The Maine SEO Blog

I’ve talked about how to get your website indexed faster by Google; but how about your blog?

If you’ve recently launched a blog, you may find you’re not getting bombarded with traffic right away. You may not even be indexed 6 weeks after launch. Never fear, there are some easy ways to get found faster. For example, this blog is brand spankin’ new and yet it was indexed only one day after launch!

And a week later? Everything was indexed!

How can you get your blog indexed quickly?

Here are a few (relatively easy) ways to get your blog found faster on Google, and then by searchers:

Write. A lot.

Just by virtue of the fact that you have a blog, you’ll be indexed faster. Google loves fresh content, and the more you can provide, the better!

Link, link, link.

• From your other (well established) web properties
• From a blogpost
• From a blog roll
• From other blogs in your niche

Google Webmaster Tools

• Simply by adding your site, you’re “listing” it with Google
• Add a sitemap

Sharing is caring.

Share your content on all of your social spaces; not only will you gain more traffic, but there’s something to be said for the power of linking via social media.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• StumbleUpon
• Digg
• Delicious

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! Try all of these ideas and you’ll have your blog indexed and getting traffic in no time!

Nicki Hicks
Get found

What is NetworkedBlogs?

NetworkedBlogs is a Facebook app that incorporates a blogging community; but who’s greatest function is to auto-publish your blogposts to Facebook (and Twitter). Formatting-wise, NetworkedBlogs does a terrific job on Facebook:

One of the biggest downfalls is setup. NetworkedBlogs does not make it easy to set up. Never fear, that’s why you’re here!

Step 1

Make sure you’re logged into the Facebook account linked with your fan page (if you have one), then go to the Networked Blogs app on Facebook. Start by “following” a minimum of five blogs. There’s no way to continue without following the blogs, but don’t worry – they won’t show up any other place than your Networked Blogs account.

Step 2

Go back to the “Home” page in NetworkedBlogs and click “Register a blog”.

Step 3

Fill out information about your blog, then click “Next”.

Step 4

Your blog’s profile has been created! Next, Networked Blogs will prompt you to verify yourself as the author (if you are indeed the author). You can choose do this now or later. Either way, I highly recommend it, all you need is to get 6 Facebook friends to click “Yes, this person is the author”.

Step 5

You’ll now be taken to your blog’s profile page, where you can feel free to add, edit, or change any information about your blog. (Note: If NetworkedBlogs cannot recognize your blog’s RSS feed, you’ll need to click “Edit Details” on the blog profile page, and add the “Feed URL”.)

Step 6

It’s time for the main event: syndication. Start by clicking “Syndication” on your blog profile page.

Then, you’ll be taken to the NetworkedBlogs website, where you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Facebook login. Then, you can choose where you’d like to post from (of all the pages you admin that have NetworkedBlogs accounts), where you want them to post (fan pages and/or personal profile), if you want to post on Facebook/Twitter/both, and what you want the post to look like.

To post on Facebook, click “Add Facebook Target”.

Then choose where you’d like to post by clicking “add”.

And that’s all there is to it! Feel free to publish a test post just to make sure everything worked properly!

Nicki Hicks
Follow the Maine SEO Blog on NetworkedBlogs

After writing my New Year’s post, I realized there are certain reasons why the most popular posts of the year got more traffic – whether they were targeting the right keywords, picked up by the right people on Twitter, or just happened to get a powerful link. So with that in mind, let’s look at the ways you can help your posts get more traffic…

How to see your most popular posts

First, let’s start with the easy part. In Google Analytics, go to your content section. You’ll automatically land on the Content Overview page, so scroll down and click on “view full report” under Top Content.

By clicking on individual pages, you’ll start to see specific stats and learn more about how traffic came to those pages. You may very well find more than just these three ways you can get more incoming traffic to your blog.

3 Ways to Bring More Traffic to Posts

1. Use the right keywords

You won’t know if you used the right keywords until after the fact, so do your homework! Start by using a tool like WordTracker Keyword Questions to research what people are searching for. Using a tool like this before you even start writing will help you incorporate popular keywords and phrases that people are actually searching for, plus even help you phrase your blogpost title better!

2. Get great links

While you can’t force getting great links, there are some ways to nudge potential links along:

• Create great content. Great content just screams Link to me!!!
• Guest blog, guest blog, guest blog.
• Comment on other blogs.
• Get dugg, sphunn, and/or StumbledUpon.
• Link to others. A link to the Google blog got me a trackback, that brought some traffic!

