Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category
Google Analytics: View your progress
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
So, you are starting to understand how to boost your SEO, you are motivated to blog, you are having fun interacting on social media sites, are working on creating interesting content for your followers, and are motivated to get more incoming links. You are making progress. Good for you!
So do you know how all this is helping you?
Yes, you may understand that all of these things are good for your business, but doesn’t it feel good to see the results? Proof that this hard work is paying off? If you haven’t already…set up Google Analytics for your website. Google offers powerful tools for you to be able to monitor activity on your website.
This way once you post a new blog article, and inform your followers on Facebook and Twitter that you have something new and juicy to read…you can hop over to Google Analytics to see how it all pans out. Did people find your post interesting? Did it lead them to read more on your site? Did people find you through the search results too? Are people linking to your articles? All these things, and more can be seen with Google Analytics.
Example of the Google Analytics Dashboard
Once you have created an account with Google and installed the verification code on your site (to prove that you have the right to track the site) you are on your way to new horizons. Google gives you statistics on the number of visitors you have per day, the number of pages viewed, how long the viewer spent on your site, how they arrived at your site (google search, direct link etc) whether they were a new visitor, and so much more! The benefit of this service is endless, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. You can also set up custom tracking tools to look at specific features on your site that you wish to analyze.
Have fun and feel proud once you see the benefits of all your hard work!
Tags: Google Analytics, tools
Posted in Blogging, Inbound Links, SEO | No Comments »
Do it yourself SEO
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Many of my clients want to improve their search engine rankings and are surprised to know that a large percentage of it is in their own control. Yes, that is right. You can boost your SEO. All you have to do is take the time, roll up your sleeves and have fun! Make friends with some of the best SEO boosting tools like Facebook, Twitter and your very own blog, and start sharing your stories with the world.
Blogging
This is your platform, your soapbox if you will, where you can express to the world your knowledge, your skills, and the wonders of your product. As a business owner, you might consider yourself quite knowledgeable in your field…so start talking about what you know. For example if you are a personal trainer looking for new clients, share workout tips, write about exercise equipment and blog about healthy recipes. All of these topic will help to present you as an expert in your field and each article that you write will also boost your SEO on the internet.
Most importantly, don’t forget to keep it interesting, and fun. If people just think you are trying to sell yourself or your product, they won’t stick around for more. But if they like reading your articles because of your down-to-earth, candid personality they will return again and again to find out more…and they will tell others about you. And then you are on your way to SEO heaven!
Here is another fun way of connecting with others to share the excitement of your business. Sure, Facebook is a place where you can reconnect with friends from elementary school, but it is also so much more. Start a business page, share photos of your products, write status updates about the latest news, share links to new blog articles, let your fans know about special sales and offers, invite your fans to special events…
There are so many fun ways to express your business on Facebook, and once again, it is all in your hands. The more you put into it, the more it can benefit you and it will all connect back to your website!
Do you tweet? Its quick, its easy, and it is another great way to enter into the social pool and play with like-minded people. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so it doesn’t take a lot of your time, but another great way to share quick updates, pointers, advice, stories, links to a great article you think your followers would be interested in. Introduce yourself, make friends and soon you will have lots of followers who want to hear your latest update, and who are drawn to your website to find out more about you. Another boost for your SEO.
So to recap:
SEO is in your hands. You have the power to present who you are and what makes your business special. In an internet world where everyone can become anonymous, many people are actually looking for someone who is real. Someone who presents an authentic, honest and fun approach to their business. So have a good time: blog, tweet, and create your facebook world.
Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Inbound Links, SEO, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »
Your domain is your home…
Monday, November 30th, 2009
When we talk about search engine optimization (SEO) we are talking about your domain name. You can think about your domain name as your home, the home of your business. It is where you and all of your employees work hard to represent your business well, and offer stellar services to your clients. You choose your employees for their skills and positive qualities, and know that they contribute to the growth of your business. So you wouldn’t want to miss out on all of that positive promotion, right?
Think about the different elements of your website each as an employee, working hard to boost your rankings in the search engines. As you have read in previous articles, your blog can be seen as your Employee of the Year. Your blog (if you are using it well) is constantly being updated with content relevant to your business, and feeding the search engines with reasons to “pick you” when an appropriate keyword comes up. So, why wouldn’t you want your blog in-your-home, rooting for your team?
Many people don’t even realize it, but if your blog does not sit on your domain name, it is not helping your search engine rankings. Check the domain name of your blog. Does it end in wordpress.com, typepad.com, blogspot.com or something of the sort? If so, your blog isn’t in your home. I am sure it would be much happier to be a member of your team, living in the spare bedroom, or even above the garage. As long as it is in your home! So, check right away to see where your blog is living, and if it is not on your own domain name, fix that asap!
Feel free to contact me if you have questions about this.
Tags: domain name, rankings
Posted in Blogging, SEO | No Comments »
How does my blog help my SEO?
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
In a previous article entitled “Get me to the top, please” I touched on the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). One of the leading ways to improve your SEO is to have a blog…but more specifically…write blog articles. It doesn’t just help you to have a blog in your possession, attached to your website, you actually need to use it.
Every article that you write on your blog offers you an opportunity to tell search engines “Keep checking back, I am adding more all the time”. Search engines visit your site depending on the frequency that you actually add information. So if you had your 10 page website designed in 2005 and you haven’t edited or added new pages to it since, it is pretty likely that search engines don’t visit it much. Not very exciting for the search engine, huh?
If you start out with a 10 page website and then add 4 articles to your blog per month, you are also making it that much more likely that you will be found in search engines. Over a year you will accumulate to 58 pages, over 5 times the amount of chances that Google will choose you when someone searches for a keyword associated with your business.
And to get to the nitty-gritty details…what you write about is really important too! If your business is web design, but your blog articles are about daisies, you are not helping your cause too much. The search engines will read every word in each article to determine when you match a search engine query. So if you are writing about how to grow daisies, it is unlikely that a search engine will list you in the results of a search on web design.
So if you want to improve your rankings (SEO):
Start a blog
Commit to writing a few articles a month to start
Write about topics related to your business
These are the first steps. From there, have fun with it! Write in a manner that engages, entertains, and informs. If people enjoy reading your blog they will also want to subscribe to it, suggest it to others, link to it, and eventually you will be drawing in new clients too!
Posted in Blogging, SEO | No Comments »
RSS – How to Subscribe to a Blog
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Image courtesy of Smashing Magazine
Have you seen this image before? The ubiquitous circle with two arcs? You have probably seen it on tons of website, and if you have no idea what it means, you are not alone. Many of my clients are not aware of how this little icon can help simplify their lives.
It comes in all different colors, but it is there to tell you one simple message: “subscribe here”.
There are so many blogs on the internet these days – you can learn about anything and everything. Whether you want to stay up-to-date on your niece’s travels through Europe, or the latest cell phone innovations, RSS will bring the articles to you. This way you don’t have to check each individual blog to see if there is anything new…you can just subscribe using the RSS link, and voila! the updates are delivered to you.
But…how does it get to you? Well the next step is to have a “feed reader” which will gather the subscriptions for you. There are tons to choose from! Personally I am very happy with the one that I use: Newsfire, but if your computer does not meet the requirements for Newsfire, you can also check out this list of other options.
Do you already have a feed reader of choice? Let me know what you use by leaving a comment below.
- An example of a browser which provides an RSS button for subscriptions.
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »