Archive | March, 2010
When I lived in Oklahoma I ate my pancakes or waffles with peanut butter. I never really liked syrup so if I did eat syrup, I only ate very little. Then I moved to The Great White North (TGWN) and my world got turned upside down.
When my husband and I were first dating we visited his home town here in TGWN and he took me to get the “best hot dog around”. Well the fact that this hot dog establishment was actually a truck located on a gas station parking lot in the middle of Back Woods, NH I should have know what to expect. But I was naive and I ordered chili on my dog. When I took that first bite into my dog, I was anticipating the strong, smokey flavor of spicy chili. But that’s not what I got. Of course not. My taste buds were assaulted with a sweet, sticky chili that I could only assume was made with maple syrup. The same senario happened when I tried my husbands favorite barbecue sauce. Oh Lordy, I should have known better.
So these experiences with maple syrup lead me to believe that it was the devil’s snot (a.k.a. the grossest stuff on the planet).
But one day I was introduced to snow with maple syrup on it and my opinion started to change. So I decided to visit a maple sugar house this past weekend to see if I had this stuff pegged all wrong. But I didn’t really get a chance to become familiar with the art of maple syrup production because I was too busy making sure I didn’t get eaten by a vicious chickens. Yeah, the maple sugar house just happened to be on a chicken farm.
Oh and by the way, I’m deathly afraid of birds. So this maple sugar shack was like my bermuda triangle; birds, maple syrup, and more birds all in one place. Awesome!
So I was hoping that this post was going to be all informative on how maple syrup is made. But I can’t remember a thing the tour guy said cause I was way to busy covering all my soft parts that birds tend to peck at first. But if you are into all that educational stuff, here is the maple syrup ‘how to’ guide.
Step one: Drain the stuff from the tree
Step two: boil it down till you get syrup
So no, I’m not saying that me and maple syrup are all BFF now. But, yes, we are on far better terms than me and birds.
There are many elements involved in search engine optimization. SEO is like tiny pieces of a puzzle. When you have one piece, you don’t really see anything and it doesn’t really do anyone any good. If you have a couple of pieces you can start to make out what the puzzle is going to be. Once you get them all together, you have a pretty awesome picture of spring flowers. Or , in terms of SEO, people that conduct a search for a topic that you blog about are able to find not only your blog, but they are able to find content that is pretty gosh darn close, if not exactly, to what they were looking for. Isn’t that a wonderful thought. It’s like digital matchmaking or something.
But no matter how many pieces of the SEO puzzle you have, none are really quite as effective as providing QUALITY CONTENT (the one I need to work on most, yikes!). For example, someone might find you blog easily on a search but if you haven’t added a post in 6 months they may be unlikely to come back. Or if they find your blog and the content stinks, again, the are not going to link to your content (a.k.a. recommend your site to friend).
I don’t know about you guys, but for me, the content is often times the hardest piece of the puzzle. To try to overcome that I follow several blogs that are about improving content.
Copyblogger – Copywriting tips for online marketing success
Seth Godin – He is a marketing guru
ProBlogger – blogging tips to help you make money blogging
Chris Brogan – Focuses mainly on community and social media
Digital Photography School – Tips to improve the photography of your blog
If all else fails, I look for inspiration in my daily Google Alerts, which are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. They are pretty handy at helping you to stay current on a particular topic or industry.
The point of the story is, if you write good content, they will come. But if you couple good content with Search Engine Optimization and marketing, the right readers will show up faster.
I have decided to create a new weekly series of posts covering the topic of Search Engine Optimization for bloggers. I will post a new tip every Monday for the next several weeks. Some of the tips you may already be familiar with but I’m hoping that with each tip you get a better understanding of how Google robots crawl your site. Ultimately using that knowledge to apply those principles to other areas of your web site.
Now I’m not claiming to have hidden secrets that will send you to the top of a Google search. Also, there are no guarantees on how this will all work for your site. Anyone that promises these things isn’t telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But the principles I will discuss will not only help visitors to your site but will also help search engines index your site. So in my opinion it’s a win-win.
