Friday, August 01, 2008

Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 2


Again, there have been so many excellent blog posts and articles written on SEO already this year that I'm trying to get a jump on 2009. So here are several more of the best SEO-related pieces from 2008 thus far.

How to Prioritize Your Optimization by GrokDotCom

Interactive marketing guru and best-selling author Bryan Eisenberg maps SEO priorities against Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. As with Maslow’s pyramid, Eisenberg’s maps out progressive levels of website impact, from being merely functional to truly persuasive.


Beginner and Comprehensive Guides to SEO, Link Building, PPC, Social Media, Affiliate Marketing and Blogging by SEO Scoop

An outstanding post from DazzlinDonna listing her favorite resources and guides for help with everything from SEO and online reputation management to blogging and social media marketing. It’s almost like a syllabus for your own self-paced interactive marketing guru course.


The SEO Website Overhaul by PromotionWorld

Writer Brandon Cornett gets to the heart of SEO in this concise and practical article, detailing “five simple tasks you can perform on your website over the next few days to improve your search engine visibility and traffic levels” from validating your keywords to creating an XML site map.


Learning SEO and SEM - Where to Start? by High Rankings Advisor

A look at the various options for getting SEO training, including online courses, in-person training at industry conferences, and customized training classes. A tad self-serving, but informative.


Q&A With Google's Matt Cutts About SEO and the Future of Search by the Epicenter blog from Wired.com

Betsy Schiffman posts a brief interview with the head of Google’s quality team. Included is Matt’s response to the question of whether SEO really works: “It does to some degree. Think of it this way: When you put a resume forward, you want it to be as clean as possible. If the resume is sloppy, you're not going to get interviewed for the job. SEO is sort of like tweaking your resume . . . It's helpful if you just think about which words people would use to search for your content. If you're writing something about Mount Everest, for example, people are probably going to look for 'How high is Mount Everest?' . . . If done responsibly, [SEO] can be a great thing.”


What you need to know about SEO in 2009 by BlogStorm

Patrick Altoft notes that by the time an SEO strategy becomes popular, it generally doesn’t work anymore. While no one (other than Matt Cutts) knows what will be important next year, Patrick takes some guesses.


Combining PPC and SEO to Completely Dominate a Niche by Slightly Shady SEO

It’s no secret that SEO and SEM are each more effective when used together, but this post goes beyond the obvious to detail some specific strategies to use these tools together to dominate the home page of Google (or any other search engine) on a core set of specific terms.


Google Benchmarking and how it can generate more traffic by Latest SEO Buzz

A concise basic explanation of how to use Google Benchmarking to identify the most promising potential areas of improvement for a site.


In-Bound Linking Vs. On-Page SEO by SEO-Space

Thoughts on the relative importance of on-site SEO efforts vs. link building (do the on-site stuff first) and the use of microsites for expanding external links.


The SEO Industry Survey Results by SEOmoz

A wealth of data about working in SEO, with an interesting high-level summary as well as links to detail data. Among the conclusions: the vast majority of SEOs are self-taught (ranging from close to 60% in SEM agencies to more than 80% of “self-employed, non-consultant” whatever that is); SEOs are underpaid (even in the U.S., close to half earn less than $60K per year and nearly 60% make less than $75K); and far too many use insidious no-follow tags.


Analyze Your Competition before Starting an SEO & Marketing Campaign by PromotionWorld

Wendy Suto provides an excellent guide to improving your own SEO efforts by analyzing what competitors are doing in areas such as spider-friendly code, navigation, volume of content, meta tags, keyword density and external links. Understanding how the sites that rank higher than yours (or your client’s) for certain highly relevant key phrases can help you implement changes to leapfrog them.


A white hat super affiliate? by CDF Networks

A concise and compelling argument for using white hat over black hat (or gray hat) tactics in SEO. Judging by the volume of comments, apparently the topic of online ethics is anything but boring.


How To Sell “Mom and Pop” On SEO Services by Search Engine People Blog

A wonderful post on the challenges and rewards of working with small business owners on SEO. One key is to not overwhelm them with everything that needs doing at once; simply fixing title meta tags can often provide a significant bang for a small number of bucks. And it’s true that small business owners are frequently more appreciative and loyal than are big companies.


SEO Step Ten Of Ten: Keeping It Up by WebProNews

Jim Hedger writes about what to do once an SEO project is “done,” such as monitoring analytics and tweaking content, or as he puts it, “continuing to update the blog, link building and social media marketing.”

