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I have a few Slideshare presentations under my belt now. Slideshare is a great way to create a 'video' without the 'video necessary' tech stuff. The way I create a Slideshare presentation is to first create a PowerPoint presentation. Once that's complete, I simply upload it to Slideshare. It's so easy and quick. My newest presentation is on creating and publishing a WordPress blog post. Since

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By Karen Cioffi Writing SEO content, in a way, goes hand-in-hand with website optimization. There are a number of similar elements. Having an idea of how to optimize a website will make your content marketing efforts much more successful.  Here is a checklist of 20 elements, just about everything you need to be aware of, in website optimization: 1. Keywords / Keyword Phrases – words that

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Demystifying Google Penguin and SEO Strategies Part 1

In light of Google Penquin, the latest update, I’ve been reading a lot about the new marketing strategies that should be used for effective search engine and content optimization, or as Scott Frangos of WebDirexion.com puts it, “social environment optimization.”

I think Frangos hit the nail on the head – the new marketing strategies to be used, to appease the marketing gods (search engines), is all about social networking, connections. SEO was always kind of a popularity contest, but now even more so, but on a somewhat fairer playing field.

Before, search engines simply connected searched keywords to related websites. Simply put, the more links back to your site, the higher your status. Quality links were always better.

Now, while keywords offer a ‘pointing finger,’ it’s the content itself and its shareability that matters. The more quality ‘like-minded’ sites and visitors you get the more Google will like you. The quality and relevancy of the links matter.

The new update is a good thing for writers who provide useful information for their readers. The content itself is ‘worthy’ and packs the ‘ranking punch.’ It doesn’t need lots of special optimization tricks. 

But, Google’s new update does raise some questions:

•    Do effective titles and content still matter?
•    Are keywords still needed?
•    What about ‘tags?
•    What about anchor text?
•    What does Google penalize for?
•    How do you rank with Google?

Let’s go over each one:

1. Do effective titles and content still matter?

Yes they do. It’s the title that will attract a reader’s attention and help turn attention to interest. Having a relevant keyword in the title helps the search engines categorize it and lets the reader know if it’s what he is looking for.

It’s the content that will keep the visitor on your site and motivate her to SHARE. This is the social connection.

2. Are keywords still needed?

Again, yes. Keywords help search engines categorize your content and help searchers find it, as mentioned in number one.

But, the keywords should be content relevant and not used primarily for money-making optimization. Sites that heavily use ‘money keywords’( keywords specifically used to make money through strategies like PPC), will most likely be penalized.

3. What about tags?

Yes, to this also. Tags, like keywords, help search engines categorize your content.

4. What about anchor text?

According to MicrositesMasters.com, “Google has issued a link over-optimization penalty (or at the very least over-optimization link devaluation).”

This pertains to anchor text linked primarily to ‘money keywords’ and that brings incoming links specifically to make money. These sites usually lack valuable content.

Using anchor text to give your reader more bang-for-the-buck, a broader reading experience is a good thing. Along with helping your reader, if you’re linking to other valuable

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Last Monday Part1 on this topic was posted here. It talked about website traffic statistics in regard to two of my sites. Today, we go into the rest of the 'blog posting' promotional elements: anchor text, tags, and promotion.

Blog Posting, Keywords, Anchor Text, Tags, and Website Statistics Part2

Anchor Text

Another interesting fact in regard to the statistics’ referring sites is that the KCWM site itself is listed as a source. This is accomplished by creating anchor text within the post content and/or at the bottom of the post as “Additional articles to read.” The anchor text leads the reader to another page/post within your site.

According to Wikipedia, “anchor text is weighted (ranked) highly in the search engine algorithms, because the linked text is usually relevant to the landing page.”

Is there a difference between an anchor text leading to another post and simply putting the url itself? YES.

Anchor text allows search engines to easily find and index your content and they value this strategy, the url address doesn’t have the same ‘word power.’ Wikipedia says, “The objective of search engines is to provide highly relevant search results; this is where anchor text helps.” This is part of SEO.

