A Beginner’s Guide to SEO Basics

Earlier this year, I wrote a post called “The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter Basics” about how to use Twitter if you’re brand new to the platform. Month after month, it is one of the highest-trafficked posts here on the BlogWorld blog. You know what that tells me? It tells me that sometimes I forget that a lot of people have no experience with blogging and social media and are craving 101-level posts. So today, I wanted to tackle another topic that seems difficult from the eyes of a newbie: search engine optimization, or SEO. If you want to learn SEO from the experts so that you have the top rank on Google for any keyword you choose, this is not the place for you. However, I think that if you’re a blogger that doesn’t know a darn thing about SEO, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. If you just take a moment to learn the basics, you can get your blog in front of a lot more eyeballs! And no, you don’t have to jeopardize your content to do it.

What is SEO? Why Should I Care?

One of the first things I did as a new freelance writer back in 2005ish was google “What is SEO?” I had no clue, but a lot of my clients were asking if I was skilled in that department, and I wanted to be able to say yes! If you have no idea what SEO is or why you should care, don’t worry. We were all in that boat at one time.
Think about  how your website gets traffic. Some people come to your blog when others retweet or like or otherwise share your links through social media sites. Some people come to your blog when it is linked in another blogger’s post or sidebar. Some people are regular readers or perhaps even subscribed to you RSS feed. But chances are that a large percentage of your traffic comes from search engines. SEO (again, that stands for search engine optimization) is your way of making your blog as visible as possible on search engines so that the people who could most benefit from or who will most enjoy what you write actually find you.
You’ll hear the word keyword thrown around a lot when talking about SEO. This is essentially the word (or words) someone types into a search engine when looking for something. So, think about the keywords your target audience are using. When they search for those keywords, you want your site to pop up as high as possible on the results list. Makes sense, right? The higher you are on the results list, the more likely readers will click through to your site.
As an example, let’s say you blog about movies and you were writing a review of Toy Story 3. You might want to optimize your post so that people searching for “Toy Story 3 reviews” and “reviews of Toy Story” and maybe even “Pixar movie reviews” see your site on page one of their search engine results list.
Good SEO can mean a lot of traffic to your blog. Even just the bare minimum can mean that you show up in the search results on page one whereas before you were on page 17.

Fact: SEO advice is always changing.

One of the most annoying things about SEO is that it is forever changing. What worked back in 2001 isn’t going to work today, ten years later. Heck, what worked last week might not work today. Search engines change the way they rate sites (their algorithm) constantly because if they didn’t, people would just game the system as much as possible.
So if you’re reading this ten years from now…sorry, dude. I suspect the information here is a little outdated! The same might be true a week from now. But I’ve tried to include tips that are as evergreen as possible. These are the basics, the building blocks of good SEO. It’s the bare minimum you should be doing if you want search engine traffic.

Making Your Website SEO Friendly

First and foremost, make sure that your overall website is friendly for search engines. Have you ever seen what the code of your website looks like? If you don’t know HTML, it looks like a mess, right? Well, essentially, that’s what a search engine sees. Kind of like the matrix, but without Keanu Reeves. In other words, a search engine doesn’t see pictures or your fancy site design. Those things might be great for your users, but you want to make sure search engines can index your site as well.
If you use WordPress or another popular blogging platform, chances are that you don’t have to do much to ensure your site is visible and easily picked up by search engines. Make sure your navigation makes sense (something you want to do anyway for your readers) and avoid too much javascript or a silly flash intro that search engines can’t understand. Create a few static pages to serve as anchors on your website, include some sitemap options (like an archives page or menu), change your options so that your permalinks are “pretty” (i.e., not just a bunch of random letters or numbers), and update often. Pretty easy, right?
Oh, and when picking your domain name, think about SEO. Branding is important too, of course, but if the URL of your homepage has nothing to do with your site’s topic, SEO will be a little more difficult. There’s a reason why RealEstate.com is higher on the list than Zillow.com for the keyword real estate, even though both sites are extremely relevant to someone searching for that term.

Individual Post SEO

The easiest way to make sure your individual posts are optimized for search engines is to download a free plugin to help you do just that. I like the All in One SEO Pack for WordPress, but there are lots of options. Some themes also have an SEO option built in. These plugins help you easily change the meta information for the post – basically, what a search engine sees rather than what the reader sees. For a title, you want to write what the post is about in as few words as possible, using a keyword that makes sense for the post if you can. For a description, type just that – a description of the post about the length of a Tweet, that uses keywords. For keywords…type your keywords. That’s pretty easy too, right?
So, going back to our example of a post with your review of Toy Story 3, even though you might think up some kind of clever title for the actual post, you’d probably want your SEO options to be something like:

• Title: Toy Story 3 Movie Review
• Description: Movie review of Toy Story 3 with discussion of Tim Allen as Buzz and Tom Hanks as Woody. Should you see Toy Story 3 with your kids? Read Toy Story movie opinions.
• Keywords: Toy Story 3, Toy Story, Toy Story 3 movie review, Pixar movie review, Woody in Toy Story, Buzz in Toy Story, movie reviews

Essentially, your keywords can be the same as your post’s tags. Make sure you include tags and also categorize your posts well, as this will help with overall site SEO.
As you’re typing your post, be conscious of the keywords someone would use to find your post and sprinkle them as it makes sense. You don’t have to change your writing style much and you definitely shouldn’t stuff your post with keywords (this could actually hurt you), but as you’re writing, just keep keywords in mind and use them where they make sense. People have written entire websites and books about how to best use keywords; but again, I’m not an expert and the rules change a lot, so unless you’re passionate about SEO and have the time to invest in learning it, start with the basics of just “using keywords where they make sense.”
A few other quick tips:

• Name your pictures. Nobody is searching for “IMG1290812″ but lots of people are searching “Woody in Toy Story 3.”
• If the title of your post is something crazy that is interesting but does not include your keywords, consider changing the permalink. Instead of yoursite.com/super-awesome-kids-movie-that-is-lightyears-ahead-of-the-rest, change it to yoursite.com/toy-story-3-movie-review.
• Link to old posts within your new posts. When you add the link, do so with a keyword that makes sense, not just “click here.” Don’t overdo this and link to dozens of posts in the matter of a a single paragraph, but try to link to yourself at least once a post.

SEO and Links

One of the best things you can do for SEO is something you should be doing anyway – write awesome posts. If your content is awesome, people will link to you within their own posts, on social media sites, in comments, and more, and links are extremely valuable. When a search engine sees a link on someone else’s site to one of your post, they think, “Oh, so that blogger found this post interesting/informative/worthy enough to add a link on their own site? It must be good!”
That’s how I imagine computers think, anyway, if we could hear their inner monologues.
Basically, it’s a vote for your site, kind of like a thumbs up on Facebook. The more “votes” your site has via links, the better! And if you write great content, you’re naturally going to have more people linking to you. So if you do nothing else, blow us away with what you have to say so people share your link as much as possible.
Hope that gets you started with SEO. If you’re experienced with this topic, I hope you’ll leave your best top for beginners below as a comment to help us newbies learn more!

Read more »

A Beginner’s Guide to Blogging Basics

I’ve already written beginner’s guides to Twitter, WordPress, SEO, and Blog Monetization, and the BlogWorld Blog also had a 101-level guide to Podcasting. Today, though, I wanted to back up even farther and write a mini guide for brand new bloggers. I can’t tell you how many people I met at BlogWorld LA 2011 who are new and totally overwhelmed. We were all new bloggers once, and it’s tough. This is the guide I wish someone had written for me when I started blogging.

What is Blogging?

First, let’s start by defining what blogging really is. Easier said than done. In my opinion, a blog has two components:

1. The content is regularly updated, rather than being static, with content arranged chronologically.
2. Readers can interact with the content through comments, voting, social sharing, etc.

Not all blogs are updated daily or even weekly. Not all blogs have posts that are structured in a traditional format. Not all blogs have comments open. Not all blogs feature Twitter/Facebook/etc. share buttons. Some blogs feature the author’s opinions very prominently. Others are more objective news sources.
There’s a really great post by Darren Rowse on Problogger about what a blog really is. It’s pretty old, but still helpful. I recommend you reading this post to learn more if you don’t understand the different between a blog and another kind of website. Remember, the definition of a blog isn’t set in stone.

Your Blog Content

Despite the inability to firmly describe what defines a blog, one thing is certain: you can’t have a blog without content. Individual pieces of content are called “blog posts.” You can also record video posts or podcasts.
A mistake that I commonly see: people confuse the words “blog” and “blog post.” If you write one post per day, don’t say that you are writing one blog per day. Someone can hire you to “write ten blog posts” but they likely wouldn’t hire you to “write ten blogs” (if they do, that means you’re going to be VERY busy, since that means you’re writing for ten individual websites). Basically, “blog” is the website and “blog posts” or just “posts” are the articles.
Many bloggers choose to blog in a specific niche. A niche is a specific topic, so all of your blog posts will revolve around this topic. It does go a little farther, though – your niche also includes a specific target market. Essentially, you want to ask, “who will be my reader?” and write posts for that group of people. David Risley wrote a great post about how to evaluate the viability of a niche (if you want to monetize your blog) that I recommend checking out.
You can also blog in a more journal style. Online diaries are extremely difficult to monetize unless you’re a celebrity or well-known personality, but there are no rules to blogger. You can write about whatever you want.

Your Blog’s Sidebar

Most blogs have a sidebar, and some have two (one on either side). You can put whatever you you want on your sidebar, but here are a few things that bloggers typically include:

• A way to subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed
• A way to subscribe to the blog’s mailing list
• A search bar
• A list of the most recent posts
• A list of the most popular posts
• The categories
• A list of the most recent comments
• Social profile buttons
• Advertisements
• Links to niche resources
• Photos
• Videos

This is not by far an exhaustive list. You can include anything on the sidebar that you want! Keep in mind that the sidebar real estate “above the fold” (i.e., viewable before a reader has to start strolling) is more valuable, so put your most important stuff at the top or sell ads placed in these spots for more money.

Blogging Platforms

A blogging “platform” is the program you’ll use to update your blog. I mean, you can do it manually by updating the code of your website every day, but this is super inefficient, even if you are awesome at coding. You want to choose a blogging platform.
The two most common platforms are WordPress and Blogger. Both have free versions so you can start a blog without paying for your own domain name and hosting, but your URL will be blogname.wordpress.com or blogname.blogspot.com. I highly recommend that you pay for your own domain name and hosting (there are options available for less than $5 per month) if you want anything more than an online diary. It’s hard to monetize if your blog doesn’t look professional.
WordPress and Blogger are both easy to use and have great service, so check them both out before making your decision. They’re also not your only options if you want to blog on your own domain name, but they are pretty widely used because they’re free to download and put on your own domain. Here are some other options:

• Typepad is an easy-to-use option, though this is not a free content management system  for bloggers (though your monthly fee also include a domain name/hosting, so it isn’t a bad deal)
• Moveable Type is free for bloggers
• Tumblr is an option, with a great built-in community, but you don’t have the option to use your own domain (all blogs are blogname.tumblr.com)
• Squarespace is an option that’s super easy to use, but with customization limitations
• Drupal is a traditional content management system that can be used for blogging and is loved by coders

There’s a really great post about blogging platforms on Practical Ecommerce that I recommend you read. My heart lies with WordPress!

Your Blogging Goals

I always recommend that brand new bloggers start by defining your blogging goals, since that will dictate the type of content you write, your monetization efforts, etc. Here are some goals you might have:

• Teach others something you know
• Inspire readers in a certain area
• Provide entertainment
• Promote a business, product ,or service
• Establish yourself as an expert in your field
• Make money online
• Vent your feelings and voice your opinions
• Network with other people in a specific niche

Many blogs do more than one things on the above list, but it helps to establish your main goal so you can ensure that every single blog post you write helps you achieve that main goal. A good way of figuring out what you goal is to ask yourself this: When my readers think of me and my blog, what impression do I want in their minds?
Do you want to be the opinionated girl who teaches others about gardening? Do you want to be the blog that has the awesome country music community? Do you want to be the go-to source for information about new ice cream products?

Some Final Tips for Blogging Beginners

If you have more questions, I’d love to answer them for you – just ask in the comments section below. Here are a few more tips for beginning bloggers:

• Be consistent. You don’t have to blog once a day, but it helps to establish how often you’re going to blog not only to help you maintain a schedule, but also to help your readers know when to expect new content.
• Give your readers a way to sign up for a mailing list. Even if you don’t email them right now, collecting those emails one by one is going to help you in the future.
• Have pages that talk about who your are, what your blog is about, and how to contact you. Make sure they’ll all linked clearly in your navigation menu.
• Use 5-10 tags with every post to help readers find more posts on your blog relating to the same subject (and to help with SEO).
• When designing your blog, make sure that it looks good in every browser, especially Internet Explore, which has a tendency to break websites that look awesome in other browsers.
• Make sure you have a mobile version of your website. It’s really easy to use a plugin to create an automatic mobile version if you use WordPress.
• Don’t overwhelm with categories. You want your options to be clear, but if you have 50 categories, it’s hard to keep them all updated. Instead, go for main categories that are broader and subcategories to help further organize content.
• Use pictures to help make your blog more personal (if that makes sense for your niche and writing style).
• Make sure your blog is search-engine friendly.

What tips have I missed? Experienced bloggers, help me out!

You can Start a Blog Site from Google Blogger (Blogspot).It’s Free and Very Easy. This Tutorial (Series) I Show You How to Make a Blogging Website in Blogger. This is a Series Tutorial. Here I will Try to Give a Crystal Idea About Blogging in Google Blogger. I Write this Tutorial Specially for Beginners.www.blogger.com is a Hugely Used Blogging Platform in Internet. More than Millions of People Used it Without Any Cost and So Easily. If You Think to Create a Professional Website by Blogger I Suggest You to Read Whole Tutorial. Not More Description –
How can You Start Your Blogging in Blogger – 
I Guess Everybody have a Gmail Account. If You don’t have a Gmail Account Create It from Here.

Start Blogging

⇒ Now Go to www.blogger.com  
⇒ Sign in With Your E-mail Address and Password  
⇒ Continue to “Sign Up for Blogger Page”

Sign Up Page

⇒ Give Your Display Name and Continue……  
⇒ BLOG Title – 

Start Blogging

Blogger Title Tag is Very Important, Especially for Blog SEO. Select a Suitable Title to Look Your Blog Content. If You Open a Blog Where You will Provide Tutorial Content Select that’s Type of Name (In My Case – BLOGGER TUTORIAL).For SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Blog Title is Very Important. Think Clearly About Your Blog Title. You can Change Your Blog Title Anytime but It’s Recommended, Select Appropriate Title from Beginning.  
⇒ Blog Address – 
You Need SEO Friendly Blog Address Url, for a Good Result in Search Engine Page. Try to Give a Short URL to Look Your Blog Content. Never Give a Unmerited Blog Address. If you don’t Find Your Targeted Address Give “dash (-)” in Your Address. Search Engine Give a Vital Value to Your Blog Address. So Be Careful About Your Address. Don’t Use a Longer Address or Unwanted Character. If you have a Custom Domain  you can Also Use It.  

Blogger Title and URL

⇒ Continue and Click the “Create Your Blog Now” Button.
⇒ Now Select Your Primary Template (You Must Change It Later). Template is a Heart for Your Blog.Find a Appropriate XML Blogger Template and Use It for Your Blog.Many Website Provide Free Blogger Template.Find a Nice and Sample Template for Your Site. 

⇒ Give Your First Blog Post –
You can Give Your Post by Two System in Blogger. One is Plain Text and Another is HTML (Recommended) Format. - See more at: http://www.rmw-portal.com/2011/06/blogger-to-z-tutorial-for-beginners.html#sthash.81wSlCl5.dpuf

I think many of you will choose Blogger.com as a platform and we will go further with it. So, we start from step 1- Go to Blogger.com which is obvious and click on Create Blog.  The next step is create a Google Account. As we saw in the previous post, Blogger is owned by Google. If you have an account at any of the services of this company (Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, etc.), You already have a Google Account. If so, enter your credentials and move on.


Then you get to choose the name and blog address. These are not necessarily occur, but is highly recommended do so. When choosing the direction, you can follow these tips already mentioned when choosing a domain name. The address you choose will be added with the suffix blogspot.com. Therefore, try not be too long.

