Blogging for SEO: How to Write Blog Posts That Rank Well A blog can be the most powerful web marketing tool at your disposal, but only if your ideal customers can find it. In this article I’ll show you some simple changes you can make to your own blog that will help increase your search engine visibility, drive more traffic to your blog and generate more leads and sales for your business. Start with keyword-rich topics. Why are blogs such powerful tools for SEO (search engine optimization) and online visibility? Because every blog post you write becomes another web page, and every web page is another opportunity to rank well for a specific search your ideal customer is doing right now. Or in a month. There are a number of ways to generate content ideas for your blog: Turn customer questions into “Dear Abby” style posts.Scour sites like Quora, Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn or other forums where your prospects may be asking questions.Take some keywords that you’d like to rank well for and run them through Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Warning!
Linchpin Bloggers: These 5 Bloggers Are Indispensable To Me | My One Resolution This is just a short list of bloggers I visit nearly every day. These five bloggers have become what I termed “Linchpin Bloggers,” of course inspired by Seth Godin. They are indispensable to me. Every time I read their posts I come away inspired, changed, encouraged, motivated. In short, you need to be reading some of these blogs. 1. Michael Hyatt (michaelhyatt.com) – He has impacted thousands of people around the world, myself included. I’m continually drawn to his blog because he gives you relevant content tat you can put to work in your personal and professional life. 2. Charlie Gilkey (productiveflourishing.com) – I was initially drawn to this site through his free productivity planners. If you need ways to get your creativity and productivity firing together, you’ve got to check this place out and get him on your rss feed list. 3. Leo Babauta (zenhabits.net) - Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. 4. Jeff is a writer, idea guy, and difference-maker.
120 Marketing Tactics for Blogging Success Blogging success can seem like a distant dream when you start out. You aren’t quite sure what to blog about. The choice of technology can be overwhelming. Then learning to use the features and functions of your blogging software is a maze of confusion and confronting choices. What plugins do I choose? Then you start and draft your first post. Then more doubt sets in. How do I write those awesome headlines that will draw attention? Then the killer doubt. Why would anyone want to hear what “I” have to say? So you push past the fears and you hit the publish button. Six months into your blogging journey more nagging fears arise. But world domination is felt to be more a fantasy than reality. Persistence is key This is maybe what you don’t want to hear. It is a matter of keeping the faith in yourself. Press on. My secret sauce recipe So what’s worked for me? What has sustained me and kept me ahead of the blogging curve can be summed up with three words, reading, writing and doing. Curiosity.
20 Ideas for Social Media Content That Engages The cry of “Content is King” has been a rallying call for bloggers and on-line publishers for years. Creating and marketing your content is now as easy as typing text and uploading images and videos and then hitting the publishing button. This has been facilitated by the advent of social networks and blogging software that facilitate fast efficient multi-media publishing. The reality is that everyone is now a publisher as social media has provided easy to use tools which has put a personal printing press in everyone’s hand. We are not only creating but sharing this content on desktops, laptops, ipads and smart phones to our Facebook and Twitter streams. The more engaging the content whether it be video or text the more likely it is to be shared. The “Content” Explosion To put some perspective on the scale of this on-line publishing phenomenon here are some facts and figures Content is what drives people to subscribe to blogs, search on YouTube and play on Facebook. The Thirst for Knowledge 2.
Can Blogging Be Your Secret Weapon For Local SEO? I get called frequently by local companies wanting a quick fix for local rankings. In many cases, they discover that local SEO doesn’t equate with a cheap shortcut to high rankings. Increasingly, local SEO is about ongoing, consistent online promotion activities. That’s where blogging comes in. Good blogging doesn’t have to be a back-breaking enterprise. Why Blogging Is Your Secret Weapon The cool thing is, a great many local businesses still are not blogging, so use of it as a search engine optimization tactic is still something of a secret weapon. Many local businesses in highly competitive categories have already done the straightforward things for optimizing their businesses to rank for local. Since all these businesses are doing essentially the same activities, they end up barely trumping the listings just below them in Google Local search results, and they may be frequently jostling, month after month, for the same slots. Advantages Of Blogging For Local SEO Use WordPress.
