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7 SEO Blogging Mistakes Every Blogger Should Avoid

Doug Williams @ 4:44 am

This blog entry was posted on December 16, 2011.

SEO Blogging is a method of writing blog posts so both the blog post and the target web page gets highly ranked for a specific keyword phrase. It is a keyword focused blogging style that requires linking using keywords as your anchor text (link text) that deep link into your website.

  1. Blog is not topic focused. The blog should be narrowly focused around a central topic. This establishes relevance and also attracts a consistent readership. A blog focused on dog training will attract a readership and consistent traffic. But a blog that talks about dog training, gourmet cooking and how to run a business is unfocused and fails to attract great rankings.
  2. Blog posts are not focused on a single keyword phrase. You will want to select one primary keyword phrase that you will center your entire posting around. This posting is written about SEO blogging. Two common mistakes are either not focusing on any keywords or trying to focus on multiple keywords.
  3. Keyword phrase not used in the posting title. Use your targeted phrase in your posting title. Ideally the title would begin with the keyword phrase. The search engines give high importance to the words in a blog title. Remember that when you craft a blog title, you want to attract readers and satisfy the search engines.
  4. Keyword phrase not used in the body text. Use the keyword phrase 2-3 times in the posting including one time within the first 25 words of your text. With SEO blogging you need to work the keyword phrase into the text.
  5. Keyword not used in the link text. Use your keyword phrase one time within a hyperlink that links to your planned page within your website. Using your keyword phrase in your anchor text is a powerful SEO blogging technique, even when the blog is part of your website.
  6. Duplicate content: Each posting needs to be original, interesting content. Avoid reusing your content with rewriting and updating your post. Duplicate content will be ignored by the search engines.
  7. Dull boring content: Interesting, original content will attract lnks from other bloggers and make your posting more powerful.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



How to Protect Your Blog from Trackback Spam

Doug Williams @ 3:40 am

This blog entry was posted on December 13, 2011.

A trackback is an automated notification that another blog has linked to your blog posting. This feature is found on WordPress, Drupal and Moveable Type blogs. Trackbacks are an automated way to let a fellow blogger know that you are referencing their work. Trackbacks are also usually displayed in the comments section of your blog.

Unfortunately others can easily abuse this trackback feature as a way to get links from your blog to theirs. Trackback spam is a way for web spammers to create backlinks from your blog to their website. This is an unethical practice that you can guard against.

What are your options for controlling trackback spam on WordPress blogs?

Turn it Off: You can simply disable the trackbacks feature (under Settings>>Discussion). Another method is to delete wp-trackback.php from your root directory. You would have to reinstall the file if you ever want to enable trackbacks in the future

Filter Out: There are a couple good plugins that can filter out trackback spam.

  1. Akismet is a service from the creators of wordpress.com to filter out comment and trackback spam. This is free for personal use and a small charge for commercial sites.
  2. The WordPress “Simple Trackback Validation” plugin. This plugin runs a series of simple tests on incoming trackbacks including a verification that a link to your blog exists. This allows your blog to filter out trackback spam.

Keep it Out: The WordPress “Broken Link Checker” plugin allows you to monitor your blog for broken links. Trackback spam may have an initially valid link and then this is quickly removed once they have a link from your blog. This plugin allows you to easily remove broken links from your blog.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



Why I Moved My Blog To Become Part Of My Website

Doug Williams @ 4:44 am

This blog entry was posted on September 6, 2011.

“Adding a blog to your website is the best way to build up the search rankings of your website on Google and to attract targeted visitor traffic.”Doug Williams February 2010. It is much better than having your blog on a separate website.

I finally followed my own advice just 3 weeks ago. I started my own blog on webdesignseo.com 4-1/2 years ago. At that time I thought it would be more powerful to have a separate blog that I could then link to my website with and that would best help get more traffic to my website.

What happened was that my blog became very popular and attracted all sorts of traffic, but not my website. I developed a great following; so much so, I was reluctant to move the blog for fear I would lose my audience.

In June of this year, I decided to revamp my website to focus on SEO and traffic strategies and then combine my blog onto my website.

In mid-August my new website went live. I relocated my blog and its over 4 years of content to dougwilliams.com/blog (not a subdomain) so my entire website would benefit from the natural link attraction of my blog. A did a 301 redirect from webdesignseo.com (my old blog URL) to eliminate the possibility of duplicate content.

After just 3 weeks I am seeing the traffic to my new blog location is the same as my separate blog. My overall website traffic is up 400%. Rankings for my targeted keywords are improving very quickly and even better, I am seeing regular conversions (form request for quotes) from my website.

My only regret is why I didn’t do this sooner. More on blog marketing services.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



Turn Your Website into a Selling Machine

Doug Williams @ 8:44 am

This blog entry was posted on March 13, 2011.

