Content is King
Content is still King. And this is great news for us all.
With the recent Farmer’s Update on its ever changing algorithm Google has given a clear indication that content is king. This update targeted content farms and sites that had scraped articles from various sources, due to a mad rush to get as much content onto websites as possible as this benefited rankings.
Now then, Google’s ultimate aim is to give its users the best surfing experience. If a search is returning a stack of low quality, duplicated articles then this is clearly in no-one’s interest. And so the farmer update. Suddenly sites that had been top of the rankings found their traffic numbers plummeting. I know this from experience. I have many ‘tester’ sites, sites that I use to practise and test certain SEO techniques on, and one of these was a low quality scraper site. Its traffic dropped by 90% overnight!
This was something I have been expecting for some time, I was surprised how long this update had taken to materialise, and I must admit I was equally surprised at just how hard hitting it was on the traffic numbers. Fortunately this was just a test site which has been battered and bruised over the years with various experiments performed upon it!
However, and this is the key point, my other sites have seen an increase in rankings. This SEO site and my Hypnosis site have articles and content written only by myself, with maybe 1 article from the BBC. And reports from all around the web are exactly the same. Article directories and content farms have been hit hard; sites with well written, unique content have seen a rise in visitors.
Ezinearticles were reported to have been hit with a 35% reduction in traffic, even though they deny being a content farm, and so are putting measures in place to protect themselves. These measures include increasing the minimum word count to 400, increasing quality checks and no longer accepting articles via wordpress plugin and API. They have to do this to ensure their site is seen as a good source of quality content. I like Ezinearticles and have been submitting articles there for years (and will continue to do so) but in the last 2 years I have been using only them and not submitting the same article to the many, many other article directories, simply because I didn’t want a whole load of duplicate content pointing back at my site. And now I am glad I took this decision!
So, in my opinion, this is all good news. If you write useful, well written articles, blog posts and web copy then you have nothing to fear from the Farmer Update and everything to gain. Put some thought into what you write and thing about who is going to be reading it. There will be other major changes to the search engine algorithms over the coming years, of that you can be sure, but if you stick to the basics then content will always be King.
Thanks and speak soon
Mark
If you would like more information about SEO or details on how I could boost your rankings please use any of the methods on my contact page to get in touch. Alternatively browse my SEO packages.
Thanks!
What is RSS
What is RSS?
RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. (Sometimes it is referred to as ‘Rich Site Summary’). Basically RSS delivers updated and changing content to anyone subscribed to that particular RSS feed. News feeds are very popular for instance as news is constantly updating throughout the day. If you were to have to continually monitor a news site for new information this would quickly become tedious and very time consuming.
The first thing you will need is an RSS reader. There are many of these and are either browser based or a downloadable application. Personally I use iGoogle and this is the most popular, although your could try My Yahoo, Feedster or Bloglines. They all perform the same function of notifying you if there is any new content in your subscribed RSS feeds. You only need one reader for all of your RSS feed subscriptions.
The obvious advantage of browser based RSS readers is that they are accessible from any computer, similar to an email hotmail account. Downloadable applications allow you to store the information on your computer, as you would your email in outlook.
Once you have chosen which reader to use you simply have to decide which content you would like to subscribe to. For instance a weather buff could subscribe to the BBC weather feed. Simply go to the BBC weather page and look for the familiar orange RSS feed button. Click on this to subscribe and all content will be delivered to your RSS reader. When there is an update you can just click on the headline to take you back to the new content on the subscribed website.
As the feed itself is more a means of notification than anything else, the information contained is very basic. Usually it is a clickable headline followed by a short description, and this is fine because that’s all we need. Some RSS feeds are set up to display the entire content of an updated post, but a brief headline is more common.
More and more sites are now taking advantage of RSS, and you can tell if a site has a feed as it will display the standard square, orange button on its page, or else this same button can be found in your url browser, usually on the right hand side.
From a search engine optimisation point of view, RSS feeds provide great backlinks to your site, and allow direct traffic from surfers interested in what you have to say. Blogging platforms are very popular with RSS as it is such an easy way to discover when your favourite blogger has added a new post. Social media also use RSS, so you could maybe subscribe to the feed of your favourites on Twitter, and be alerted as to when they post an update, rather than continually checking back to their page.
So why not subscribe to my updates now by clicking on the orange RSS icon above right, with the word ‘POSTS’ after it.
Thanks
Mark
Which Domain name?
Which Domain Extension?
Domain name is the address you type into your web browser ending in .com or .net or .co.uk ie google.com or google.co.uk or twitter.com Domain names can have a big influence on your SEO (search engine optimisation) and can influence the speed of indexing and how high your site is ranked, and can also have a very direct impact on how much money you can make.
It can be a difficult choice. You are looking for an SEO friendly domain. Keyword research is very important in any optimisation as ideally you are looking for a keyword that is searched for many times, but has low competition. This is an idealised view, and rarely seen so easily, but you get the general picture.
Once you have you a keyword or phrase it is important to use this phrase when choosing a domain name. Although the search engines haven’t come out and admitted it, all the evidence points to the fact that they see keywords and phrases as an important factor in ranking.
There are three categories of keyword matching options. Exact match, phrase match and broad match.
