Let me set something straight right now.
If your blog has no traffic you will not receive
any comments.
It makes sense of course, but some people don't
see the connection between these two elements.
If no one is reading your blog then no one will
leave comments either. Simply posting great
articles to your blog is not enough - you have to
*market* your blog to bring people to it.
We will talk A LOT about marketing throughout my
newsletter, so stay tuned for that.
For now, understand if you don't receive any
comments to your blog it's probably not that your
content is bad or people don't like you, it's
because you simply don't have enough traffic.
If on the other hand you do have some traffic, yet
no one replies to your posts, there are ways to
stimulate comments.
Try these tips to begin with -
- Write articles that reference or focus on other
bloggers. You will get their attention that way
and there's a good chance they will come to your
blog and leave a comment as a result.
- Ask your readers a question at the end of your
article.
- Write about topics that stimulate conversation,
such as current events (think politics, news,
entertainment).
- Be controversial with your writing. Have a
strong opinion and others with strong opinions
will reply to argue or agree with you.
- Be patient. Sometimes you just have to wait
until the first person leaves a comment which
opens the floodgates.
KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING
A while ago I stopped actively responding to
comments on my blog unless I was asked a direct
question. I really had no excuse for not doing it,
I was just lazy and working on other writing
projects. Consequently the average number of
comments on my blog entries dropped A LOT.
I noticed the regular commentators stopped
commenting as frequently and most conversations on
my blog ended very quickly.
This is really tragic for a blog and I'll tell
you why - it reduces your "Social Proof".
WHAT IS SOCIAL PROOF?
Social Proof is when humans take action or make a
decision based on seeing other humans doing it
first. It's sort of like an implied recommendation
- if other people do it, it must be good.
It's like when you see a bunch of people all
looking up at something in the sky at the same
time. You can't help but turn your head skywards
and see what all the fuss is about.
When first time visitors to your blog see other
people making lots of comments they are more
likely to decide there is something valuable at
your blog and bookmark or subscribe to it and may
even make a comment.
This is good for blog traffic. This is social
proof in action.
I was very conscious of always taking part in
comment conversations at my blog and consequently
my readership was growing in leaps and bounds. I
stopped and I noticed I hit a wall and my blog
didn't grow quite as well as it was.
I know a blogger who has a rule - she responds to
every single comment made to her blog.
Consequently she has developed a fantastic
community around her blog and her traffic has
skyrocketed in a short period of time.
Remember, comments on your blog are very
important, take the time to respond to them.
Here's to your blogging success,
Yaro Starak
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
Read more...
20 October 2009
10 October 2009
Various Techniques Of Search Engine Optimization
by Akon
SEO techniques are effective procedures to put a website on the first page of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN for your targeted keywords. These techniques directly help in raising the SERPs (search engine result positions) of the site, increase site traffic and acquire relevant quality links.
If you want people to find your site via a search engine easily, the site will require a high SERP. This means when users search on specific keywords or phrases, they will find your site on the first page generated by the engine. Having the site on the 10th page of search engine results will not give you satisfactory traffic and you can potentially lose thousands of customers and sales.
Let’s discuss the techniques that can help you towards achieving a high SERP
1. Domain & File Names
Select a domain name of your site that contains words from your main keyword phrase/query. The domain name should also be easy to spell and easy to remember. Ideally it should only contain alpha-numeric characters and no hyphens for optimum results.
2. Easy to think Keywords :
Such keywords are to be used which are searched for in excess on the net. Add keyword synonyms to your content. Make sure you use your keywords from the page you are linking to.
3. Density of placing Keywords :
Keyword density is related to the number of times the keyword appears in the text on a particular page. High keywords density is considered spamming by the search engine and can get your site blacklisted. Your keywords should be toward the top of your page and in either every paragraph or every second paragraph depending on your paragraph length.
4. Misuse of SEO Techniques :
Misuse of search engine optimization techniques may get your site blacklisted from a search engine. Some techniques that are considered spam are cloaking, invisible text, tiny text, identical pages, doorway pages, refresh tags, link farms, filling comment tags with keyword phrases only, keyword phrases in the author tag, keyword density too high, mirror pages and mirror sites etc. These are all termed as Black Hat SEO techniques. While these techniques might work to give you a higher ranking for a short time, however in the long run they will slow down your progress and can have detrimental and very damaging consequences.
5. Construction of Titles and Description :
Each page should have a different title with two or three of your keyword at the beginning. When search engine results are displayed the title is the first thing people observe and therefore enough time should be spent on constructing a fully optimized and well thought title. Your description should also have at least two or three of your keywords at the beginning as so should your first sentence on the page. There should be a different title, description and first sentence on each page.
6. Authors Biography :
At the end of the page place an author biography or company name. This technique will help you to improve the branding of your site and get good rankings for your company name.
7. Website Design :
In what way the website is designed is also important. Text content should balance the HTML text. The pages of the site should validate and be accessible in all browsers and from anywhere.
