Most blogs are a mixture of Design SEO and analytics. It’s pretty easy really to start a blog but getting it noticed and having regular traffic is difficult.
You need to go beyond the basic plans to get your blog noticed and here is how.
Author Markup
This feature allows you to connect all your blog content that is on the internet and have it in one author/bio profile.
The easier it is to find your content over the web the more chance people will visit it. There are guides on the web to setting up author mark-up like Aj Kohn’s “guide on how to implement REL= Author”.
By adding a picture to your Author Markup, it gives you a social identity and can increase the chances of people visiting your content.
You may be interested in reading this : Author Influence and SEO
Join Target Audience Communities
If you get to know your potential target audience and engaged with other blogs they may reciprocate and visit your blogs.
Google’s DoubleClick planner is useful in this situation…If you go on to a relevant site and then look at the list of sites it creates, and start involving yourself in their blogs by reading sharing and commenting.
Joining question and answer sites is useful as well because if you answer a question relevant to some of the topics you blog about you can post a link to your blog which can explain it more detail.
Validating Your Site
It is one of the first steps you must take to improve your sites reputation. You must first find out where your site is by validating it.
This is how you would validate it
> HTML/XHTML
> Accessibility
> Multiple Browsers
> Multiple Devices
> CSS
> Dead links
Images and Illustrations
Using images and photos are the most popular form of media.
Sharing relevant photos is useful to attract attention.
Don’t Just Use Obvious Social Media
All though a great majority of people use Facebook and Twitter some of them will use other Social media sites like:
- Tumblr
- Kickstarter
- Soundcloud
- Ning
- Delicious
Depending on your topics you can pick the relevant social media sites to join and start engaging with readers. These smaller social media sites will help you develop content for your blog posts.
Once you establish a relationship with people they may follow you or start reading your blogs.
Your Site Look and Performance
If your site is untidy, you probably will not get the links. One of the things you need to take into account is building a clean and tidy web design.
What a reader thinks about your site is just as important as the content; if you invest in a good design then your site rank may increase.
Site Speed is vital as well Slow sites will not bring in traffic, this will impact your rank in a negative way as Google takes in to account the speed of your site as well as design and content.
Finally the vital content of your post must be visible straight away.
More than 80% do not scroll down so if they can see the important content straight away they may carry on reading.
Tracking and Measuring Your Site
You need to measure your results if you want to improve your site. Here are a few ways to do so:
> Google Analytics – If you haven’t already – create an account. You need to understand where you are before you try to grow so as soon as you open your site and start collecting data from your embedded tracking code. You will more than likely be sending out content through an RSS feed so check these metrics on Google analytics as well.
> Browser tests – check your design and photos that you share on your site have the same quality on all browsers like Firefox, Chrome, internet explorer etc.
Your blog will continue to grow if you follow these steps, maybe not at the rate you want eventually you will get the results you are after.
Image courtesy of Jomphong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
About Ces
Well said Ces. This is a lot of work for sure, am I right? But if you are that serious to build a great blog – then things can be easier and more enjoyable.
These days I want to get involve more on great blogs like this. I guest post – just started. I also find blog commenting helpful though I am not seeing the result yet – but the idea of “no overnight success” helped me wait for the right time for my effort to paid me off
I started reading more about the commentluv plug-in and am more interested in blog commenting, aside from submitting guest post. I also plan to upgrade to CLP to pull traffic/ readers to comment on my blog to so they can share my juice – but before that I aim to get more higher PageRank.
Another important thing – migrating to WordPress give me a good start… Using Genesis Framework too give my site an awesome look (at least for me) – so if you can visit my blog and take a short look at my template – a great honor
Thank you Ces – awesome post!
primeaque86 recently posted..Learn How My 3 Months Old Blog Got PageRank 3 in 2013 Google PR Update
Hello there! thank you so much for reading my post! I really hope it helped you. I agree with you, there’s really no”overnight success”, investing your time and effort and being patient will help you reach the road to success. thanks again and more power to you and your site. I’ll check your site out.
Hey Ces!
Thanks for such a lovely article.
