Archive for the ‘SEO Tips’ Category
Three tips to increase blog traffic using Social Media
While I have talked about making the most of SEO lately and trying increase blog traffic by working on keywords and backlinks, you can also try to increase your blog traffic using popular social media sites.
In many cases just a simple mention of your blog on a site like Stumble or Facebook can result in a huge spike in readership just overnight. If you have an interesting blog that spike can turn into more RSS feeds and reoccurring traffic. They key is to get your site listed and mentioned to increase blog traffic. Here are three tips to increase your blog traffic with social media.
Three tips to increase blog traffic
1. Don’t be afraid to list your own sites on Social Media sites. There is nothing wrong especially early on with adding your own sites to places like Stumble or Digg. If you are just getting started Digg your own posts, create your own Facebook account and mention your blog there. Don’t be shy!
2. Join communities and become active. Check out blogging communities like Blog Catalog and My Blog Log where you can join and market your blog by joining groups of similar interests. This is a great way to increase blog traffic as you know the people you interact share the same interests and therefore are not just spamming your blog when they visit.
3. Be social and comment as much as possible. Bloggers are out there just like you. Working hard to build a readership and appreciate comments that have value. In return, they generally will come and comment on your blog. Overtime you gain a normal readership that exchanges meaningful comments. You can also use sites like blog explosion or carousel to exchange blog comments and readers though I have found these less valuable to gaining normal readership. Just a one time increase in blog traffic.
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![[StumbleUpon]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
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![[Yahoo!]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Three tips to effective blog marketing
There are a lot of terms and phrases out there when it comes to increasing traffic to your blog, but in the end it all boils down to blog marketing. SEO tips, backlinks, Social Media, these are all forms of blog marketing. Ways to get your name out there and get attention for your domain.
So how can you effectively get involved with blog marketing. Here are three tips I would start with:
Social Media Optimization: Social Media Optimization or SMO is the process of joining social sites where people can share blog posts, mark ones they enjoyed and follow bloggers they enjoy. If you are new to blog marketing with SMO and don’t know where to start, check out this list of the top 100 Social media sites out there. Join a few and get active.
Search Engine Optimization: Let’s go right to the source on this one. Here is what google has to say about how to get attention for your blog on their search engine. This is the process of making your blog more appealing to Search engine spiders by using SEO techniques to increase your page rank which in the long run will increase your traffic.
Content: Using SMO or SEO you can get people to FIND your blog but this doesn’t really mean anything unless you get them to READ your blog. Better yet, you want them to subscribe to your RSS feed or bookmark your site so that they come back over and over again with your new posts. The key to his blog marketing is simple, write good quality content for your blog. Add value to your reader so that when your SEO and SMO pans out for you, you can keep the reader coming back for more in the future.
It is never too late to start SEO fixes for blogs
So you started a blog years ago. Been posting on a some what normal basis and still no one has ever found your blog using any search engine. Frustrated you google how to increase traffic to my blog and find three magical letters. SEO. You read further and further until you find golden lists of top ten things to do for SEO fixes. You begin to cry and know what you must do.
Where do you go from here? Well, it is never too late to start updating an old blog with SEO fixes. There is no way to show you everything you need to do instead I am going to point you in a few directions. The more you know, the more you read, the better off you will be. There is no one magical SEO fix that will make you now get traffic but a number of things you can do over a period of time that will make the search engine spiders like you a little more each day.
If you get the chance read the links in the following paragraphs. Ramp up on SEO fixes for your blog and you will see traffic eventually.
Here is a great list of things to consider from John Simpson about what SEO fixes are available for old websites. Another list of SEO fixes you should be able to knock out on your own.
The more you can do your own the better off you will be. Remember, SEO fixes are a constant thing that take time to see an improvement. If you have someone do it for you, that will require a constant hand holding. Learn to do it yourself. Here is a great article to further push this point.