Once you’ve written the address, click on the link that says “Check availability” It may happen that address you chose is already taken so keep entering different names till it says “The Blog address is available”
Try provided the address and name of your blog are the same. If you change the former, the latter also changes. It’s not necessary, but gives good results. The people generally remember the name of your blog and associate it with the suffix blogspot.com. Your address and blog name are different, the thing is difficult.
Now, its turn to decide the appearance of your blog. You will be given with some choices default by Blogger system. Choose anyone of them, Don’t worry even if you didnt like it much, you can easily change it later on.

It’s called a template because it uses a file (XML) that defines all the aesthetics of the blog without the contents being affected. The advantage of the templates is that they allow you to change at any time look so easy and simple.
So, you are done with all pre procedures and successfully created your blog and ready to start posting content or write articles. Click “Start Blogging”

This is your post editor, If you want you can write at that moment your first post or leave for another time.
That’s all. From now on, you can access your blog from Blogger.com and entering the username for your Google account (if you created from the panel that I showed before, will be an email address) and password. Needless to say, these data are very important and you should keep or lose your blog.
- See more at: http://www.blogsolute.com/how-to-create-blog-tutorial-blogger-com/4393/#sthash.loDwLbPu.dpuf

I think many of you will choose Blogger.com as a platform and we will go further with it. So, we start from step 1- Go to Blogger.com which is obvious and click on Create Blog.  The next step is create a Google Account. As we saw in the previous post, Blogger is owned by Google. If you have an account at any of the services of this company (Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, etc.), You already have a Google Account. If so, enter your credentials and move on.


Then you get to choose the name and blog address. These are not necessarily occur, but is highly recommended do so. When choosing the direction, you can follow these tips already mentioned when choosing a domain name. The address you choose will be added with the suffix blogspot.com. Therefore, try not be too long.

Once you’ve written the address, click on the link that says “Check availability” It may happen that address you chose is already taken so keep entering different names till it says “The Blog address is available”
Try provided the address and name of your blog are the same. If you change the former, the latter also changes. It’s not necessary, but gives good results. The people generally remember the name of your blog and associate it with the suffix blogspot.com. Your address and blog name are different, the thing is difficult.
Now, its turn to decide the appearance of your blog. You will be given with some choices default by Blogger system. Choose anyone of them, Don’t worry even if you didnt like it much, you can easily change it later on.

It’s called a template because it uses a file (XML) that defines all the aesthetics of the blog without the contents being affected. The advantage of the templates is that they allow you to change at any time look so easy and simple.
So, you are done with all pre procedures and successfully created your blog and ready to start posting content or write articles. Click “Start Blogging”

This is your post editor, If you want you can write at that moment your first post or leave for another time.
That’s all. From now on, you can access your blog from Blogger.com and entering the username for your Google account (if you created from the panel that I showed before, will be an email address) and password. Needless to say, these data are very important and you should keep or lose your blog.
- See more at: http://www.blogsolute.com/how-to-create-blog-tutorial-blogger-com/4393/#sthash.loDwLbPu.dpuf

I think many of you will choose Blogger.com as a platform and we will go further with it. So, we start from step 1- Go to Blogger.com which is obvious and click on Create Blog.  The next step is create a Google Account. As we saw in the previous post, Blogger is owned by Google. If you have an account at any of the services of this company (Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, etc.), You already have a Google Account. If so, enter your credentials and move on.


Then you get to choose the name and blog address. These are not necessarily occur, but is highly recommended do so. When choosing the direction, you can follow these tips already mentioned when choosing a domain name. The address you choose will be added with the suffix blogspot.com. Therefore, try not be too long.

Once you’ve written the address, click on the link that says “Check availability” It may happen that address you chose is already taken so keep entering different names till it says “The Blog address is available”
Try provided the address and name of your blog are the same. If you change the former, the latter also changes. It’s not necessary, but gives good results. The people generally remember the name of your blog and associate it with the suffix blogspot.com. Your address and blog name are different, the thing is difficult.
Now, its turn to decide the appearance of your blog. You will be given with some choices default by Blogger system. Choose anyone of them, Don’t worry even if you didnt like it much, you can easily change it later on.

It’s called a template because it uses a file (XML) that defines all the aesthetics of the blog without the contents being affected. The advantage of the templates is that they allow you to change at any time look so easy and simple.
So, you are done with all pre procedures and successfully created your blog and ready to start posting content or write articles. Click “Start Blogging”

This is your post editor, If you want you can write at that moment your first post or leave for another time.
That’s all. From now on, you can access your blog from Blogger.com and entering the username for your Google account (if you created from the panel that I showed before, will be an email address) and password. Needless to say, these data are very important and you should keep or lose your blog.
- See more at: http://www.blogsolute.com/how-to-create-blog-tutorial-blogger-com/4393/#sthash.loDwLbPu.dpuf

I think many of you will choose Blogger.com as a platform and we will go further with it. So, we start from step 1- Go to Blogger.com which is obvious and click on Create Blog.  The next step is create a Google Account. As we saw in the previous post, Blogger is owned by Google. If you have an account at any of the services of this company (Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, etc.), You already have a Google Account. If so, enter your credentials and move on.


Then you get to choose the name and blog address. These are not necessarily occur, but is highly recommended do so. When choosing the direction, you can follow these tips already mentioned when choosing a domain name. The address you choose will be added with the suffix blogspot.com. Therefore, try not be too long.

Once you’ve written the address, click on the link that says “Check availability” It may happen that address you chose is already taken so keep entering different names till it says “The Blog address is available”
Try provided the address and name of your blog are the same. If you change the former, the latter also changes. It’s not necessary, but gives good results. The people generally remember the name of your blog and associate it with the suffix blogspot.com. Your address and blog name are different, the thing is difficult.
Now, its turn to decide the appearance of your blog. You will be given with some choices default by Blogger system. Choose anyone of them, Don’t worry even if you didnt like it much, you can easily change it later on.

It’s called a template because it uses a file (XML) that defines all the aesthetics of the blog without the contents being affected. The advantage of the templates is that they allow you to change at any time look so easy and simple.
So, you are done with all pre procedures and successfully created your blog and ready to start posting content or write articles. Click “Start Blogging”

This is your post editor, If you want you can write at that moment your first post or leave for another time.
That’s all. From now on, you can access your blog from Blogger.com and entering the username for your Google account (if you created from the panel that I showed before, will be an email address) and password. Needless to say, these data are very important and you should keep or lose your blog.
- See more at: http://www.blogsolute.com/how-to-create-blog-tutorial-blogger-com/4393/#sthash.loDwLbPu.dpuf

I think many of you will choose Blogger.com as a platform and we will go further with it. So, we start from step 1- Go to Blogger.com which is obvious and click on Create Blog.  The next step is create a Google Account. As we saw in the previous post, Blogger is owned by Google. If you have an account at any of the services of this company (Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, etc.), You already have a Google Account. If so, enter your credentials and move on.


Then you get to choose the name and blog address. These are not necessarily occur, but is highly recommended do so. When choosing the direction, you can follow these tips already mentioned when choosing a domain name. The address you choose will be added with the suffix blogspot.com. Therefore, try not be too long.

Once you’ve written the address, click on the link that says “Check availability” It may happen that address you chose is already taken so keep entering different names till it says “The Blog address is available”
Try provided the address and name of your blog are the same. If you change the former, the latter also changes. It’s not necessary, but gives good results. The people generally remember the name of your blog and associate it with the suffix blogspot.com. Your address and blog name are different, the thing is difficult.
Now, its turn to decide the appearance of your blog. You will be given with some choices default by Blogger system. Choose anyone of them, Don’t worry even if you didnt like it much, you can easily change it later on.

It’s called a template because it uses a file (XML) that defines all the aesthetics of the blog without the contents being affected. The advantage of the templates is that they allow you to change at any time look so easy and simple.
So, you are done with all pre procedures and successfully created your blog and ready to start posting content or write articles. Click “Start Blogging”

This is your post editor, If you want you can write at that moment your first post or leave for another time.
That’s all. From now on, you can access your blog from Blogger.com and entering the username for your Google account (if you created from the panel that I showed before, will be an email address) and password. Needless to say, these data are very important and you should keep or lose your blog.
- See more at: http://www.blogsolute.com/how-to-create-blog-tutorial-blogger-com/4393/#sthash.loDwLbPu.dpuf

I think many of you will choose Blogger.com as a platform and we will go further with it. So, we start from step 1- Go to Blogger.com which is obvious and click on Create Blog.  The next step is create a Google Account. As we saw in the previous post, Blogger is owned by Google. If you have an account at any of the services of this company (Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, etc.), You already have a Google Account. If so, enter your credentials and move on.


