Proper SEO Structure in Blog Articles

WordPress is the most popular CMS in the open source market today. We hear talk about it all the time in news blogs and social media feeds. It’s powering many popular digital magazines such as Joystiq and Engadget.

Out-of-the-box functionality is activated to allow for articles to display clean URLs and ping remote servers for crawling. There are a few structures which aren’t often covered for proper WordPress SEO that I’ve detailed below.

Correct Type Formatting in your Theme

WordPress offers countless free themes for download and many designers give their creations away for free, too. With so many resources it’s no wonder nobody bothers to create unique themes for their blogs anymore. Customizations are easy enough and page layout can really affect how your blog performs in the rankings.

Google checks blog posts when crawling to see how headers are influencing page content. You always want to keep track and set up each heading accordingly.

The top heading for your story should be set with an h1 style and placed towards the top of the page. Obviously Google will understand the hierarchy set between the deeper headings (h2, h3…). Using formatting tags such as strong and em will help Google pick out related or important keywords from your body text.

Optimize Images for Accessibility

WordPress is all about accessibility and prefers to run in all systems evenly. There has even been a few WP mobile themes being released for free.

One great SEO requirement is the addition of title and alt attributes to all images on the page. When Google’s bots crawl through content they are unable to detect what an image represents unless the filename hints at anything. The better way to accomplish this would be setting title and alt attributes in place of speculation.

Google Images is heavily indexed based on alt and title attributes. Be as descriptive as you need. Google will not penalize you for using too many words unless you stuff your alt/title attribs with useless junk keywords. And even in that scenario you may still get picked up by Bing/Yahoo! and see some interest.

Another way of attributing values to images is through IDs. Classes and IDs are mostly used to connect objects in HTML DOM with CSS selectors. Google takes note of these and over time may use this information to your advantage. For example if you give an image the ID “featured-post” robots may perceive this content to relate more to the full post and generate its ranking higher among search terms.

Fix your default 404 Page

How many times I have visited a page running WordPress and found no 404 replacement I can’t even count. This is a nuance not only to users but bots trying to crawl your page. Good SEO Analysts understand how important a 404 error report is on any website.

When Google finds a page which isn’t existent anymore it must understand this to mark the query as dead in its database. This makes it so when users search for keywords relating to that page it won’t rank higher in SERPS than live websites. 404 error pages can direct users with links elsewhere (home page, searches, etc) but don’t truly help otherwise.

This can all seem a bit confusing, but luckily WordPress has things taken care of. Check their extended Plugins library for useful links and downloads. A particularly helpful setup is 404 SEO Plugin which will display a custom 404 error to bots and similar crawlers while also displaying helpful links to real visitors.

Build a Google-Sensitive Sitemap.xml

Google will always look for a sitemap.xml file in the root directory of your WordPress installation. This is a standard XML file containing nodes to hold data about each of your pages and their structure. Google can trace hierarchy, titles, and URLs for all of your blogs pages.

Generally Google will crawl these every so often based on how frequently a website updates. Google won’t crawl your RSS feed or other syndication method unless it contains new information. Sitemaps have been around for years but have caught the attention of web enthusiasts early on.

Another great plugin free by WordPress is Simple Google Sitemap XML. This plugin will parse all of your blogs’ current pages and generate a dynamic sitemap.xml file in your root directory. The real ease of this plugin comes with the auto-update functionality.

As you create new pages and posts for your blog this plugin will automatically create a new file every time. There are even options for pinging Google and other SE’s for re-crawling.

Backlinks all around

One SEO technique some don’t utilize at all is the power of backlinks. When Google sees links going from articles all pointing at your domain it shows a lot of credibility. Most SEO gurus know these asbacklinks and they can prove vital in your SERPS.

How you rank based on a certain keyword is crucial in showing where your blog will place among competitors. A funny example is through the Google query click here. Adobe Reader and Flash Player take up most of the page results. This is caused by so many backlinks pointing to those pages with the text “click here”.

