It is important that the bloggers follow a certain set of techniques to ensure that their content gets more visibility through search engines.

SEO Tactics 

In the blogosphere jargon, the SEO techniques for blogs are basically divided into two categories: on-page and off–page.

On-Page Techniques

These are the techniques which a blogger needs to implement while building a blog. Here we discuss the top 10 on-site techniques a blogger can follow.

1. Primary keyword and Domain Name- It is important to ensure that the blogs URL contain the primary keyword in question. You can also use the concerned keyword in the subdomains. For instance, if you are planning to start a pregnancy info site, then the primary keyword your URL should carry is the word ‘pregnancy’ .e.g. www.pregnancyknowledge.com

2. Primary keyphrase and title- Going by the example above, the words pregnancy and knowledge should appear in the blog headers such as H1 and H2 tags as should the title of each of your posts.

3. Keyword rich body of the post – Using secondary keywords in the body of the post frequently ensures the relevance of the page for someone searching with those keywords. However, repetition in excess might cause the Google bots to remove your site from the index.

Besides, avoid using duplicate content on multiple pages and maintain optimal length of your posts.

4. Anchor text of links – The primary and secondary keywords should be used often in the anchor text links when linking to the other blog posts or to other pages of the blog. Keywords placed in the links are more valuable than those in the simple text.

5. Themed clutters – The chances get better if you have a substantial amount of pages on a similar theme. It is advisable to keep a topic/niche or a theme for your blog.

6. Navigation bar – Another major tip is to ensure that the navigation bar is present on all the pages of your blog. This will make it very convenient for the search engines to spider your blog. Besides, the previous popular posts should be linked to all the pages.

7. Consistency- You need to maintain consistency in updating your blog to get top rankings in a shorter duration.  You also need to keep your domain name and the topic selected for your blog same throughout or else you will end up losing readership and traffic.

8. Domain registration – It helps to register your domain name for a lengthy period as this also influences how the search engines react to your site.

9. Ping – Use services that will ping a variety of websites for you and notify them that you’ve updated your content. In this manner, the search engines will also come to know of the updates, thus to your advantage.

10. Submit to Search Engines – After you’ve taken all possible steps to make your content search engine friendly, make sure you submit your URL to be included in the index for the search engine to know of your presence.

Off-Page Techniques

Off-page techniques are those that function from outside the site and are beyond the blogger’s control, but it’s important to be aware of these.

• Obtain backlinks- The most prominent and powerful technique is to try and obtain as many backlinks as you can. To build pagerank and to get your blog rank higher in search engines, you need to get as many links as possible link back to your posts or blogs.

There are different schools of thought that straightaway refuse to devote any significance to the frequency or other that regard it as a means for enhanced web traffic. Some bloggers also feel that the unnecessary pressure around posting frequency will ultimately become a significant barrier in the maturity of blogging.

Its time the blogging community halted the flurry of activity and studied the need and impact of frequency of posts on the general well-being of the blogosphere.

Factors to consider

Here we list a few thought-provoking pointers to consider while deciding how much posting frequency is just right:

1. Writer and Reader Burnout – Frequent postings leave the writer quite burnt out both physically and in the ability to write. The content drive for good quality and rich content negatively impacts the blogger and hence the need to reduce pressure around maintaining frequency.

Similarly, most of the loyal readers will experience a burnout, especially if they daily reach you via a bookmark or an RSS feed.

2. Quality of Audience- It’s preferable to engage the audience you want to have a relationship with instead of maintaining a rigid frequency. Otherwise, the traffic that is created is irrelevant and redundant. In a scenario where the blogosphere doubles itself every six months, a new blog every second is hardly likely to generate web traffic.

3. Reader Participation – It has often been noticed that though the traffic gets reduced with a less frequency of posts, the number of comments definitely goes up. In fact, readers engage in conversation better amongst each other if the frequency of posts is less.

4. RSS Referrals – One of the major reasons to maintain a high frequency of posting is to enhance the number of referrals into your blog via search engines and RSS feeds. Hence a greater amount of quality content definitely opens more doors into your blogs.

