52 Ways to Optimize Your Blog While on Your Break
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It wasn't likewise long agone that I wrote a post on changing your Blogger championship tags to improve SEO results. I tin tell starting fourth dimension manus that 1 pocket-sized , extremely of import modify has done wonders for my traffic boosting monthly visitors from 50 to a duad hundred - together with increasing each month. This post also striking abode for a number of subscribers together with readers - most of which appears to have got achieved the same exercise goodness from the change.
I have got been working on a listing of additional tips , quick fixes , etc to maintain to assist inward increasing traffic which I innovation on publishing soon. I stumbled across Jennifer Slegg's post this morning time together with thought I would summarize her terrific listing - which covers a much wider hit than the listing I had been working on :) To larn all of the details , halt past times JenniferSleg.com together with read the total post. It is a terrific read together with volition , no incertitude , assist inward your blogging efforts (I know I picked upwards on a few things myself!Per Jennfier , a duad things to note: each 1 should convey yous xv minutes or less! And it volition larn out yous your tiffin suspension equally actual weblog writing time. Some exercise require yous to have got FTP access to upload plugins. Many are Wordpress specific but could live easily adapted to your weblog platform of choice.
1. Run far , far away from the default template
With the number of costless weblog templates out at that topographic point , at that topographic point is actually no excuse to live running the default template on your weblog unless yous just finished installing it 5 minutes ago.
2. Where’s home?
If your logo is non linked to your homepage , construct certain yous have got a clearly labeled link nigh the altitude that says “Home” hence people tin link to your website easily.
3. Get searching
Adding a search box tin assist those who current of air upwards on your weblog but can’t uncovering precisely what they are looking for.
4. Customize your 404 fault page
If people cease upwards on a page that doesn’t be , a customized 404 page tin travel a long means to helping people uncovering what they are looking for hence they don’t but striking the dorsum push instead.
5. Underline your links
This is particularly of import if your weblog is targeting a not-so-tech-savvy audience. So spell those greenish mouseover links await hot , the lack of underline-ness tin play a trick on some people.
6. Keep your navigation consistent
Inconsistency tin arrive hard for people to easily uncovering what they are looking for.
7. Keep your entries consistent
We all travel through periods where nosotros mightiness post 6 times inward a twenty-four lx minutes menses but hence travel 6 weeks without a peep. If yous know your schedule is going to larn crazy side past times side calendar week , role your java breaks this calendar week to write some brusk but sweetness weblog entries yous tin schedule to post side past times side calendar week when yous are likewise busy to exercise it.
8. Have a backup listing of weblog topics
When yous come upwards up alongside those weblog ideas yous don’t have got fourth dimension for , just write downwards the potential championship together with perhaps jot downwards a duad of points together with salvage it for 1 of those days when yous have got writer’s block together with can’t mean value of a unmarried affair to say.
10. Add a favicon
Many RSS readers role the favicon when they are displaying posts from your weblog , hence why non add together a favicon to assist your weblog stand upwards out to a greater extent than to readers when they travel to their RSS reader.
11. Add Sociable
Make it like shooting fish in a barrel for people to part your content alongside other social networks past times adding the Sociable plugin past times Joost De Valk.
12. Do some spell checking on older posts
Use ieSpell inward Internet Explorer or fifty-fifty the Google toolbar built-in spell checker together with exercise some quick spell checks on your older entries , particularly the to a greater extent than pop ones.
13. Set upwards a blog-centric Twitter feed
More together with to a greater extent than people are using Twitter equally their starting fourth dimension selection for getting manufacture news. So in 1 lawsuit yous have got laid upwards a novel Twitter concern human relationship for your weblog , travel to TwitterFeed together with laid it upwards to start out automatically posting everytime yous have got a novel weblog post.
14. Don’t require registration to post comments
A few years agone , weblog spam made this choice pop , but alongside a expert weblog spam tool together with comment moderation , at that topographic point should live no argue why yous should live requiring people to register first.
15. Comment on the blogs yous read
Take a infinitesimal to comment on a bang-up weblog post yous have got just finished reading. It doesn’t have got to live anything totally deep , fifty-fifty just a “Thanks for the article , I never thought of marketing ___ from this perspective earlier , it is definitely giving me ideas!” Chances are expert that non solely volition the weblog author see your site , but other readers who have got read the weblog entry after yous volition meet your weblog together with click through to your site.
16. Comment on your ain blog
Interacting alongside commenters tin travel a long means to increasing the number of comments each entry gets , equally good equally providing a useful “forum” to engage together with interact alongside your readers , all on your ain site!