Exact Match matches your keyword or phrase in the domain exactly. For instance if your keyphrase is ‘bird seed’ then the exact match domain would be ‘birdseed.com ‘
Phrase match has the keywords in the right order in your domain but with an extra word also to create a new phrase. Using the bird seed example that could be ‘buybirdseed.com’
Broad match has the keywords in a different order, also with an extra word or two thrown in. For example ‘seedbirdonline.com’
There is also non keyword optimised domains, which don’t have any of your keywords included. Again taking the above example this could be ‘avianfood.com’
Generally non keyword phrases are most suited for companies with an established brand, or trying to build a brand. This doesn’t mean that these domains can not be used for your chosen keyphrase, it just makes it a little more difficult.
With all other ranking factors being equal then the search engines will rank in the following order: Exact, then phrase and finally broad.
In my next post I will discuss choosing the best domain if your keyword has been taken.
WordPress Resources
WordPress Resources.
There are a whole load of resources available to help you with your wordpress blogging, so I thought I would list the main resources that are available here as a quick reference.
If you feel I have missed something then please leave a comment and I will add it if necessary.
Thanks!
Mark
http://wordpress.com – Starting point for your free hosted wordpress blog
http://wordpress.org – The place to start for your self hosted wordpress blog
http://www.wordpress.org/support – WordPress support forum for self hosted blogs
http://wordpress.com/forums – WordPress support for free hosted blogs
http://codex.wordpress.org - A great resource! Basically an online manual for wordpress users
http://wordpress.org/development – Here you can access news about wordpress and its development
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins – The wordpress plugin directory. Thousands of plugins listed here
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes – WordPress free theme directory. Once again, thousands to choose from, and a good safe place to get themes without the worry of spyware, viruses etc
Affordable Blog Hosting
Affordable Blog Hosting
Well, there is only one choice for me. (OK…maybe two) Most of my blogs are hosted here and you can host an unlimited amount for less than $10 per month. A no brainer as they say. That company is Hostgator
Best Blog Host
I would recommend them whole heartedly for affordable blog hosting. After all, we want our blogs to be hosted cheaply and reliably, and with a guaranteed 99% up-time. My personal experience with Hostgator is a 100% up-time!
An alternative that you may wish to explore is Bluehost. Again similar pricing and guaranteed uptime.
So click the links above or the banner below for the most affordable blog hosting in the business.
CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR BLUEHOST.COM
A weblog web hosting company is a business or an individual that “hosts” ones weblog on their private server. If you want to arrange your personalized blog, going for the weblog web hosting supplier is in all probability among the most perplexing tasks.
Ever since blogging has turn out to be a enterprise in which businesses employ bloggers to take on various topics ranging between consumer electronics to the greatest films of all time, selecting one of the best website hosting company may be the biggest aspect to succeed in a blogging business.
If looking around for weblog hosting suppliers, it is possible to restrict your exploration simply by dividing them into 3 groups – unique blog hosting providers, hosting providers and hosting resellers. Unique blog web hosting companies and hosting suppliers provide both professional and gratis services.
Weblog Hosting Suppliers: Understand Your Alternatives as a Blogger
If selecting a blog hosting company, you must decide your blogging requirements plus preferences and also the designed function of the web site. Many people produce sites as a private journal, whereas many individuals develop blogs to make income. Deciding on your planned function is a component in deciding on the blog web hosting supplier that may meet your requirements.
In case you’re not acquainted with HTML or different encoding, you could seek hosting vendors that allows uncomplicated, no- setup interfaces for websites. On the other hand, if you need to have absolute control by entirely customizing the blog, one might look for blog hosting providers that provide unlimited functions and opportunities for bloggers.
Not like free of charge hosting suppliers, blog hosting companies can offer additional probability of a blogger’s exposure versus paid blog hosting, especially if you wish to arrange a blog to make capital. This is as a result of common blog hosting firms, that are on the leading list of the search engines results, may offer the blog exposure to a broader audience as a result of the programmed encoding integrated in the service.
On the other hand, if you decide to host your blog with hosting firms, you’ll be in charge of appearance, template, interface, add- ons to incorporate as well as additional capabilities you wish to incorporate in your blog. Nonetheless, if selecting web hosting companies instead of blog hosting companies, ensure that you’ve got simple understanding of HTML, various encoding techniques and strategies to promote your web site.
Simply put, picking the blog hosting company relies on how well it is possible to produce, control and promote your blog site. When you are an IT- savvy individual and you need complete control over the website, maybe go with a paid hosting service provider. On the other hand, if you need to blog to make money, to produce your private journal or to acquire immediate fame without encoding or HTML understanding, then your better bet can be to go with blog hosting providers.
Website Design – Pay What You Like
Posted by Markcb on September 15, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Please note, this offer is now closed
I don’t want to waste too much time on this post, so I’ll get straight to the point.
I will build a website for you (in wordpress) and you pay me what you think it is worth. It is as easy as that. I will charge a minimum of £20 ($30) for my admin costs, but after that it is entirely up to you!
Personally, I think this is the best deal on the web. But I would say that as it’s my idea.
Please email me mark@webtrafficseo.co.uk for more details, and also I can give you some examples of my sites.
That’s it! I love short blog posts.
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