5. Blog Context – No rules remain applicable in the face of the actual context’s requirement. Different types of topics lead to variant styles and frequency patterns. For instance, a topic such as politics will ask for a higher frequency because of the dynamic nature of the topic.

6. Incompatibility with a high pressure job – Bandwidth constraint is one of the topmost reasons for not blogging. Frequent posting keeps key senior executives and thought leaders out of the blogosphere. Owing to this, the blogosphere not only loses some valuable thought content, but also loses out on major prospective marketers.

7. Negative impact on content quality – The pressure of daily postings takes its toll on the quality of content. Very few bloggers have the capacity and content to churn out quality content on a daily basis.

8. Puts the blogosphere’s credibility at stake – As many bloggers continue to produce bad quality content, the reputation of the blogosphere on the whole comes under a cloud. Errors tend to multiply which ultimately starts telling on the overall credibility of the blogging community and its bloggers.

9. Type of Visitors – The kind of visitors you expect on your blogs influence the frequency required. As we discussed in ‘Blog Context’, the topic of your blog might require a high number of visitors and hence a higher frequency. Having more posts here could actually mean greater search engine traffic.

10. Length of the post – A blogger can maintain a higher frequency if the length of each post can be kept short. This is often not in the hands of the blogger but is influenced more by the general norm of the site.

11. Individual rhythm and consistency – At the end of the day, what matters is how your readers react to your work and what loyal readership levels you retain. It is important that the bloggers find and maintain their own frequency routine. The readers then are sure to come back, no matter what the frequency is.

The latest and highest quality updated content is what the search engines always crave for and react to the best.

Content and Search Engines

The key factor which makes blogging a beneficial web activity for search engines is that the search engines respond well to new content on a website or a weblog. In fact, the internet jargon labels ‘content as the king’ from a search engine’s viewpoint.

Blogs provide one of the most simple, quick and easy methods of adding content to a website.  Users don’t need to know HTML or web design techniques to add content if they do so through the medium of blogs.

Ready Information

Search engines also react marvelously well to mediums from where they can dish out ready information. Analysis of various news and information websites vis-à-vis weblogs has proven that the information content in blogs is more easily accessible than that in websites.

To explain further, search engines respond well to the blogs also because of the blogs’ unique relationship with the user and the content. If we talk about the pages sitting in an index, we are waiting for the search engine to visit and query the data. On the other hand, owing to the unique feed association, the user is right there, getting the data almost as soon as you create it.

RSS Feeds

Besides, RSS feeds have also shifted the choice of visible content. By using RSS feeds, blogs give visitors the ability to use blog aggregators such as Topix.net, Bloglines, Yahoo’s blog aggregator or a desktop tool such as FeedDemon.

This again works well for search engines. From the search point of view, you can go to Yahoo! and type your search term and simply find results. The site represented by those results has an RSS feed which you can subscribe to and read on a regular basis.

Default Structure

Most importantly, the inherent and basic search engine friendly nature of blogs is what gets the attention of search engine marketers. As we said earlier, blogs are easy to publish and tend to contain lots of fresh, keyword rich text.

Moreover, as many blogs are rendered as static HTML pages in standard compliant designs, all of this information is readily available for the search engine spiders.

To conclude, blogs provide a faster and qualitative access through the medium of search engines to an informed and interested audience. This in turn does well for the efficiency and abilities of the search engines.

Social Bookmarking can help you with that. As part of our network of sites and social bookmarking accounts, we can help you gain more traffic.

To get you started, we are offering FREE Social Bookmarking until end of April 2012. Some of the sites we will bookmark you with are…

 Social Bookmarking is exactly that… social. It gets people talking about you / your brand / your company, plus, the search engines absolutely love social bookmarking sites.

How to get your FREE social bookmarks

Simply contact us with the detail of your site. We need the web address and a short description, and then we can do the rest!

Facebook differs from many types of online communities in that it focuses on the individual rather than on the community as a whole. One can locate forums on just about any topic in the world, but their focus is on the community that shares interest in the topic covered. Individuals may post comments on posts made by other authors that will be seen by all users. Facebook allows one to select whether comments will be open to the general public or just to a small group of friends. This is a more individual centered approach than that taken by community forums.