Bloggers: 23 Ways to Counter Writer’s Block All of a sudden, your blog seems like a dog biting your heel cap and refusing to let go. You do not have time for yourself, all your research zeal has been exhausted and the topics you want to write on are all water down. They have no juice anymore. (Image source: Fotolia) All bloggers reach their writing limits at one time or the other. When this happens, do not tear your short point notebook. Related: Designers: 5 Tips to Get Back Your Creativity 1. Surprise your readers with a review of a book by a foreign writer. 2. Every day, products are launched across the Internet; from coaching programs to physical products, services to magazines. Follow up on a product that was launched a few years ago and track its performance. 3. Your niche may have its unique propositions but the essence of business is the same across all industries. 4. (Image source: Fotolia) 5. Blogsdrop (coined from eavesdrop) often. 6. Use social media and Google Alerts to find exciting topics to write about. 7. 8. 9.
Twitter Local: How to Geo Target Tweets for Small Business Click Image to read why we need Geographically Targeted Group Blogs Small businesses and bloggers are missing enormous opportunities that can be easily accessed by creating geographically targeted Twitter accounts and blog content. By adding a local component to your social media accounts and blog, or creating accounts specifically to reach a location based audience, your Twitter account becomes far more valuable – for you and others. Any business that operates in a limited geographic area will want to implement these tips as will all bloggers – whether you think this applies to what you are doing or not. Read on to find out WHY your geolocation is your strongest niche. Small businesses probably already realize that a Twitter account with followers scattered around the world is unlikely to increase their local leads or sales. Are you a tiny fish lost in a HUGE ocean? When you are a tiny fish in an enormous ocean of 1000s or 1os of 1000s of Blogs in your niche –
[INFOGRAPHIC] Blogging: 3 Secrets To An A-List Blog Every blogger wants their blog to break through the ever-growing number of blogs to be top in their category. It’s the pot of gold at the end of our blogging rainbow that continues to elude almost everyone of us. This is in spite of how hard we work and out best intentions. The reality is many of us know the necessary components for breaking through, but we don’t know how to put them all together in the most effective way. To take your blog to the next level, here are the three secrets to creating an A-List blog. Here are details explaining the infographic. Connections. Build your network across social media platforms. Content. Craft magnetic headlines. Conversion. Sign up to receive email (or RSS feeds). While you may not become an A-List blogger, following these three secrets, namely connections, content and conversions, will improve your blog and help it to break through. Do you have any other secrets about blogging that you’d like to share? Happy marketing, Heidi Cohen
How to increase your blog following. Just show a little chest is all. I just got this on my Facebook wall: “Hi Kathy, you are my resident expert…I am trying to increase the audience of my new blog, Stepford Husband, do you have any tips or suggestions?” David’s post came with this picture on his blog: Now tell me, if you saw that wouldn’t you follow it? David, David, David, and you’re asking me for help? Ok, ok, so that’s not what you meant, but seriously, you are doing something right, VERY RIGHT, and I don’t think I need to tell you what that is. But I’ll tell you anyway. Satisfy them, then make them hunger for more. It doesn’t matter what your topic or how you present it, if you give your readers (or your voyeurs)… something that moves them (alright, don’t get any ideas),… delights them (now, now),… excites them (uh, oh),… or in any way leaves them with something memorable (oh my),… you’ve reached the pinnacle of success (yow!). This can be an an image, a video, a simple comment, or a treatise. As long as you’ve satisfied them (sorry, mom)… you’re doing it right.
7 Tips to Increase Your Blog Comments Does your blog put out a welcome mat for comments? Would you like more interaction on your blog? There are lots of blogs today, which means that people have many places where they can go to learn new things. If you don’t make people feel welcome, they may read and dash without leaving a comment. Here are 7 ways you can encourage your readers to leave comments. Tip #1: Check your blog comments settings Do you make it easy for someone to leave a comment? That might sound like a crazy question until you look closely at the comments settings available in the two most popular blogging platforms, WordPress and Blogger. Every business has a unique situation, so you need to consider your business blog comments options carefully. So how do you do that? On WordPress blogs: Make it easy for people to comment by only requiring commenters to provide their name and email address. The WordPress comment settings appear on the Discussion Settings page. On Blogger blogs: Tip #2: Ask for comments It’s your blog.