How to Make Your Blog Visible in Google

Posted on September 17, 2015September 21, 2015 by sitemanager

Boasting an estimated 3.5 billion searches per day, Google is hands-down the world's leading search engine, and for good reason: the Mountain View company is constantly working to improve its search results while creating a positive experience for the end user. Bloggers should capitalize on this trend by optimizing their blogs for higher Google rankings. But what if your blog doesn't show up in Google? Be Patient Many bloggers expect Google to rank their blog within the first few days of it being launched. In some cases, Google will index and rank a new blog within a short period of time,...

How to Identify (and Stop) Comment Spam

Posted on September 5, 2015September 6, 2015 by sitemanager

Allowing visitors to comment on your blog's posts and articles is a great way to promote engagement while creating free, unique content in the process. Each time a visitor leaves a comment, it creates additional content for your blog -- content that search engines love. However, the downside to enabling visitor commenting is the potential for spam. Spammers will exploit this feature to promote their products, services and websites, all while watering down the quality of your blog. So, how do you identify and stop comment spam? Why Comment Spam is Bad Let's first go over the reasons why co...

Are You Using Tags and Categories Correctly?

Posted on August 27, 2015August 30, 2015 by sitemanager

One of the perks of using WordPress as your website's content management system (CMS) is the ability to place new posts and pages within tags and archives. The next time you create a new post or page, look to the right-hand menu and you'll see a widget-like box for "Categories" and "Tags." Using these elements can prove useful in boosting your site's search engine visibility while attracting new visitors in the processors -- but only if it's done correctly. Tags vs Categories: What's The Difference? Some bloggers assume that tags and categories are the same, so they tend to use them intercha...

Tall-Tale Signs Your Blog Needs a New Design

Posted on August 21, 2015August 24, 2015 by sitemanager

When was the last time you changed your blog's design? Web design is a dynamic, ever-changing market that continues to evolve with each passing year. Just because a design practice is popular today doesn't necessarily mean that it will be tomorrow. As blogger, you must be aware of the nuances of web design, including which practices work and which ones don't. Your Blog Doesn't Pass Google's Mobile-Friendly Test One tall-tale sign that your blog needs a new design is failing Google's mobile-friendly test. Found at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/, this tool lives up to...

How to Promote Your Blog via Article Marketing

Posted on August 1, 2015August 2, 2015 by sitemanager

Article marketing is one of the oldest forms of web promotion. It involves writing and submitting articles to various directories, in which you can include a link pointing back to your website or blog. This can be simple way to promote your blog. If this is your first time attempting article marketing, however, there are a few things you should know. How Article Marketing Works The basic principle behind article marketing is fairly simple and straightforward. There are hundreds of websites out there which allow users to write and submit articles on a topic of their choosing. Known as article...

What Is Microblogging?

Posted on July 30, 2015August 2, 2015 by sitemanager

Screenshot of social media and Twitter handles

Microblogging has become increasingly popular over the past few years, with millions of people using it for both personal and commercial purposes. But what exactly is microblogging? And does it offer any real benefits over traditional blogging? These are just a few of the many questions that we're going to tackle today. The Origins of Microblogging According to Wikipedia, political writer and blogger Jonathan Gillette (AKA why the lucky stiff) coined the term "microblogging" when describing Christian Neukirchen's Anarchaia.org online activities. Gillette said blogging had "mutated into simpl...

How to Use WordPress More Effectively

Posted on July 26, 2015July 26, 2015 by sitemanager

Do you use WordPress to blog? There's no denying the fact that WordPress is a powerful blogging platform. It features a massive directory of plugins and themes while preserving a clean and user-friendly interface. Backup Your Files Don't forget to backup your files. Many first-time WordPress users make the mistake of only downloading their core files via a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program. But WordPress isn't static, and most of its data is stored in the form of a database. Therefore, you'll need to download both your core files, as well as the database associated with your site. If all ...

Image Optimization 101: How To Optimize Your Site’s Images

Posted on July 14, 2015July 15, 2015 by sitemanager

When you're busy researching topics and writing new posts/articles, it's easy to overlook something as simple as image optimization. Besides, if an image looks okay on your website, what's the point of optimizing it? Well, just because an image loads and functions doesn't necessarily mean that it's optimized for maximum performance. Making small tweaks to it can reduce your site's load time, which subsequently improves user engagement and possibly even increase your site's search ranking. File Type There are several different image file types from which to choose, including JPG (the most pop...

5 Dirty Truths About Blogging

Posted on July 8, 2015July 10, 2015 by sitemanager

Some blogging advice that used to be accurate has become outdated. Following are common "truths" that now need a second look. Keyword Density Matters Many bloggers believe they must achieve a specific keyword density when writing their blog posts; otherwise, their posts won't rank and their traffic will decline. So instead of writing with the end user in mind, they write content specifically for search engines, ensuring it contains a certain number of keywords. While this tactic used to work, it has since gone the way of the dinosaurs, with search engines playing little-to-no attention on me...

Search engine optimization