Uncovering the most Profitable Keywords for your Business

February 23, 2013 by 1 Comment

In the fierce competition laden world of the internet, a webmaster would always aim at getting as much number of visitors as possible. But getting traffic isn’t just about quantity. You have to consider the conversion rates of your site’s visitors.

Thus, you have to aim at ranking for keywords that mean the most to your business. And this is where keywords play a major role. Without taking time to getting the appropriate keywords, your SEO efforts will be useless.

Let’s go over a few but helpful tips in uncovering the most profitable keywords for your business.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Tagged With:

Learning SEO More Important than AP Style

March 22, 2012 by 1 Comment

Do we really need to have such a big focus on AP Style in journalism school when SEO is going to be more valuable?

When I was taking my journalism classes in college, I haaaated AP Style.  For the record, I do not pretend to be a good writer at all.  In fact, I’m barely passable.

I wrote some pretty damn good stories in college but lost many grade points because of AP Style errors.  AP Style became the focus of my hatred for print media.  I enjoy reading print stories, but knew it would never be my profession.

Now that blogs, Twitter, and Facebook lead American news dissemination, how much does strict AP conformity really matter?

Not at all

There is an argument to be made that journalists should be taught both.  I can’t really disagree. However, that’s nearly impossible for many of us.

Most people have the capacity to learn one, maybe two writing styles, and actually be good at them.  Your first is the everyday email style of writing.  That’s really what I would consider most of my blogging; halfway decent streams of thought.

Second would be your more formal article style writing.  Straight forward and clear, but not worrying much about AP Style.

Then there is this third category of New York Times style.  The apex AP Style.   [Read more...]

Filed Under: Don't Do It Tagged With: , ,

Interesting SEO Interview with Aaron Wall

May 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I just finished listening to an on-demand clip from the latest ShoeMoney radio show.

This week, Shoe interviewed Aaron Wall, the owner of SEO Book.  It is always interesting to hear experts “having a chat” about their expertise.  The thing I like about the ShoeMoney show is how I feel like a fly on the wall just listening to their conversation.  Typically, it is as if Shoe and his guests are just having a beer, shooting the breeze about the latest web marketing trends.

That was no different on this latest show.  It peaked my interest too because Aaron was talking a bit about his new 12 part SEO course he launched.

Here at BlogCraving, we have been rolling out some new free courses and instructional guides.  Because of that, I have been out actively studying courses offered by other people to get ideas on some things we should offer here at BlogCraving.

Anyway, the point is, if you’re a web geek, it is a great show you should checkout some time.

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , ,

Images Have Great SEO Value

May 25, 2009 by Leave a Comment

It’s pretty obvious that images and photos are important for your blog.  As a matter of fact, us bloggers go to pretty extreeme lengths to get great photos and illustrations.  Many of us are paying thousands of dollars a month in photo rights fees.

So why are you neglecting your photos?

Many bloggers are not as dilegant about maximizing the SEO potential of their images.  Actually, most bloggers do not realize that you can get a lot of search engine traffic because of your photos.

The obvious way occurs when other sites link to your great photos.  Clearly, that will help your SEO.

However, the images themselves can draw a lot of eyeballs, but you have to love your alt tags.  Take a look at this screencap to see what I mean.

When the search engines crawl your site, they are looking at your images too.  The alt tags are what Google uses to identify the subject matter of each photo.

So think about it.  If you’ve paid all this money for a great photo, don’t you want people to be able to find it?  Or what if these are great photos that you took, and no one else has them! This is how you’ll attract new visitors to your site, and you won’t have to reply soley on promotion from other sites.

Just think about how many times you’ve used Google’s Image search.  Now you’ll be a player in that space too.

Your alt tags should be just as keyword rich as your posts themselves.  Make sure to describe the photo and use the full names of the people in the photo.

There’s also a plugin called SEO Images that will at least do some of the work should you forget.  At least install the plugin to get you started.

Remember, spending a little extra time up front will pay off for you in the long run.

Filed Under: How to..., Wordpress Tagged With: , , , ,

Does Your Site Make the Grade?