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 1

*****


Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Labels:

posted by Tom Pick @ 7:57 AM  
BlinkList  del.icio.us  Digg it  Furl  reddit  Yahoo MyWeb


KudoSurf Me!
Add to Technorati Favorites
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
AddThis Feed Button
| Blogger Comments (0) |

Monday, July 28, 2008

Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 1


There have been so many excellent blog posts and articles written already in 2008 that it's just not practical to wait until January of next year to recognize them. I may have to start doing these monthly or something, but for now, here are some of the best pieces written about the art and science of SEO so far in 2008.

SEO Best Practices: Essential To Do’s for A New Website by Search Engine People

Dev Basu outlines five areas that form a foundation for SEO efforts, including proper internal linking, sitemaps and developing a blog. This was actually from December 2007, but I overlooked it last January. Oops.


Prioritizing SEO Tasks by Shimon Sandler

A concise, easily digestible post that covers half a dozen high priory basic SEO tactics (such as title tags, H1 tags and keyword links) with links through to more detail on each.


25 SEO-Related Things To Do During Must See TV Thursdays by Cape Cod SEO

In this witty and very useful SEO post, Derek Edmond pretty much skips the usual tips about title tags and internal links and instead provides some fresh, off-the-beaten-path ideas such as “Research 2 or 3 of your main competition’s websites for 1 or 2 things they have (on their site) that you don’t have (and want),” “Check your Google AdWords reports for three profitable keyword referrals that you had not been optimizing organically for” and “Find 2 industry related resources that offer opportunities for article submissions, record the contact information and set a goal of contacting them for information on how to send one of your articles.”


Recession Proof Search Engine Optimization Tips by TopRank Online Marketing Blog

Search guru Lee Odden recommends getting creative rather than conservative when it comes to beefing up SEO efforts during a downturn. He recommends aggressive content promotion, using social media, and experimenting with universal search among other tactics.


The Meta Tag Question by PromotionWorld

Writer Carrie Marie Haggerty attempts to cut through some of the confusion over the value of meta tags, which ones are most useful and how to use them.


Writing for People (and Search Engines): How to improve click-through rates for organic listings by Hamlet Batista

SEO is fundamentally about driving website traffic. Generating clicks isn’t only a matter of top ranking, but also having a well-written description meta tag that appeals to searchers. Somewhat lower ranked sites can outdraw those in the top position with a description tag that is carefully crafted to appeal to both search engines and people.


22 Considerations for Improving Natural Search Performance by MediaPost Search Insider

Rob Garner provides a comprehensive checklist of key areas to examine and modify for organic search success. In addition to the obvious (e.g., title tags, copywriting and link development) Rob includes more esoteric areas such as canonicalization issues, removing session IDs and sourcing out on-page JavaScript and CSS to external files.


How to hire an SEO Rockstar by Search Engine People

Author Jennifer Osborne offers a useful checklist to use when determining what type of SEO talent you need and then evaluating candidates.


Link Building Campaigns That Work by Link Building Best Practices

Because search engine algorithms are constantly changing, a solid link-building strategy shouldn’t be “trendy” but rather balanced between different types of link sites including blogs, forums, directories, articles and reciprocal link partners.


4 questions every web site owner needs to answer by Search Engine Marketing Exposed

A fairly short yet very thoughtful post that is more strategic than tactical. Stepping back and answering some basic questions about why someone would visit your site and what exactly you’d like them to do there provides a helpful starting point for SEO efforts.


The Ultimate Guide to Directory Submissions by SiteProNews

While this article doesn’t quite live up to its headline, it’s nevertheless an educational quick read for anyone starting link building efforts as well as a helpful refresher for more experienced SEO practitioners.


SEO Your Site in 60 Minutes by Search Marketing Blog Online

Another excellent post with a somewhat misleading title, this piece from Jon Clark is packed with three dozen checklist items to make sure your SEO tactics are on track, divided into home page, site and external activities. Items range from basic (formatting of title tags, use of H2 tags, internal text links) to advanced (setting up a domain name redirect, “link funneling” using insidious nofollow tags). While going through this list will take considerably longer than 60 minutes, but it’s a worthwhile effort.


Deconstructing Search Engine Bias by MediaPost Search Insider

This post helps SEO pros understand, at a high level, the “biases” built into search engine algorithms in order to craft strategies and tactics to capitalize on them. These biases include factors like “spamminess,” authority, blog buzz and links.


