How To Get Dynamic Traffic to Your Blog Where to Put Keywords in Your Blog Posts-Part 2

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog

Greetings, boomer bloggers. This is Ron Whitaker, Guest Blogger, with part 2 of your series on keywords.

If you remember, last week I discussed the basics of keyword research.

Here’s a quick review:

If you remember my example from last week, I said that if you and I were having a discussion about my trip to Flagstaff, Arizona, throughout our discussion, you’d definitely hear me mention words like Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona, and Northern Arizona University.

I wouldn’t mention or discuss Paris, Eiffel Tower, or the Berlin Wall. Those words simply have nothing to do with Flagstaff!

Easy enough, yeah?

OK. So if you’re writing a brilliant blog post, where do you actually put the keywords or key phrases so that the search engines can find them and determine what your blog post is about so that it can be ranked well for that keyword or key phrase?

Well, that’s the point of today’s lesson. Let’s get started!

You asked for it…you got it!

Here’s where you’re going to need to place your keywords for best SEO practices.

Drum roll, please!

1. Page Title
2. Body text headers
3. Within links
4. Within the content
5. ALT Tags
6. Meta Description tag
7. File names
8. Domain name

Ta-da! There you have it.

Now, let’s discuss each one.

Page Title

What’s the page title?

If you’re familiar with HTML, the scripting language used to design web pages, the title of a website is found between the <title></title> tags.

And where is the title of the web page found?

Right here:

Title in browser

Take a moment and look at the very top of your browser. In Firefox, my browser of choice, it’ll be at the very top within the blue bar.

THAT’s the title. And it’s a critical place to include your keywords!

Now, do you need to know HTML and modifying the tag for each blog post?

The good news is no! Thankfully.

If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, there’s a little trick you can use to get your keywords into your title.

Here’s how:

Log in to your WordPress admin page.

Under the Settings menu item along the left side of your screen, select Permalinks.

On the Permalinks Settings page, within the Common Settings section, select Post name.

Permalinks settings

When you choose this option, the next time you create a blog post, the title you enter in the Edit Post screen will become the title of your blog post within browsers.

Edit blog post

Very clever…and helpful! (Thank you, WordPress!)

Body Text Headers

As you’re creating your content, it’s always a good idea to break it up.

How?

With headers.

For example, the headers so far in this blog post are “Where to place keywords revealed,” “Page Title,” and this section, “Body Text Headers.”

Not only is it a nice way of breaking up the text, especially if you’re publishing a long blog post, but it’s also a great place to include your keywords!

How do you include a header?

Here’s where some research into “H” tags will come in handy.

Within links

Here’s another great place to put some keywords: within links!

As you write your blog post, there may be times when you need to link either to another blog post on your own site, or to another site completely.

When including links in your post, go ahead and put a keyword in the link that relates to the post you’re writing, as well as the page you’re linking to.

Within the content

This one’s a no-brainer!

The most obvious place you want to include your keywords is within the content of the blog post itself!

Tip: When planning and writing your blog post, you don’t need to write the keyword in the exact same manner every time.

As an example, as I planned and wrote a post on relieving caregiver stress through journaling, the key phrase I determined I would use was “relieving caregiver stress.”

Along with that, I used a variation: “relieve caregiver stress.” I also used the phrase “caregiver stress” which also provides a good clue to search engines as to the intent and focus of this post.

The takeaway here is that once you’ve determined your keyword or key phrase, come up with some slight variations as well. Don’t worry, search engines like Google are smart enough to figure out what your post is about.

What do you do if you want to post a video?

That’s fun!

First, determine what topic you’re going to cover in your video. And yes, that’ll include determining a keyword you want to focus on.

Second, shoot your video.

Third, once you’ve finished your video and are ready to publish it, go through the video (or have someone else do it) and transcribe it.

Then put the video transcript beneath the video when you publish.

As an example, I wanted to let my potential customers know the focus and purpose of my website. I also determined that I wanted to present it in a fun video.

