How to Get a Blog Indexed Fast on Google
How to get a blog indexed on Google seems to be every blogger’s dilemma. Getting indexed on Google simply means, Google is aware of your website and has a copy of the pages found on your site on its database. It does not mean that you will already rank for certain keyword searches on the engine, but that is the step in that direction.
But is getting a blog indexed on Google really that hard? To be honest, it really isn’t. Google is a lot faster today than it was last year or two years back.
Last night I launched a new blog on a new domain that I also registered yesterday. It is a WordPress powered blog and all I did was set it up and add one post. I also made sure to strip away the default post (hello world) that comes with a new WordPress install, and removed the About page and the links it had on it. So what did I do to get it indexed on Google.. in just an hour?
Here are the steps I took.
- Installed WordPress
- Removed default post, about page and links
- Changed permalink structure from default to %postname%
- Added plugins; SEO for WordPress plugin by Yoast, TweetMeme Twitter, Facebook Share button, activated them
- Added proper title and description to the blog
- Published first post
- Added Google Analytics and set it up on Webmaster Tools
- Launched sitemap, a feature built in to the SEO for WordPress plugin, made sure to check ping all four search engines option
- Bookmarked the main page URL on Delicious, Reddit.. pinged the new pages that were created in the process
- Submitted the feed to Zimbio, and checked if the new post also got published on Zimbio
- Tweeted the URL using a relatively new Twitter account with 3 followers, but used 3 hashtags that related to the topic
After all that, and an hour later the site was already indexed on Google.
So it really is very easy to get a new blog indexed on Google. But here’s the added bonus which I had not anticipated to happen so soon, it now is ranked on the 9th page of Google for its exact phrase in the domain. The domain is actually a two word phrase for a specific service, and for security reasons and to ensure that my traffic data does not get skewed by people visiting it, I cannot reveal the domain name. It is ranking without any significant link building, and I am confident with a few more good links and some time, this blog will be on the first page of Google in a few weeks to a month. Of course I speak confidently because I have done this many times before.
Just follow the steps above and you fill find your blogs getting indexed quickly on Google, and you are going to be a step closer to ranking for your target keywords and more importantly increasing your chance of getting more people finding and reading your blog.
The Social Media Manager and His Role in Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is more than just a buzzword or phenomena.
“Social Media Marketing is marketing of the future; where companies, businesses or individuals leverage on available Internet and communication technologies and use these as tools to deliver customer focused messages that encourage participation and dissemination, ultimately achieving branding and marketing communication goals.”
MarketingSherpa has released some research that reveals that more companies are shifting a lot of their marketing efforts from traditional to social media. Why? These companies are seeing higher ROIs from social media efforts, and traditional media not as effective as they used to. You can .
This growing interest in Social Media Marketing has also created opportunities for a position that did not exist a short time ago, the Social Media Manager.
Everyone is going social media; these are not just Fortune 500 companies but any business or person who has a product or service to offer like dentists, mechanics, painters, wedding planners…. people who urgently need but don’t know how to run a social media campaign, and likely do not have the time to spend on Facebook or Twitter looking for new clients.
Forrester has published statistics showing that 99% of retailers are planning on developing an online presence specifically on Facebook by 2011. Now, here lies the the demand for social media marketers… people who are already experts on SMM and will deliver the results faster than a business owner striking out on an SMM (Social Media Marketing) learning curve.
But what do Social Media Managers do? Apart from creating and implementing your social media strategy, they are your brand’s executive assistants and perform tasks like:
1. Cleaning up your Twitter communications and weeding out the spam messages, leaving those messages that are important to you… or as in the case in customer relations / support, routing them to the appropriate individual or department in a company.
2. Blogging and all tasks related to blogging and functions that pertain to the maintenance of a blog such as comment approval and clean up; and in some cases for managers knowledgeable in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blog optimization and content development.
They also help ensure that your blog posts / content, get the most traction by getting them out on other sites at different times of the week, or getting them exposed to your Twitter followers at different times of the day so more people would catch it.
3. In social networking, grow your network or followers. In Facebook these could be your profile friends or fans in the case of fan pages, and on Twitter, these are your followers.
It’s all about numbers, the more people on your network the more people see or read your messages. Social Media Managers will find people who are your target audience, follow or connect with them and then facilitate engagement to develop relationships.
The three keys to success being, network growth, sharing content and engaging your audience.
These tasks can take as little as half an hour to 1 or 2 in a day to do, which is why hiring a regular employee might not be cost effective. Doing this yourself or training someone within the company to do it might not yield immediate or ideal results for a variety of reasons. Which is why it would be best to simply hire an expert to do it for you, get results faster, and you get to focus on more important aspects of your business.