Using Differentiators in Keyphrases: What Every Search Engine Optimization Company Needs to Know by PromotionWorld

A thoughtful piece from Scott Buresh on the value of adjectives for search; using modifiers in search phrases can simplify SEO efforts while delivering more highly qualified traffic. This works with descriptors (e.g. “B2B email marketing” vs. just “email marketing”), location (e.g. “search marketing services Minnesota”) and other attributes.

*****


Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Labels:

posted by Tom Pick @ 6:48 AM  
BlinkList  del.icio.us  Digg it  Furl  reddit  Yahoo MyWeb


KudoSurf Me!
Add to Technorati Favorites
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
AddThis Feed Button
| Blogger Comments (0) |

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Google and the Parable of the Turkey

In The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes about the life of the turkey: for 100 days, the turkey is sheltered, fed and cared for by the farmer. The turkey grows to trust the farmer completely, even perhaps developing a fondness for the farmer (and of course the feed). Then, on the 101st day (with Thanksgiving quickly approaching), the relationship between the turkey and the farmer changes abruptly and permanently. The rationale behind the farmer's apparent benevolence become clear in a final flash before the turkey takes the necessary step preceding de-feathering, vacuum-packing, freezing and shipping off to the market.

Taleb's lesson for us from this: don't be a turkey. More succinctly, don't assume that the future will resemble the past, or, in the words of mutual fund prospectuses, "past performance is no guarantee of future results." Also, remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Of course, that doesn't take into account the perspective of the turkey farmer. The farmer would point out that he's making an honest living, providing a valued product in the market. Taking advantage of the trust of turkeys is his job—it's how he feeds his family. And finally, those turkeys wouldn't have gotten so plump and healthy in the first place without his care and feeding.

Now, what if we're not talking about a farmer and his family, but a corporation and its shareholders? The stock market can be brutal when a company fails to meet earning expectations, such as it was last week when Google's stock price fell by 10% despite a 35% increase in earnings. Like the farmer's hungry children, investors are demanding that Google squeeze more out of its turkeys. Err, advertisers.

Before this analogy goes any further, I just want to make it clear that I love Google. Adore it. Eric, Sergey, Larry, Matt—they're like rock stars. Benevolent. With a great sense of humor. It's just that, you know, some people might be thinking these things, so I have to write about them.

Seriously, I am a big fan of Google, which is good because recent news could certainly cause one to spin paranoid fantasies. This tale will have a happy ending. But first, the paranoid fantasy.

Now, unlike a farmer, a corporation can discard part of it's family for the benefit of the other children, as Google did when it shut down its Dallas and Denver offices earlier this month and laid off those employees. But that's not a long-term strategy.

Over the long term, Google has to find new ways to make money, and that means getting more out of its turkeys advertisers. It has unique market power to do this. As Michael Arrington points out on TechCrunch, Google "controls 60% of the search market and perhaps as much as half of all online advertising revenue." On some small company websites, between organic search and AdWords, Google can drive 70% or more of total traffic.

Google could manipulate natural search results based on a company's PPC activity, but ultimately probably has something a bit more sophisticated in mind. Philosophically, the company has laid the groundwork for changing its strategy; in the wickedly funny What Eric Schmidt Really Said; Five Google Statements Translated on Marketing Pilgrim, Andy Beal points out that, for example, Google has backed away from its "Don't be evil" mantra and has plans to be more than a one-trick pony.

Practically, Google is pulling its advertisers ever closer, increasing the dependency of its turkeys, so to speak. Move over SharePoint, Google’s got a challenge on the Enterprise3 blog states that "With the announcement of Google Sites, Google has unveiled a tool that incorporates email, calendars, excels, documents and presentation software." This is positioned as a challenge to Microsoft Office and SharePoint, which it is, but its potentially much more than that.


Consider how much knowledge Google potentially has about its advertisers. If they are running an AdWords campaign, Google knows which keywords the company thinks are important and how highly the company values each term (through its bids) as well as which keywords are really effective. Through Analytics, it knows how much traffic the company's website gets, where the traffic comes from, which pages get visited most frequently, and who is visiting those pages. Through it's search crawling, it knows which other sites link to that company's site, which publications and bloggers write about it, and what gets said about the company (if anything) on social media sites. And now with Google Sites, it has insight into the internal workings and finances of the company (through Docs and Spreadsheets), can eavesdrop on its communications (through Gmail), and even knows where its key people are scheduled to be at any time (through its calendar software).