3. Get more exposure

Is your audience using Twitter or Hootsuite? How about Facebook or even YouTube? Do they use Flickr or LinkedIn? Make sure you publish your content wherever your audience is. Not only will you get more traffic out of it, but you’ll also get more people sharing in those spaces as well!

How about you? How do you drive traffic to your blog?

Nicki Hicks
Traffic controller

During the past few weeks, I couldn’t help but catch myself constantly saying “Can you believe this year’s flown by so fast?” Well…it has. It’s officially 2011. Happy New Year!

After doing a similar post last year, I feel like another “most popular posts of the year” is just what needed to happen. So without further ado…

10. Link Building for the Economically Savvy Business

9. How to Rank in Google Maps: Step 3 (How to Get Local Reviews)

8. Making Analytics Actionable: How to Improve SEO by Employing Data & Metrics (with SEOmoz’s Rand Fishkin)

7. Google AdWords 101: What do all these statistics mean?

6. Reverse Engineering the Search Rankings (Webinar with SEOmoz’s Rand Fishkin)

5. Is it Time to Spice up your Titles and Copy?

4. A Step-by-Step Guide to Optimizing for Local Search, A Mardi Gras Special

3. 9 Free Keyword Research Tools from Google

2. Can I create a Facebook Business Account (or Fan Page) without a Personal Account?

1. What is a Good Bounce Rate in Google Analytics?

Thanks for stopping by and for another amazing year!

Nicki Hicks
Happy 2011!

Photo credit: iUniqueFx

This has been a banner year. Flyte’s been busier than ever, and it’s been great. But that comes at a price…I haven’t had as much time to blog as I’d like.

According to Rich, it’s BS when you say you don’t have time to blog. He takes a business owner’s standpoint on the subject: you’re investing in your business every time you write a new post. Sounds a little more worthwhile after hearing that, huh?

But from a logistical standpoint, though, sometimes you just don’t have the time. Never fear, there are ways around that.

1. Take advantage of a creative moment

I know and love these moments – those moments that tend to happen at the most inopportune times (you know…in the middle of the night, in the middle of a conference call, in the middle of breakfast…).

Here’s the thing: take advantage of those moments by at least getting your ideas down on paper, or recording on your phone. (If you have the time, write a quick draft.) You’ll be happy you did.

2. Take the easy way out

Sometimes, it’s OK to write an easy blogpost to get something out there. As long as you don’t lean on these type of posts as a crutch every time you write, you’re in the clear. Here are some ideas:

• Find a Wall Street Journal article, copy and paste part of it, then write your .02.
• Update an old blogpost you did.
• Do a top 10 link list of interesting posts in your niche.
• Write a Dear Abby letter to yourself and answer it.
• Create a list of your favorite Tweeps in your niche or region.
• Take a photo or video you found online, embed it, and write a few sentences about it. (Better yet, take your own photo or video.)

3. Two (or three or four…) heads are better than one

Lean on your coworkers, staff, family, and friends for post ideas. Ask staff and coworkers what kinds of questions they’ve been getting from customers lately. Ask friends and family how your business relates to them and what they’d like to learn about it.

4. Relate it…somehow, anyhow

For many, business isn’t personal. Though to others, it is. I’m the latter. So take an interesting story that happened to you over the weekend and use it for an analogy – or even just a fun post.

5. Allow guest blogging

What better way to save time blogging than to have someone else write for you? Accept guest blogposts from the community, or even better: from your coworkers and staff.

When it comes right down to it, it’s about doing what works for you. What ways do you manage your time to write blogposts?

Nicki Hicks
Time Manager

Rich and I have done quite a few posts about blogging over the years, both on the Maine SEO blog and on the flyte blog. With so many scattered tips across the Interwebs, I thought why not put them all in one place? Well, here you go: everything you’ve ever wanted to know about writing a blogpost.

Pre-blogging

1. Make sure you own your domain. AKA stay away from Blogspot.
2. Start by managing your time wisely. Carve out special time every week or even every day to write. Often, you’ll find if you don’t you’ll never have time to blog. Still don’t have the time? Oh yes, you do.
3. Understand that bearing it all [in a blogpost] is OK. If you’re not sharing industry secrets, your competitors are. In other words, nearly anything should be an option for your blogpost.
4. Will you be writing for your own blog or would you like to try to guest blog on someone else’s? If the latter (because you know guest blogging will change your life), then make sure you use Alltop to find the best guest blogging opportunities.
5. When you start brainstorming ideas, consider ditching your typical blogpost topics for a related niche.

