The Power of Social Media to Boost Your SEO

The Power of Social Media to Boost Your SEO

The search engine world has been getting a fairly large shake-up recently. Some stalwart SEO tactics have begun to fall out of favor with search engines. And search engines are starting to measure other channels and use them to boost page rank. Through Google’s recent farmer update, many sites that were capitalizing on low-quality on-site content got the boot, and Google and Bing both announced that they are now taking into account social media streams from Facebook and Twitter in their efforts to judge the reliability and authority of a given website.

But these developments are representative of a wider shift in the SEO world from page content and site architecture to perceived authority on the web. Although SEO has traditionally meant getting the right keywords on your site and making sure your site architecture was clean and flat, the search engines are shifting away from this model. Perhaps, Google is finally taking action against something that everyone in the SEO world already knows: on-site content is too easy to fake. In other words, the nature of the internet allows anyone to create any type of webpage and game the system with their site content—shoving it full of keywords, getting the perfect meta-descriptions, and more. But what is harder to game is your standing in the community.

Sustain SEO Through Traffic Diversity

Everyone wants more traffic to their website, but there are many ways to go about getting it. For instance, as a marketing strategy, you could exclusively go after Twitter and generate all your traffic through the social networking site. As well, you could start a PPC campaign that delivers all your visitors (or at least a majority) through Google Ads and other online advertising methods. Or you could concentrate exclusively on content marketing, like many content farms that try and predict every possible search term and become the #1 page for each result, so they can gain click-through ad revenue. But these schemes always seem to fall through as evidenced by the recent farmer update to Google’s algorithm that unceremoniously bumped a number of sites like Associated Content and EzineArticles down in the search ranks.

The problem with relying on one stream of traffic is that that stream can always dry up or be cut off by Google. The fact of the matter is, relying solely on SEO site wizardry to get you to the top of a Google search can be very tricky and Google can change their minds and algorithms at any time, leaving you in the cold. To avoid this pitfall and save yourself from financial ruin, it’s best to diversity your traffic streams. Not only will diversifying your traffic streams keep you well ensured against stream cutoffs, but it will also boost your SEO.

Appear Natural

Regular Maintenance is Critical for your Blog

Regular Maintenance is Critical for your Blog:

Do you take a day every week, month or a few times a year to make sure you are doing all you can to maximize your blog?  I believe a successful blog should be treated like a business.  Every so often you should schedule time to regroup and refresh your blog.

Let me give you an inside peek into what I do to stay on top of my blog.

1.  I sign out of my blog,  then I go to my blog site to see how everything looks from a reader’s perspective.  I want to make sure that things pop up correctly, that the page loads quickly and I will leave a comment, to make sure the process is easy.

Some Secrets I’d Like to Share About Blogging

Some Secrets I’d Like to Share About Blogging:

I would like to try to help those who are either starting out blogging or feel like they have hit the wall.  It’s great to write about how great blogging has been for me, like I did in my last post ways/ but I realize that the article could feel frustrating to read if you feel stuck or overwhelmed.

Below are the best tips I can think of to help you move along in the blogging world. 

1.  Authenticity is everything.  Be true to yourself and do what feels best.  No matter how much advice you read, a blog will take a while to gather steam.  Use this time to learn what you are passionate about.

Tweaking the blog comes with the territory.  You might decide to not continue to write poetry for example, but are loving writing about trips you have been on.  Listen to your heart and follow what makes you feel happy and it will show through to others.  You will also feel more invested and will want to stick with your blog instead of giving up.

List of Websites & Directories to Submit Your Blog

Here is a quick list of Websites, directory and places where one should submit their blog. Most of the sites listed here are free and if you are creating a new blog/Website or have not submitted your existing Website to these places, you should go ahead and create one.

This also includes many social networking site and social bookmarking profile. It’s not an extensive list like 1000 sites or something, but I’m creating a list of those sites which are important and will be helpful in either search engine ranking or tracking your site report.

Where to submit your Blog?

Let me start the list with Webmaster tools as it will be first step to get your site on search engines. Submitting you blog to other sites will help in better indexing and crawling of your blog. Specially when you create a new blog, it takes time for search engine bots to find your blog and crawl it, by submitting your site to these Websites which is listed below, it will help in faster indexing. Though if your sole motto is to let your site index in no time, here is a quick guide : How to index your site in 24 hours.

Six Ways You’re Cheating Your Blog’s Readers

Hey there Mr. Bigshot Blogger, it’s time for a few home truths. You might think you’re successful, authoritative and devilishly handsome. But you’re not. No, what you are, is a cheat.
Why? Because, whether you know it or not, you’re cheating your blog’s readers. They’re giving you adulation, adoration and probably a lovely wad of cash too. And in return you’re boring them, ignoring them and leaving them dazed and confused on the sidewalk.
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So here’s the deal. I’m going to tell you how you’re cheating your readers and how you’re going to change. And in return, you’re going to make your blog even better.
How you are cheating your readers?

Add a tweet button in your blog.

Add a tweet button in your blog.
Adding the Tweet button to your blog is a very simple process. Just navigate to the Tweet button page, and then follow these steps:

Step-1
There are three options for button layout, two of which include the tweet count. Select anyone one button for add blog.



Step-2
This is completely new – after people use the Tweet button on your site, they will see who you’ve recommended they follow. The first account you should list is your own Twitter account; then you can also add another account to recommend. Perhaps in this space, you could add your company’s Twitter handle, an official blog Twitter handle, or a coworker/mentor. Or leave it blank.



 Step-3
Copy this HTML code

 

Blogging Basics – Tweet With Style

Most bloggers want their posts to stand out and become a shining example of whatever topic they are writing about. If a blogger wants their message heard, amplification is the name of the game. When I began blogging I immediately began reading everything I could find on what amplification is and how it works.

Amplification:

 

A statement, idea or narrative expanded beyond your website.

The basic idea of using various amplification techniques is to help get your message into the “sight” of more people.

Twitter is one of my favorite amplification tools but a tweet does not do any good if no one ever reads it. Any blogger knows that there is never-ending stream of tweets. Learning to use twitter effectively is one of the blogging basics.

Why blogs aren’t suited for discussion

Over at Rands in Response Michael Lopp makes the case that after BBSes and forums in the  1990s there has been little innovation and newer tech, like blogs, Facebook and Twitter don’t lend themselves to discussion. I particularly like his  “simple rules of communication among a digital population”: Add something to the conversation. Stay on topic. Don’t be a jerk.

But more on topic: there is a reason why blog posts and comments don’t create the discourse we are used from forums: In forums the initial post is just a spark and all subsequent posts are presented as equals. After a while there is little that sets the initial post apart from following posts.