I just got back from my spring vacation. I know what you may be thinking. Beach, sun, surf, and sand. But no. Think again. I went back to the motherland. Now don’t get me wrong, during an average year if I were to visit Oklahoma, the temperature would likely be in the high 60′s, with lots of sunshine and maybe some rain storms; a good vacation by most standards. But nah. Because I decided to leave The Great White North for a week, they had unseasonably warm weather and sunny skies. What was the weather like in Oklahoma? Snowy. Yup, I said the filthy, dirty ‘S’ word.
It’s a filthy, dirty word because it caused rescheduling of baby showers, canceled lunch date with friends, and dashed my hopes of soaking up some sun. I tried to stay positive throughout this unlucky vacation, but after a while I must admit all of the inconvenience got to me.
I guess the positive aspect of this unlucky vacation is that I was very eager to get back home to my regularly scheduled life.
What’s the worst/unluckiest vacation you have had?
One of the big lessons I have learned in my journey to becoming a real, bona fide adult is that things don’t work out quite the way I hoped/anticipated/planned. That’s really the place I’m in right now, nothing is quite working out the way I had planned and I’ve been fighting it every step of the way… and it hasn’t been pretty.
Lately, I’ve realized that maybe this isn’t the best way to go about life. Maybe, just maybe, the life I had planned out 10 years ago didn’t take into consideration the things I would learn and the people I would meet along the way. Take my career for instance. I got my undergraduate degree in engineering and had planned my future around working for several years, getting my graduate degree, and eventually conducting research. All of these plans were made before I had even worked one full day out in the “real world”. Once I actually did get a job as an engineer, I HATED it. I tried several jobs but none were a really good fit. During the that time I had started blogging and learning about social media and web programming. It was just something that I did for fun that I enjoyed. On a whim, I applied for a job in the web/software industry, and GOT IT! Go figure, when I wasn’t stressing about it or worrying about it, I got a job that fit me really well and actually offered a lot of unconventional opportunities to advance that I had never expected.
The same thing happened with school. I had planned and worried about how I was going to get back to school for my Masters in Engineering. When I quit fretting and worrying I kind of fell into an MBA program. I’ve only had a couple of classes, but I love it. I feel like I’m learning a lot of applicable information and I’m actually good at it. Letting go of my plans and objectives actually allowed me to be open to different opportunities that were a better fit for me.
I definitely can’t take credit for the way my life has worked out, cause all of it has been a blessing. But what I wish I could do, from here on out, is RELAX and let my life go where it’s going to go and quit fighting for silly plans I made when I was a kid. A kid that had no clue what life had in store for me. Instead of fighting my natural talents and trying to be the person I thought I was, I want to just accept who I am.
So okay, I may have gotten a little ahead of myself since for the past four weeks I have been diving straight into ways to tackle SEO on your blog. So how about I back up about 10 ft and start at the beginning. What the heck is SEO?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization”. The way I like to explain it is that SEO is a bunch of concepts you can get in the habit of using to organize content and information on your site that makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site. But SEO only influences ORGANIC search results
The higher your site shows up on a search result, the more likely it is that you will have more visitors to your site. However, if you want to show up in the paid results area all you have to do is visit Google AdWords. But keep in mind you “PAY” for those results.
What I’m concerned with, as I’m sure many other bloggers are, is how can I affect the organic search results for FREE by doing it myself. And actually it’s pretty easy. There are some key areas of your blog that you can focus your SEO attention on to get started I’ve listed them below:
- Page Titles
- Meta Descriptions
- URL Structures
- Navigation
- Links
- Images
- Quality Content
Don’t worry I’ll go into more detail on these later. For more information check out Wikipedia’s definition of SEO.
I have decided to create a new weekly series of posts covering the topic of Search Engine Optimization for bloggers. I will post a new tip every Monday for the next several weeks. Some of the tips you may already be familiar with but I’m hoping that with each tip you get a better understanding of how Google robots crawl your site. Ultimately using that knowledge to apply those principles to other areas of your web site.
Now I’m not claiming to have hidden secrets that will send you to the top of a Google search. Also, there are no guarantees on how this will all work for your site. Anyone that promises these things isn’t telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But the principles I will discuss will not only help visitors to your site but will also help search engines index your site. So in my opinion it’s a win-win.