17. Make it fifty-fifty easier to comment on your ain blog
Absolute Comments adds a reply link side past times side to the green “Edit , Delete , Unapprove/Approve , Spam” options when viewing comments inward admin… when yous click reply , a text box volition pop upwards to larn into your reply comment.
18. Highlight your ain comments
Matt Cutt’s has made a post on how to exercise this , which is at nowadays on my to-do list.
19. Recognize your altitude commenters
There are plenty of plugins that exercise this.
20. Show off the recent comments made
You tin exhibit snippets from the most recent comments made on your blog. And equally a bonus , depending on what comments are made , it volition highlight older weblog entries that mightiness live long gone from the front end page of your weblog or recent posts list.
21. Add your weblog to your e-mail signature
Add a weblog together with a brusk tag work to intrigue people to visit.
22. Create or update your nearly yous page
Have yous latterly received whatever awards , invitee blogged on a high profile site , spoke at a conference or quoted inward a major newspaper? Your profile pages should include relevant information such equally your bio , but also things similar your username (preferably alongside profile links) to thinks similar social media sites yous belong to.
23.Create a contact us page
Don’t lay your directly e-mail address on your website. Use a contact shape instead hence yous don’t require to worry nearly the spam. There is a bang-up contact us plugin that includes spam protection hence yous shouldn’t have got to bargain alongside contact shape spam.
24. RSS Feeds
Make certain your RSS feed push is placed prominently. If your RSS push is hidden away or non noticeable , yous just mightiness uncovering that people won’t bother to subscribe rather than hunting around for it.
25. Offer total RSS feeds over snippets
Many bloggers desire visitors “on the site” rather than just inward the RSS reader , but it is ameliorate to larn them reading , ing together with anticipating a total weblog entry inward their reader than it is to just give them a snippet they mightiness solely click through on 5% of the time.
26. Start tagging
Make a indicate of tagging a few of your older weblog entries a twenty-four lx minutes menses , together with earlier yous know it , yous volition have got a bang-up tag representation of your posts for others to use.
27. Recommend related weblog entries
You just wrote a fantastic weblog entry that has been Stumbled together with Dugg… but exercise yous arrive like shooting fish in a barrel for those new-found fans to write other articles yous have got written on the same topic? If yous install a recommended entries / related posts plugin , it volition automatically delineate several related weblog entries to recommend to your readers at the end.
28. Highlight your most pop posts
What are your most pop posts of all fourth dimension , either past times page views or comment count? Add a listing of pop posts to your sidebar.
29. Recommend other blogs
Add them to your blogroll hence readers tin meet what else yous read. Not solely are yous sending traffic together with links to blogs yous admire , but yous just mightiness meet some of those bloggers reciprocate together with recommend your weblog dorsum to their ain readers.
30. Get your ain domain
Still lingering on yourname.wordpress.com or yourname.blogspot.com? Even if the yourname.com isn’t available , inward the longrun it is however best to have got your weblog on your domain. So pass your java suspension looking upwards domain nams for your ain yourname.com.
31. Don’t larn likewise widget happy
Don’t sit down downwards 1 twenty-four lx minutes menses together with add together 20 novel things to your sidebar. Start alongside 2 or 3 , hence like shooting fish in a barrel ramp them up. This means yous tin seat whatever charge issues , together with yous won’t live stuck figuring which of the 20 yous just added is causing problems.
32. Check for weblog spam
Never got around to getting your Akismet API key? Do it now. Sure , if your weblog is novel , perhaps yous have got been fortunate plenty to solely larn a handful of spam comments and/or trackbacks on your weblog , just plenty that yous tin easily grip it inward uncomplicated comment moderation. But trust me , at that topographic point volition live a tipping indicate when the tedious trickle volition travel a flood.
33. Check for signs of hacking
Similar to checking for spam , this involves doing a site:yoursite.com search inward google , together with appending 1 of the green suspects of weblog spam keywords (ie. “site:yoursite.com viagra” would live the search term).
34. Check those championship tags
Wordpress has this nasty habit of putting the championship of your weblog starting fourth dimension earlier the championship of the weblog entry. Just install the SEO Title Tag plugin.
35. Make certain yous have got expert permalinks
Are your weblog URLs something along the lines of http://www.yourfabulousblog.com/p?=89 Not rattling descriptive nor search-engine friendly. Make certain yous are using permalinks that include information from the weblog championship such equally http://www.yourfabulousblog.com/how-to-optimize-your-blog.
36. Make your post slugs to a greater extent than manageable
This is 1 affair I consistently forget to exercise , together with I know I’m non the solely one! When publishing a novel weblog entry , your post slug (the permalink URL championship that is unremarkably the same equally all the words inward your weblog entry title) should non live 30 words long , equally some weblog entry titles current of air upwards existence on occassion!