May 8, 2008 by 1 Comment

If you haven’t already been there, you need to check out websitegrader.com.

Pop in your blog URL and the site will instantly crawl and score your site on a variety of metrics.  Some of them include meta tags, linkbacks, content evaluation, page rank, and a whole lot more.

It can take a few minutes for the system to process your site, so be patient.  You can then read through all the details of your site’s score.

And it’s free!

What’s your site’s score?

Filed Under: Site Traffic, Strategy Tagged With: , , ,

WordPress 2.5 is Here!

March 29, 2008 by Leave a Comment

The brand spanking new WordPress 2.5 “Brecker” is here, and just hours old.

The crew over at WordPress just cut the newest stable version loose, and of course we installed it immediately. It is awesome.

There’s a ton of new features, bells, and whistles. However, I must say, my favorite thing is the new design of the back end from a cosmetic point of view. It is very clean, simple, and easy to navigate.

It’s also very BRIGHT! You actually feel lighter when you write. A very airy feel to it that makes it enjoyable to work.

The new “Write” screen also has built in tools for adding media such as YouTube videos, you own images, pdf’s, audio clips, and other media. You can even toggle to full screen mode, which makes the writing a little easier when you are working on those big posts. It blows the writing area up to the full width of your browser, which then makes it look/feel like you are working inside MS Word or similar word processing software.

After typing in your headline, you also get a preview of what your permalink will look like for that article. It is placed in a clear area for you to see. I’m hoping this encourages users to think about their slugs and urls a little more. The smarter you write your slug, the better your SEO will be.

If you write a blog with more than one person, there’s new features for you too! Now, you don’t have to worry about being inside a post and having your partner save over your edits. Once you open a post, it will keep other editors out while you work on it. That way you aren’t both working on it at the same time and saving over each other.

Tons of great features. iCast Limited is offering our professional services for this upgrade. If you would like to have us upgrade your WordPress blog for you, it will cost you just $29.95. Contact us if you are interested in this offer.

Don’t have a WordPress blog? It is very easily to migrate your current blog over to this platform. We offer those services too.

Filed Under: Wordpress Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get More Blog Readers by Having Others Write About You

January 14, 2008 by

As a developer, we are often told by clients that they just don’t know why they don’t have more readers. As a matter of fact, that’s often why many clients come to us.

Unfortunately, we don’t have some sort of magic wand to bring in the masses.

So let’s assume that your content is pretty good. Let’s also assume that theIcast.com has provided you with a kickass template, taking your blog from the depths of amateurism, to blog stardom. Then what?

You could buy advertising. That’s a pretty turnkey method. Unfortunately, it costs money, and the visitors is brings rarely turn into regular readers. It’s more of a hit and run situation.

Link exchanges? Lame. Trust me, it’s a waste of your time.

If only you could get popular blogs to write about you. Wait! That’s it, get bigger blogs to write about you. It’s that simple. Haha…ok no not really. But it is not impossible.

First, you have to find blogs that have similar topics and themes as yours. Yes, believe it or not, I guarantee you were not the first, nor are you the only person blogging about your topic. So get out there and find some others.

Then, participate in their blog discussions. Post some legitimate comments on their blogs. Make yourself known. Other bloggers are paying attention to who is commenting. If you’re contributing meaningful discussion, you’ll be noticed.

Next, get your hands on the blogger’s email address. Most bloggers have a “tipster” address or submission address to send story ideas. It’s there for a reason! If you’ve writing something (today) about something that would be of interest to other blogs, drop them a line.

Be honest, and don’t act like a greasy used car salesman. Say listen, I just posted something about XYZ, and I think you might really be interested in it. Hope you get a chance to check it out.

Then, they will probably check it out. Hopefully it inspires them to write their own post about the same issue. Then, per the blogger unwritten code of ethics, they will link back to you!

Don’t do this for every post you make…just the ones that you are especially proud of. Eventually, the other bloggers will start to check you out on a regular basis. You keep turning out good content, and before you know it, you will get regular linkbacks.

Soon, readers will start coming straight to you!

Filed Under: Site Traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,