Linking stories between your own pages on your website helps for Google to catalog a bit more for what your posts are about. As an example creating a link to an older post about web design with the keywords “digital design tips” may cause that article to rise a few ranks for these keywords. This tactic shows the most promise when accomplished on an already widely-acclaimed blog with a good reputation among Search Engines.

Always Use Post Tags

Tags in posts are the easiest way to cram in a few extra keywords before Google gets their bots on it. Posts are controlled not just by the category/categories they are published into but also accompanied tags. With these you can form complex tag clouds and integrate unique structures into your line of posts.

Google can understand these tags by crawling the most popular and widely-used for data about their links. How many posts are filed under any given tag displays a level of credibility to most SE’s. Google will hold a post with the tag “Ajax” to a higher degree if the tag itself has 15 publications instead of 2.

Another useful nugget is how Google ranks tags. Although your blog may be frowned upon for running posts with upwards of 5-6 categories, there is no such limit on blog tags. The best setup would be to place every post into 1 set category and break up smaller ideas into tags. You’ll see a lot more backlinks and your posts will rank higher for selected tag keywords (these can be literally anything).

Hopefully these tips can get you off on the right foot to building a powerful SEO-structured blog. WordPress has truly revolutionized the way we work with websites and allows for so many powerful customizations. I can only expect to see greater rates in the future accompanied by more powerful plugins.

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Tips For Calling Visitors To Action

A blog is a blog. But without a call to action, you risk losing readers. Or worse, if your goal is to activate or mobilize, you risk missing your goal.

A call to action is anything that encourages visitors to act. Whether signing up for email updates, following your twitter feed, or forwarding to a friend, calls to action are key. Calls to action span into the political and non-profit world as well. Succesful websites with purpose also ask for donations, letters to the editor, or general registration.

Here are some of the most effective methods, and associated tips for calling your visitors to action.

1. Social Media

Email Updates

Remember to place the signup form prominently, above the fold. Also, the simpler the better when it comes to signing up. When calling visitors to action, don’t ask for their life story; a simple name and email address form is ideal.

Twitter

Don’t over-do the Twitter thing. If people want to follow you on Twitter, they know how to find your information. Consider placing above the fold, but it doesn’t need to be huge.

RSS

Most modern browsers offer a way to identify sites with RSS feeds, but it doesn’t hurt to offer an easy-to-find image linking to your feed. It can be handy to offer multiple feeds based on categories or tags. I am certainly more inclined to subscribe if I can compartmentalze and choose specific areas.

Related Content, Popular Posts, Most Commented, Etc.

I call these types of tactics “Content Wrap-rounds” because they link readers to another part of your site, thereby increasing time on the site, demonstrating the diversity of content, and increasing the likelihood of retention.

2. Social Bookmarking

Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Technorati, etc.

These sites are pivotal to spreading the word. Of course, no site is successful without quality content. Nor are any successful that aren’t read. See how these relate?

3. Mobilize, Activate

General Registration

This is a rarely utilized but powerful tactic for engaging and retaining visitors. Signing them up as “members” or whatever you may call it will allow you to provide access to various engagement techniques such as following you on Twitter, promoting your site to friends, even writing letters or making phone calls for your cause.

Another tactic used by membership sites is sending sporadic emails encouraging users who haven’t visited in a while to visit again.

Contribute, Donate

Donate and contribute buttons are often utilized by political websites, and under-utilized by non-profits. Whether a simple Paypal donate button, or a complex payment gateway, donation buttons should be the most prominent button on your site. Unless, of course, you don’t need any money.

More about design techniques below, but your donate button needs to have contrast, and to pop from the page.

Engage

Giving finite engagement requests like writing letters, making phone calls, donating, signup up for updates, etc., on the front page is key. Don’t rely on inside pages to engage people. If it’s important, put it right on front.

Schedule

What’s going on in your world? Is your candidate or cause going to be in my area? Utilize calendar widgets and other boxes to tell people about what’s happening right now. Don’t delay or rely on emails to your list.