I decided that the keywords I wanted to concentrate on were what boomers can do with all the “stuff” they’ve ended up with.

So, I created the video, uploaded it to WordPress, then transcribed the video with the content used, which of course included the keywords.

Remember, Google can’t “grab” onto the content within a video. But, it can grab and index the text on a blog post.

Hence, the video transcription below the actual video is a great way to do this!

ALT Tags

What are ALT tags?

In a nutshell, ALT tags are found within <img> tags. The <img> tag is the tag you use to place an image within a blog post or on a static web page.

Mouse over any of the images I’ve used so far in this blog post. Let it sit there a second and you’ll notice text pop up near the mouse pointer.

This is a result of the ALT tag used in the <img> tag.

The good news is, you don’t necessarily need to know how to insert an <img> tag within your blog post.

Here’s what you can do:

The simplest way to insert an image into your blog post is to first place your cursor where you want the image to appear, then click the Add Media button located right above the text box where you write your blog post.

Add Media within Add New Post

If you haven’t already, upload your image(s).

Select the one you want to insert into your post.

Notice at the right something similar to the following:

Editing image in WordPress

At the top is a thumbnail of the image. But it’s the section below that we’re interested in.

Two entries specifically—Title and Alt Text—are our new BFFs!

Simply enter a phrase—with your keywords, if it works—into each of these text boxes and WordPress will do the rest for you!

Meta Description Tag

Have you ever read those little descriptions below the title of a Google search result? Perhaps an image would better illustrate (pun intended!). Check out the chunks of text in red below.

Google SERPs

Those chunks of text come from the Meta Description tag.

If you manually entered it into your blog post, it would look something like this:

<meta name=”description” content=”This is an example of a meta description. This will often show up in search results.”>

Don’t worry, there’s a MUCH easier way to enter the text you want to be included in the meta description of your post. Please see The Best SEO Plugin Ever section at the end of this post.

For now, just know that putting your keywords in this section is a boon for you and those searching on your keywords.

File Names

What file name makes more sense as far as search engine optimization goes?

1) http://www.domainname.com/blog/?p=3234

or

2) http://www.domainname.com/blog/10-steps-to-easy-keyword-research/

Without question, option #2!

Why?

Simply put, it’s got your keyword in it?

So, how do you get your keywords into the name of the file?

Again, thanks to WordPress, it’s a snap!

Remember this image from the Page Title section above?

Edit blog post

Notice the second arrow pointing to the Permalink line. The cool thing is that whatever you enter in your title not only will be entered as the title of your post, and therefore appear at the top of your browser, but it will also become the filename of the blog post itself.

So, if I’m writing a blog post titled “How to write a blog post” based on the image above, the file and URL of the blog post will look something like this:

http://www.domainname.com/blog/how-to-write-a-blog-post

How nifty is that?

Don’t forget, you’ll need to go into the Permalinks section of your WordPress admin and set Common Settings to Post name. See the Page Title section above.

Domain Name

Not sure what a domain name is?

The following are domain names:

www.microsoft.com
www.marthastewart.com
www.oprah.com
www.usa.gov

Sometimes it can be challenging to get your keywords into your domain name. As an example, look at eBay.

Granted, eBay is now a brand, but before it came onto the scene, I doubt many people were searching for the word eBay.

If possible though, your domain name can be a fantastic place to include a keyword.

The Best SEO Plugin Ever

OK. If keeping track of all the above seems a bit overwhelming, well, it is!

But, there’s some smart guys over at Yoast who’ve created this amazing plugin for WordPress. It’s called WordPress SEO, and I HIGHLY recommend you install it in your WordPress admin and use it!

It makes all this keyword stuff so much easier!

Once installed, the Yoast plugin will appear below the text box where you enter and write your blog posts.

Here’s what it looks like:

WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin interface

You’ll notice four tabs at the top of the WordPress SEO by Yoast section: General, Page Analysis, Advanced, and Social.