I always believe in a good blog design, to attract audience. Because, no one would ever like to read great stuff on a badly-designed blog/page. And, that is why I recommend WP to all newbies who like to setup their own blogs. It has great themes for free/commercial uses.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers
Koundeenya recently posted..How To Create A Writing Style That Matters
Thanks Koundeenya ! I’m really glad you liked my post. Indeed, making your blog stand out will really go a looong way. So going beyond the basics is one way for your blog to get noticed.
Again, thank you! I hope this post helped you!
more power !
Thanks for this fantastic article and for the awesome points you have covered here. Actually these are the SEO factors which are going to work in the post Penguin and post Google Panda era, if you have be safe from any of the future algo updates then you must have to follow this!
Krishna Parmar recently posted..FaceBuzz : Random Video Chat
Hello Ces.
I may be thinking too much, but I have a project that might be a success. I have been analyzing kewords about my niche, and I did not expect high Global Monthy Searches with Low competition. My question now is, Should I stick with one keword or phrase for the whole blog? because I was thinking of Low Competition searches per article. is it any better with focusing with just one keword? looking forward for you inputs on this.
Hi Celica!
I would suggest that you choose one focus or main keyword for your blog and search for long tail keywords derived from that main keyword. Furthermore, you should also include branded keywords to make your keywords unique and Google likes branded keywords.
Hope this helps Celica. Thanks for reading my post!
Every one wants to watch huge number of traffic on their site but it’s not possible for every individual because for that you need to know those all things which are best for generates traffic.
Sam recently posted..India Trips
Hello sam! Indeed, knowing the right and effective SEO strategies is crucial for a site or blog’s success.
Guest posting is ok- but only if you can get on the high traffic blogs. Anyone can sign up to blogginghits.com and get guest post at loads of average blogs-but what will this get you? Not much, apart from a low link
Hello Melissa! Thanks for sharing those points! I agree with you, guest posting is crucial but it will be more beneficial if you guest posts on high- traffic and high authority blogs or sites.
thanks for reading my post melissa!
I was just looking for this & finally I got it here on this site, that is really amazing & helpful for me.
Disha recently posted..No Shortage Of Delhi Hotels- Plan Your Trip Now!
Hello Disha! I more than ecstatic that you found this article of helpful. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Thanks to you Ces for sharing this such a valuable article.
Disha recently posted..No Shortage Of Delhi Hotels- Plan Your Trip Now!
I think you the most important thing is content. With only attractive and high quality content, you don’t need to care about the site speed or how it look because readers are eager to read your content.
Content without traffic is not enough. Join target Audience Communities is one of the best way to generate traffic. So that I always focus on 2 things: first is content writing, second is announcement
That’s my opinion.
Son Nguyen recently posted..SEO Article Writing Tips: 5 Tips That Make Perfect Ranking
hello Son! Thanks for sharing your opinion. Content is KING but couple it with some SEO tactics and putting in extra efforts for your website design will surely go a looong way.
Hey Ces,
I knew how to do a few things you had mentioned but i’m so gla dI came across it because I have been blinded by facebook and twitter! I need to get out and use more social media things! you’re awesome
Thank you so muck Ces!
Ben Edgson recently posted..Hello world!
Hello Ben! that’s good to know! I’m really happy as well that you found this post very helpful. Don’t forget to implement the right SEO tactics, couple with great content and social media then your site or blog will be on its way to success!
Cheers and more power to you and your blog!
amazing tips
i want to learn how to use seo at high level thankyou
its helpful to read from here
mohan kumar recently posted..Features, Specifications and Price of Sony Xperia Tablet Z
Hey Mohan!
Thanks! Its really great to know that this post helped you.
Good luck on your SEO ventures!
Cheers!
In order to be successfully you will have to be aware of some essential things. Great content is not the only thing that people should concern about. I really enjoyed reading the section about validating the website and tracking it. Also, I agree with the fact that people should take advantage of specific social networking sites, adequate to their niche.
Hello Dan! thank you so much for reading my post and I’m really happy you enjoyed reading it. Indeed, content may be King these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to ignore other factors such as SEO and web design & performance and social media of course. People should indeed go beyond the basics for their sites or blogs to get noticed and be found on the top ranks.