Blogging with SEO in Mind
Whenever someone asks me why it’s necessary to blog, I always tell them the two main reasons are to connect with your audience, and to increase the amount of content on the web. Connecting with your audience is obvious, but why would you want more content on the web? So you can create search engine optimized (SEO) 
pages that are targeted for certain specific keywords. So when someone types specific keywords into search engines, your blog post comes up and you just introduced someone to your website! This is why should always be blogging with SEO in mind.
When you blog, you are blogging to both your human audience, and the mighty little crawler bots that index your posts for search engines. Most of us can communicate with humans, but how do we communicate with the crawler bots?
First off, your entire web site should be optimized for search engines… You know things like a sitemap, robots.txt file, image tags on images, follow and index tags, etc. Incidentally, using a CMS website like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal makes SEO much easier.
Secondly, when writing a blog post, select a keyword to focus on. That keyword should be placed in specific places throughout your blog post to make it easy for the crawler bots to figure out what the post is about and what relevant keywords they should be looking for. It may be difficult at first, but soon blogging with SEO in mind will be second nature.
It would be difficult and time consuming to explain how to get the keywords in those areas for every blog platform on the web, so I will just describe the code for the keyword in red. Here are the main areas to install your keyword:
- In the URL of the blog post. E.g. http://www.yoursite.com/keyword/.
- In the title tags of your post. E.g. <title>keyword</title>
- Between the heading 1 tags. E.g. <h1>keyword</h1>
- In the meta description tag of the page. E.g. <meta name = “description” content = “A short description of your post including the keyword”>
- Your keyword should be somewhere in the first and last paragraph of the post and if possible, sprinkled throughout the post. E.g. Blogging with SEO in mind.
- If possible, link to the post somewhere else in your site (internal link) or on another site, like an article site. (external link)
As you’ve probably figured out, the keyword I’ve targeted in this post is Blogging with SEO in mind. It’s a pretty low level keyword, but I want to see what kind of response it will have over the next couple of months or so.
This post is written for human consumption, but I’ve also added tidbits for the crawler bots. You can see that you sometimes have to be a little bit crafty to incorporate keywords like blogging with SEO in mind so as to not sound like you’re trying to incorporate keywords like blogging with SEO in mind.
7 Great Social Media Profile Tips
One of the most challenging things about writing a profile on a social media site is trying to convey what it is we do without sounding like an advertisement. Here is a list of 7 profile writing tips that will get you past the writer’s block and on your way to successful networking!
1. Work the best parts of your Elevator Speech into your introuction. Remember to keep it interesting and avoid any industry jargon.
2. Describe your specific skills, passions and expertise that will set you apart from your competitors.
3. Have a professional looking profile picture. Only use an avatar, logo or whatever standard default the site has to offer if you have nothing else but make sure to put your photo up as soon as possible.
4. Be friendly, motivating and memorable. Don’t forget to include some personal information about yourself such as a hobby or sport that you enjoy.
5. Naturally incorporate your profile with keywords relevant to your business.
6. Add links to your website, blog and your profiles on other social media sites.
7. Keep your profile short and easy to read, keep paragraphs brief and always remember to proof read!
Remember that your profile is your calling card to others in your field and your target audience so it should feel inviting enough that people will want to connect with you. Some sites such as LinkedIn have a much more business feel to them so your profile should reflect that where as Facebook is much more relaxed and your profile should be more personal.
We All Need Passive Income!
Alright, so everyone would love another income stream. Lately we’ve been seeing a trend of clients setting up online stores that provide products and services to generate a passive income stream. It’s a passive income stream because these are people who have jobs and are just looking for another income to pay for things like vacations or maybe to save for retirement.
For example, we have a client who made a deal with a manufacturer to sell their products online. He now not only uses his online store to sell products, he uses it to automatically supply the brick and mortar businesses that re-sell his products. We’ve set up his store so when anyone securely purchases a product from his website, it’s automatically packaged and shipped from the manufacturer and our client’s only effort is to read the receipt emails that come in with every purchase.
If you have a product you’d like to bring online, talk to me and we can discuss your options.
Reasons Why You Should Be Using RSS Feeds
A really cool feature that we add to all of the websites we make is an RSS feed. RSS stands for: Really Simple Syndication. So basically, whenever a web blogger (like yourself) makes a blog post such as this one, the post gets syndicated through other channels that are connected to the blog.
So, let’s say you find my blogging to die for and want to keep up to date with all of my intellectual, interesting, and entertaining musings; you would click on the button that looks like this: 
When you have this page show up on your screen, you can either select a reader from the box on the right, or click on the “View Feed XML” link and have the feed exported to your mail handling program.
In the case of the mail handling program, you would answer the security questions with a yes and presto, every time I write another blog post, a snippet of the newest musings from ADC Online will be in your inbox under feeds.