Start writing

1. Use whatever works for you, but if you’re getting writer’s block, try some of these options:
   1. Get inspired to write
   2. Hit some pain points
   3. More ideas for different types of posts
   4. Use WordTracker Labs’ Keyword Questions to get inspired
2. Make sure your blogpost is as optimized and search engine friendly as possible.

Post blogging

1. Offer your readers a handy dandy RSS feed and email subscription.
2. Are you leveraging your network after you press publish? Try this few easy steps every time you do a new blogpost. Better yet, here are 25 ways to promote and market your blog.
3. Then, leverage your post for more backlinks.
4. Use Google Analytics. Are your blogposts getting you the “right” kind of traffic?
5. Moderate your spam. Don’t know what spam looks like? Here are the three types of comments and which are spam.
6. Decide whether you want to allow pingbacks and trackbacks. The big question is: are they adding value? (Learn more about pingbacks and trackbacks here.)
7. Understand your writing will grow and change as you do. It’s all about learning as you blog.
8. Attract even more traffic to your blog.

Photo credit: adikos

Nicki Hicks
Rinse and Repeat

I’ve been participating in the GuestBlogging.com Apprenticeship Program, run by one of Copyblogger’s associate editors, Jon Morrow. In the second workshop, Jon talked about How “Ditching Your Niche” Will Help Your Blog Get More Traffic.

A little background

Google doesn’t do a great job listing popular blogs. Historically, Bloggers have been forced to make lists of influential blogs and bloggers. Then, Guy Kawasaki created Alltop; a glorified collection of (the best of the best) blogs. Guy started by creating lists by hand and organizing them into categories.

How to make sense of Alltop

Alltop has hundreds of niches, from SEO to Auto Racing to American Idol. So start by searching for your niche.

Searches don’t just search for the topic you search for; you’ll also have related topics served up. The other topics will help expand your focus as well as inspire you. After choosing a category, you’ll find the most influential blogs at the top of the page:

Then, use this list to search for influential blogs for both links and guest blogging opportunities.

How to find the best guest blogging opportunities

Some guest blogging opportunities are going to get you more bang for your buck than others. Once you’ve found a few blogs you’d be interested in blogging for, start by doing a little background.

1. Scan Alltop

Scan through the blogs at Alltop and pick blogs near the top that look interesting.

2. 5-Step Checklist

Go through this checklist, making sure it’s somewhere you want to write:

1. Feedburner subscriber count
2. Twitter link – Are they on Twitter? How active?
3. Comment count
4. About page and/or advertiser page
5. Commonalities in the blogroll

3. Do they allow guest posts?

Do a quick search on Google to see if they allow guest posts (Google site:[website] “written by” or “guest blog” or “guest post”) or just ask:

Hey, quick question. I’d really like to do a post for <blog name>, but I couldn’t tell if you allow guest posts. Would you be open to runnning a few ideas past you?

Thanks!
<Your Name>

Making it Manageable

• Every day, choose a different topic and go through all of the blogs
• Set a time for 30 minutes, and then do as many as you can before the time goes off
• Only go through 10 or so blogs per day
• Don’t try to do it all at once. Do a little every day, slowly getting to know the blogosphere

Nicki Hicks
Now get out there and guest blog

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post called What is a Good Bounce Rate in Google Analytics? As it turns out, it ended up being one of the most visited posts on the blog.

The amount of traffic I get from this post got me to thinking:

• Do you always get the kind of traffic you’re hoping for from blogposts?
• If so, how would you find out?
• If not, is it possible to backtrack and try again?

The truth of the matter is a lot of us write blogposts with SEO in mind. [Hopefully those posts naturally balance content with keywords...but that's a topic for another time.] But how many of us double check that the content we created is doing well for those keywords after the fact? Here’s how you can use Google Analytics to do just that.

Content Detail

Let’s start off simple. How much traffic is the page in question getting? Is it still getting traffic after being published or has it gone stale after 6 months or a year?

How about traffic stats – how many unique visitors? How much time do they spend on the page? What’s the bounce rate like – do visitors bounce after reading the post?

The takeaway

• If traffic fell off over time, maybe it’s time to repost the content somewhere. Try giving it a major overhaul and submitting it to an article marketing site or guest blogging it.
• If you’re still getting traffic but time on page seems a little low, try reorganizing the post. Do you split the content up with headers, bullets, etc.? Or try rewriting the copy to keep the reader hooked until the end of the post.
• If your bounce rate is higher than you’d like (which is typical for blogposts), do you have a call to action to entice the reader to stay on the site?

Navigation Summary

We’ll look next at entrance sources outside of your website, but which pages did visitors come from on your site or blog?

The takeaway

If the goal is to decrease bounce rate, think about the linking strategy you use from other pages.