If you feel overwhelmed at it all and considering hiring someone to do all of your SEO fixes for you, here is a good article to read first.
Where you can find free blog plugins
As I have mentioned in before, plugins for wordpress can really make a difference in the usability of a blog. A plugin can turn an ordinary boring common theme and make it stand out for the reader. So, where do you get all of these free blog plugins? Good question. The answer is there is a ton of places to find them.
I must say I love the new wordpress version where you can install plugins right from the admin. You no longer need to download and ftp over the files. A simple enhancement that has made me fall in love with WordPress blogs all over again.
Okay back to the point of the blog and that is where to find free blog plugins. Here are three places you can go to check for the whatever your need is for your blog. I recommend starting with WordPress Plugins main website. This is the most reliable place to stop which covers an overview of the free blog plugin and how to install it.
From there try out Siteground which has a good list of free blog plugins or a very large database of free blog plugs over at WP-Plugins. It really all depends on what you are looking for or better yet, if you even know what you are looking for.
What I mean is that you should surf around as many blogs as you can. Find plugins that you like and then google the plugin. Find the free blog plugin and use it. It is okay to mimic a blog that you like. You don’t want to be 100% the same but it is okay to take the pieces you like and reuse the layout and usability.
It is the content that will make you stand out but the presentation of the content does make a difference.
How to check your blog rank for free
The more you get interested in SEO fixes the more addicting it can be. Always wondering if you have gained on your competitors for your keywords. If your page rank has increased. Are you on page one yet and if not, why not!
Maybe your not obsessed with it, maybe that is just me however if you are always wondering where are you right now on your page rank, you can check out this free page rank tool. This is a simple tool with very specific results but will give you the answer quickly and is reliable.
If you are wondering how your blog rank is doing on more then just one search engine, try this blog rank tool. This site allows you to enter in the keywords you are trying to use to drive traffic to your site and will tell you how you rank with google, yahoo, AOL, MSN and a few others. It is a free tool so if you don’t like it no harm done but if you do, you can check it as often as you like though it may not update unless the search engines have updated or you have dumped a ton of new content on your site.
Remember, keywords are the center piece of your SEO plan. Your blog rank is really tied to your success of getting the most SEO fixes around your keywords selected. Knowing how you are doing with your keywords and checking your blog rank now and again is a good way to see if you are really making a difference or maybe it is time to try a new tactic or even worse, new keywords to get your blog additional traffic.
Flash websites how it impacts SEO for blogs and traffic in general
A lot of people when they build websites love the idea of using flash. Flash splash pages as introductions or for navigation. Flash along the sidebar to give the users an interactive way to read information. Flash is a great way to make a site fun for users. Yet… it has major issues when it comes to SEO and flash AND usability in general.
Let’s start by saying not everyone is going to have macromedia installed or the plugin needed to support flash. So what does this mean? You lost that traffic. I know from personal experience that if I need to download something I leave the site. There are a million other sites out there with very similar to your content I am willing to bet. Why would I spend another second on your site when I can just go elsewhere?
Secondly, flash needs time to load. It is not fast like basic html or blogging software. Flash usually has a loading period and if you are dealing with traffic that has a slow connection to start with you have just scared away even more users. Flash is great for a certain uses but not for a general content site. Your content should be what you want people to be in love with, not your use of flash. Always remember what the goal of your blog is.
When it comes to SEO fixes and flash you can forget about it. As tip number three with flash and blogs, spiders have trouble with flash software. Here is a great article by SEOmoz talking about the situation. Basically the content in flash is not as easy to read as text on the screen within html or blogging software. You can’t apply SEO fixes like anchor text or title tags to flash pages. You lose out basically of all other SEO fixes when you apply flash as a page. When you apply it as part of a page you lose whatever value the html equivalent would have given you.
Bottom line is why roll the dice with flash on a blog when it can impact your SEO work, hurt your search engine rankings and drive readers away from your blog.