Reasons why you should be using RSS feeds:
Check out the “Share the Knowledge” icons below. You’ll find an RSS icon in there as well. It will subscribe you to the comment feed of this post. That could be handy if you want notification of comments on this post.
Should Internet Access Be a Right?
The internet has become a global tool to interconnect almost anyone who has a computer. At no time in history has human kind been more connected to each other. The global discussions and sharing of ideas has never been so widespread, and the change developed from these discussions has never been so rapid. Given the powerful ability of the internet to connect people, should internet access be a right?
In recent months we have seen the overthrow of dictators in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, and soon to be Libya. The internet was cited as being instrumental to organize and mobilize people to rebel against the powers that be. The inference brought forth by the use of the internet as a tool of these uprisings, is that the internet is in fact, a tool of democracy.
An even more obvious example of the internet as democratic tool, or anti-democratic in this case, is the throttling and limiting of the internet in China. Although the internet is widely available throughout most of China, it is limited to websites that have been approved by the Chinese government. The suppression of the internet in China is so great that an actual branch of government is devoted to blocking out web sites that do not comply with a lengthy list of criteria. Web monitoring is constant and anti-government posts are usually erased within minutes.
In a world where most people derive their information from public or state run media, a clear threat to democracy exists if the free and full access to the internet is restricted or made illegal. Never in the history of mankind has news ever travelled so quickly. Example after example exists as to how quickly information about natural disasters, governmental overthrows, and just general events are propagated by social media. At issue is not only the speed at which news travels but also the filters it passes through prior to being broadcast. Social media allows all those connected to experience the events of the moment from people at the scene, rather than filtered through the conventional media.
The question is posed as to whether or not free and full internet access should be a right? Demonstrated are three clear examples as to how, in a democratic society, the removal or suppression of this communication tool may cause the eventual loss of democracy as well.
I would like to hear your thoughts about internet access and censorship.
Buzzword Bingo!
When new technologies and new methodologies emerge on the internet, people make up new words to try and communicate these new ideas with others. There really isn’t any problem with buzzwords unless they are used to confuse people. All too often people use buzzwords in order to sound knowledgeable about a subject.
Ok, I admit; I did it too, way back in high school. I try to simplify things now and explain to clients what a particular buzzword means before I start using it in conversation. I certainly don’t want to be accused of playing “Buzzword Bingo”.
Who Owns Your Domain?
This is my first video blog post, so please, be kind. You can check your own domain record by going to www.whois.net and type in your web address. If you’d like for me to review your domain record and give you a plain English translation, send me an email through the contact form on this website or the email address mentioned in the video.
The question of who owns your domain often comes up when changing webmasters. We at ADC Online never have ownership of your domain. If you decide to get another webmaster, you can, and without penalty. Any webmaster can use your domain and hosting account to access your online assets at any time.
Why don’t all my Facebook Fans get my newsfeed?
You can be proud that you have a couple of hundred fans on your Facebook page, but are they quality fans? What’s the difference really? Well, the difference is something called Edge rank. Edge rank is an algorithm that Facebook uses that determines what shows up on the newsfeed, and that includes the posts and other information from your pages.
We can all understand why everything that everyone posts on Facebook can’t possibly make it to our newsfeed, but how does Facebook go about determining what actually does show up on your feed?
EdgeRank formula
Looks complicated? Well, let’s go through it:
μe – the affinity score. How often you interact with a particular Facebook friend raises your affinity with that friend.
we – the edge weight. What interaction is going on? more weight is given to a comment than a like, for example.
de – the time delay. How long has the information been up. The longer, the less it’s worth.
So what does this all mean? Well, when all these factors are multiplied together, a high number means your object (picture, comment, tag, etc.) is more likely to show up on your Facebook friends’ newsfeed.
Taking this all into consideration, and making it simple; the people that interact with you, and you with them, are more likely to get your fresh objects in their newsfeed.
See the f8 video from April 21, 2011
Why am I not showing up on Google? Part 2
Part 2 of the series:
Why Am I Not Showing Up On Google?
In the last post we took a look at some reasons why a website may not show up at all on a Google search, and then explored how using optimized keywords can get a website to rank higher on a Google search. Now, as promised, why the type of website you have can also play a role in search engine ranking.
Basically, to be properly represented on the net with a website, you will need either a static HTML site, a dynamic blog/Content Management Site, or a combination of both.
HTML sites are very customizable and that’s their best advantage. A good web designer can make art with a website. If you need that kind of customization, then you will probably have to use HTML. For the most part, the web presence that will absolutely have to be completely HTML will be a rare type of presence. However, we have found a great number of static HTML sites on the net that are simple, and usually generated from a template.
The clients that come to us asking why they rank poorly in search engines usually have this type of site. I’ve heard these sites referred to as “set it and forget it” sites, or “build it and they will come” sites. The truth is, there is no setting and forgetting on the web, and if no one knows about it, they won’t come. Static HTML sites–even .net sites fall short when it comes to being found on search engines, unless they’re constantly updated and optimized.