Then you get to choose the name and blog address. These are not necessarily occur, but is highly recommended do so. When choosing the direction, you can follow these tips already mentioned when choosing a domain name. The address you choose will be added with the suffix blogspot.com. Therefore, try not be too long.

Once you’ve written the address, click on the link that says “Check availability” It may happen that address you chose is already taken so keep entering different names till it says “The Blog address is available”
Try provided the address and name of your blog are the same. If you change the former, the latter also changes. It’s not necessary, but gives good results. The people generally remember the name of your blog and associate it with the suffix blogspot.com. Your address and blog name are different, the thing is difficult.
Now, its turn to decide the appearance of your blog. You will be given with some choices default by Blogger system. Choose anyone of them, Don’t worry even if you didnt like it much, you can easily change it later on.

It’s called a template because it uses a file (XML) that defines all the aesthetics of the blog without the contents being affected. The advantage of the templates is that they allow you to change at any time look so easy and simple.
So, you are done with all pre procedures and successfully created your blog and ready to start posting content or write articles. Click “Start Blogging”

This is your post editor, If you want you can write at that moment your first post or leave for another time.
That’s all. From now on, you can access your blog from Blogger.com and entering the username for your Google account (if you created from the panel that I showed before, will be an email address) and password. Needless to say, these data are very important and you should keep or lose your blog.
- See more at: http://www.blogsolute.com/how-to-create-blog-tutorial-blogger-com/4393/#sthash.loDwLbPu.dpuf

Read more »

Keyword Research

The first step in any seo campaign is to do some keyword research. There are many tools on the web to help with basic keyword research (including the free Google Keyword Research Tool and SEMRUSH). You can use these tools to quickly identify opportunities to get more traffic:

Example Keyword	Search Volume
seo tutorial for beginners	1900
seo tutorials	1600
seo tutorial pdf	1000
how to seo a website	880
seo tutorial step by step	720
how to seo your website	720
google seo tutorial	320
best seo tutorial for novices	260
free seo tutorial	210
free seo tutorials	210
on page seo tutorial	170
seo tutorials for beginners	170
all in one seo tutorial	170
seo tutorial video	140
how to seo website	140
seo tutorial in urdu	110
how to seo my website	110
seo tutorial download	91
joomla seo tutorial	91
online seo tutorial	91
seo tutorial in bangla	91
seo tutorial free	73
optimizare seo tutorial	73
best seo tutorial	58
basic seo tutorial	58
bing seo tutorial	58
step by step seo tutorial	46
beginners seo tutorial course	46
seo tutorial google	46
seo tutorial ppt	36
search engine optimization seo tutorial	36
seo tutorial w3schools	28
best seo tutorials	28
website seo tutorial	28
seo tutorial for beginners lesson 1	28
seo tutorial youtube	22
google seo tutorials	22
link building in seo tutorial	22
black hat seo tutorial	22
how to work seo tutorial	16
youtube seo tutorial	16
drupal seo tutorial	16
seo tutoriale	16
seo tutorial blog	16
seo tutorial 2011	12
seo tutorial online	12
seo tutorial printable	12
seo tutorial beginners	12
online seo tutorials

Getting a site to the top of Google eventually comes down to your text content on a page and external & internal link profile. All together, Google uses this analysis to determine whether your no1 in Google or number 32, or de-indexed. There’s no magic bullet.
At any one time, your site is under some sort of filters designed to keep spam sites out and deliver relevant results to human visitors. One filter may be kicking in keeping a page down in the serps, while another filter is pushing another page up. You might have poor content but excellent incoming links, or vice versa. Try and identify the reasons Google doesn’t link a particular page. Too few quality incoming links? Too many incoming links? No keyword rich text? Linking out to irrelevant sites? Too many ads? Affiliate links on every page of your site, found on a thousand other websites? Whatever, identify issues and fix them. Get on the wrong side of Google and your site might well be MANUALLY reviewed – so seo your site as if, one day, you will be geting that review.
The key to successful seo, I think, is persuading Google that your page is most relevant to any given search query. You do this by good unique keyword rich text content and getting “quality” links to that page. Next time your developing a page, consider what looks spammy to you is probably spammy to Google. Ask yourself which pages on your site are really necessary. Which links are necessary? Which pages are getting the “juice” or “heat“. Which pages would you ignore?
You can help a site along in any number of ways (including making sure your page titles and meta tags are unique) but be careful. Obvious evidence of ‘rank modifying’ is dangerous.
I prefer simple seo techniques, and ones that can be measured in some way. I don’t want to just rank for competitive terms, I want to understand the reason why I rank for these terms. At Hobo we try to build sites for humans AND search engines. Make a site relevant to both for success in organic listings and you might not ever need to get into the techy side of SEO like redirects and URL rewriting. Of course, to beat the competition in an industry where it’s difficult to attract quality links, you have to get more “technical” sometimes.
There are no hard and fast rules to long term seo success, other than developing quality websites with quality content and quality links pointing to it. You need to mix it up and learn from experience. Remember there are exceptions to nearly every rule, and you probably have little chance determining exactly why you rank in search engines. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years and everyday I’m trying to better understand Google, to learn more and learn from others’ experiences. It’s important not to obsess about the minute seo specifics unless you really have the time to do so!
THERE IS USUALLY SOMETHING MORE VALUABLE TO SPEND THAT TIME ON.
There are some things that are apparent though.

• Don’t build a site in Flash
• Don’t build a site with Website Frames
• Don’t go mad generating thousands of back links
• Don’t hide lots of text from visitors but show to Google
• KISS – Keep it simple, stupid.

Read more »

Snippets and Titles

<title>What Is The Best Title Tag For Google?</title>

The page title tag (or HTML Title Element) is arguably the most important on page seo factor. Keywords in page titles can HELP your pages rank higher in Google results pages (SERPS). The page title is also often used by Google as the title of a search snippet link in search engine results pages.
For me, a perfect title tag in Google is dependant on a number of factors;

1. The page title is highly relevant to the page it refers to, it will probably be displayed in a web browsers window title bar, and the clickable search snippet link in Google, Bing & other search engines. The title is the “crown” of a keyword targeted article with important keyword featuring AT LEAST ONCE, as all search enignes place a lot of weight in what words are contained within this html element.
2. Google displays as many characters as it can fit into  ”a block element that’s 512px wide and doesn’t exceed 1 line of text”. So – THERE IS NO AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS any seo can lay down as exact best practice to GUARANTEE your title will display, in full in Google, at least. Ultimately – only the characters and words you use will determine if your entire page title will be seen in a Google search snippet. Google used to count 70 characters in a title – but not in 2012. If you want to ENSURE your full title tag shows in Google SERPS, stick to about 65 characters. I have seen ‘up-to’ 69 characters in 2012 – but as I said – it depends on the characters you use.
3. Google will INDEX perhaps 1000s of characters in a title… but no-one knows exactly how many characters or words Google will actually count AS a TITLE when determining relevance for ranking purposes. It is a very hard thing to try to isolate accurately. I have had ranking success with longer titles – much longer titles – Google certainly reads ALL the words in your page title (unless you are spamming it silly, of course).
4. You can probably fit up to 12 words that will be counted as part of a page title, and consider using your important keywords in the first 8 words.
5. Some page titles do better with a call to action – one which reflects exactly a searcher’s intent (e.g. to learn something, or buy something, or hire something. Remember this is your hook in search engines, if Google chooses to use your page title in its search snippet, and there is now a lot of competing pages out there!
6. When optimising a title, you are looking to rank for as many terms as possible, without keyword stuffing your title. Often, the best bet is to optimise for a particular phrase (or phrases) – and take a more long-tail approach. Yes – that does mean more pages on your site – that’s the reality in 2012. Content. Content. Content.
7. The perfect title tag on a page is unique to other pages on the site. In light of Google Panda, an algorithm that looks for a ‘quality’ in sites, you REALLY need to make your page titles UNIQUE, and minimise any duplication, especially on larger sites.
8. I like to make sure my keywords feature as early as possible in a title tag but the important thing is to have important keywords and key phrases in your page title tag SOMEWHERE.
9. For me, when SEO is more important than branding, the company name goes at the end of the tag, and I use a variety of dividers to separate as no one way performs best. If you have a recognisable brand – then there is an argument for putting this at the front of titles.
10. I like to think I write titles for search engines AND humans.
11. Know that Google tweaks everything regularly – why not what the perfect title keys off? So MIX it up…
12. Don’t obsess! Natural is probably better, and will only get better as engines evolve. As I said – these days – I optimise for key-phrases, rather than just keywords.
13. Generally speaking, the more domain trust/authority your SITE has in Google, the easier it is for a new page to rank for something. So bear that in mind. THere is only so much you can do with your page titles – your websites rankings in Google are a LOT more to do with OFFSITE factors than ONSITE ones.
14. Also bear in mind, in 2012, the html title element you choose for your page, may not be what Google chooses to include in your SERP snippet. The search snippet title and description is very much QUERY dependant these days. Google often chooses what it thinks is the most relevant title for your search snippet, and it can use information from your page, or in links to that page, to create a very different SERP snippet title.
15. Click through rate is something that is likely measured by Google when ranking pages (Bing say they use it too, and they now power Yahoo), so it is really worth considering whether you are best optimising your page titles for click-through rate or optimising for more search engine rankings.
16. Google has been recorded recently discussing an ‘over-optimisation’ penalty. I would imagine keyword stuffing your page titles could be one area they look at.
17. Remember….think ‘keyword phrase‘ rather than ‘keyword‘, ‘keyword‘ ,’keyword‘…