Marketing with your website is less about technology and more about marketing. A website that produces sales is much more than a great looking design.

Know Your Customer: Do you understand why your visitor is coming to your site? What problem are they looking to solve? Your goal is to present a website that clearly solves their issue. You want to present the solution to their problem on your home page so that they can understand it with in the first 2-3 seconds of arriving.

Encourage Action: Create a solution to your visitor’s problem. Make it visible, clear and compelling on your home page. Design a selling sequence with a clear path to action. Take the time to answer the unasked questions. Design trust elements into your website to lessen their fears and show that you are indeed a trustworthy solution.

Engage Them: It is hard to create a lasting impression in a single encounter. Devise a way to interact with visitors on an ongoing basis. Use opt-in newsletters or have an interactive blog on your site. Add social reviews to your products you sell. Add in online surveys, email marketing, links to subscribe to your Twitter, Facebook or your blog feed.

Get Traffic: Decide where your traffic is going to come from before your website is launched. This could be Paid ads such as Adwords, organic SEO, social media, email marketing or some other search engine marketing method. The important thing is to bring qualified and interested prospects to your site.

Keep Improving: Measure the results of your website strategy, setup a measurement system such as Google Analytics. Establish your key metrics that constitute success and then chart these on a regular basis so you can see your progress.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



Is Leaving Comments on Blogs Still a Valid Marketing Practice?

Doug Williams @ 5:54 am

This blog entry was posted on February 3, 2011.

Leaving comments on other people’s blogs is a long time practice to get links and traffic. Does this still work? Or is this now an old practice that no longer works?

Blog comments are read by others, particularly if they are well written, specific and give some contribution in the blog conversation. Best practice in leaving a comment is to begin with positive feedback about the posting. Then follow up with an in depth explanation of why you agree or disagree with a specific part of the posting. This adds value and depth to the blog.

Benefits of blog commenting

  1. Referral traffic: You will receive direct click throughs to your website from people that found what you said interesting. If you leave comments on interesting and well written posts, you will be rewarded with a long term flow of traffic.
  2. Link Popularity: You will receive credit for back links if the blog you are leaving comments on has “do-follow” links in their comment section. Leave a single link with keyword anchor text. Avoid leaving a spammy type comment or it is unlikely to be approved by the blog moderator.
  3. Branding: Create awareness and relationships with the blogging world by contributing and participating. It takes a consistent and regular commenting on blogs for your market niche to become aware and interested in what you have to say.

Blog commenting is still a valid and free way to market your business.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



Start 2011 By Doing Your Own 5 Step Website Tune-up

Doug Williams @ 6:48 am

This blog entry was posted on December 29, 2010.

Your website should be reviewed and tuned up to maximize traffic and conversions at least once per year. Take into account those things that have changed in your business and in how SEO should be applied to your site.

  1. Keyword Phrases: Has there been a change in how people search for the services you provide? Has your business changed? What have you added or deleted? Redo your keyword research and prepare a new plan.
  2. Update website: Make changes to your website to reflect changes that have happened in your business. Add new pages and delete those that no longer apply. Your website appears more credible if you keep it updated and current.
  3. Conversions: When visitors arrive, are you asking them to take a specific action? This could be to sign up to your email list, to request a quote or request your free offer? Make it visible and prominent on your home page. Set-up your analytics to measure your conversion rate. Remember optimization of your website means getting more traffic and getting that traffic to take action.
  4. Update On-page SEO: One of the big changes that happened in 2010 was Yahoo is now displaying Bing results instead of their own. Search is now reduced to a 2-horse race. Yahoo-Bing SEO places a high priority on visibly using keywords on your pages. This means Title Tags, H1’s, body text and links to internal pages.
  5. Back Links: Getting inbound links from other websites is extremely important to getting good rankings from Google and important for Bing / Yahoo. Create a strategy for obtaining links or use a backlinking service. These backlinks should include keywords in the anchor text and you should have a steady flow of these new links… search engines monitor your link acquisition rate.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



7 Ways to Promote Your Local Business on the Web

Doug Williams @ 2:51 pm

This blog entry was posted on December 27, 2010.

Your customers no longer use the Yellow Pages or Newspapers to find places to buy from. They use the web. If you need pizza for dinner, you will Google it… probably from your phone.

What should a small local business do to promote themselves on the Internet?

