We’ve discussed the importance of search engine optimization here more than once. But I think one more time won’t be a waste.
So, let’s revise what exactly SEO means and how it works.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is a process of improving the volume and quality of your traffic received from search engines. To understand SEO better you should know how search engines work. This is pretty easy - such search engines as Google and Yahoo use a program called a “web spider”. These spiders crawl the web and collect info about the web pages (content, links etc.) and deposit this info to the search engine’s database. When you want to find something on the web and type your query in the search box the search engine has to do one simple thing - to find the most relevant info in it’s database. To make your blog more relevant to probable queries you should make it rank for the factors that form the search engine algorithm higher. This is where SEO will help you.
Here are things you should check and plugins you should add to make your blog SEO friendly:
* All in One SEO Pack
I already told you about this extremely useful plugin. It allows you to add meta tags, titles, descriptions and keywords to your blog posts.
* Google XML Sitemaps
If you want google spiders to crawl your weblog better you should help them - create a sitemap. This nice plugin will help you do the task easily and fast.
* Sociable
This is a great plugin I’ve already mentioned at this blog, it allows your visitors to bookmark your posts at 99 social bookmarking sites. Find more WordPress plugins meant to help you increase traffic. http://www.wpdaddy.com/blog/2009/03/increase-traffic-with-wordpress-plugins/
Things to check:
* Add Titles and ALT tags to the images you use in your blog entries
* Make sure your meta descriptions are unique and do not repeat your content
* Make sure your theme uses header tags correctly:
- Your blog title (your main keyword) should be placed in an h1 tag.
- Your post titles should be placed in h2 tags.
These are very basic SEO tips for beginners, if you have more simple tips feel free to share them in the comments below.
Archive for the ‘Blogging Basics’ Category
Is Your Blog SEO Friendly?
July 14th, 2009Top 10 Video Tutorials for WordPress Beginners
July 7th, 2009
When you are new to something you for sure prefer to have an expert who will show you the basics, don’t you? Well, I decided to make a selection of the most useful video tutorials recorded by real experts. Now you can say you’ve been taught by the best WordPress professionals 
Well, what do you want to know first of all? Of course how to install your WordPress, I can recommend these tutorials:
* How to install WordPress from siteground.com
* Installing Wordpress from killersites.com
Now you may be interested in changing your WP theme:
* How to Change/Activate Themes from ithemes.com
* How to change the theme from siteground.com
* How to Modify WordPress Theme from web2whizzing.com
Good tutorials on widgets:
* How widgets work from ithemes.com
* Create your first widget
* How To Make Your Own WordPress Widget from wpinformer.com
How to install and create your own plugins:
* How to install WordPress plugins from siteground.com
* How to make a wordpress plugin from weblogtoolsvideos.com
Well, this was my top 10 WordPress video tutorials. Would you like to see more of them?
Is your content easy to read?
June 10th, 2009
The readability of your blog posts is the key to your success. You expect your readers to get the message put in the blog posts you write, but how can they if your blog is not comfortably readable? Below are few tips to help you improve your blog readability
* The post should be clearly separated from the design. The beginning and ending of your posts should be visually obvious.
* Be neat. No one likes too long articles even if the subject is interesting. You most likely can say in 20 words the same thing you said in 45 for instance.
* Underline the links. Links are expected to be underlined, thus do not disappoint you readers 
Thus if the links are expected to be underlined nothing else should.
* Don’t break up the posts with the adverts. Putting the ads in the middle of the posts you just annoy your readers and distract them from the article.
* Use italics and bold. If the reader doesn’t have time to read the whole post you’ll help him skim through the text highlighting the key elements. Note that if you use italics and bold there’s no need to change the color and size of the highlighted words.
* Put the post images at the beginning of the post. Post images are used mainly to attract attention, thus they work best when put at the top of the page.
* Centre the images that are a part of the article (charts, diagrams etc.) Thus you’ll show the reader that the image is a part of the text not just an element of decore, and don’t forget to skip a line before and after the picture.
* Use common fonts. Make sure your posts are written with common fonts that everyone has.