Users may create their own unique networks of friends and/or relatives that may view their profiles and share links or personal data with them. In addition, users may communicate directly through email and/or online chat sessions via the site. The true definition of social networking on Facebook is interacting with this group or groups of friends online through the services offered by the site.

Many businesses have created their own profiles on this site that allow them to reach a larger audience than they might otherwise. The reason for this is that they attract individuals whose stated interests coincide with their content. These individuals have the ability to “Like” such pages, meaning that they place social bookmarks to the pages that are then shared with members of their own personal networks, making the sites more visible than they might be if relying solely on search engine results to get them into the public eye.

A wide range of personal blogs that might not ever achieve widespread readership are brought to the front in the same manner. Individuals find these blogs and become interested in their content.

These people bookmark the blogs and share the links with friends they think might share their interest. This has several benefits for the bloggers, including creating a potential way to make money from writing their own blogs.

Social networking on Facebook takes many different forms. The primary form lies in the creation of individual networks of friends with which one can communicate. Each individual in the network has his/her own network, meaning that information can be shared and expanded exponentially. Friends may communicate with one another easily as well as posting content they wish to share with other members of their network such as social bookmarks and messages about what is currently happening in their lives. Their friends have the ability to comment on their postings publicly or privately.

Being a member of a social network helps individuals gather more news on topics they find relevant than they might be able to do using search engines alone. This means that members of such sites are often more well informed about topics of interest than those who do not participate in such groups.

Facebook has over 500 million active users and if you have a local business, the majority of people within your local area will have a Facebook account.  Having a fanpage is free advertising for you and it’s a great way to keep in touch with your customers, using the platform that they are using regularly.  If you are looking to expand your business into new markets and areas then having a fanpage can help you do this too.  Facebook by it’s nature encourages viral marketing, which means your information is easily shared with others which is even more appealing.

You can easily link your Facebook fanpage to your website, as well as your website to your fanpage and cross promote each other.  Facebook makes it very easy to connect the two, allowing your website visitors to join your fanpage from your website as well as fans from your fanpage to click through to your website.

In order to become a fan of your fanpage they need to “like” your page.  This is a little button on the top of your fanpage with the word like on it.  That triggers Facebook to start showing the content that you create on your wall to show up on your new fans newsfeed.  Facebook gives this information the opportunity to go viral very easily.  What this means is that when it appears on your fans newsfeed they can “like” the information you have just shared, which then lets all their friends see that they’ve liked your status.  Even better is when a fan shares your status.  Sharing your status puts your information on their wall so that their friends can see it in it’s entirety. 

Like many other business owners you may just be using Facebook for personal use and don’t want to mix your business life with your personal one.  That’s great because this is the whole point of Facebook fanpages.  Having a fanpage allows you to post comments and network as your business rather than with your personal account.

With a Facebook fanpage you can install different applications to help you interact with your fans.  You can encourage your fans to leave comments or testimonials for others to see, create events, competitions, give updated information, start discussions, share photos and videos, import your blog posts, the list is endless.  Also for the more technical amongst you, you can create a “reveal tab” which is a hidden tab within your fanpage.  The reveal tab is only visible to people who have liked your page.  It’s a great way to incentivize people to like your page because behind your reveal tab you can have links to free reports or videos, discount codes, fan only competitions etc.

Facebook fanpages are the online version of word of mouth advertising.  Hopefully you don’t need anymore reasons why you need a Facebook fanpage and get started with yours today.

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Surrey & Sussex Marketing | Promote Your Page Too

Social media sites are places on the internet where users create the content and it changes all the time. YouTube is one example. On this site, users are able to upload videos of activities they participate in, news stories they witness, and more. As soon as the videos are uploaded, they are available for viewing by other users.

FaceBook is another such site. Here, users can create online profiles, upload photos, and share information with friends all around the world. Users can even make friends with people located all the way around the world and share information with them through their friend pages.

Twitter is also considered a social media site. On this site, users are asked the question, “What are you doing right now?” They may answer in any fashion they wish, though responses are limited to only 140 characters, including spaces. Other individuals may choose follow a person on Twitter and be able to view any of that person’s posts, called “Tweets.”