4. Design Tactics

Utilize Negative Space

Negative space is not necessarily white, but rather a space created by the absence of design elements. Use this space to your advantage. Placing calls to action within these spaces alone will encourage action.

Contrast Colors

Each quality website design has a color scheme. Choose a contrasting but thematic color from the scheme and use it to draw attention to various calls to action. If none of the colors in your scheme contrast signficantly from the rest, choose a new one that “goes” but easily draws attention.

Utilize Size

Larger elements attract the eye first, regardless of the reader’s intention. Pay attention to the size of your call to action and tweak as necessary. Some people say there is a ceiling in terms of size, I disagree. The size of your buttons should scale with the importance of the element.

Typography Matters

Choose typography carefully. This tool can be very helpful. As web browsers evolve, more fonts become “Web-friendly” and usable across platforms.

Follow the Eye

Consider where the eye will move naturally, and take advantage of this. Research shows people naturally read left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Also, the mouse pointer often starts at the top right of the screen. This political season, look for the most important button: the donate link. It will most often be located in the upper right area of the site.

Dimension

Dimension is very Web 2.0. Use things like dropshadows and overlaps to give dimension to elements. This brings focus to the particular element by giving the impression that it sits out from the page.

Wrap-Up

These points outline why and how a good website calls visitors to action. Every website should be doing it on some level, some more than most. Follow these guidelines and you’ll see increased conversions and effectiveness.

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How To Develop A Homepage Layout That Sells ?

You couldn’t have failed to notice that pretty much every website on the face of the planet has a homepage, and that every homepage uses the same basic layout. Masthead at the top, navigation underneath and/or along the side(s), main content taking up most of the page, and a footer at the bottom.

It’s common because it works. It differentiates the content that needs to be differentiated, it presents it in a logical order that follows how people read and interact with websites, and it’s relatively simple to code. In fact, HTML5 encourages you to code this way.

If you want to succeed as a web designer, you should stick to this paradigm.

The trouble is, although you know you need a header, navigation links, main content and a footer, it’s pretty hard to decide exactly where to position each, what margins and padding and fonts and colors to use, what items to include or exclude, and all those other details. You need a process you can rely on to ensure that you meet your client’s needs, and aren’t just shooting in the dark. Here’s mine:

1. Determine The Homepage’s Objective

Design is the art and science of creating and arranging elements to achieve an objective. On the web, that objective is usually to sell. That doesn’t necessarily mean making literal sales—but the objective of the site you’re designing is almost certainly to sell people on something. If it’s not to have them plonk down cash, it could be to have them subscribe or comment or share or learn—or heck, just to remember.

The site’s objective will point you toward the homepage’s objective. If the site’s objective is to get users to subscribe to a newsletter, then the homepage’s objective might be to convince them to click through to the signup page. If the site’s objective is to get people to buy widgets, then the homepage’s objective could be to inform them about the widgets, and entice them to view an online shop.

If you don’t know your objective (or objectives), you can’t even begin the design. Design is always a process heading toward a goal. Without the goal, there is no design. So your first step is to find out and then clearly state the objective of the homepage in specific, factual language.

2. List Every Element That Directly Contributes To The Objective

Once you know the page’s objective, you can pretty easily figure out what its most important elements are. If something doesn’t directly contribute to the objective, then it’s not as important as something that does.

For example, if the homepage’s objective is to get users to request a free quote for a service, then the following items are of great importance:

• Any written content (copy) which explains the service they’ll be getting a quote on, and why they need it.
• Any headline which draws them into the copy.
• Any call to action which directs them toward the goal (whether this goes directly or indirectly to the request page).
• Any images which demonstrate the service, such as before/after shots.
• Any testimonials or reviews demonstrating the value of the service.
• No doubt the list could go on.

3. List Every Element That Doesn’t Directly Contribute To The Objective

There are plenty of other things you must include on a typical homepage which support its objective without directly contributing to it. For example:

• The company and/or product logo.
• A tagline or blurb.
• Navigation links.
• Basic copyright and contact information.

