How to Craft Killer Blog Titles

Posted on March 17, 2016April 5, 2016 by sitemanager

tips for blog titles, WordPress title section

What's the first thing a visitor sees upon accessing one of your blog posts? Yep, it's the title. Blog titles set the tone for your blog posts, influencing visitors' decision on whether or not they will read them. But how exactly do you craft killer blog titles? Create a More Focused Title The first step is to create a focused title for your blog. In other words, you want to hammer down the title to something specific with a targeted focus. Instead of a generic title like "Exercise Tips for Men" for instance, you can start with a title like "Top 5 Exercise Tips for Older Men." From there,...

The Do’s and Don’ts of Using Images in Blog Posts

Posted on March 9, 2016April 5, 2016 by sitemanager

A picture really is worth a thousand words. Using images in blog posts will make them more appealing, which subsequently lowers your blog's bounce rate while improving user experience. But there are a few things you should know about using images in blog posts. Don't Use Images Without Permission I know this probably sounds like common sense, but it's still worth mentioning -- you should never use an image without the owner's permission. Just because you see an image that you like doesn't necessarily mean that you can use it on your blog. Copying and uploading images to your blog could op...

5 Things to Check Before Publishing a New Blog Post

Posted on March 5, 2016March 9, 2016 by sitemanager

Running a successful, popular blog isn't an easy task. You must identify an untapped niche, create a solid brand presence, and publish high-quality content that's relevant to your target demographic. But before you click the "publish" button in your blog's platform to publish that next blog post, you should first check the following to ensure it's ready for your audience. Title Length How long is the title of the post? According to the search marketing experts at Moz, page titles should be kept under 55 characters to maintain a high level of visibility in the search results. If your post ti...

Why Your Blog Isn’t Showing Up in Search Results

Posted on February 26, 2016March 2, 2016 by sitemanager

It's no secret that search rankings play a key role in the amount of traffic a website or blog receives. If your blog ranks high for its target keywords, you'll generate more traffic -- traffic that can be used for commercial purposes like selling a product or service. But what if your blog isn't showing up at all in the search engines? Blocked Robots Have you checked your blog's .htaccess file to see if search engines are allowed to crawl it? Even if you don't remember modifying this file, altering your blog's settings may trigger these changes. And if search engines are prohibited from cra...

How to ‘Wake Up’ a Dormant Blog

Posted on February 24, 2016March 6, 2016 by sitemanager

Has it been months or even years since you've published a new post on your blog? It's no secret that blogs thrive on fresh, high-quality content. So when you neglect to publish content, the blog may sink down into the abyss where countless others remain, only to receive a small trickle of traffic. But before you delete your dormant blog, you should first attempt to wake it following the steps listed below. Change the Design The first step in waking up a dormant blog is to change the design. Both search engines and human visitors will take notice of your blog's new design, increasing its enga...

Best Online Tools for Bloggers

Posted on February 17, 2016March 9, 2016 by sitemanager

There are dozens of online tools available that can help bloggers write better posts. Maybe you already use some of these tools, but others may surprise you. Word Counter We all know the importance of writing blog posts with X amount of words. Depending on your niche and intent, this might be 300 words or it might be 2,000. Regardless, you'll need some way to keep track of how many words you've written. Fortunately, WordPress and most other blogging platforms have built-in word counters. If your platform lacks this feature, you can use Word Counter to check the length of your posts. Google ...

How to Make Your Blog Easier for Search Engines to Crawl

Posted on January 30, 2016March 25, 2016 by sitemanager

Are search engines able to crawl your blog's content with ease? If not, it could have a significant impact on both your search rankings and traffic. Google, Bing, Yahoo and even some of the lower-tiered search engines work by scanning, or crawling, websites to determine what they are about. If a blog site was designed in a manner that prevents proper crawling, however, it won't be able to rank it accordingly. Don't Use Images as Text It may seem harmless enough, but avoid using images in place of text on your blog. Some companies, for instance, will display their name, address and phone numb...

Best Practices for Choosing Blog Post Titles

Posted on January 18, 2016January 29, 2016 by sitemanager

Few elements in a blog post hold as much importance as the title. This is what visitors first see upon viewing your post, and it's also what search engines display in their listings. But how exactly do you craft good post titles? Here are some best practices to follow when choosing titles: Use Title Case When crafting titles for your blog posts, it's recommended that you use title case format. Basically, this involves capitalizing the first letter of the first word, as well as the first letter of all major words. Smaller words (e.g. articles and prepositions) should be left all lower case...

Is Your Blog Prepared for the Next Penguin Update?

Posted on December 30, 2015January 4, 2016 by sitemanager

It's been more than a year since Google released a new Penguin update, leaving many webmasters and search marketing experts to believe it had ended. However, there's new evidence indicating that Google is planning to launch a new round of Penguin updates within the next 12 months. If you are a blogger, you should take this time to prepare for Penguin. What is Penguin? In addition to being a cute black-and-white, aquatic bird, Penguin is the name of a ranking algorithm update used by Google. The Mountain View company launched Penguin 1.0 back in 2012, affecting an estimated 3.1% of all sea...

Reasons to Include Images in Your Blog Posts

Posted on December 12, 2015December 27, 2015 by sitemanager

close-up-of-photogratpher, using images in blog

If you look at some of the web's most popular blogs, you'll notice they all have one thing in common: they feature images in addition to text. While text is the backbone of most pieces of engaging content, images can enhance the experience the end user. To learn more about the benefits of using images in blog posts, keep reading. Images Break Up Text Have you ever encountered a webpage consisting of nothing more than a large wall of text? If you have, chances are you didn't read it, because pure-text articles such as this are difficult to read. Studies have shown that visitors are more li...

Search engine optimization