* The sidebar should be short. The sidebar competes with the post for attention, thus the sooner it ends the better.
These are only few things to consider when writing a readable post.
What else do you do to improve your blog readability?
11 Tips on Making Your Post Titles Prominent
May 26th, 2009
You may think your blog post titles don’t really matter, but the thing is - they do matter a lot.
How does a random person decide whether to read a blog post or not? It doesn’t matter if the named person found your blog post at the searcher or at his feed, or at any of the social bookmarking websites, or even by simply surfing the web, the first thing the decision whether to read a post or not depends on is the title. Thus the title should be really great, catching and intriguing. There are loads of information at the Net on how to make your post titles prominent and catching, I collected the most reasonable tips to give you a simple yet useful check list. Note that not every of these tips is good for every blog post you write, everything depends on content, thus remember that you blog post title should reveal what your blog post is about, everything else comes later.
* Use keywords
* Hint what your reader will “get” from reading your post.
* Debates and controversy are the powerful tool for attracting readers.
* Use words like ‘free’, ‘discover’, ’stunning’, ‘warning’, ‘easy’, ’secrets’ and other power words.
* Promise something. But don’t forget to back the promises up at the post.
* Reach out to your reader. Using “you” in the title as well as in the post itself makes it more personal, thus more vivid for readers.
* Ask questions. These are good not only in attracting readers but also in stimulating comments.
* Be humorous. Humor is a great tool, but it has to be funny, remember that.
* Always right for your readers, not the search engines first.
* Simplicity is the key. No one likes too complected words and highbrow content.
* Lists are among the most popular posts.
Well, have I missed something? Do share your tips and advice in comments below.
WordPress as a CMS: how to build a portfolio website
April 30th, 2009
Deservedly considered to be the best blogging platform WordPress is not just that. Its ease of use and maintenance makes it the most ultimate CMS (Content Management System). CMS is a Web application used for creating and managing HTML content. CMSs usually provide tools that allow creating and managing content with little or no knowledge of programming. The easy to understand and operate WordPress admin tools allow you to create literally every possible type of website without tech skills from your side. There are hundreds of ways to use WordPress not as a blog but as CMS, creating an online portfolio is one of them. So how can you actually do that? Well, there are few ways.
* You can add image gallery WordPress Plugins to your blog thus adding the new functionality to it. This is an easy way to show your pictures to the world.
* The other way is to change your WordPress theme to a pre-made theme that is especially designed to be a gallery. Here you should decide whether you want a free or a premium theme for your online gallery.
Portfolio Extended is a brilliant example of a free wp theme for online galleries. It’s three column, adSence ready skin performed in nice red color palette.
Flipbook photo blog wp flash template is an awesome example of a premium theme for portfolio. The use of Flash makes it live and vivid.
Here are some brilliant examples of WordPress used as a portfolio website to inspire you:
Freshivore. A personal page of a designer from California featuring a very nice portfolio of his works.
Best web gallery. A brilliant web design showcase built with WordPress.
How would you use WordPress as a CMS?
Be a smart blogger
April 16th, 2009
What I like about WordPress most of all is its being constantly improved, thus the system becomes more and more secure. And the errors a blogger faces are more and more frequently the blogger own fault not the CMS.
So, what should you do to avoid the most common WordPress errors?
* Update every time you have a chance to
Upgrading everything on your blog from WordPress itself to plugins makes your blog less vulnerable. Make sure you secured your blog well.
* Don’t do anything if you don’t know how
Don’t try editing your theme if you don’t know how exactly to do that. Messing the code can lead to irreparable consequences and cause the errors that are hard to fix.
* Make sure the plugins you add are up-to-date and safe
The plugins you add to your blog should be compatible with your WordPress version, up-to-date, any modifications have to be noted by the plugin author, there should be installation instructions, license and other documentation. Don’t think that checking these things is a waste of time, waste of time is adding a plugin that won’t be working and will cause errors.
* Learn some coding basics
If you want to modify your themes and change the way your blog is seen by your users you better learn some basics of coding. Knowledge can never be superfluous, read your WordPress help files carefully, ask questions at forums, don’t be afraid to learn new things.