8. Links on the Site :
There should always a navigation menu present on the site from where you link to all the important pages of the site. The idea is not trying to optimize the home page alone, but each and every page of the site. The secondary and tertiary pages of the site will only be recognized and indexed by the search engines if the spider can reach those pages. There should not a single broken link on any page of the site especially the index/home page.
9. Links to the Site :
This involves ascertaining links that point to your site. The online world is not much different as compared to offline world. The celebrities in the real world are all famous and rich people i.e. have high SERPs. The reason they are famous is because so many people are familiar with them and know about their lives. The same principal applies to web-sties. The more the sites link to your site, the higher it will rank on search engines. This is an ongoing task and therefore a lot of effort should be spent in obtaining links from other sites. In an ideal world you should have all the sites linking to yours and your site not linking out at all. However this is not possible, but the idea should always be kept in mind when trying to acquire links. Also the quality of incoming link plays a big role in determining the overall benefit derived and its effect towards increasing the SERPs. The better the quality the better the result and so on so forth.
These are some of the techniques, which if used effectively can directly help in increasing not only traffic, potential customers but also the rankings on all search engines. In the end it’s not only about what you know but how you act. Hard work, dedication and patience is always a recipe for success, whether working online or offline.
Read more...
SEO techniques are effective procedures to put a website on the first page of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN for your targeted keywords. These techniques directly help in raising the SERPs (search engine result positions) of the site, increase site traffic and acquire relevant quality links.
If you want people to find your site via a search engine easily, the site will require a high SERP. This means when users search on specific keywords or phrases, they will find your site on the first page generated by the engine. Having the site on the 10th page of search engine results will not give you satisfactory traffic and you can potentially lose thousands of customers and sales.
Let’s discuss the techniques that can help you towards achieving a high SERP
1. Domain & File Names
Select a domain name of your site that contains words from your main keyword phrase/query. The domain name should also be easy to spell and easy to remember. Ideally it should only contain alpha-numeric characters and no hyphens for optimum results.
2. Easy to think Keywords :
Such keywords are to be used which are searched for in excess on the net. Add keyword synonyms to your content. Make sure you use your keywords from the page you are linking to.
3. Density of placing Keywords :
Keyword density is related to the number of times the keyword appears in the text on a particular page. High keywords density is considered spamming by the search engine and can get your site blacklisted. Your keywords should be toward the top of your page and in either every paragraph or every second paragraph depending on your paragraph length.
4. Misuse of SEO Techniques :
Misuse of search engine optimization techniques may get your site blacklisted from a search engine. Some techniques that are considered spam are cloaking, invisible text, tiny text, identical pages, doorway pages, refresh tags, link farms, filling comment tags with keyword phrases only, keyword phrases in the author tag, keyword density too high, mirror pages and mirror sites etc. These are all termed as Black Hat SEO techniques. While these techniques might work to give you a higher ranking for a short time, however in the long run they will slow down your progress and can have detrimental and very damaging consequences.
5. Construction of Titles and Description :
Each page should have a different title with two or three of your keyword at the beginning. When search engine results are displayed the title is the first thing people observe and therefore enough time should be spent on constructing a fully optimized and well thought title. Your description should also have at least two or three of your keywords at the beginning as so should your first sentence on the page. There should be a different title, description and first sentence on each page.
6. Authors Biography :
At the end of the page place an author biography or company name. This technique will help you to improve the branding of your site and get good rankings for your company name.
7. Website Design :
In what way the website is designed is also important. Text content should balance the HTML text. The pages of the site should validate and be accessible in all browsers and from anywhere.
8. Links on the Site :
There should always a navigation menu present on the site from where you link to all the important pages of the site. The idea is not trying to optimize the home page alone, but each and every page of the site. The secondary and tertiary pages of the site will only be recognized and indexed by the search engines if the spider can reach those pages. There should not a single broken link on any page of the site especially the index/home page.
9. Links to the Site :
This involves ascertaining links that point to your site. The online world is not much different as compared to offline world. The celebrities in the real world are all famous and rich people i.e. have high SERPs. The reason they are famous is because so many people are familiar with them and know about their lives. The same principal applies to web-sties. The more the sites link to your site, the higher it will rank on search engines. This is an ongoing task and therefore a lot of effort should be spent in obtaining links from other sites. In an ideal world you should have all the sites linking to yours and your site not linking out at all. However this is not possible, but the idea should always be kept in mind when trying to acquire links. Also the quality of incoming link plays a big role in determining the overall benefit derived and its effect towards increasing the SERPs. The better the quality the better the result and so on so forth.
These are some of the techniques, which if used effectively can directly help in increasing not only traffic, potential customers but also the rankings on all search engines. In the end it’s not only about what you know but how you act. Hard work, dedication and patience is always a recipe for success, whether working online or offline.
Read more...
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