Flickr is a social site that allows individuals to upload photos and share them with other users.

In addition to the examples mentioned, the internet contains thousands of forums where people with similar hobbies, jobs, tastes, and other traits can visit and post discussions of these interests. Other users have the option of making a direct reply or posting a comment on the post and sharing this other readers as well.

Users also have the option of creating Blogs, user generated sites where an individual can compose and write his/her own content about any subject. The content of these entries immediately becomes searchable on the internet and can be viewed by anyone with access and an interest in the topic of the content.

Social media sites were created for the use of individual users who wished to share information. More and more businesses are finding that these sites are useful tools for them to use in raising product awareness. They can use these sites to generate trust in their opinions and expertise. However, directly trying to push a person to buy a particular item does not work on these sites and could get a business banned from access. Consumers are usually repelled by such overt advertising techniques.

The most important thing you need to know about social media sites is that 100 percent of the content is generated by users of the site. This content is fluid in that it can be edited or changed at any time by anyone. These sites allow individuals to reach a worldwide audience and to interact with others located anywhere in the world, often in real time conversations.

Social Bookmarking can help you with that. As part of our network of sites and social bookmarking accounts, we can help you gain more traffic.

To get you started, we are offering FREE Social Bookmarking until end of November 2011. Some of the sites we will bookmark you with are…

Social Bookmarking is exactly that… social. It gets people talking about you / your brand / your company, plus, the search engines absolutely love social bookmarking sites.

Please support my Movember charity challenge

Movember – The month formerly known as November

The men in moustaches are taking over!

All around you, men are growing moustaches for charity. Ok, it’s not exactly a difficult challenge, but the reason behind is very serious.

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in the UK and around the world. The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

Some statistics for you…

• The rate of cancer diagnoses in men is considerably higher than the rate in women.
• In every 100,000 men there will be 417 cases diagnosed, compared to 366 cases per 100,000 females.
• Evidence suggests that about a third (39%) of 12 common cancers in the UK could be prevented through diet, physical activity and body weight.
• 1 in 9 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
• In 2008 37,051 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed and 10,168 men died.
• Testicular cancer in the UK affects younger men between the ages of 20 and 50. 1,990 men were diagnosed with the disease in 2007.

I will be joining the army of men across the country in an effort to raise these much needed funds and am campaigning to raise as much money as possible. Even though you may not know me, you may wish to still donate to this very worthy cause. Please visit my Movember page at http://www.mobro.co/rogermayne in order to leave your donation, and I will respond to each and every contributor.

Whilst campaigning for sponsorship, I was sent the following letter. The author would like to remain anonymous, but it highlights the effects of prostate cancer.

Written by “The Idiot”

Hi Guys,

Over the past 15 months I have made a point of talking about Prostate Cancer with as many blokes as possible. Although most will say they are aware of the potential problem, some even have known of friends who have suffered and died, very few (none) have actually done anything to ensure they are not/will not be victims’

I sincerely hope the following real life experience will make every one of you get down the doctors for a PSA blood test. Yes that is all it takes a simple blood test not even the greased finger up the jacksy. The average PSA is 4 when I finally stopped being a bloody idiot and got tested mine was an alarm bell ringing 26.

Prostate Cancer is one of the easiest to diagnose and treat yet it (2008 figures) kills 10,168 men it that year, that’s 12% of all male cancers deaths and is only 2nd to lung cancer. Do the sums and that is one bloke dying every hour.

The main reason for the high mortality rate being that so many blokes are complete idiots (like myself) and don’t take note/do something at the first warning signs.

What is the Prostate –?
It is a walnut sized thing that the pee tube from the bladder passes through to exit at the willy. The two sperm tubes from the balls also join the pee tube in the prostate (sorry about the technical jargon). You could call it the Clapham Junction for all routes to the willy.

What are the warning signs-?
Loss of pressure when having a pee
Frequent need to have a pee
Only being able to manage a dribble each time – I became over a period of 12 months a dab hand at jumping into the back of the cab and having to have a dribble into a bottle between jobs, sometime twice an hour.
Reduced ability to ejaculate or not being able to ejaculate. I blamed the wife for this one and how wrong was I.