A Note About Title Tags;

When you write a page title, you have a chance right at the beginning of the page to tell Google (and other search engines) if this is a spam site or a quality site – such as – have you repeated the keyword 4 times or only once? I think title tags, like everything else, should probably be as simple as possible, with the keyword once and perhaps a related term if possible.
I always aim to keep my html page title elements things as simple, and looking as human-generated and unique, as possible.
I’m certainly cleaning up the way I write my titles all the time. How do you do it?

 External Links

• http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/good-titles.html
• http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag
• http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_title.asp
• http://searchengineland.com/writing-html-title-tags-humans-google-bing-59384
• http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2054494/Title-Tag-Copywriting-Tips-for-Newbie-SEOs

Read more »

Meta Keywords Best Practice

How many crap seo companies mention cleaning and optimising this tag in their presentations? Companies that waste time on these waste clients money.

<meta name="Keywords" content="seo, search engine optimisation, optimization">

I have one piece of advice with the meta keyword tag, which like the title tag, goes in the head section of your web page, forget about them.
If you are relying on meta-keyword optimisation to rank for terms, your dead in the water. From what I see, Google + Bing ignores meta keywords - or at least places no weight in them to rank pages. Yahoo may read them, but really, a seo has more important things to worry about than this nonsense.
What about other search engines that use them? Hang on while I submit my site to those 75,000 engines first [sarcasm!]. Yes, 10 years ago search engines liked looking at your meta-keywords. I’ve seen OPs in forums ponder which is the best way to write these tags – with commas, with spaces, limiting to how many characters. Forget about meta-keyword tags – they are a pointless waste of time and bandwidth. Could probably save a rain-forest with the bandwidth costs we save if everybody removed their keyword tags.
Tin Foil Hat Time
So you have a new site….. you fill your home page meta tags with the 20 keywords you want to rank for – hey, that’s what optimisation is all about, isn’t it? You’ve just told Google by the third line of text what to sandbox you for  and wasn’t meta name=”Keywords” originally for words that weren’t actually on the page that would help classify the document? Sometimes competitors might use the information in your keywords to determine what you are trying to rank for, too….
If everybody removed them and stopped abusing meta keywords Google would probably start looking at them but that’s the way of things in search engines. I Ignore them. Not even a ‘second order’ effect, in my opinion.

Read more »

3 Simple (and Free) SEO Tips

Here's how you can get your website found--even if you're not an expert in SEO.
A friend recently asked me to write about the difficulties that start-up owners go through to optimize their website and get found.
Without optimization, your website will be a tiny speck of salt in a vast--and rapidly expanding--cyber universe. Chances are, your market is probably packed with competitors, and any SEO consultant is going to ask for thousands of dollars a month just for the basic package.
Aside from dedicating every waking moment to understanding how SEO works, what new tactics are trending, and what Google really dislikes this year (coming in the form of Penguin and Panda updates), it's going to be quite hard to start receiving significant sales in the first months--or year--after you go live.
Here are a few things you can do to get started:

Optimizing Your Page Titles
Adding meta titles to your pages is the first and simplest thing you will need to do to let search engines know, "Hey, I'm out here, and I'm relevant for this keyword".
Every SEO expert will tell you that prior to beginning, they will need to find what the relevant keywords for your site are. Truth be told, this is something you can also do yourself. If your industry is particular (or specific), you probably know it better than any consultant.
Do some research, and find out what the most relevant keywords for your site are. Look at your competitor's page titles, for example. Aside from this, I would focus on "long-tail" keywords, which involve phrase-like words and are more specific to a particular topic (3 or 4 words). Long tail keywords convert better, and are easier to rank for.

"Natural" Link Building
Everyone that has a website has heard about link building, which essentially entails getting other websites to link back to your site. How to do this, however, has changed dramatically in the past few years, and doing it incorrectly can actually hurt you.
Recently, Google's algorithms were created in a way to detect "unnatural" links like certain paid links, overdone anchor texts, etc. This can get complicated for a freshman SEO strategist, but the bottom line is, links should not be forced. They should happen organically, and the way to solicit them and be successful at getting good links has a lot to do with the content you create.
Great ideas for natural link building involve writing guest posts on interesting blogs, successful social media activity (and building followers), and associating yourself with other bloggers with relative interests. A high-traffic blog is only as good as its content, otherwise readers wouldn't visit it often. If your cause is interesting--and related to a topic fellow bloggers care about--chances are, they will want to talk about you.

Fascinate With Content
Aside from writing content on other blogs, you also need to write interesting content on your website. In the old days, writing content on your website could include a bunch of gibberish and bad grammar. As long as the targeted keywords were jammed in there somehow, you would have good rankings on search engines. Those days are gone. Nowadays, creating fascinating content is the one distinguishing factor that can be unique to you.
From info graphics to video blogs to inspirational stories, you have to put yourself out there. Say something bold. Write about things that people care about. Put out an inspirational image. Make your audience laugh, cry... make your readers identify with your experience. This is my strongest suggestion for any aspiring ecommerce start-up: start with a daily blog, build your followers, and then blend in your ecommerce shopping cart onto your site. If you apply the analogy of the chicken and the egg, content is definitely the egg, which comes first in my book.
Once you get these three points down, you should start seeing an increase in traffic, a deeper interest in your products, and eventually, it should transfer into sales. As soon as your sales start growing, reinvest your earnings on expanding your traffic-building strategies. From PPC campaigns, to affiliate marketing, to an SEO consulting firm, they're all options I recommend--once you have an initial following.
I still look back at the early years of doing business and think that the grassroots strategies we came up with back then--in the guest bedroom of my old condo--were far more brilliant and exciting than what we do now. It's hard, but doable! After all, what that's worth it, isn't?

Read more »

21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques

Businesses are growing more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). But if you read a variety of blogs and websites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there’s also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great web resources and several terrific books you can read.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords, Microsoft adCenter or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta tag, as no major search engine today supports it.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.

15. Build links intelligently. Begin with foundational links like trusted directories. (Yahoo and DMOZ are often cited as examples, but don’t waste time worrying about DMOZ submission. Submit it and forget it.) Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area — the Chamber of Commerce, local business directories, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too. Create great content on a consistent basis and use social media to build awareness and links. (A blog is great for this; see below.)

16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.

17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.

