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Category Archives: SEO
All About SEO on WordPress.com
We get a lot of questions about SEO here on WordPress.com, and no wonder — you work hard on your site and want to get the word out! SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO recommendations are intended to help your site rank higher and more accurately in search engines, like Google. Say you write a blog about sailboats. When someone Googles “sailboats,” how many pages of results do they have to scroll through before they see a link to your blog? The goal behind having good SEO is to increase your website’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking.
On the busy internet, it can be tough to make your “sailboat” stand out from all the others.
Ideally, you want your link to be on the first page of results. The best ways to accomplish this are:
- consistently publish useful, original posts about sailboats; and
- promote your blog in intelligent ways to people…
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4 Rules 4 Reposting Others’ Content
One common problem for bloggers is finding time to write fresh content. Yet, keeping a blog fresh is critical. If you’re still building contacts and recruiting collaborators, your blog will likely to have gaps. You might be tempted to re-post a cool piece you read by someone follow. It’s all about editor as curator these days right? Well…
I recently found myself weighing the benefits of original content vs. curation, the manta of “work smarter not harder” ringing in my head. I did some research. It turns out, there are some hard and fast rules to re-posting other bloggers’ works. Here’s what I found.
How to use other people’s content
1. There is no acceptable excuse for plagiarism. You aren’t Robbin Hood and writers and editors aren’t part of the 1 percent. You’re better than that.
2. Courtesy dictates that you ask a writer if you want to re-post their work in its entirety, according to Adam McLane, blogger and author of “A Parents Guide to Understanding Social Media.
3. Rather, choose a couple of sentences that summarize your point. Then, add your own analysis. Consider two paragraphs a maximum to re-post in its entirety.
4. Link back to the original content, of course. And give credit where credit is do.
Original content improves your SEO
“But by re-posting, I’m helping the author by spreading the word,” you might contend. In fact, you could be hurting the content you’re claiming to promote, according to Google’s Matt Cut. As ProBlogger Darren Rowse points out, Google’s algorithm gives bonus points to sites that are the first to publish something. It dings those that merely re-post.
“The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.” — Matt Cutt
Susan Surdan of Social Media 101 Artizone Digital suggests adding an opening and closing paragraphs that tell readers why you think the topic is worth their time. What rules for re-posting do you follow (Tweet @EdInOakland)?
by Ed Carpenter — He’s a bad mutha … shut yer mouth.
3 ways to love your blog and get others to love it too: branding, design, social
Building a better, stronger, faster Web Content Insider blog.
Welcome to Web Content Insider, my revamped blog about, you guessed it, web content best practices. It’s been overhauled for better branding and SEO, and easier sharing via social media. I first rolled out the blog seven months ago, making good on a promise to myself. It was an experiment.
Since then, I’ve connected with dozens of bloggers and industry experts. I hope that’s just the beginning. And every week I learn something new about content marketing, blogging, the use of images and design, and tactics for building readership. It’s exciting. It’s re-energizing. So, in that respect, the blog has been a success.
A blog by any other name
1. The new iteration improves on branding with a more memorable name and imagery carried across multiple platforms.
2. It takes advantage of a simple yet eye-catching and elegant design.
3. It directly links with Google + and Pinterest, expanding on previous connections with Twitter and LinkedIn, for better SEO. That’s in addition to better SEO from a new url and name.
All-in-all, some substantive improvements. Don’t you think? Next up, I plan to devote more energy to recruiting guest contributors from among my industry connections. Ideas include someone in public relations and branding, a graphic designer, a videographer, and, perhaps, a certified Mac expert. What web content topics do you want to know more about? Contact me via the form on the About page or just tweet me.
See you online—
by Ed Carpenter — He’s a bad mutha … shut yer mouth.
4 Reasons @Mentions, Re-tweets, and, #Hashtags are Critical
Click to enlarge.
Feeding your own social media channels is a terrific first step. But don’t stop there. To get the biggest bang for your social media buck, promote your Facebook posts, Tweets, and Pins by friending and following others who have a similar interest or expertise — then mention them.
Why should you bother? Because it can help you in four ways:
1) It improves your search results by populating your social media pages and potentially others with quality links that lead back to your page.
2) It establishes social relationships, which is what social media is about, helping you spread what your message when others like, re-tweet, and re-pin what you share. Mentioning clients, friends, and followers is the surest way to get their attention and engage them.
3) It encourages interaction with your message, as readers view such sharing as a conversation and not a sales pitch.
4) It encourages reciprocal sharing, which can help build your audience.
The social multiplier
Look at how Joe Kuffner at the University of Portland recent used this strategy on the school’s Facebook page, calling out the San Francisco Giants, the University of Portland’s Women’s Soccer Team, and Portland’s professional women’s soccer team. By mentioning the Giants and the Thorns, the post feeds into what others say on their FB pages (unless that feature is blocked) and the teams can choose to highlight share Kuffner’s UP post with their own fans.
The same is true when it comes to mentioning fellow tweeters using their @handle or a commonly searched #hashtag. Followers of those handles or hashtags will see your message and might very well share it and begin to follow you.
by Ed Carpenter — He’s a bad mutha … shut yer mouth.
How Social Can Help Your SEO
During a recent OakTech Talk seminar with Beth Kanter, author of the “Networked Nonprofit,” someone asked whether their nonprofit had to be on social media. Well, you don’t have to do anything. But whether you work for a nonprofit, private university, or small business, you have a valuable message to communicate to clients and customers.
Kanter’s advice: Build your social network. But don’t try to do everything. Strategically choose what’s likely to be most beneficial. Stay with it. Measure it. Learn from what it has to tell you and what questions it raises. Who does your brand engage? What type of content resonates with readers?
Meet your readers where they are
There are many advantages to being on social media, not the least of which is that you can reach readers, clients, customers, and investors where they are—rather than depending on them to find you online. Now a days, being where readers are means better search results. That’s because search engines in recent years began including results from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Driving readers from social media to your site improves your search engine score and improves your rank in the search engine algorithm. The more your social media posts are discussed and shared the better for your search results. So, if your “How Social Can Help Your SEO” post goes viral on Twitter, you can bet Google, Bing, and Yahoo! search will take that into account when someone searches “SEO”—placing your site nearer the top.
by Ed Carpenter — He’s a bad mutha … shut yer mouth.
Web Content Insider 
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