Well after some 18 months of ignoring all the warning signs – doing that blokish thing and just finding ways round the problem to compensate for the bloody obvious. It all came to a climax when walking back to the cab after having a coffee with my accountant (we all have to see them once a year) the front of my jeans suddenly became quite warm and a darker shade than normal. On arriving home my wife (a quiet person by nature) went bloody ballistic and in no uncertain terms told me to “get down the doctors and get myself sorted out.

Next day she went of to work I now had two choices, make that appointment or spend the whole day (in-between umpteen visits to the toilet) removing every ornament (potential missile) to the garden shed.

Off to the docs I went and suddenly found myself caught up in the fantastic machine that is our National Health Service. Had an urgent blood test, appointment with a consultant at East Surrey Hospital within days and the operation called a TURP a few days later.

It turned out it was not a case of not being able to hold me water but that I could hold it better than most. My prostate had squeezed my pee tube to a virtual closure so my bladder had to be full to bursting (which it came very close to doing) before a dribble could get passed.

The TURP in short is drilling a bigger hole through the prostate so I can now pee like a horse and go several hours without needing the loo. However it did bugger up the plumbing from the testicles a bit. After a week or so I just had to try the ejaculation stuff out. Well it responded all the sensations were there and so was that final relief satisfaction. But no ejaculation as it all back flushed up into the bladder, hey ho sex without the mess could save a fortune on boxes of tissues.

How much of an idiot was I?

Due to my own stupidity the cancer had burst out of the prostate and into the lymph nodes below so now I have been on female hormone implants for 14 months. That’s chemical castration (so no tissues required) menopausal hot flushes (still waiting for that female ability to multitask – think it is a myth). Due to start radio therapy on the 18th that’s then every day Mon-Fri for two months.

I can only blame myself for being so stupid WHO are you going to blame as some 50% of blokes will experience some form of prostate problem.

I do not want to receive any sympathy replies; I am quite capable of crying in my own beer. What I would really like is to hear that every male member has booked that blood test. Don’t be a bloody idiot.

BTW at no time did I experience (after the trip to the docs) any pain so relax it may be a tender and much loved part of you so take care of it.

The aim of Movember is to raise awareness, and I sincerely hope that this letter above does exactly that. I’m sure that you will encounter a “MoBro” or “MoSista” this month, which is great, but if you’d like to donate, please visit my Movember page and support everyone involved.

Thank you.

The first step lies in building an online profile that is interesting. One’s goal should be to establish himself/herself as an expert in his/her chosen field. This can be done through a series of steps such as posting comments on blogs that relate to that field. Making connections with movers and shakers in the field of interest can lead to invitations to guest post on their blogs or websites. Extending the same invitations to them to post one your blog or website can lend their credibility to your brand.

If one does not already have one, creating a blog is one excellent method of establishing a brand. Social media sites can be used to direct traffic to the blog if one takes the proper approach. It is important to remember that social networking sites are created for the purpose of creating friendships and groups that share common interests. Any messages that promote one’s particular brand should not take on a self aggrandizing tone.

Following the posts of other experts in your field can create opportunities for educated discourse. If you disagree with something said in one of these blog posts, state your disagreement in a comment on the blog. Do so with a respectful tone that shows that you recognize that person’s expertise by outlining the reasons for your disagreement without stating that the person is wrong. After all, there are many times when people disagree without either one being completely wrong or right.

Engage in conversations with these experts that are open to public viewing. This is especially important if they are already well known and you are just beginning to create a personal brand.

Make posts on social media sites that tell people about you and your brand in an informative and interesting way. It is important to avoid making these posts sound like advertisements. People become resistant when they feel as if they are being pushed into something.

One thing that many business people fail to do that can prove invaluable when trying to establish a network of connections is searching the internet for content that will be interesting to those whose attention one is trying to attract. Pass this information along, even if it means driving traffic to someone else’s website. If you are seen as a source of valuable information, the information you provide about your personal brand will take on its own value.

Using social media to establish your brand can lead to success at a much faster pace than any other method of getting the message out. It also creates a self perpetuating stream of targeted leads of a quality that one would be hard pressed to find using any other media.