Who says no one can make money from social media? Companies and business are, so do the people that do the social media work for them, of course the latter probably have more fun… making a good living getting paid to play around on Twitter and Facebook all day!
—–
If you enjoyed this article please LIKE or SHARE with your Facebook friends. You will also find more posts on on this blog.
Image courtesy of .
How to Get More Visitors to Read Your Blog Posts
Watch video below if you want to learn how to get more visitors to read you blog posts. Do LIKE or SHARE this video on your wall so your other blogger friends with traffic starved blogs can watch it.
5 Easy Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
5 Easy Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
Unless of course you’re a celebrity, why should anyone be interested to read your blog? And stop giving lame excuses to yourself that it is for your own pleasure and stuff. If it is so personal and pleasurable to you, why blog? You can always have and write your own diary that you can keep secret. Come on, a blog is a public article – give the attention that it deserves; make sure that people read them and appreciate them.
The main problem with almost 90% blogs is that they go unread. Why? Because the visitors can’t find your blog in the first place! Yes, that is the truth. There are some unique ways by which you can promote your blog. These are simple strategies that anyone can use and benefit from. The main idea of a blog is to generate traffic and readers that would read it.
Blog promotion is not impossible:
• Pillar Articles: If you can make some article length introductory remarks on your own blog, that will help generate more curiosity amongst the prospective readers. This will give them an idea of the quality of the posted blog. This habit will help you develop and generate some credibility amongst your readers. This habit should be made periodic; more when there is a change in your blog topic.
• Frequency: If you post more, you will be read more. People like to read only those blogs which are updated regularly and the author posts regularly. Try to keep as less time gap between two posts as possible. Too old blogs will make you lose your blog’s ‘public-appeal’!
• Domain: A domain name is also very important. Choose one which suits your blog and topic. That will help the readers to recall the address faster and easier.
• Comments: This is the most important part of your blog. Leave a space for comments. Critical analysis and comments on your blogs will surely attract more traffic to your blog. Increase blog traffic by giving others chance to add regular comments. Leave comments on your own blog as well!
• People: Other people matter too! If you give sufficient time to other people’s blogs and leave comments, chances are that they will read yours too! And will help spread more by word of mouth! Readers are the lifeline of your blog. Do not cut-off resources for them.
Moreover, you can use keywords to promote your blog. Increase blog traffic by using attractive headings and unusual ones. That is indirectly marketing your creative base! Let the people know that you’re a serious blogger and you mean business. The niche also is very important. For example, if you’re doing a product review, you’ll invariably get more traffic than if you did your review! These ways will guarantee a FREE and fastest ways to increase traffic to your blog.
Learn how you can promote your business blog, increase blog traffic and reach out to your potential customers. Contact Roy Sencio, an online marketing consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit his blog at http://www.roysencio.com, and avail of his free one hour consultation offer.
Article Source: 3 Easy Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
Starting a Blog: Easy to Follow Steps on How to Start a Blog
Are you thinking of starting a blog? Here are some easy to follow steps that show you how to start a blog.
Step 1 – What is Your Blog For?
From the very beginning you should know what your purpose is for starting a blog. Different people have different reasons; some may just start a blog for plain fun as a way to pass the time and put their thoughts into writing, others use it to vent, others want to make money from blogging, some may want to talk about a hobby they are passionate about.
Whatever your reasons are, you need to know up front why you are thinking of blogging.
Business bloggers for instance, or people who want to use blogging as a marketing platform have very specific topics that they want to write about. This is because they have also specific target audiences they want to cater to.
Step 2 – Deciding on a Name for Your Blog
If you have hurdled Step 1 and have a clear purpose for your blog, then choosing a name will be a lot easier.
You can probably think of any random catchy name, but if you are writing to attract a specific audience or market, it would help to use words, jargon or terms that give potential readers an idea what your blog is about, or who you are about if your goal is to brand yourself as a subject matter author or expert.
Step 3 – Free Sites or Self Hosted?
If you are just blogging for fun then it might be best that you just start blogging on free blog sites such as wordpress.com or blogger.com.
If you have any business or branding related goals, it would be ideal to host your blog on your own website, if you do have one. If not, you would need to register your own domain and sign up for web hosting in order to start your own blog under your own domain name. This is certainly more professional and gives you more credibility than just blogging on free sites.
Blogging on free sites of course is free, while getting your own domain and signing up for a web hosting account involves costs, but these are very minor expenses.
