Author Archive
How to Get .Edu and .Gov Links
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photo credit: English106
The other day I mentioned the importance that Google and the other search engines place on .edu and .gov links. They are considered very valuable. So people have been asking, “How do I find them?”
Here are a couple of easy ways to find them.
Type the following into Google search:
site:.edu inurl: “your keyword” Put your keyword in-between the quote marks and see what comes up. Find a site where you can put a value added comment with your keyword as anchor text and you’ve got a link! For .gov sites just replace the .edu with .gov and follow the same process.
Here is the coolest way to really drill down and get exactly what you are looking for:
site:.edu inurl: "post a comment" -"comments closed" -"you must be logged in"
What this will give you is a .edu site that allows you to post a comment but it eliminates sites that have closed the comments on that post and eliminates sites that require you to log in. Once you get the search results find an appropriate site and add a helpful comment. Substitute .gov for the .edu and follow the same process. It’s that easy!
Finding Blogs and Forums in Your Market Niche
An easy way to find forums and blogs in your niche is to type your “Keyword” + forum or “Keyword” + blog into Google search. For example if your keyword was “carpet cleaning” you would enter carpet cleaning + forums into Google search or carpet cleaning + blogs.
If you have any questions for The Blog Builder Guy leave a comment or email me. Enjoy!
Link Building to Boost Your Blog’s Search Engine Ranking
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You’ve got a great blog with an eye catching template, all the right plug-ins and widgets. Not to mention some killer content including audio, photos and even some video. Excellent! A great blog is…well….great but if no one can find it, it’s not doing you much good.
So how do you get the search engines to love you?
The answer is…. Link Building. It is one of the most important steps a blog builder can take to boost their search engine rankings. This is accomplished by using one way backlinks with the appropriate Anchor Text.
Anchor Text: Anchor text is one of your main keywords that have been converted into a hyperlink to a page on your website. For example, one of my keywords is “blog construction” and it would look like this in a post on a forum or a comment on a blog. Blog Construction. If you click on it you will go to the home page of my site The Blog Builder Guy because I linked the keyword to the site. Always use one of your keywords as your name when you make a blog comment.
So where do you find places to add your links? Below is a list of the easiest places to start.
Forum Posting: find forums related to your niche and place links in the body of the message or in your signature. Make sure your comment contains helpful content and follow the forums rules.
Blog Comments: Post relevant comments on blogs related to your niche. Use your anchor text as your “Name” when filling out the comment info box.
Yahoo Answers: Find questions that are related to your niche and give answers. The resource section allows you to put links to your site.
Social Bookmarking: Bookmark your site on places like StumbleUpon, Digg or Technorati. At the bottom How to Set Goals for Social Media Marketing you’ll find a number of bookmarking sites listed.
Once you have started your backlinks building campaign make sure you stick to a schedule so you can achieve maximum effect. Don’t do all of your linkbuilding on the same day of the week either. Spread it out so it looks more natural to the search engines.
And remember it takes time to build quality backlinks and it takes time for them to have an effect on your ranking. Be patient…remember the turtle and the rabbit story!
WordPress Makes SEO Easy
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photo credit: r0bz Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making your site attract the search engines like a magnet attracts iron. It is part science, part art and maybe a little bit of luck.
The goal is to make sure your blog is high in the search engine rankings for the keywords that you think people will use to find you. And that of course, makes it easy for prospective customers to find you!
WordPress blogs are designed to help make SEO as easy as possible. There are a few simple tasks that you need to do to make sure that your blog setup is optimized.
- Custom Permalinks-customize your permalinks instead of using the default links. The permalink should include a keyword and a category that is also a keyword. See Plugins,Widgets & Permalinks for a detailed explanation of permalinks.
- Text-when writing make sure to include your keywords in your posts. Just make sure that using them is natural and it doesn’t look forced. And don’t overdo them either…one or two mentions is good. It is also a good idea to bold or underline one or two of them. That makes the search engines notice them.
- Post Titles-make your titles as descriptive and attention getting as you can. It is also a very good idea to include your main keyword if possible.
- Page Titles-another great way to insert keywords into the blog.
- Category Names-Guess what? You should use your keywords for your categories too.
- Photos and Video-WordPress makes adding images and video easy. And the search engines love them!