  1. Website: Every business today needs a website. Your website needs to answer the questions that your customers are searching for. What are your hours? Where are you located? If you are a restaurant, they will expect to see a copy of your menu. Use your website as your foundation for your Internet Marketing.
  2. Mobile site: Create a small screen version of your website that is easily viewed on a phone. The mobile web is the high growth area for local business web marketing. Use an automatic switcher script so the mobile version of your website is presented when viewed on a mobile phone.
  3. Google Places: Sometimes called the Google Map listing or Google 7-pack listing. Listings are free for any business; you will just need a local business address and local phone number. Fill out your listing completely including business hours. You can choose multiple business categories. You do not need a website in order to have a Google Places listing. More on 7-Pack optimization.
  4. Local Directory Listings: Submit your business to as many directory listings as possible. These should range from online yellow pages to hundreds of other directories. Some will be free and some will be paid. Find ones that are relevant to your market niche.
  5. Local SEO:”Localize” your website by combining broad keyword phrases such as “homes for sale” (if you are a realtor) and local geographic modifiers. These geographic modifiers are city, state, zip code or local land marks. Show cities or neighborhoods you serve, include local phone numbers and include your business address.
  6. Email: Build up your email list by including an email capture on your home page. Offer announcement of sale prices and coupons to people who register. Email marketing should always be opt-in subscribers.
  7. SMS Marketing: Market your business over the mobile web. Use SMS marketing (Short Message Service or texting) to reach interested prospects in your local area. More than 90% of mobile phone owners read all text messages they receive including those sent by businesses.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing,Local Search



7 Ways to Promote Your New Blog

Doug Williams @ 4:30 am

This blog entry was posted on December 7, 2010.

You have a new blog and now you want to attract people to read it. How do you start?

  1. Ping Update Services: Every time a new blog is posted, RSS feeds send out a small text file or ping to the web with the title of the blog posting, the first 25 words and where the blog can be found. You should configure your blog to send these pings out to all these update services. List of ping update services.
  2. Use keywords: Before you start blogging, select a topic that your best customers will find interesting. Prepare a list of keywords from your topic that you can use in your posting titles, links and in your content. Keyword research tips.
  3. Focused content: Blogging is not about selling, it is about educating and engaging readers with thought provoking writings. Start by creating a one page plan that includes your audience, topic and keywords you want to focus on. Use your plan to keep your writing focused. Write original and interesting posts to keep people returning. Blog writing tips.
  4. Commenting: Be active in reading other related blogs in your niche. Leave comments regularly with your blog URL. Make your comments interesting and insightful. Some of the readers of that blog will follow the link you leave and then read your blog.
  5. Forums: Participate in online forums as an expert. You get to promote your business “quietly” in your signature line. Include the URL to your blog.
  6. Social Networks: Set up profiles at popular social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace , etc. Include the URL of your blog.
  7. Email signatures: Include a signature in every email that you send that includes your company name and website URL.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



What Demographic is Your Website Attracting?

Doug Williams @ 5:30 am

This blog entry was posted on November 5, 2010.

Does your website attract the right visitor demographic? Understanding your targeted audience that is most likely to purchase what you offer is very important. Just because visitors are coming to your site does not mean they are qualified prospects.

You use various tools to measure who is coming to your site. You can even predict who you will attract based on the keywords you are targeting.I will use this blog as an example of what you can learn using these tools.

Google Analytics: Here I can learn a little about where my visitors are coming from. 87% of my visitors are new vs. returning. 62% come from Google organic searches, 15% directly enter the URL (bookmarks?) and 6% are referrals from Google.com. 47% come from the US, 10% from the UK and 8% come from India. 3.5% of the people read my blog from a mobile device with the iPhone being the dominant device being used.

Alexa.com: Here I can profile my audience. My blog is most read by 35-44 age group. Women make up a slightly greater percentage than men. They generally have some college education and will tend to read the blog from work rather than home.

I would be interested in what other tools my readers use in analyzing a website… Please leave comments.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



Why Blogging is the Ultimate Business Marketing Tool

Doug Williams @ 4:39 am

This blog entry was posted on September 16, 2010.

Blogs are a powerful way for businesses to reach and interact with potential customers. Blog marketing is an educational based marketing where you share your opinions, your expertise and your advice. Blogs are not about selling; they are for branding and interacting. Blogs work best when they are added to your website.

The job of your blog is to attract readers. In addition, blogs are a natural link magnet that attracts inbound links if you write interesting, original and engaging posts. Bloggers will then carry these conversations back to their own blogs and of course they will reference your blog posting with a back link.

Blogs are active while websites are passive. Blogs broadcast their content out to the web via RSS every time there is something new. Websites, on the other hand, wait to be discovered by search engine spiders. It’s like the difference between fishing and hunting. You can sit and wait for fish, or you can actively hunt and pursue.

Businesses that blog get more website traffic, more inbound links to their website and have more indexed pages on their website. This is according to a Hubspot study. All these are powerful indicators of a successful business website.

Blog marketing gives businesses other tangible results. Blogs build your brand awareness and build you as an authority in your market. Blogs build rapport with your audience and build a relationship of trust. This makes you the natural person they seek for help.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



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