For this blog post, I’m just going to concentrate on the General tab.

When I first enter the Add New screen to write a blog post, the first thing I do is scroll down to the Yoast plugin section and enter my keyword into the text box next to Focus Keyword. Notice here a sample from my own blog. The keyword I was focusing on was “sandwich generation.”

From there, it’s pretty much downhill!

The Snippet Preview shows what your search result will look like in Google.

One of my favorite features appears below the Focus Keyword text box. Once you enter your keyword, Yoast will show you how many times your keyword was found within the Article Heading, Page Title, Page URL, Content, and Meta Description.

How awesome is that!

You now know exactly where the keyword has been placed and how many times it was found.

Remember above in the Meta Description section I referred you to this section? Here’s why:
Notice at the bottom of the Yoast plugin the Meta Description entry? All you have to do here is enter your description—using your keyword?and bam! It’s all done for you. Yoast will enter it automatically into your blog post.

Well, that is it for this week’s blog post and where to place your keywords for best search engine results.

Next week we’ll discuss how to be popular!

How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog Pt. 1

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series How To Get Dynamic Traffic To Your Blog

Enjoy this powerful series by Guest Blogger Ron Whitaker

Keyboard

Image courtesy of winnond/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

OK, folks, history lesson time!

Back in the 1800s American humorist Josh Billings made the following famous quote (actually, a little rhyme!): “I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace,  but the wheel that does the squeaking is the one that gets the grease.

Just FYI, in the 1800s, the word “kicker” meant someone who was a constant complainer.

Now, I’m not saying that all of you are complainers, but if you’re a blogger who is frustrated with a lack of traffic to your blog, you just might be a kicker! (Wow! That was so Jeff Foxworthy!)

OK, so let’s learn how to be the squeaky wheel when it comes to our blogs and getting better traffic.

In this blog post, I’m going to show you the basics of how to improve your ability to get found in the search engines using keywords and phrases.

In Part 2, we’ll discuss “where” to include those keywords.

Then in Part 3 we’ll learn some strategies [guest posting, guest commenting, link building] to get your blog in front of larger audiences.

How I Learned About All This Blogging Stuff

Back in early 2009, when I was a caregiver for my mother, I decided that at some point I wanted to start and run my own website. Now, I had a lot of web design experience, having been a web designer since 1996.

I didn’t know what type of website I was going to launch, or what my service or product would be, but I knew I wanted to start my own website at some point down the road.

Fortunately, I had a good friend, Darrell, who had a lot of experience starting and running websites.

One day, as I was speaking to him about my desire to start my own website, he told me that I would need to do SEO.

What’s SEO, I asked?

Searching Engine Optimization.

What’s that?

He explained that it included certain steps you take so that when someone was searching for a particular keyword or keyphrase, your website would rank highly in search engines, such as Google.

I suddenly realized that I had a lot of studying and learning to do before I even thought of moving forward with my venture!

So, I began studying.

And studying.

And studying…

…my brains out!

As I began studying the topic of SEO, I learned that you need to do something called “keyword research” and then implement those keywords into your content.

That’s the start of how to get traffic to your blog!

But there’s more!

What are keywords and how do I implement them in my blog posts?

Good question!

If you and I were having a conversation, and I was telling you about my trip to Flagstaff (Arizona), I would mention things like Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona, Northern Arizona University, the Arboretum at Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona, etc.

You wouldn’t hear me mention terms like Paris, Eiffel Tower, Wall of Berlin, Germany or the Louvre.

Those terms simply have nothing to do with Flagstaff!

So it is with our blog posts.

We need to focus on one (maybe two) ideas in each post.

And those ideas are communicated through words.

And we focus those ideas through what are known as keywords.

That way readers, as well as search engines like Google, know what the blog post’s focus is.

Starting a keyword research campaign

So, how do you get started?