Blog Tags

Next on my ‘to do’ list when posting an article on my site is to put relevant tags.

In the article “Using Categories and Tags Effectively on Your Blog” on
ProBlogger.net, it explains that tags should be thought of “as the colorful little page markers you might use to flick back to your favorite pages in a book. The tags don’t describe the book as a whole, instead they describe individual sections of the book.”

Two important 'tags' factors to consider:

•    Tags complement categories. If you use Wordpress you’ll be able to and should use categories. Blogger does not offer this feature, so it’s even more important to use tags.

•    Tags should be focused and use the same ones for each specific topic. This means if you are writing about book marketing, use one specific tag: book marketing. Don’t switch it up with ‘book promotion’ or ‘marketing.’ Be consistent because it is this consistency that search engines will use to index your site and establish you as an authority on that keyword. This means a higher ranking in the search engines.

Going into this a bit further, when writing on the topic of writing, whether it’s on characterization, setting, or plot, you should always include the keyword ‘writing’ or ‘writing advice,’ or other relevant writing keyword you use consistently. You can also include the more specific keywords, like ‘setting’, ‘writing goals,’ or whatever the content warrants to give more indexing information, but it’s important to use your main ‘writing’ tag for all your posts on writing.

Promote your Blog Posts

If you want to enhance your visibility, you need to SHARE each article/post. Wordpress and Blogger both have plugins or gadgets to provide easy ‘sharing’  to Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Linkedin. Make use of the ‘sharing’ feature.

Then of course there are your other social networks, your groups. Don’t forget to post a message in your groups letting them know you have a new post up.

Use these three blog posting elements for each of your posts and your traffic/views are sure to increase.
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This is another two-parter, being over 900 words, so please stop by next week for Part2.

Blog Posting, Keywords, Anchor Text, Tags, and Website Statistics Part1

Every marketer knows the importance of article marketing – it’s an effective visibility tool and increases the user’s expert status. For individual websites, this is in the form of blog posting.

But, you can write an article that’s properly formatted, has a great title and amazing information and if you don’t use keywords, include tags, SHARE and Promote that article, you won’t get optimized traffic to your site. This can’t be stressed enough.

I did an analysis of two of my sites. Both are focused on writing and marketing. My individual site, Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing (KCWM) usually has three posts per week. My group site, The Writers on the Move (WOTM), usually has at least one article per day – a few days there are two articles per day.

Take note though that when getting website statistics, numbers will vary significantly depending on the source of the information. Blogger’s Stats tool was used for this analysis.

According to the Blogger Stats, which site do you think gets more traffic?

Since the marketing philosophy is’ content is king,’ you’d think the WOTM site would get tons more traffic, because it provides quality information on a daily basis.

Well, if that’s the site you chose, you’d be wrong. The KCWM site gets double the traffic WOTM does.

Another interesting tidbit is that the majority of traffic from both sites comes from:

Google searches
Yahoo searches and yahoo mail
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Twitter

Google is by far the leader of the traffic sources with Twitter holding up the rear.

So, the question to ask is WHY does the KCWM site get so much more traffic than the WOTM site?

The answer has to be keywords, anchor text, tags, and promotion. We’ll now take a look at each factor.

Keywords

If you notice above, the leader of the traffic sources is Google searches, which is driven by keywords.

Every post on my site is keyword focused. What this means is that I do a keyword search before posting the article. I start with a focused word, say “blog posts.” If the article focus words don’t pull their search weight, I change them to more effective keywords.

And, as it has been stated before in other articles, your keywords should be in your title,  subtitle (if you have one), and within the content of your article. Be sure to add the keyword in the first paragraph and last paragraph, and here and there throughout. Just be careful not to overdo it.


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Related Articles:


Article Content Formatted and Search Engine Ready Part1
SEO and Marketing: Basic Tips and Definitions
How to Drive Traffic to a Website Using Expert Information Content<

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