I have mentioned before my addiction to Etsy. It’s just such a fun place to easily find creative and unique items without leaving the comfort of your own home. And let’s face it, I’m all about comfort and never having to get out of my pajamas. On the weekends my husband is lucky I actually shower, let alone leave the house. But that’s another story for another day. Today I’m focusing on, not only the convenience of online shopping, but how small it seems to make the world.
Last night I received a tunic in the mail from Mexico. That’s right an authentic Mexican blouse (from my Mom, Thanks MOM!). It is beautiful. As you may know I grew up in Oklahoma and now live in New England. Now I can get my fair share of lobster, cable knit crew sweaters, and boat shoes here in New England. But growing up in Oklahoma, my style is a bit more bohemian and western than that. I love gauzy blouses that help keep you cool in the unforgiving heat of the summer. I love a good pair of jeans that you can wear in any occasion. I can’t get enough turquoise jewelry. And above all else I love mexican food with a cool mug of Dos Equis with salt and lime. But these things are a bit difficult to come by in the land of Brooks Brothers and clam chowder.
Thank heavens for the internet. I can order all of those things I really love, even barbecue from a local Oklahoma restaurant, and have it delivered to my front door step. I can have a little piece of home when home feels a million miles away.
To top it all off, I received a special handwritten note with my blouse that read “Gracias, with love from Mexico”. That simple, small note made me feel connected to this woman who I’ve never met and have no idea what she looks like. But in receiving her product and her note I feel there was a lot of love put into my blouse and that makes it special.
Where else but the internet could I feel connected to a complete stranger who my mom ordered a super cute blouse from for my birthday to help cure my home sickness? No where I tell you.
HubSpot is the maker of some pretty amazing inbound marketing tools that can be pretty useful for big organizations. However, as a blogger, you probably don’t have the resources or even the need for the super strong tools they offer. However, what you do have a need for is some of the free grading tools they offer. According to Grader.com they are a family of tools that help measure all that matters in inbound marketing. And it’s true they offer a Twitter Grader, a Facebook Grader, and a Book Grader just to name a few. But for your blog you will want to use the Website Grader.
The Website Grader is really quite simple to use. You only have to know your own url and email address and they take care of the rest. After you submit your information they take less than 5 minutes to scan your site. They compile all the information they gathered into a report provides you with information about when Google last crawled your website, how many pages Google indexed, the readability level, the number of incoming links, and so much more. You can then use your received grade and feedback to improve upon your blog.
Try it out at http://websitegrader.com
I have decided to create a new weekly series of posts covering the topic of Search Engine Optimization for bloggers. I will post a new tip every Monday for the next several weeks. Some of the tips you may already be familiar with but I’m hoping that with each tip you get a better understanding of how Google robots crawl your site. Ultimately using that knowledge to apply those principles to other areas of your web site.
Now I’m not claiming to have hidden secrets that will send you to the top of a Google search. Also, there are no guarantees on how this will all work for your site. Anyone that promises these things isn’t telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But the principles I will discuss will not only help visitors to your site but will also help search engines index your site. So in my opinion it’s a win-win.
The quick answer is yes. The longer answer is you should register your domain name for the longest period of time you feel comfortable registering it as a blogger. The reason for this is that spam sites typically have a domain that will expire relatively soon. Because of this Google is cautious with any domain that has an approaching expiration date. So today’s quick lesson is for you to renew your domain registration early and for an extended period of time to remain in Google’s good graces.
I have decided to create a new weekly series of posts covering the topic of Search Engine Optimization for bloggers. I will post a new tip every Monday for the next several weeks. Some of the tips you may already be familiar with but I’m hoping that with each tip you get a better understanding of how Google robots crawl your site. Ultimately then using that knowledge to apply those principles to other areas of your web site.
Now I’m not claiming to have hidden secrets that will send you to the top of a Google search. Also, there are no guarantees on how this will all work for your site. Anyone that promises these things isn’t telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But the principles I will discuss will not only help visitors to your site but will also help search engines index your site. So in my opinion it’s a win-win.