That's a tremendous amount of information to know about any company, much less about a lot of companies. Actually, an unprecedented amount. And as Sir Francis Bacon said, "knowledge is power."

What will Google do with this? Hard to say, but even assuming that its top executives are angelic figures with only the purest of motives (which I do—really!), those hungry children greedy shareholders, will exert pressure on the company to take advantage of its turkeys monetize that knowledge of its advertisers.

Such power, and its attendant temptation, is normally tempered by two forces: competition and the threat of legal action. Unfortunately for online advertisers, neither may be of much avail in this situation.

Competition

As Michael Madej points out in Google's erratic behavior and relevancy declines -- is Google getting greedy?, Google could be dethroned as the king of search, either through its own missteps (possible, though "google" has become a verb and habits are hard to break) or through the emergence of real competition, though "a new player would need Rupert Murdoch kind of money to even make a dent."

The most likely candidate is (was?) a Microsoft-Yahoo combination, though even with the intervention of Carl Icahn, both sides still appear too incompetent to consummate the union. Besides, even with Steve Balmer's reported determination to "f***ing kill Google" the company's past acquisition activities in this space have been mostly ineffective flailing. And how comfortable can anyone really be, recalling the Bill Gates is Satan hysteria of not-that-long-ago, with the idea of Microsoft as a savior?

Furthermore, Steve Baldwin speculates in Inside Microsoft’s War Room that in the "titanic clash between Microsoft (aka 'The Evil Empire') and Google aka 'The Don't Be Evil Empire'), Microsoft may already be thinking of throwing in the towel and making "contingency plans for a Google-ruled web."

Sean X Cummings in The X Factor: The ad network you'd kill to buy on tries to make the case for IAC as a Google killer, but being that Google gets 15 times the search traffic of Ask, is that really realistic?

Legal Action

C'mon, if Google really, intentionally, harmed someone, that individual or organization could sue, right? Sure—but don't count on beating the search giant in court. As Eric Goldman reported on his Technology & Marketing Law blog, a company called KinderStart sued Google in March of 2006: "Google has been sued for downgrading the PageRank of websites in contravention of its stated 'objective' policies. In KinderStart's case, they got kicked out of Google in March 2005 and immediately lost 70% of their traffic."

One year later, Goldman reported on the outcome of that suite in his follow-up piece, KinderStart v. Google Dismissed--With Sanctions Against KinderStart's Counsel: "Google has won big in the lawsuit brought by KinderStart due to their unhappiness with their search engine placement. Not only did Judge Fogel dismiss the complaint...but he issued Rule 11 sanctions against KinderStart's counsel Gregory Yu--meaning that Yu will have to pay some of Google's legal fees."

What the judge said essentially was that a site's search position on Google for any given term is determined by Google's algorithm, which is...whatever Google wants it to be. There is no intrinsically "right" or "wrong" search position rank for any website on any term. No matter how highly a particular site shows up for a specific search phrase, or how long it has enjoyed a high position, if it falls to page 40 tomorrow such is life.

Still, people keep trying.

A Different Kind of Farmer

One obvious argument to make here is that Google is more like a dairy farmer than a turkey farmer—it doesn't profit from butchering its dependent domestic animals advertisers, just milking them. Therefore, it has an interest in keeping them fat, healthy and happy.

True, though even the dairy farmer can turn cows into hamburger if they don't produce. Remember KinderStart above, and there is the case of Wikipedia: there's no question that it wouldn't have become the seventh-most visited site on the Web without serious help from the #1 site. As Michael Gray demonstrated in Google Loves Wikipedia - Even the Empty Pages, Google seems to rank Wikipedia pages highly even when there is little or no content on them. It will be interesting to see what happens to the Google position of Wikipedia pages once Knol is launched, no?

Self Interest

But I promised a happy ending and here it is: Google will ultimately refrain from going completely over to the dark side purely out of self interest, and an understanding of history. After all, even the biggest and most powerful companies can falter if they screw up badly enough. Think General Motors and Sears, for example. After reigning for nearly a century as the world's largest retailer, Sears lost the top spot back in the 80s and is now in ninth place.

Searchers expect highly relevant results, and advertisers expect advertising that produces a reasonable return on investment. One KinderStart is a minor distraction, but lots of them could cause real problems. To whom much is given, from whom much is expected (Luke 12:48). The marketplace has given Google a great deal of power. If Google uses the knowledge its tools enable it to gain for the benefit of advertisers and consumers, it will be difficult to topple. If not, Steve Ballmer—or someone else—will take it down.