18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business, use Quora and/or Yahoo Answers to position yourself as an expert in your industry. Any business should also be looking to make use of Twitter and Facebook, as social information and signals from these are being used as part of search engine rankings for Google and Bing. With any social media site you use, the first rule is don’t spam! Be an active, contributing member of the site. The idea is to interact with potential customers, not annoy them.
19. Take advantage of local search opportunities. Online research for offline buying is a growing trend. Optimize your site to catch local traffic by showing your address and local phone number prominently. Write a detailed Directions/Location page using neighborhoods and landmarks in the page text. Submit your site to the free local listings services that the major search engines offer. Make sure your site is listed in local/social directories such as CitySearch, Yelp, Local.com, etc., and encourage customers to leave reviews of your business on these sites, too.

20. Take advantage of the tools the search engines give you. Sign up for Google Webmaster Central, Bing Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer to learn more about how the search engines see your site, including how many inbound links they’re aware of.

21. Diversify your traffic sources. Google may bring you 70% of your traffic today, but what if the next big algorithm update hits you hard? What if your Google visibility goes away tomorrow? Newsletters and other subscriber-based content can help you hold on to traffic/customers no matter what the search engines do. In fact, many of the DOs on this list—creating great content, starting a blog, using social media and local search, etc.—will help you grow an audience of loyal prospects and customers that may help you survive the whims of search engines.

Read more »

10 SEO Techniques All Startups Should Be Using

If you’re a startup entrepreneur, chances are good that search engine optimization (SEO) is the last thing on your mind. After all, why should you worry about things like keyword phrases and backlinks when there are a hundred other items on your “to do” list, all clamoring for your attention?
Unfortunately, this mindset is extremely shortsighted. It doesn’t matter how innovative your products or services are. If people can’t find you online, you’re going to have a seriously tough time sustaining the momentum you need to propel a growing business to success.
So instead of dismissing the tremendous potential involved with SEO, consider implementing any or all of the following techniques into your startup’s marketing plan:

Technique #1 – Identify Target Keywords

In my opinion, a startup’s #1 marketing goal should be to identify at least a handful of potential SEO keywords to target within the natural search results and then optimize the site accordingly. This list should include keyword phrases that your potential customers are actually entering into the engines (as determined by search volume figures found in keyword research tools) and that aren’t too competitive to rank for your site (based on the presence of established websites in Google’s Top 10 results).
Once identified, these keywords should be integrated into your site in key areas, including your page titles, your heading tags, and your body content. Don’t force it through excessive inclusions, but do take advantage of the SEO value these positions hold to inform the search engines about the subject of your web content.

Technique #2 – Implement Branding Efforts

However, while it’s important to identify and target SEO keywords for use in your startup marketing plan, it’s also vital that you begin the branding process as early as possible in your company’s tenure. There’s no arguing with the fact that Google loves brands. Considering that the search engine must rely on quantifiable metrics (rather than subjective assessments) in order to evaluate website quality for display in the natural search results, branded elements remain one reliable bellwether that can be used to indicate viewer valuation.
To get started capturing these benefits for your startup’s website, decide on a set logo, color scheme, tagline, and promotional phrasing as early as possible, and use these elements consistently across your web presence.  Consider working with a graphic designer or marketing consultant if you don’t feel capable of coming up with a cohesive brand on your own.

Technique #3 – Focus on Content Creation

Running a company blog on which you post product updates, industry news reactions, or other personal interest pieces is a vital part of SEO for two reasons.
First, publishing content to your site regularly increases the number of different keywords present on your site. By improving keyword exposure, you may find yourself earning free SEO traffic via natural search phrases you never even targeted on your site!
Second, filling your site with valuable content is a great way to build up the relationships you share with your prospects and customers. Because bounce rate and time on site are both believed to be playing roles in search ranking algorithms, the quality of these relationships could actually improve how well you rank in the SERPs.

Technique #4 – Commit to Social Networking

Truth be told, for many startup entrepreneurs, participating on popular social networking sites can seem like yet another chore to be added to the “to do” list. Don’t let yourself fall into this trap!
Both Google and Bing have acknowledged that social signals, including link shares and brand mentions on some social network status updates, are currently playing a role in natural SERPs rankings, which means that maintaining a presence on these sites is vitally important for your startup’s SEO. If at all possible, make it a priority to invest at least 10-20 minutes each day posting to social networking sites and interacting with the people who follow your company’s profiles on these sites.

Technique #5 – Connect with Social Networking Power Users

While you’re spending time on popular social media sites, it’s also a good idea to take the time to connect with the power users on these platforms. Not only is the relative authority of these social networking participants taken into account when weighting the social signals Google and the other search engines detect for your brand, a single link share from one of these “influencers” could result in a significant influx of traffic and customers to your website.
To do this effectively, identify the people you’d like to connect with based on their numbers of followers and their general authority within your industry, and then let your relationships with them build up naturally. Sharing their content or offering to help them in some way will go a long way towards ensuring the success of your eventual share request.

Technique #6 – Install Google Analytics

Another foundation to web success that all startups should consider is the ability to measure and test different metrics. For example, if you’ve recently added a new sign-up form to your startup’s website, you’ll want to be sure it’s as effective as possible, and you can’t know that if you aren’t measuring the results you achieve through A/B or multivariate split testing.
To gather the data needed to do this effectively, you’ll want to install a program like Google Analytics. It’s free and easy to use, and it provides an incredible wealth of information that can be used to improve your website’s conversion rates.

Technique #7 – Set up Google Analytics Goals

Speaking of conversion rates, once you’ve got Google Analytics installed, you’ll want to take the time to establish website goals and set up the necessary event tracking features to determine how well your website is performing. Because Google Analytics goals allow you to identify whether or not website visitors are engaging with your site the way you envisioned, they’re a vital part of making your site as effective as possible.
For complete details on how to use Google Analytics’s built-in features to start generating this data, take a look at any of the following articles:

• About Google Analytics Goals
• Setting up Google Analytics Goals
• Google Analytics Event Tracking Guide

Technique #8 – Invest in Link Building Campaigns

While optimizing your website for your chosen SEO and branded keyword phrases is important, it’s only half of the optimization battle. The second primary SEO aim you’ll want to pay attention to is link building, as in the process of getting other websites to point links to your content.
The number, quality, and relevance of the links pointing at your website are all used as quality signals in the search engine ranking algorithms. Because your site’s link profile is estimated to account for as much as 50-80% of your overall “SEO Score,” you’ll find that it’s well worth your while to invest in link building campaigns as soon as your startup’s website is online.
The easiest way to carry out a link building campaign is to take a look at where your competitors are getting their backlinks by using tools like Majestic SEO or the Open Site Explorer. Although you won’t want to copy their link profiles link-for-link, you can use the data generated by these programs to identify potential linking sources and uncover missed link opportunities that could allow you to outrank your opponents in the SERPs.

Technique #9 – Try Guest Posting

One link building technique that deserves special mention here is guest posting. As a guest author, you connect with other websites in your industry to provide guest blog posts in exchange for a link back to your site. When done well (that is, by partnering with top influencers within your industry), you will receive a high-quality, highly-relevant backlink and you also stand to receive additional traffic due to the transfer of perceived “recommendation” of your content by the referring site’s author.
With just a few good guest post spots, it’s possible to substantially increase both your rankings in the natural search results and the amount of traffic flowing to your website.

Technique #10 – Launch Press Releases

Finally, one link building technique that’s especially effective for startup entrepreneurs is the use of press releases. Whenever your company has something newsworthy to report, write up a provocative press release and send it out through a distribution service like PRWeb. As you might expect by now, promoting your site in this way has the potential to both increase traffic and backlinks through the sites that eventually carry your release

Read more »

White Hat SEO Techniques

To improve a Web page's position in a SERP, you have to know how search engines work. Search engines categorize Web pages based on keywords -- important terms that are relevant to the content of the page. In our example, the term "skydiving" should be a keyword, but a term like "bungee jumping" wouldn't be relevant.
Most search engines use computer programs called spiders or crawlers to search the Web and analyze individual pages. These programs read Web pages and index them according to the terms that show up often and in important sections of the page. There's no way for a search engine spider to know your page is about skydiving unless you use the right keywords in the right places.
Here are some general tips about keyword placement:

• One place you should definitely include keywords is in the title of your Web page. You might want to choose something like "Skydiving 101" or "The Art of Skydiving."
• Another good place to use keywords is in headers. If your page has several sections, consider using header tags and include important keywords in them. In our example, headers might include "Skydiving Equipment" or "Skydiving Classes."
• Most SEO experts recommend that you use important keywords throughout the Web page, particularly at the top, but it's possible to overuse keywords. Your skydiving site would obviously use the word "skydiving" as a keyword, but it might also include other keywords like "base jumping" or "parachute." If you use a keyword too many times, some search engine spiders will flag your page as spam. That's because of a black hat technique called keyword stuffing, but more on that later.