The problem with being on a free site is, the posts you publish essentially become the ownership of the site you are blogging on. If they decide to shut you down for whatever reason, they can and they will, and you cannot do anything about it, you will lose all your posts! This has happened so many times in the past.
A blog on your own domain is your own property. You are also able to do whatever you want with your settings in order to further improve your blog and get more visitors. Blogging on free sites have a lot of limitations.
There are several bloggers who first started out on free sites who later became very successful at blogging. They later realize that the limitations set by the site they were blogging on hold them back, and they see the potential for even more features and customization on their blog if they host it on their own domain. The problem here is, it is going to be very difficult for them to migrate content from the old blog on the free hosted site, to their own domain. It would also be difficult getting the traffic on your old blog to your new blog.
Starting a new blog on your own domain, it exactly what it is.. starting new, starting from scratch.
Step 4 – Choosing a Blog Theme or Template
Whether self hosted or on free sites, you can choose a theme to use on your blog which would be most appropriate for your topics or writing style. If you have a self hosted blog, you can even have your own custom theme designed and you can use this on your blog which helps brand you, your company or your blog’s identity. Make sure that the theme you select has a sidebar that automatically posts your recent blog posts as well as blog categories so readers easily find what they are most interested in reading. If it has a search box the better.
Step 5 – Writing Your First Post
The best topic to write about as your first blog post is to talk about your new blog, what it is about and what readers can expect.
You can also opt to create an About page which gives readers an idea who you are.
Step 6 – Create and Use Categories
If you are blogging about various topics, it would be best to organize your posts into categories. This way readers who land on your blog can easily navigate through your blog, and check out posts in the categories you have created. Organizing your posts this way will help visitors navigate your site easily and quickly find posts that they are interested in reading.
Studies show that one of the main reasons why websites or blog lose visitors is poor navigability or ease of use. If a visitor gets confused and does not know where to go next on a page, the easiest things for them to do is hit the BACK button, or leave your site by closing the browser or tab window, or typing in another domain. In order to ensure readers stay on your site and read your posts which you have spent the time and effort on, make sure they can easily find what they want by making it easy to navigate through your blog and jump from one post to the next or check out different categories.
Step 7 – Planning Your Posts
It is always easier to start anything but the challenge is in sustaining what you have started. It is so easy to start a blog, but sustaining that blog with new posts will be difficult.
That is why it would best to plan your posts ahead of time, to write down a list of topics that you plan to blog about and your estimated schedule for publishing these posts.
It is easy to run out of ideas so a few ways to get ideas for blog posts are:
1. Go to the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) type in a word or phrase that best describes your topic and then hit the “Get Keyword Ideas” button below. Google will then come back with a list of related keywords which are actual phrases that people on Google use to find information. You will also find how many average searches there have been for each of those phrases, in your country and globally. Higher search volumes mean potentially more visitors that can find your posts that are about that topic, or contain those specific keyword phrase in your blog post title and blog content.
That keyword tool actually tells you a lot more, but for your blogging purposes, that is all you will need of it for now.
Another way to get ideas for topics is to go Google’s Blog Search Engine (http://blogsearch.google.com/), type in words or phrases that best describe the topic you want to write about, hit search and then you will receive a list of other blogs that talk about that topic.
If you want to get ideas automatically, go to Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) and set up an alert for keywords or phrases. What happens is, if new blogs are posted or recent news are posted which have those keywords you created alerts on, you will receive an eamil from Google informing you of those new blogs or news stories with links to them, for you to easily check out and get ideas from.
Step 8 – Socialize and Promote
Visitors will not simply find your new posts, you need to go out and tell people about it, get the word out. Make it a habit to do the following whenever you have published a new post.
1. Tell friends about your new post by:
- emailing friends the URL to the new post and ask them to check it out
- include a link to the new post on your email signature
- post a link to your new post on your social networking accounts on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Multiply… best to write a quick excerpt of the new post as a way of teasing the reader to get the to click the link and read the full post on your blog
2. Visit other blogs that talk about the same things you are talking about and leave meaningful comments. Do not just leave brief messages, but contribute to the discussion and add something valuable. Leaving a comment on other people’s blogs allow you to create a link that readers on that blog can click in order to go to your own blog.
3. Register your blog on blog directories. There are several blog directories out there that allow you to register your blog on their sites under specific categories. Some of these directories have a special feature where newly published posts also get published on their site, giving more reach for your content, and getting more visitors to read your posts.
The key to successful blogging is consistency. You would really need to make time for it, that is it is always good to write about something you are interested in, familiar with or an expert about because you never run out of ideas and you never get tired of blogging because the topic is something you know a lot of or are passionate about.
Recommended Services