Well, before writing a blog post, or even before launching your website, determine what the focus of the website or blog post will be.

Think about what words or phrases someone would use in a search engine that would lead someone to your site or blog post.

For example, when I started my website, a venue for baby boomers to list and sell “stuff” as they downsize, I considered words and phrases that people would enter into a search engine.

Woman sitting at computer

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Phrases like “baby boomers,” “buy and sell,” and “selling stuff” came to mind.

Just as a tip, come up with longer worded phrases, as opposed to single word keywords.

Why?

As another example, if I have a website that sells t-shirts, trying to get the search engines to rank highly for the word “t-shirt” is going to be difficult.

First, it’s too broad of a term.

Second, it’ll be way too competitive.

Instead, consider a phrase like “red polo t-shirts.”

It’ll be less competitive and probably will be easier to rank in the search engines.

How do I know if anyone’s even searching on that phrase?

That’s where some online tools come in handy.

Once you’ve made a list of all the keyword phrases you can think of, take them to an online keyword research tool.

What’s that?

Keyword research tools show you how many people are searching for that word or phrase in search engines, as well as how competitive that keyword is. By competitive, I mean how many other websites are already using and ranking for that particular keyword.

Google offers a great keyword research tool. And best of all, it’s free!

You can find the Google keyword research tool by clicking this link.

Google Keyword Research Tool

Once you arrive at the keyword research tool page, simply enter your keyword into the “Word or phrase” box.

After you click the Search button, a list appears below, showing keyphrases based on your “seed” keyword.

The Competition column shows how competitive that keyword will be to rank for.

The Global Monthly Searches column shows the amount of searches performed worldwide on that keyword or keyphrase.

Google Keyword Research Tool Results

The Local Monthly Searches column shows the amount of searches performed locally on that keyword or keyphrase. Locally is based on the country you chose in the Advanced Options and Filters section above. The default is United States.

Google’s keyword research tool is a great free tool. There are also keyword research tools that come with a fee.

One of the best ones out there, and the one I use, is called Market Samurai. It’s an excellent tool, relatively inexpensive, that will definitely help you get laser focused with your keyword research.

The owners of Market Samurai also provide excellent training videos as well to help you get started with using their product.

Summary

If you’ve ever wondered how to get traffic to your blog, the foundation lies in the keywords you use.

In this post we learned that keywords are essential to showing viewers the focus of our websites and blog posts.

We learned that to focus a blog post on a particular topic, we need to discover which keywords will be the best, yet not too competitive, to include in a post.

We also learned that there are some excellent tools out there, such as Google’s Keyword Research tool, and Market Samurai, that can make the process of discovering quality keywords easier.

So, where do we go once we’ve discovered a keyword or phrase that we want to use in a blog post?

That’s next week’s topic.

Stay tuned!

Kids Health, Womens’ Health and RSS

CDC has done an awesome job explaining the concept of RSS while sharing cutting edge information on health. This is a post that shares the link to the RSS feeds for Women and Kids health. But included is one of the very best explanations of RSS feeds I have ever read.

Check out this post and subscribe to the health feeds! You Go CDC!

PS note that there are also some cool podcasts on the site.

Thinking about Guest Authors on Your WordPress Blog?

Are you thinking about making someone a guest blog author on your wordpress blog? This question recently came up and although I have made folks guest bloggers by inserting their articles I never gave anyone access to my site to be a guest blogger.

So, I decided to re-check the roles and capabilities for users on the WordPress.org platform. Here is a quick summary.

Wow, we should have more discussions like this, Thanks Wendy, Heidi and Claudia

Working with training blog teams for work I have made some of them Editors and others Admin
I am including the list of levels in this email and their access level. There is a caution, however, about giving folks levels that allow them to see email addresses from folks who submit comments. That includes EDITOR AND ADMINISTRATOR LEVELS

  • When you make someone a CONTRIBUTER 
  •  they can:

    Upload files
  • Write/edit/manage their own posts and save as a draft to await administrator approval. THEY CANNOT PUBLISH THEIR OWN POSTS
    This appears to be a good  level for folks who are new authors on your site. They can post directly to the site but your administrators must approve the drafts and publish. You can also control the timing of the posts according to your editorial calender.