Keywords aren't the only important factor search engines take into account when generating SERPs. Just because a site uses keywords well doesn't mean it's one of the best resources on the Web. To determine the quality of a Web page, most automated search engines use link analysis. Link analysis means the search engine looks to see how many other Web pages link to the page in question.
Going back to our skydiving example, if a search engine sees that hundreds of other Web pages related to skydiving are linking to your Web page, the engine will give your page a higher rank. Search engines like Google weigh the importance of links based on the rank of the linking pages. In other words, if the pages linking to your site are themselves ranked high in Google's system, they boost your page's rank more than lesser-ranked pages.
So, how do you get sites to link to your page? That's a tricky task, but make sure your page is a destination people want to link to, and you're halfway there. Another way is to offer link exchanges with other sites that cover material related to your content. You don't want to trade links with just anyone because many search engines look to see how relevant the links to and from your page are to the information within your page. Too many irrelevant links and the search engine will think you're trying to cheat the system.
In the next section, we'll look more closely at ways people try to fool search engines into ranking their pages higher on a SERP.

Read more »

All On-Page SEO Tips & Tricks

From my experience, it was a bit hard for me to make my website pages 100% SEO optimized. Not because it’s a hard process, but because I had to go to several website that shared few tips, and implement the tips from each. So I decided to make this page, to be your ultimate place for the on-site SEO stuff. Here, I will gather all of the tips, I will also make a Myths list for stuff that doesn’t really work.
I promise to keep this page up-to-date, so you won’t have to worry about missing a thing. If you are into SEO, go ahead and bookmark this page, or just memorize the URL, because you know you’ll need it. 
So let’s start with the tips first, I will include every small and big thing; I will also try to be straight-forward with each.
P.S. Some of the stuff, may not be highly effective for SEO, but adding each of them takes few seconds, so even if it’s a myth, it won’t really hurt your ranking.
The Golden Rule
From my experience in SEO, and my experience in logic. The Google’s spider eyes are getting closer to the real human eyes. It means that Google is getting better in looking at the websites, just like we do, in an automatic way.
You can fool Google in the short-term, but you just can’t beat it in the long-run. Google is adding more and more algorithms to improve the way they rank the websites, which makes it harder for the SEO guys.
So my advice to you, is to put your human visitor before the spider one. In other words, pay more attention to improving your visitors experience, Google will understand sooner or later.

(1)

Title Tags & Meta Description

Title tags & meta description are extremely important for SEO, not just because the search engine spider gives them big attention, but also because search engine users do the same. The average person will usually pick the most attractive result among the first 3, so to get your webpage a better CTR, make sure to follow these points:

• Make an Eye-Catching title & description: Remember that the average user will choose the most eye-caching title and description among the first 3 results!
• Include your main keyword: This is repeated everywhere because it’s really important. Make sure to include your primary keyword in the title and also in description, but also don’t write it more than once on each(twice maximum if you had to).
• Limit title to 65 characters: Though the limit in Google is 69 characters, other search engines like Yahoo shows only the first 65 characters and cut the rest, so try to aim for a 65-characters title or less.
• Limit description to 160 characters: For the same reason above, also limiting your meta description to 160 characters is important for a better SEO and a better CTR.
• Title structure: Put your webpage title at first, then put your brand name. Just like WizIMS do, for example “All On-Page SEO Tips | WizIMS”

(2)

Alt Tags

Another important thing you can do to show Google’s spider that your content is related to the desired keyword(s), is by adding alt tags to your images. Make sure to put your primary keyword in one alt tag, and it’s even better to include your secondary keywords in the other images alts.
Pay attention : Do NOT over use this with the same keyword. Putting the same keyword in all your images in the same page may rise a red flag to Google, so make sure to put different keywords for each image.
If possible, it’s even better if you put an alt tag which actually explains the image. Because they can bring you targeted visitors via Google images. (If your image is unrelated to the alt tag, people won’t click it in the Google images for the specific keyword, and it’ll just drop in the SERPs).
So bottom line, if it’s possible to add an alt tag which is both a keyword and an explanation of the image, then go ahead and add it. (It’s fine to have 3-4 words alt tags).
How to add the alt tag to images ?
For those who don’t know how to add an alt tag to the image, here’s an example:
alt=”Internet Marketing”>

(3)

Headings (H1 / H2)

Another important factor for your on-site SEO is how you use the headings. Again, you want to show Google what are the keywords your page is about (primary keywords), and what also can be found in your webpage content (secondary keywords).
To do this, put your primary keyword(s) in the H1 tag- e.g.

Buy Online Shoes

and try to include your secondary keywords in the H2 tags- e.g.

Buy Cheap Shoes Online

Make sure not to do this in a spammy way because it’ll just look suspicious to search engines and crappy to your readers, so put efforts to make it look good for both humans and spiders.

(4)

Keyword Density

Most people think that the more they throw their keyword in their article the better it is for SEO, and that’s totally wrong.
If you repeat your keyword(s) too often, it will just annoy your users and raise a red flag to the search engines. But in the other hand you should mention you keyword(s) in the article when it’s suitable so that search engines could at least know what your webpage is about.
To make this balance, make sure to have the keyword density in your webpage between 3% to 8%.

(5)

Keywords’ Similarities

It’s obvious that Google can recognize the keyword’s synonyms, slangs, and different forms of the word.
Or, if you Google for example the keyword Shop, the first result includes doesn’t even have the word “Shop”, it has another form of the word (“Shopping”).

(6)

Internal Linking (Interlinking)

It is essential to make it easy for search engine’s spider to travel in your website pages and find them easily. The best way to do that is to have a sitemap along with strong internal links inside your webpages. This will make it easy for spider to visit all of your website pages, and shows it that it is also easy for the users to travel among your website.
Internal linking means to link your website pages together. When I link to Tools, this is one example of an internal link.
In WordPress and other CMS, the classic structure makes this easier for you (Check for example WizIMS internal links).
This hasn’t to be over-done, just make sure it’s easy for the user to travel among your website, and Google will give you the credit.

(7)

Sitemap

For the same purpose that we use interlinking, the sitemap helps the search engine’s spider to crawl all of your webpages easily by showing them all the pages URLs in upfront.
The sitemap also tells the spiders how often each of your webpages gets updated, and how important each one is. According to my experience, for new sites, spiders won’t really believe what your sitemap claims (about update frequency and pages priority), therefore it is important to put real values in the sitemap so you can gain the spider’s trust in the long run.
How to make a sitemap?
For those who don’t know how to make a sitemap:
1) Generate a new sitemap to your website using a sitemap generator.
2) Download the file that you’ve made, and rename it to sitemap.xml
3) Upload sitemap.xml to your root domain (e.g. http://wizims.com/sitemap.xml)
*It’s even better if you submit your sitemap to Google webmaster tools if you have one.
*For WordPress users, it’s much easier to use the Google sitemap generator plugin.

(8)

Quality External Links

You want to show Google that you honestly want to share quality related content with your users. One of the ways to do that, is by linking to another websites.
When I say external links, I don’t mean linking to weak websites and/or your same Class C IP websites as that can just harm your SEO.
In other words, when you have the opportunity to link to a website, do that. Just make sure that the webpage you are linking to is authority (high PR), and related to your content.
Please pay attention to the following before adding the external link(s) :

• Try to link to related webpages, ones that have your keywords.
• Try to link to webpages with High PR only (PR 4+).
• Link to authority websites only (Wikipedia is ideal).
• It’s okay to  have do-follow external links if the sites you are linking to are trusted by Google.

Also make sure to ignore the following :

• Don’t link to a competitor webpage – Search your target keyword in Google and make sure the webpage you are linking to isn’t in the top 20.
• Don’t link to your websites – Google can easily track that, so make sure to link to external webpages only.