No one is going to buy from an anonymous website; and no one is going to use a site without navigation either. Knowing the objective of the homepage simply allows you to prioritize the elements in a logical way—you don’t want to exclude necessary elements just because they don’t directly contribute to the objective.

4. Arrange The Critical Elements

Using whatever method works for you (I like squares of paper with names written on them) get all the homepage’s elements together. Put aside the ones you’ve determined are not critical to its objective. Now, experiment with arranging what’s left, focusing on the best way to guide the user to the objective. You might call this wireframing, but it should involve experimentation with color and images if appropriate, which most wireframing doesn’t seem to for whatever reason.

Don’t think that the first layout you bang out is the best one. There are lots of different ways to skin the average cat. Here are some principles to keep in mind:

Natural Reading Patterns.

Unless you’re in quite a foreign country, people read from left to right and top to bottom. More specifically, they scan in an F-shaped pattern, taking in the headline, then the stuff along the left of the page, then the lede, and then some of the first words along the left margin. So positioning your headline on the right, for instance, is not necessarily the best option. Don’t be afraid to break the rules, but be aware of what that will mean, and have a good reason.

Typography

Let me say it again. Typography. It’s not choosing a font. Typography is nothing less than the science of presenting written information in the most readable, useful way. Web design is 95% typography, so if you aren’t up to scratch here, it’s time to start swatting. Choosing the best measure, leading, color, font-sizes, body and heading styles and so on is all very, very important.

Colors

Many wireframes don’t contain color. Sometimes it isn’t necessary—but often it is, because the use of color can dramatically change the priority of elements. On a black-and-white page, a large headline will stand out the most against normal text. But if you then highlight some of that text in red, that’s where your users’ eyes are going to be drawn. You need to be able to select colors which are appropriate, combine them into a palette which is interesting without being too varied, use this to draw your reader’s attention to the right elements, and then guide him to the objective.

Images

Like colors, images are very attention-grabbing. Use them wisely. “Hero shots” should be positioned high on the page, with the hero’s eyes looking toward an important element—because people always look to where other people are looking, even if they’re in a picture. Supplementary images shouldn’t be so large or colorful that they will distract the reader from the objective.

Negative Space

A webpage is like a meal. The elements on it are courses. Too much space between them and your reader’s eye gets bored and leaves for a better restaurant. But too close together, and he can’t take it all in—he doesn’t know what to eat first, so he gives up and again goes to a better restaurant. You want your whitespace to emphasize the elements on the page, just as a well-spaced meal will let your palate savor each course. The elements should be natural places for your reader’s eye to rest, in a natural order. Using negative space to differentiate elements is almost always better than resorting to putting boxes around everything.

5. Arrange The Non-Critical Elements

Now that you have a robust layout that will guide your user unerringly to the page’s objective, you can start adding in the additional elements you know need to be included. The same principles apply as are listed above—plus a healthy dose of common sense. Obviously you don’t want to clutter the layout at this stage, and neither do you want to draw emphasis away from the critical elements. It’s easy to get scared and “make the logo bigger”—but chances are it’s just fine sitting there unobtrusively at the top. Anyone looking for it can’t miss it, and it’s not intruding on getting your user from A to B. The same goes for navigation. Just don’t make text too small in an effort to make it less obtrusive. It still has to be readable.

You’re Done!

Once you’re happy with your layout, get it signed off and coded up. Then the whole process can begin again – because now you need to lay out the commitment page, where your user gets taken after deciding to fulfill the homepage’s objective.

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12 Tips To Increase Subscribers To Your Blog ?

Every blogger wants to see hundred thousands of numbers against their blog whether it’s about their daily blog traffic, Fans list on Facebook page, Twitter followers or subscribers to their blogs. In today’s post, I’m going to discuss some techniques blogger can use to increase the number of subscribers multiple times to their blogs.