When you make someone an AUTHOR they can:

All the same permissions as a CONTRIBUTER but they can PUBLISH their own posts. They can also delete their own posts all without Administrative approvals. This is great for seasoned authors.

When you make someone an EDITOR they can:

Do all the things a CONTRIBUTOR AND AUTHOR can do PLUS they can moderate comments, manage categories, manage all links for blog roll, edit pages,edit other folks posts as well as read and edit private posts.
Did I hear someone out there say, “I did not know you could make posts private”. Well yes, you can, but that is another discussion. You can also make them password protected. Or use a cool plug in called EXCLUDE to omit that page from the search engines. I use strategies like this a lot to send folks to a page after a workshop. It is so cool to say “here is your special password.”

Finally,the ADMINISTRATOR,
They can do everything. But caution about making too many Chiefs. They also can change themes, mess with your code and change passwords.
Hope this
helps

 

Blog Talk 6- What is a Host?

A host is like an apartment building. Your website is one of the apartments in the building. Hence you pay rent to the apartment building.

Also, a host is like the host or hostess of a party. They provide the food, accommodations and all the right food to make your event a success. When you have any questions you always ask the host. The same is true with the host for your website. It should provide the services you need and quick, speedy access to help when you need it.

If you want information on some decent hosts that we use check out the Resource page.

A host is really a service that gives you space on the internet for your website to live.

Blog Talk-3-Categories

Categories organize the stuff you write in your blog. Actually many folks can relate to a category like the chapters in a book. Ah, does that mean you could blog your book easily by managing your categories? Ummm

Here is some talk about categories given by WordPress.(08)

“Each post in WordPress is filed under one or more Categories. This aids in navigation and allows posts and to be grouped with others of similar content.

Each Category may be assigned to a Category Parent so that you may set up a hierarchy within the Category structure. In creating Categories, recognize that each Category Name must be unique. Thus, even if two Categories have two different Parents, they must still have different names.

Links to your Categories are, by default, shown in two different places on your blog (assuming you are using the WordPress Default 1.6 Theme “Kubrik” theme). First, WordPress lists these Category as links in your sidebar. Second, WordPress shows all the Categories to which a given post belongs under that post. When someone viewing your blog clicks on one of these Category links, an archive page with all the posts belonging to that Category, will be displayed.

This SubPanel allows you to create new Categories, edit or delete existing ones, and organize your Categories hierarchically.”

Ok, more talk on that in the next post. Now let’s see what Blogger has to say:

“When you’re writing a post, you’ll have a space at the bottom of the form marked “Labels for this post.” Enter whatever labels you like, separating them with commas. You can also click the “show all” link to display a list of labels you’ve used previously. Then just click on the labels to add them.

When you publish your post, the labels will be listed with it. Clicking any of the labels will take you to a page containing only posts with that label.”

Peter from Dummies Guide to Google Blogger, wrote an interesting tutorial on adding labels to Blogger blogs. Check it out here.

Finally the blog coaches over at Blog Whispering, shared some interesting insights for beginning bloggers. Check in out also right here.

More talk on categories next time, but a wee bit deeper.

PS I put this post under Blogging Basics and Blogging Terms.

SEO For Your Blog! From The Word Press Wizard Weekly

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was the topic of the Word Press Weekly by Cathy Perkins last week. I am listening to it now by mp3 because I missed it. I am so excited about the meat she shared that I had to post about it on this site.

She gives you the information of changing your permalinks, making your titles keyword rich and doing alt tags in wordpress. NOW THAT IS GOOD STUFF! I actually understood what she was talking about without my eyes glazing over. Plus she is funny so it is entertaining. She says”It’s not good to fool mother Google” HA!

