Should I Use Nofollow Links on My Blog?

nofollow links, broken links on a red background
Nofollow links were introduced by Google nearly a decade ago for the purpose of combating spam. As the name suggests, they tell search engines not to follow a link; therefore, no link juice is passed down to the linked website. As a blogger, though, you may be wondering whether or not you should use them in your blog. Advertisements A good rule of thumb is to make all advertisements and sponsored links nofollow. As noted by Google, paid links should be given the nofollow attribute to prevent them from negatively impacting user experience. If paid links are kept dofollow, they could art...
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6 Undeniable Reasons Why You Should Blog

reasons to blog
Deeper Connection With Your Readers Writing a blog will allow you to establish deeper, more personal connections with your readers. Why is this important? Well, by creating stronger relationships with your readers, you'll present yourself in a more trustworthy light. And when readers trust you, they'll feel more inclined to purchase your advertised products or services. It's just that simple. Higher Search Rankings This alone should be reason enough to start blogging. By creating (and managing) a blog, you'll increase your exposure in the search engines. Each post will get crawled by sea...
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WordPress Tips and Tricks

wordpress tricks, trick up sleeve
One of the reasons WordPress is so popular is it's easy to use little tips and tricks to improve your blog's visibility. Today we're going to share a few. Use a Custom Avatar WordPress uses a universal avatar system known as Gravatar. So anytime someone posts a comment, the Gravatar associated with their email address is displayed alongside their name. You can create a custom Gravatar by visiting the linked website and setting up an account. Just remember to use the same email address that's associated with your WordPress email address, as Gravatars are linked by email. Highlight Author C...
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Benefits of Using Google’s ‘Blogger’ Platform

google blogger screenshot
So, you want to start blogging? The first step in launching a blog is to choose a content management system (CMS). While WordPress is hands-down the most popular blogging platform, powering an estimated 25% of the entire Internet, there are other platforms out there as well, including Google's own Blogger. In this post, we're going to reveal some of the benefits of using Google's blogging platform. Blogger Is Free You can create your own blog (or a standard website for that matter) on Blogger without spending a dime. Granted, Google offers premium memberships that include extra perks, but...
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5 Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

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You can spend countless hours crafting the perfect blog post, but it's not going to yield any tangible results in people actually see it. This is why you should promote your blog posts after publishing them. Doing so will drive traffic to them, increasing your posts' visibility and hopefully generating new conversions and/or sales in the process. Share on Social Media One of the first things you should do after publishing a new blog post is to share the link on your social media profiles. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other networks for which you have accounts. Assuming you h...
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Make WordPress Look Like a Regular Website

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WordPress is often touted as being the most popular and powerful blogging platform on the web. Of course, there's a good reason for this: the free-to-use CMS is loaded with blogger-friendly features, such as built-in commenting, support for multiple authors, tags, and more. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't be used to build standard websites. On the contrary, many webmasters still use WordPress for building standard, non-blog websites. Static Page vs Dynamic Posts If you're looking to use WordPress to build a standard website instead of a blog, you should first switch the ho...
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Blogging Without an Active Internet Connection

blogging offline, no internet connection sign
The secret to running a successful blog is to publish fresh, high-quality content on a regular basis. Content is the heart and soul behind every successful blog, as it gives both humans and search engines a reason to visit the blog. But what if you don't have access to the Internet? Can you still blog? Yes, You Can Still Blog The good news is that you can still blog without an active Internet connection, although there are some caveats that you need to be aware of. For starters, you won't be able to publish new posts "live," until you connect to the Internet. Instead, you must create and pre...
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Report: WordPress Now Powers 25% of the Web

wordpress revolution graphic
You don't have to search very far to find a website powered by the WordPress content management system. From TechCrunch and The New Yorker, to the Variety and eBay, there are literally millions of popular websites running this platform. According to a new report, a jaw-dropping 25% (1 in 4) of all websites are powered by WordPress, making it the world's largest CMS by a landslide. W3 Techs published the data on its website, revealing that WordPress is used by 58.7% of all websites "whose content management systems we know," which is "25% of all websites." A Little WordPress History WordPre...
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How to Blog When You Don’t Have Much Time

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Want to know the secret to running a successful blog? It's publishing fresh, high-quality content on a regular basis. Content will drive both search engines and human visitors to your blog, boosting its search rankings in the process. But what happens if you work a full-time job or have other responsibilities that restrict your time allowance for blogging? Schedule Posts in Advance Even if you are unable to log into your blog every other day to publish a new post, you can still schedule posts in advance. Most of the major blogging platforms, including WordPress, have a built-in post scheduli...
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5 Easy Ways to Boost Your Blog’s Traffic

city traffic at night, increase your blog traffic
Traffic is a direct indication of a blog's success. If a blog receives little-to-no traffic, it's not going to gain any momentum for its respective niche. But how exactly do you encourage people to visit and engage themselves on your blog? Share Posts on Social Media One of the easiest ways to boost your blog's traffic is to share new posts on social media. Whenever you publish a new post, log into your Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles and link back to it. Assuming you have a decent number of followers, this will give your new posts an initial burst of traffic. And in some cases it ma...
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