*****


Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Labels:

posted by Tom Pick @ 7:21 AM  
BlinkList  del.icio.us  Digg it  Furl  reddit  Yahoo MyWeb


KudoSurf Me!
Add to Technorati Favorites
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
AddThis Feed Button
| Blogger Comments (0) |

Monday, June 23, 2008

How to Develop an SEO Keyword List

It's critical, when starting work on a new website, to develop a list of the most productive keywords and phrases to work into the content and structure of the site. It can also be a useful exercise for existing sites from time to time; content changes, search patterns change, and a minor content and SEO face lift may be just the thing to reinvigorate traffic growth.

Start by jotting down a list of the obvious search phrases for the site. Try to think like a prospective customer—what phrases would they likely use to try to find the product, service or information you offer?—rather than your internal company jargon. The list doesn't need to be long; 15-25 phrases is sufficient unless you are working with a very large website.

Next, run your initial list of phrases through a keyword tool in order to 1) determine the relative search volume of the terms on your initial list, and 2) identify high-potential related search phrases. Trellian's Keyword Discovery is an excellent tool if you can justify the cost; if not, Google Suggest (and the AdWords keyword tool if you have an existing AdWords account), the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool and Yooter are helpful, free tools. In Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools, search guru Lee Odden reports on the popularity of 15 keyword tools.

Finally, the most important step of all: after combining all of your original and the tool-suggested terms and sorting the phrases by search popularity, apply human intelligence to reduce the list to a final, manageable list of terms to SEO the site for. Not all of the terms that a keyword suggestion tool identifies as "related" to your initial list will really apply to your product, service or information. In addition, some terms will be too broad for SEO but may be use for a search engine marketing (SEM) program (SEO vs. SEM terms will be the topic of a future post).

The final list of terms can then be worked into page URLs, titles, meta tags and content to help the search engine spiders figure out that your site should show up well for these search phrases.

*****


Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Labels:

posted by Tom Pick @ 7:59 AM  
BlinkList  del.icio.us  Digg it  Furl  reddit  Yahoo MyWeb


KudoSurf Me!
Add to Technorati Favorites
AddThis Social Bookmark Button
AddThis Feed Button
| Blogger Comments (1) |

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

SEO for Mommy Bloggers

Laura Pick as a little girl
At last week's Blogging for Business conference, Shannon Johnson of the What About Mom blog mentioned that someone should write a post about search engine optimization (SEO) for mommy bloggers. I figured for sure such a post much already exist, but when a Google search on "SEO for mommy bloggers" came up empty, I decided to fill the void. I mean, there's just a chance this might actually be useful, and Shannon's pretty cool even if she doesn't drink beer.

So where should you start? Other posts on blog SEO might suggest envisioning a sales funnel or Pareto chart to help focus on the most important items first, but c'mon, you're moms! Let's get relevant—approach SEO like meal planning. Start with the entree, then a carb (e.g. potatoes, rice, pasta), then a veggie, then the surrounding but important stuff: ketchup, butter, napkins, a mop bucket (if you have a two-year-old boy), a power washer (if you have two-year-old twin boys), etc.

Blog name: this is the one piece of text that will ALWAYS be with you, so choose it carefully. Actually, this has almost nothing to do with SEO and everything to do with creativity. And it's pretty clear from Guy Kawasaki's ultimate mommy blog list (a bit dated now, but still interesting) that when it comes to blog naming, moms are way more creative than most marketers.

Blog subhead: this is the visible, short paragraph of text that accompanies your title. Not every blog has one, though I would highly recommend it. The blog subhead helps establish the personality of your blog. For example, my blog subhead includes the text "B2B lead generation and marketing, Web 2.0 social media, business blogging tools, micromarkets, interactive PR, and web marketing tools and resources." That's rambling and unfocused—so it matches my blog perfectly.

What personality do you want your blog to have? Are you the car seat mom, the gourmet-meal-in-10-minutes mom, the professional photographer mom, the green-and-vegan mom, or the Uzi-toting-Gatorade-swilling-Toyota-Tundra-driving mom? (That last one would likely have little SEO competition.) Just don't be the overworked mom, the sleepless mom or the good-grief-why-am-I-doing-laundry-while-he's-watching-football-AGAIN mom, as all of those are redundant and will never help you stand out.