She is doing another session tomorrow for only 30 minutes. So, if you are able do yourself a a big favor and check it out. Here is the site.  

PS SHE HAS ALL THE PAST MP3’S AVAILABLE ON THE S ITE ALSO, LISTEN NOW!

Do You Recall What a Type of Blog is Called a Blawg?

A BLAWG is a blog about legal topics and issues. I saw a great one today that was referenced by Debra Shiveley Welch. Best Selling Author of “Son of My Soul – The Adoption of Christopher,” “A Very Special Child – An Adoption Story” – co-author “Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams”
The site is LLRX.

I am especially impressed with their librarian resources which include:

* Competitive Intelligence
* Government Resources
* Information Management
* Law Library Management
* Presentation Skills
* 9/11 News & Legal Resources
So go pay a visit. You can also submit relevant articles to the site.

What is the Difference between a Blog Search Engine and Blog Directory? New Blogging Boomers Want to Know

There is a big difference between a blog search engine and a blog directory. I know most of you reading this have experienced using both but for those new blogging boomers I thought this explanation might be helpful.

A blog search engine’s main focuses on finding blog entries that match specific keywords and blog entries that link to whatever website addresses are entered by the person doing a search. Search engines use spiders and bots to get Web pages and software programs to get listings indexed. However, blog directories are predominately run and maintained by human beings.

“Now wait a minute”, someone is saying, “what in the world is a “bot” and “spider?” Well, I am glad you asked. The Wikepedia definition of a bot is:

Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human editor alone. The largest use of bots is in web spidering in which an automated script fetches, analyses and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Each server can have a file called robots.txt, containing rules for the spidering of that server that the bot is supposed to obey.

In addition to their uses outlined above, bots may also be implemented where a response speed faster than that of humans is required (e.g., gaming bots and auction-site robots) or less commonly in situations where the emulation of human activity is required, for example chat bots.

Special note: If you host your blog yourself many of the hosts will provide a statistical breakdown of traffic to your blog that includes the activity of those spiders and robots traveling around your site.

Now let’s go back to blog directories and blog search engines. It is important to note that blog search engines have huge databases. Whereas, blog directories do not have such a huge database.

Special note: Some of the blog directories like Dmoz.org use human editors to help index the blogs submitted. If you are a boomer blogger with editing skills this is a great opportunity. Usually the sites will have a place for you to make inquiries.

If would probably help if I share some examples of blog search engines and directories. Many of you have probably heard the names. If I said blogcatalog, blogwise or bloggernity do they sound familiar? Well they are all blog directories. Of course I am only scratching the surface. There are lots of them.

If would probably help if I share some examples of blog search engines and directories. Many of you have probably heard the names. If I said blogcatalog, blogwise or bloggernity do they sound familiar? Well they are all blog directories. Of course I am only scratching the surface. There are lots of them.

Examples of blog search engines are Google’s Blogsearch and BlogSearchEngine. But once again there are others worthy of exploration.

Well, I hope that helps it sure helps me to share it with you.

Rosie

 

What is an Event Blog?

Now an event blog is usually temporary. It is set up to promote an upcoming event. Those events may include a concert, trade conferences, etc. Many times someone in the event may blog reports about the event proceedings from their laptops while at the event. Sometimes they are left as an archive after the event or sometimes they are taken down.

The exciting thing about this kind of blogging is that you can use it a a wonderful marketing tool.

Now think about it, do you have an event your organization or business is planning for the future? Consider setting up a blog. Surprise the non-boomers with this innovative idea.

Click here for an example of an event that is over but archived for reference.

Sometimes a corporation will take a chance on an event blog before they venture out to do a business blog. So much is based on the readiness or understanding of the organization or business about blogs.

Click here to see a tech conference event blog.  Most of the coverage was done in video which makes sense for a tech conference.

Have fun! Give it a try.

Rosie