only corrects errors, but evaluates for clarity and flow.

But for blog posts and everyday content creation, I put on my editor’s visor, and act like a grumpy newspaper editor with a red pencil. Here’s what I look for:

Language

1.  Common typos like theirs for there‘s, your for you’re, that or which for who, and all those pesky things a spell check won’t pick up.
2.  Grammar goofs: The most common ones are when the verb doesn’t agree with the noun, as in “Here’s my mistakes…”
3.  Review for commas, semi-colons, ellipses and em dashes. The important thing is for it to read well, read clearly. Helps to read it out loud.
4.  Review for paragraph and line spacing, since I like to break up long blocks of text.

Formatting

5.  Review for bolded words and insert subheadings where needed.
6.  Separate a blog post after 2-3 paragraphs so that it goes to the extended post feature (“read more…”
7.  Review for eye-candy: Where would an interesting photo clip add interest to your blog post? I always start a post with a photo, usually from iStockPhoto.com.

Value  

8.  Review for external link opportunities. I always link to a person’s name (to a page on the web where you can learn more about them), to a book, or to a Wikipedia definition when useful. This is really important for building relationships with the people you respect.

9.  Review for internal link opportunities. Surely you’ve already written more than once about something; you should link the keywords to that post on  your own blog or website.

Optimization

10.  Review for keywords. Do you make it easy for search engines to know what this is about? Come on, help the poor little spiders out, they’re not exactly geniuses.
11.  Review your headline for how compelling it is. Does it draw the reader into the post to learn more? Is it keyword-rich?
12.  Description.  If you’re using a Scribe SEO Optimizer (you are, aren’t you?), make sure you’ve created a short description using the All-in-One SEO Plugin (160 characters maximum) containing keywords.  Be sure to check your tags and categories, too.

What else?

You tell me: what other things do you check for before you hit the publish button? Hit the comment link and leave me your ideas.

Categories : Content Marketing, Grammar & Common Usages, How to...Tips, Writing for the Web
Tags : , , , , ,

7 Blog Writing Steps BEFORE You Check for Keywords

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

This is a little story I share with new blogging clients who get hung up about keywords. One client in particular (let’s call him Ted) had written about 10 blog posts which were saved as drafts because he was worried about keywords.

Let me say that there’s a learning curve involved in writing for your blog, and there’s no way around it. The only way to learn to write good blog posts is to write and publish blog posts—a lot of them. Saving them as drafts won’t work.

Being that it’s U.S. Open time, I was thinking about how this relates to tennis (of course!). You can practice your serve on a tennis court by yourself too. But until you serve the ball to someone on the other side of the net and keep score in a game, it really doesn’t count. You can’t learn from your results.

Here’s what I told Ted, “When you sit down to write a new post, focus first on these steps:

7 Blog Writing Steps BEFORE You Check for Keywords

  1. Write to deliver valuable information that solves a problem for your typical reader
  2. Grab their attention and make it interesting to them through stories or examples Read More→
Categories : Content Marketing, How to...Tips, On Writing Better, Writing for the Web
Tags : , , , ,

Writing Great Blog Content: Painful?

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, August 12th, 2011

Rich Brooks of Flyte Media says that writing content is painful, and compares it to having dental work without novacaine! What do you think?

For me, writing – whether for my blogs, website, my email broadcasts and newsletters – is more like getting my teeth cleaned: it can be painful, but then you come out with a pretty white smile!

Take this series I’ve undertaken on how to write great content for your blog. The simplest of tips includes these 3 easy steps:

  1. Scan your favorite blogs for relevant ideas
  2. Take an excerpt from it and link to it
  3. Add your own comments.  (If you want to boost readership, go for disagreement and controversy. But that’s a different topic.)

Here’s what Rich says:

“No matter how much you love your job, no matter how passionate you are about what you do, writing content is going to be much more work than you think.”

The passion makes the writing start like a burst of energy. Education and discipline, however, are the tools that have to kick in to make your content readable, search engine optimized, and interesting to other people.

I agree with Rich that writing always takes more time and work than you think, even when it is full of passion. Passion isn’t enough, some hard thinking and decent grammar should back it up.

Your thoughts on this? Is passion enough? Does grammar even count?

What about time – how much are you spending on your writing and blog?  Is it pleasure, pain, or both?

I’d love to hear your comments.  Hit reply and let me know your thoughts.

P.S. For more tips (and diagrams), read these other recent posts:

 

Categories : Content Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content
Tags : , , , ,

Tips on Blog Post Optimization

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, July 29th, 2011

What are the steps you need to follow to ensure each blog post is optimized for search engines as well as well-written for your readers’ interests? Oh my… there are a lot. But to keep me out of overwhelm, I wrote them down, and put them into a flow chart.

This is good for days when I’m brain dead and likely to forget something important. But it’s also a good chart for anyone working with a V.A. or assistant who needs to take over some of the tasks for you.

After I decide what it is I want to write about (see my earlier post, Blogger’s Block: Writing Tips to Get “Unstuck“), I follow these steps for posting on my blog:

Flow chart, continued: Read More→
Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , ,

6 Writing Tips for SEO Friendly Content Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Do you know how to write SEO-friendly content your readers will love? This week’s guest post by Christian Arno of Lingo24 shares 6 writing tips for writing online content that works for both readers and search engines.

Writing for the web can be like walking on a tightrope. Do you litter your blog writing and web pages with keywords so the search engine spiders can find you? Or do you make the copy interesting so people will be eager to read it and pass it on? Both, of course. And here’s how:

  1. Choose your keywords wisely

Make sure you’re aware of your essential keywords before you start writing on your blog, as trying to slot them neatly into finished copy could prove to be a tricky task. Use a handy tool like Google AdWords to work out which keywords are going to be best for you.

Make sure you know which keywords will both attract readers and be SEO friendly.

(Note: Not sure how keywords work? Try a subscription service to ScribeSEO Tool. It not only analyzes your blog writing for keywords and SEO-friendly content, but makes suggestions on how to maximize keyword usage. For more info: Scribe SEO Tool click here.)

2. Know where to place your keywords

Your keywords are important, but where you put them will have a significant impact on your SEO efforts. It’s essential to place a couple of keywords at the very beginning of your writing—the title is a great place to start. But be careful not to overuse them—it’ll be obvious to your readers what you’re trying to do.

3. Know the tricks of the trade Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , ,

8 Blog SEO Tips for Top Search Results

By Patsi Krakoff
Monday, March 7th, 2011

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:

  1. Put your keyword phrases first in the title if you can.
  2. Spell out the key concepts in your first sentence, either by asking a question, or summarizing.
  3. Link to an important keyword in the first paragraph if you can.
  4. Link to definitions on Wikipedia of the most important keywords whenever you can.
  5. Write at least 300 words.
  6. Link to sources, other web pages, books, other experts as often as you can.
  7. Each post should have hyperlinks for every 120 words.
  8. Each post requires me to fill out the All-in-One SEO Pack plugin with title, description and keyword tags. Scribe tells me what I need to do to make this description better.

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.

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Online Marketing, Writing Great Blog Content
Tags : , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »

Content for Coaches and Consultants

Serenity Virtual Assistant Services

Social Buzz Club

get your bright idea known