1. RSS Icons On Prominent Positions

The biggest mistake lots of bloggers make is that they don’t show RSS icons on prominent positions on their blogs. You should aim at showing your RSS icon and email subscription form above the fold on your blog or even in your blog header section. Make sure RSS Subscription facility should be available on all of your blog pages and RSS icons should be professional looking.

2. Subscription Process Should Be Small

You should keep the subscription process as small as you can and should ask readers to fill minimum fields. No one loves to follow long process and filling too many fields when subscribing to a blog.

3. Regular Content Coming

You should make sure that you blog publish new content on daily basis and if possible 2-3 posts per day. Readers on your blog always love new content coming on the topics of their interest.

4. While Commenting On Other Blogs

Lots of bloggers comments on the blogs of their interest to build traffic, for backlinkng and for building brand for their blogs. You can think of using your RSS Feed URL in place of your website URL to send additional traffic to your RSS feed so that additional number of people can subscribe to your blog RSS feed.

5. Offer eBooks As Gift Of Subscription

Lots of bloggers write an ebook around the topics their blog reader’s interest and offer it as a gift when their blog readers subscribe blog RSS Feeds. You can get hundreds and even thousands of subscribers to your blog by creating an ebook for your blog readers and offers it for free to your blog readers as a freebie when they subscribe to your blog RSS.

6. Providing Quality Content

Most importantly, you should aim at proving quality content on your blog. You should focus on adding content related to your blog niche and don’t publish off topic content on your blog as in that case you are taking risk of losing some of your existing subscribers.

7. Showing Your Current RSS Subscribers Count

You can think of showing your RSS Feed Subscribers count on your blog if you have decent number of subscribers to your blog right now. Higher number of subscribers on your blog will motivate others to subscribe to your blog. But there is no use of showing RSS Feed Counter if there are very few subscribers to you blog right now. You can show your current RSS subscribers counter using FeedBurner services.

8. Using Guest Blogging

People use guest blogging for driving additional traffic and for their brand recognition in the blogosphere. So while submitting your guest post to other bloggers in your niche, make sure you provide the best of your work so that your guest post get accepted and people actually click on your website links after it gets live. You can even think of adding a link to your RSS Feed as part of your Author Bio in the guest post.

9. Blogging Communities

Add your blog to some of popular blogging communities created in your niche and be active in the discussions going on those communities. Lots of users in these communities will be interested in visiting your blog and some will even subscribe to your blog RSS.

10 Be Active On Discussion Forums

If you have a blog created around seo, blogging, money making or related topics, go and find out some discussion forums created around these topics and actively participate in the ongoing discussions there. Most of discussion forums will allow you to place a link to your website or even your RSS Feed in the signature section. So your links will be available on all threads you reply to or you start.

11. Including A Tag Line With Each Post

You can think of including a tag line at the end of each post on your blog. This will serve as a reminder to those people who read any of your blog posts. From there, they will be able to subscribe to your blog RSS or can follow you on Twitter without searching for your website header, sidebars etc for subscription links and icons.

12. Hold A Contest On Your Blog

Offering freebies or contests will going to remain popular in the blogosphere to get some targeted action from your blog readers. So if you have a high traffic blog, running a blog contest where you are supposed to give some prizes to the winner of contest will help you increase your website subscriber’s by even thousands overnight.

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Orkut Profile widget for blogs (blogger and others)

Orkut is nowadays becoming more and more popular.So i thought of making up a new orkut profile badge widget for blogger(actually it can be used on any web page). To do this just login to your orkut account and get the following details 


1)Your Profile pic Url This can be done by right clicking your profile pic and choosing copy image location


2)Your Profile Url 


3)Your Scrapbook Url 


4)Your Send message Url 


5)Your Write Testimonial Url 


6)Your Send Teaser Url Use these details in the widget creator(below) and get the widget added to your blog

Your reviews will be most welcome..If you need anything added please leave a comment here. Preview(Note:-I havent used proper links in the preview.) 


Note: If you are reading this in a Feed Reader the widget installer wont be displayed.So visit the actual article on the site to install the widget.

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