We all once started blogging and I’m pretty sure every one of you faced the issues that baffled you. So share your experiences, what are the WordpPress errors you faced and how did you deal with them?
Interact with your blog readers
April 9th, 2009
When you launch a blog you without doubt want to be popular, one of the ways to make your blog more interesting for your readers is to make it more interactive. There are many ways to do this. You can actually build a social network with plugin for WPMU called buddypress. But Wordpress MU requires dedicated hosting and it’s not that affordable for all the bloggers.
You can easily put some social media aspects to your blog with plugins.
Encourage your visitors to comment providing a backlink to their website, make your blog comments DoFollow. The DoFollow plugin removes a “nofollow” attribute from the link to a commenter’s website which WordPress automatically puts there.
A good way to interact with your readers is a WP-Polls plugin. This little plugin adds AJAX polls to your sidebar or blog posts. WP-Polls gives your users an opportunity to be active contributors, besides they are more likely to leave a comment after they vote.
There is another great plugin to encourage your visitors to comment and leave their feedback - Show Top Commentators. This plugin displays names of the most active commentators, the number of comments they made and a text link to their website, thus the commentators are more likely to come back to your blog and leave more feedback.
Are there any other tools you use to interact with your blog visitors?
Promote your WP blog with WordPress directories.
March 19th, 2009You’ve launched your WordPress blog, filled it with numerous seo-oriented plugins, wrote brilliant content and still your blog statistics show you are not as popular as you wish to be? Well, it’s time to promote. Let the world notice you. How?
There are numerous ways, one of them is adding your blog to various blog directories. Directories are great for link building, search engines love them
Start with the blog directories that include only WordPress powered blogs. Here’s the short list for you:
WordPress Showcase
The Showcase is held by WordPress itself, thus it’s probably the most authoritative directory, at least search engines consider it to be. Being the most powerful WordPress Showcase is quite picky. Make your blog unique and exceptional and you’ll be listed.
We Love WP
We Love WP showcases Wordpress powered websites and blogs with original designs or originally redesigned free or premium themes.
WP Count
Another powerful showcase of WordPress blogs. You can submit your new or redesigned blog.
These are not as authoritative as the above ones, but also very good directories:
Wordpress Garden
A nice showcase of websites build with WordPress. Though not very often updated.
Wordpress Blog Directory
A big archive of WordPress sites and blogs divided into thematic categories.
Wordpress-Directory
Another directory with thematic categorization.
Do you know more WP directories? Please share in comments.
FlashMint Giveaway - Win 5 Professional Flash Templates
March 18th, 2009Well, this is my entry about FlashMint Giveaway - Win 5 Professional Flash Templates
Anyone willing to win should only comment on the blog which template and why they prefer and to make a post about the contest to double the chances of winning
Although the winners will be selected randomly, I feel I might be the one to win one of the beautiful Flash Animated WordPress Themes Not sure which one
More info at the content page
Make your WordPress a time machine.
March 17th, 2009
Imagine you have to go somewhere for a period of time. Say, on a vacation you’ve been dreaming about for years. And what? Leave your blog without updates and your precious readers without your brilliant every day posts? No way, you say.
You can of course forget about going anywhere and stay at home, updating your blog, or you can take a lap-top and work from where you are going, but what is the pleasure in working on a vacation? WordPress is way smarter than that, you have a better option.
You can set the date of publishing a post into any date in future. Your blog will update itself and post your content at the time you specified.
How do you do that? Simple as follows:
When posting an article you can see a Post Timestamp section in the bottom right of the page. It displays the time and date you opened the posting page of your blog, if you change the date (click Edit Timestamp) you can set the date when your post will appear for any time in the future.
Now finish your post, select the time and date you would like the text to see the world and click Publish. No, it won’t appear at your blog right away! Check yourself, it isn’t there.
You can still edit the post that is to be published with a future Timestamp under Manage Posts, changing smth and clicking Save won’t effect the Timestamp at all.
So, go ahead! To the vacation you longed for so long!
By the way, where would you go for a vacation?