Consider carefully the trade off between beauty of a site and search-ability. I know of companies that have spent tens of thousands of dollars for a gorgeous site that is virtually impossible to find on Google except for a few useless keywords. There are ways to be found anyway, but you probably don’t stand a chance against your competitors site that’s uglier, cheaper, and ranks way higher for the keywords you want.
In my opinion, there is no sense to having a website that no one can find, and I’m very weary of someone that would sell a website that is impossible or nearly impossible to find. The ability of a site to be found and ranked is absolutely essential to a public website. Part of the reason for writing this post was to rant about the web designers that build these useless sites and charge a lot of money for them. I’m talking about reputable companies with big name clients. They make useless sites! I digress…
Dynamic sites like WordPress fare much better in the search engine department. A few years ago, the big idea was to combine the customization of a static HTML site with the search engine favoring dynamic blog. This wasn’t a bad idea at the time, but that time has passed as well. Today’s site is all dynamic: there are WordPress sites on the net that look and feel just like their older HTML counterparts but work very well with search engines. They have interactive components that allow the audience of your dynamic site to interact directly with you. You can now generate your own fresh content and post it in real time through all your social media channels with one click because it can now all be interconnected. That means your Facebook page, RSS feeds, YouTube channel, LinkedIn account, etc., can all be updated easily from your website. Google loves fresh content and link backs!
WordPress can also be easily optimized for mobile devices, and those little QR codes you see on many product labels and print ads can also be simply connected and tracked.
Basically, if you’re at, or near the leading edge of website technology, you will rank higher in search engines for your keywords. If you have a site that is old technology and isn’t optimized, you won’t have nearly as high a ranking. It just makes common sense.
Why am I not showing up on Google?
So the big question we’re being asked around here lately is: “Why am I not showing up on Google?” or the variant: “Why is my site on the 23rd page of Google?”. If you’re not showing up on Goggle at all, try this; In the search box type: site:http://www.yoursitename.com . Does your site show up? If it does, then move on to the next paragraph, if not, I have waited for up to two weeks before a site I built was indexed. Although search engines will naturally find your site and index it, your webmaster should also submit the site to the popular search engines asap to kindly ask the friendly search bots to drop by to visit. If the site has only been in existence for less than a couple of weeks, try again later and move on to the next paragraph. If you’re still reading, your site may be hidden from search engines, so talk to your webmaster to change this setting. Lastly, you may have been removed by Google due to an offense. If this is the case, you should have received instructions to correct this and apply for reconsideration.
First of all, we’re not a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company (it is a hobby of mine and we do the best we can with all of our sites), but what we do can and will help with your Google ranking. Google is now real time, and gives preference to websites that change a lot, add a lot of content, have relevant link backs, as well as a bunch of other stuff that fits into their ever changing mathematical algorithm that decides who shows up first with certain keywords. “Keywords? What?” OK Let’s start with the basics:
Keywords are the words that you enter into the search box of your favourite search engine to find what you’re looking for. They are also listed within your site so those searched keywords match up with the relevance of your site. When new clients come to us seeking higher ranking with their existing site, we mainly check two things: 1. The type of site (static, or the preferred blog site like WordPress) 2. The current keywords. We’re noticing many sites are lacking useful keywords or have poor or misspelled keywords (may not be a bad thing to misspell if it’s a popular misspelling) so let’s see what you have on your site now:
- 1. Go to your favourite web browser and enter your url into the address box.
- 2. When your page is loaded, click View, Page Source (crtl+U) in Firefox, or View, Source in Internet Explorer.
- 3. Observe the gobbledy gook (the source code that makes up the page).
Somewhere in the top part of that gobbledy gook (if you’ve hit the </head> tag, you’ve gone too far) should be a meta tag that looks like this: <meta name=”keywords” content=” Selection of keywords separated by commas” /> Is it there? If it isn’t, well, pass me the grease rag, now there’s your problem; or at least part of it. You can ask your web programmer to add some keywords for you if you have an HTML site, or if you’re using a WordPress site, you can add an SEO plugin that will allow you to add specific keywords to each or all of your pages.
Google doesn’t use meta keywords; keyword rich content, description tags, alt tags, url’s, and title tags are key. There is some confusion as to whether Yahoo and Bing use meta tags. Since the search algorithms are closely guarded secrets, we can only use our best intuition with the information we have. For the time it takes to make a meta tag, I include them anyway.
Aside from good site structure, W3C compliance, and links, Keywords are an important part of being found on the internet. Keyword research is part of what a social media marketer does to increase the usefulness of the keywords you use and ultimately rank your pages higher in search engine organic results (the results that aren’t paid for). We call it keyword optimization, and it does make a difference to how relevant your content is in a search.
Another big deal for ranking is the type of website you have. But alas, that’s for the next post.