(9)

Robots.txt File

With the content you put in the “robots.txt” file, you can tell the search engine’s robots (spiders) to or not to crawl specific webpages in your website.
I recommend upload the “robots.txt” file even if you want to have all of your webpages indexed, just to show Google that you are serious here  , and in this case, here is what you should put in the “robots.txt” file:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Sitemap: http://YourWebsite.com/sitemap.xml

If you want, just copy and paste this to a “robots.txt” file and upload it to your website root (e.g. “wizims.com/robots.txt”).
If you want a custom one, you can simply make it with a robots.txt generator.

(10)

SEO-Friendly URLs

Another great way to show Google that your page’s content is relevant to the desired keyword, is by including your keyword in your URL.
If your keyword is a combination of 2 or more words,I find it better to separate the words dashes (“-”).
An example of a perfect URL, in case we are targeting the keyword “Skin Care” :
http://wizims.com/skin-care
This will also attract the users in search engines, as they will see part of your URL in bold when they search for your desired keyword.
Another important thing, if possible, is to include your main keyword in the domain name (e.g.SkinCareOnline.com), this will give your website a big advantage over your competitors.

(11)

Content is the WizIMS

Replaced “King” with “WizIMS”, just a lame joke.
Again, I know this is repeated everywhere, but there is a reason for that..
Having a quality, unique and relevant content on your webpage is one of the most crucial on-site SEO factors. Before writing your webpage’s content, pay attention to the following :

• Don’t fill your webpage with plain text; both visitors and Google would love to see pictures and other stuff in the webpage.
• If possible, aim for at least 500 words in each webpage.
• Include your keyword when it’s suitable, just don’t do that too much, your keyword density should range between 5% and 8%.
• Try to focus on your grammar and spelling. Google can easily recognize grammar and spelling mistakes, and for that, it can underestimate your website authority.
• Needless to say, avoid duplicate content. Google will hate you for that.
• Try to avoid putting the same content on different pages of your website.

(12)

Google Adsense

It might sounds weird and unfamiliar, but think again please, what is the main goal of all companies? Growth and money of course. Google can bring huge amount of money and growth to Google Adsense just by “preferring” websites with Adsense on.
Some people might disagree with me, claiming that “A big, respected company like Google won’t harm it’s search quality for money”. But the thing is, I’m not saying that you’ll beat Wikipedia simply putting Adsense on, I’m just assuming that Google “prefers” the website with Adsense on, totally logic.

(13)

404 Pages

Sooner or later, the search engine spider will get to a page on your website that doesn’t exist. You don’t want to have a dead-end page that just shows the error and leads nowhere.
To fix this, you can either redirect all of your 404 pages to your homepage, or to have some links in the 404 page that points to your categories and/or most important pages.
What’s better?
I find the redirection method easier technically because it’ll  help avoiding getting the unimportant 404 pages indexed in the search engines. Also, if another website linked to one of your pages that doesn’t exist, it’ll pass the link juice to your homepage (because of the redirection).
But in the other hand, if you are strict about providing a better user experience, then you might want to use the classic 404 not-found pages (e.g. http://wizims.com/no-page-here). Simply because the redirection method might confuse the user, so it’s better just to tell the user that the webpage he’s looking for doesn’t exist, and maybe to offer him to search it via the search box.
Now let me explain to you how to do both:
Redirection:
If you are using WordPress, it’s easier just to install a plugin called 404 redirection. It’s super easy, all you have to do is to upload it and activate it. It will then automatically redirect all of your 404 pages to your homepage.
If you are not using WordPress, you can do the redirection via .htaccess, meta tag or cPanel. Irecommend using the .htaccess method, as it’s easier and simplier.
Custom 404 page:
If you are using WordPress, there is a built-in function that has 404 custom pages.
If you are using WordPress and you want to edit the 404 page, here is how you do it:
1) Log in to your WordPress admin panel (usually yourwebsite.com/wp-admin)
2) Under Appearance go to Editor
3) Choose 404 Template (404.php). It’s on your right hand.
4) Change the 404 page to your new one. Then click on “Update File” button.
* If you can’t see the “Update File” button, here is how to enable it:
1) Log in to your website FTP via a FTP client (Filezilla or w/e)
2) Go to your website folder -> wp-content -> themes -> CurrentThemeFolder
3) Now right click on the 404.php file to edit the file permissions (CHMOD) – On FileZilla it’s File permissions
4) Change the number to 777
Now you can edit your 404 page from your WordPress admin panel.
Attention: After editing and updating the file, make sure to change the CHMOD to 644 again as not doing so can expose your website to hacking activities.

(14)

WWW or non-www

According to Google guidelines, it’s better to have 1 unified version for all of your website’s URLs.
Whether it begins www or non-www, it doesn’t matter at all. But what does matter is to have 1 unified form.
You can see that here on WizIMS, I prefer to use the non-www, as it looks more simple.
How to do that?
Simply redirect your www website to non-www website (or vice versa):
With cPanel:
1) Go to your cPanel.
2) Under “Domains” click on “Redirects”
3) Let’s say you want to redirect all pages to non-www:
- At type, choose “Permanent (301)”.
- Choose the option “Only redirect with www.”.
- redirects to→ http://yourdomain.com
4) Of course, click on “Add” and enjoy.

(15)

Avoid Sneaky Stuff

In short, here are the list of the stuff that should avoid. If you don’t pay attention to these stuff, you might lead Google to suspect your website and raise it’s red flag, which isn’t a really good thing for your rankings.

• Using text color same as background color, or any other hidden content technique – This may lead Google to think you are doing keyword stuffing.
• Using very small font – For the same reason above, using a very small font isn’t a very good idea.
• Repeating keywords – I’ve mentioned this point above. But again, repeating your main keyword(s) over and over again, will just make your website suspicious in Google’s eyes.
• Putting Bold or Underline tags on your main keywords – It’s not a bad idea to emphasize your main keyword(s) one or twice. But over doing over and over again, isn’t a good idea.

(16)

Keywords in Links

Having your main keyword in your link for each webpage is one of the most important on-site SEO elements.
If possible, try to purchase a domain that includes your main keyword in it. From my experience, here is how the importance goes, first is better, the after is the alternative:
Let’s take an example the keyword “Dog Care”:
1) DogCare.com (best)
2) Dog-Care.com (great)
3) DogCare.net (great)
4) DogCare.org (great)
5) Dog-Care.net (good)
6) Dog-Care.org (good)
If you can’t find none of the options for the keyword you are targeting, then it’s probably a very competitive keyword and you might want to choose another.
Now let’s talk a bit about your pages links, here are some points you should consider before creating a new webpage:

• Include your main keyword – Needless to say, you must include your main keyword in the page’s URL.
• Keep it as short as possible – Try to stick with including your main keyword, and just your main keyword. The shorter your URL the better it is for SEO.
• Separate keywords with dashes – I’m not too sure that it’s that important for SEO, however, it looks much better for your users.
• Keep it static – Try NOT to change your page’s URL. If that’s crucial, then at least make a 301 redirect.

(17)

Website Speed

The speed of your website is extremely important for both your users, and rankings.
First of all, you can go ahead and check your website speed by comparing it with another websites here (above 70 is good).
Now to improve your website speed here are some points you should consider:
Get a Better Host
It’s the most critical part, if your website isn’t running on a good server, improving your website’s speed can be limited. Though moving to another hosting company is a bit annoying, but it will pay off for sure. I highly recommend bluehost for hosting.
Use Cache
Cache is a temporary place to save a copy of data for the sake of quicker retrieval on the further request for the claimed webpage.
Therefore, using cache helps in minimizing the load on your website’s server.
If you are using WordPress, I recommend using W3 Total Cache plugin.
Reduce Images Size
You should have no reason not to reduce your images files before uploading them.
Online tools like this, can reduce your image sizes without reducing it’s quality (almost).
Compress your CSS files
Reducing your CSS code files, specially when these are big, can definitely improve your website load speed.
Use a Content Delivery Network
A Content Delivery Network (or CDN) is a circle of servers around the world which duplicate the static elements of your website and provide these to visitors from the closest location.
For example, if the CDN network you are using has servers in Spain, Japan and Brazil. The user from Portugal will receive the content from the nearest location, which in this case is Spain. This results in much quicker loading time.
If you have some money to invest, content delivery network can literally boost your website loading time.
That’s all folks. I have included every thing that DOES matters when it comes to on-site SEO, along with how to do every little thing. I highly recommend you to bookmark this page, so you can take a look before publishing your new website.

Read more »