- <ALT>tags- An <ALT> tag provides a description of an image or photo. This is useful for a text-based browser or for screen-reading technology for visually impaired people. The benefit for SEO is that the search engines read the <ALT> tags as keywords. So guess what you should be putting in your <ALT> tag? If you guessed keywords, you’re right!!
So those are a few steps you can take to make the search engines love your blog! As a matter of fact I think I need to make sure all my images have <ALT> tags!
WordPress Resources
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are having problems with your blog setup then check out these helpful sites. There are many more but these are the one I am familiar with.
Forums
WordPress has their own forum: WordPress Forum
WordPress has their own TV show WordPress.tv
A Different WordPress.com Forums WordPress.com Forum
Premium Themes You have to pay for them but they offer much more flexibility. Here are two of the top ones I have found:
IThemes The Blog Builder Guy is built with their Flex Theme
Books:
These are affiliate links…if you buy a book I make some cash.
WordPress For Dummies
WordPress 24-Hour Trainer: Watch, Read, and Learn How to Create and Customize WordPress Sites (Book & DVD)
You can always do a Google search for just about any topic related to WordPress.
And last but not least you can always contact The Blog Builder Guy with any questions.
I hope you found this helpful and if you want to add some resources of your own feel free to put them in a comment!
5 Reasons to Use WordPress for Your Blog
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photo credit: adria.richards
There are a number of blogging platforms out there and they all have their pros and cons. In my opinion WordPress is the best of the lot and here are 5 reasons why. Agree or disagree? Let me know what you think!
1) Hosted and Self-hosted Platforms. The hosted solution puts your blog on WP’s server and it’s free. The self-hosted solution requires you to buy a domain name and get your own hosting account which will cost your some money. But remember the software is free to use.
2) Open Source- Not only is the software free but it is open source. And while no programming skills are needed to use it, because it is open source you can rewrite the code if you are of a geekish bent.
3) Flexible- a great word to describe the WordPress platform because of the large number of plugins that are available. What’s a plug-in? Visit Plugins,Widgets & Permalinks to learn more. The vast majority of plugins are free and there is one for just about every need. There are also specialty plugins which you can purchase.
4) Themes-there are 1000s of themes or a templates available to help your blog setup. And guess what most of them are free. Have you noticed that the word ‘free’ keeps coming up? Free is good!! You can also buy customized themes which allow an even greater degree of flexibility and personalization.
5) Help!! If you need it you can get it just about anywhere online or in the real world. From forums, websites, blogs, free tutorials, online courses (free & paid) to a variety of books at your favorite bookstore, help is available. See this post about WordPress Resources.
There are many more reasons to use WordPress but those are my favorite. If you have a favorite or two let me know!
Your Blog as the Hub of Your Social Media Marketing
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Using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn are a good way to introduce yourself know to the people in your market niche. But, in my opinion, somewhere along the line you should be drawing people to your blog.
As I see the progression, I would start out with Twitter. Why? Because it is quick and easy to set up and start using. It is also easy to find people in your market by using Twitter’s search and trending topics features. Once you have started conservations with people (it is called social networking for a reason…be social!) you can start to ask questions and learn about your market. You need to know what problems they have and what they need to solve them.
Whatever you do don’t start trying to sell your products or services as soon as you open your account! That will turn people off immediately!
Once you have a good idea of what is needed you can start offering advice to your community on how to solve their problems. This along with regular conservations helps to build trust which is essential.
After Twitter comes Facebook. Why? Because Facebook allows you to be more expansive when addressing your market. You aren’t limited to 140 characters for one thing. You can also add audio and video as part of your educating process.
Other social media channels like LinkedIn, YouTube or podcasting can also serve to help establish you as an expert and build trust. But again you should be getting people to visit your blog to learn more about you, your business and how you can help them solve their problems.
Your blog gives you the chance to go into greater depth about all the different facets of your business. You can write posts that offer greater detail on what you do, you can do a video or if you are camera shy you can record a audio presentation. You can even post photos. And because blogs allow comments you can get instant feedback on your posts. Comments also make it easy for people to ask questions and offer suggestions on improving your product or service.
And of course, you can use your blog to lead people to your other social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Podcasts etc.
And finally your blog is an excellent place to direct people to your “money site” whether it be within your blog, another website or a brick and mortar store.
So make your blog the hub of your social media efforts. Use your other social media channels to entice members of your various communities to visit your blog for an in-depth view of what you do and how it can be of benefit to them.
And remember it’s about them not you!