37. Write killer article titles
A weblog entry alongside a bang-up championship is also much to a greater extent than probable to travel viral because a lot of people that submit things to Digg , Sphinn etc just can’t live bothered to rewrite the championship - nor would yous actually desire them to. So a bang-up championship is crucial.
38. Have yous optimized your images?
Sure , people either dearest love dearest the traffic they larn from Google icon search , or they despise it because they cease upwards alongside icon leechers. You tin exercise this manually equally yous upload each photograph , depending on your version of Wordpress , or yous tin role a plugin similar SEO Friendly Images which does it for yous automatically.
39. Add a technorati widget
Make it like shooting fish in a barrel for people to favorite yous on Technorati. First , yous require to sign upwards together with claim your weblog , if yous haven’t already. Then add together a push similar this:
(That is to this weblog , if you’d similar to favorite it!)
40. And add together another like shooting fish in a barrel RSS subscribe buttons too
Add links to things similar Bloglines together with Google Reader hence your readers tin subscribe to them easily. You tin add together them individually , role 1 of the wordpress plugins or role something similar FeedButton which makes a rollover similar this:
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41. Fix for RSS scrapers
Don’t yous just dearest it when yous post a novel weblog post together with hence meet it syndicated straightaway on other websites? If yous are code-savvy , yous tin edit the RSS yourself or yous tin role the RSS Footer plugin. Bonus tip: It plant for ads likewise , your RSS ads volition live displayed wherever your weblog entries are scraped.
42. Make certain yous are pinging Google
Are yous pinging the Google weblog server? The Google weblog search updates incredibly fast - equally inward inside minutes of pinging , yous volition meet your weblog entry inward the weblog search results , together with it isn’t much later on than most weblog entries cease upwards inward the regular Google search too. Learn to a greater extent than nearly pinging Google here. Or yous tin submit your feed to Google here for a one-shot ping.
46. Label ads equally ads
People loathe existence tricked , together with this tin touching on whether people desire to follow yous or not. So if yous convey advertising , label it equally Sponsors or Advertisers.
47. Avoid going into advertising overload
You tin construct far to a greater extent than alongside 1 or 2 well-placed ads than yous tin alongside 10 dissimilar ads plastered all over your blog.
48. Use nofollow on links if needed
Essentially , if yous are selling links or yous are linking to a site that yous cannot vouch for its potency or trustworthiness , yous should pop a nofollow on the link to remain inward Google’s expert books (if Google search traffic is of import to yous , that is).
49. Link to other bloggers equally you’d similar to live linked
When yous link to other’s weblog entries , link to them equally yous would similar them to theoretically link to you. You loathe it when people refer to your weblog but don’t include a link… or include an unlinked URL.
50. Subscribe to competitor’s RSS feeds
You tin larn bang-up ideas past times seeing what your competitors are talking nearly together with linking to , together with yous tin role it to bounce off of for your ain weblog entries.
51. Link to your competitor’s blogs
News flash… many of those subscribers mightiness also subscribe to yous likewise , it isn’t a representative where readers have got to pick 1 over the other. And chances are pretty expert that other blogger isn’t viewing yous equally “competition” but rather a cool novel await into the same marketplace area.
52. Check on onetime links
You should definitely exercise a link wellness check on your weblog on a regular basis. Visit your outbounds , banking company fit to meet if yous should nofollow anyone (especially for those weblog entries yous mightiness have got done earlier nofollow fifty-fifty existed) together with just exercise an overall await at all your links to ensure they are all helping together with non hurting you!
53. Robots.txt for duplicate content
Sometimes how the appointment archives are done on blogs yous tin cease upwards alongside duplicate content because weblog posts mightiness live indexed nether their ain pages , their category pages together with hence a duad of appointment pages equally well. Create a robots.txt to preclude Google from indexing the unneeded appointment pages.
54. Set upwards a Google Webmaster Central account
Sign upwards here together with hence verify your site. This volition give yous information on your site such equally whatever 404 pages Googlebot has constitute , the number of subscribers (using Google Reader or iReader) , altitude search queries together with altitude clicked queries.
55. Keep your weblog updated alongside the latest version
It is of import to ensure yous maintain your Wordpress , MovableType or whatever weblog platform yous role updated alongside the latest version. Yes , it tin live a hurting , but it is fifty-fifty a bigger hurting to construct clean upwards a weblog that has been exploited inward some way.
56. Backing upwards your blog
And spell nosotros utter nearly updating your weblog , it is also of import to backup your weblog files together with your database on a regular footing , hence if disaster strikes yous won’t uncovering yous have got lost all your template files together with 2 years worth of weblog post.