Meta tags—title and description. These are two tags that appear in your template code. I'm sure you know this, but you can see what's in these tags on your blog or any other website by clicking on "Source" in the "View" menu on your browser. You'll see something like this:




"Title" can be longer and more descriptive than your actual blog title, and "description" should be in the form of a complete sentence that includes keywords which reflect the personality of your blog. Some people will tell you that the "description" tag has no effect on SEO. There is a chance that those people are smarter than me, so ignore them.

As an example, the "title" from the Jenandtonic blog is:



Jen doesn't use a "description" tag (she might add one if you tell her to, but she's not going to listen to me), but does use another very interesting meta tag, the "mommyblog" tag. This doesn't seem to have any effect on SEO as Google can't even find this, but it does make Jen's source code very interesting, including some words I don't normally include in my blog:




I'm not sure exactly how to modify these tags in WordPress or TypePad, but in Blogger, go to "Manage...Template" then click "Edit HTML" and you can add these tags just below the tag.

Post title: This is a very important phrase in SEO. Use titles that there is at least a chance people might search on. For example, the title of this post, "SEO for Mommy Bloggers" is much more likely to be searched than something like "Ideas for how women who are moms and blog can possibly get more optimal position when searched." (Actually, I haven't done the quantitative research on both of those terms, so I'm going out on limb a bit here, but I'm guessing that the first title will do better in search.)

Post content: Use key phrases SEO for Mommy Bloggers throughout the text of your SEO for Mommy Bloggers post so that important phrases SEO for Mommy Bloggers stand out more prominently to the SEO for Mommy Bloggers search engines.

Tags: Tags are key phrases you can add to posts, again, to help search engines recognize which terms in your content are important. I recommend using a tool like Keotag to automatically generate tags for blog tracking services like IceRocket and Technorati.

Whew, that's it for the "on-blog" SEO (the main course). But there are also several tactics to improve your search position that are external to your blog (the condiments and dessert, so to speak; by the way, can anything that doesn't contain chocolate really qualify as a dessert?).

Linking to/from other bloggers: The single most important bit of external SEO you can do is developing relationships and cross-links with other bloggers. Every blog that links back to yours gives you more credibility and authority in the eyes of the search engines. So, for example, if I link to Dooce, maybe Heather Armstrong will notice and link back to me. Then again, maybe she'll just think I'm weird.

Plus, linking to other bloggers is a great way to make new contacts, and not linking to anyone else is one of the seven deadly sins of blogging.

Social bookmarking: Make sure your posts get tagged on social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Sphinn, Mixx and Searchles from time to time. Exposure for your blog on Web 2.0 sites makes you smart, hip, and 10 years younger. Ideally, your readers would do this for you (especially if your blog includes convenient social bookmarking buttons—see below), but if you have to do it yourself (doesn't it seem like YOU are the one who ALWAYS has to take care of EVERYTHING??!!) then that's okay.

Social bookmarking buttons: These are cute little buttons you can add to your posts to help people tag and promote your content. You can do this the hard way, by adding buttons one at a time using resources from this List of Social Bookmarking Buttons & Widgets for Your Web Sites & Blogs (yeah, and you can make your own soap and sew all of your kids' clothes too), or just use ShareThis, which is much easier.

RSS feed: Without getting into the technology behind this (which, like the technology behind electronic ignition systems, is something you are PERFECTLY CAPABLE of understanding but most likely just don't care to), RSS is just an easy way to share your content across other sites, and an easy way for users to access it using an RSS reader or personalized start page.

It's easy to create a feed for your blog using Feedburner. Then you can distribute your content far and wide by submitting your feed to various RSS and blog directories.

How was dinner? Finally, after all of this work, you'll probably want to know how you did. For an objective and detailed (and free!) evaluation, go to WebSiteGrader and follow the simple instructions.

Other links: Here are a couple of less mom-friendly but more advanced posts on SEO for blogs:

Twelve SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make from Stephan Spencer (except ignore what he writes about nofollow tags; nofollow tags are to HTML code what lead is to children's' toys—poisonous and completely unnecessary. I'm on a crusade to stamp out nofollow tags.)

Tips for Optimizing Blogs and Feeds from Ross Dunn

Thanks for reading my second post ever that references mommy bloggers.

And as for the photo at the top; yes, that's my mom (the little girl on the far right). She's still going strong, turning 88 next month.

*****


Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Labels:

posted by Tom Pick @ 9:01 AM  
BlinkList  del.icio.us  Digg it  Furl  reddit  Yahoo MyWeb


KudoSurf Me!