Entrance Sources

How are visitors getting to your page or post? Is it direct, search engine, or referral traffic? The Entrance Sources report will show a mixture of all three sources.

The takeaway

• Didn’t get as much bang for your buck out of Twitter or Facebook? Try reposting it and see if you can get some more ReTweets and comments.
• Looking for more links? Try guest blogging on a similar topic and link to the page or post.
• Not satisfied with Google visits? Read on and we’ll talk keywords…

Entrance Keywords

Probably the most important report you can run, find out what keywords visitors used at the search engines to get to your post/page.

The takeaway

• If you’re not doing as well as you thought you would for the keywords you targeted, try spicing up the title. It may not be that you’re ranking poorly, simply that your blopost doesn’t stand out from the rest of results on Google.
• A title tweak not doing the trick? Make sure you’re tracking your rankings for your top key phrases for the page (using a program like Raven Tools) and tweak the content (naturally) until you’ve got the desired rankings. Rinse and Repeat.

Nicki Hicks
Check and double check

I’ve begun been participating in the GuestBlogging.com Apprenticeship Program, run by one of Copyblogger’s associate editors, Jon Morrow. In one of the first offerings of the workshop, Jon teamed up with Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communication to create The 7 Most Common Reasons Guest Blogposts Get Rejected at Copyblogger.

In the most recent session, Jon talked about cultivating connections. He’s not talking about connections with other bloggers – yet – but about other niches, categories, and industries.

Jon starts by saying: Your content is only as valuable as the connections it allows you to make.

Guest blogging is so powerful because of the connections it allows you to make. The bloggers who make it big don’t necessarily have the best content, but they do have the best connections.

Jon suggests creating dozens of little channels to get people to your blog – don’t just focus on the big highways. How do you do that, you may ask? Good question.

Ditch your niche.

Seems kind of crazy, doesn’t it? Hold tight, you’ll soon see why.

Jon suggests that you don’t get trapped in your niche. Every niche or topic interconnects with other topics, and by focusing on just one, you’re losing out on a ton of opportunity. That’s what the Internet is, afterall: an interconnected community.

But…my industry is huge

It doesn’t matter how big or small your niche is, if you focus only on your industry, your blog will eventually suffocate from a lack of new connections. Like a goldfish, it can only grow to the size of its tank…err, community.

Now what?

In order to continue to grow, stop thinking of yourself in a tiny niche. Realize your blog is a tiny piece of a huge network. Then we start the fun stuff.

Start by brainstorming. Think about what your potential audience might be searching for. What topics would bring in new – but still applicable - audiences?

For example

Let’s say I own a cupcake shop in a small town. I’ll certainly post things about latest designs and flavors, recipes, and updates on small town goings-on; but I’ll also post things about:

• Running a small business
• DIY baking that looks professional
• Cooking (not just baking) tips, tricks, and secrets
• Healthy baking and cooking
• Alternate and non-traditional cupcake uses (birthdays, weddings, company events, etc.)

Once you start brainstorming how your industry can play into other niches, the sky is the limit!

Nicki Hicks
Ready to ditch your niche?

If you have a blog, you know about comment spam. The moment you have an even remotely popular blog, you’ll be doused with every “SEO India” commenter out there. You might be asking yourself how to tell the spam from the non-spam. Here’s how.

Start with a clean slate

If you use WordPress or another content management system, you’ll want to take a look at your comment settings and make sure they are as high as you want them to be. For example, in my own settings, I’m alerted whenever a comment is approved or held for moderation, and comments with a link or more is held for moderation.

Stay on top of your comment spam

A comment link doesn’t give the linkee any added search engine benefit. It does, however, appear on your blog and clog up the legitimate comments. I’m not sure about you, but I’d rather not link to a Viagra scheming spammer.

Comments will typically in three forms: obvious spam, semi-obvious spam, and rock star comments.

1. Obvious spam

If you use WordPress or another CMS, your spam filter is pretty robust. It will pick up painfully obvious spam like this:

Obvious spam is pretty easy to spot:

• The comment itself will typically have nothing to do with your blog, and in many cases include a ton of links to an entirely bogus website.
• You’ll normally find an attempt at a keyword stuffed name (in this example, the commenter’s name and the message don’t even apply to one another).
• The website and/or email address will have signs of spam.

2. Semi-obvious spam

These are tricky, as they are often a compliment to the blog/blogger. The semi-obvious spam will usually sneak right through your spam filter and either be marked as needing approval or – yikes – be approved altogether!

Never fear. Here are some tips to spot the semi-obvious spam:

• Always check the name. Garden Canopies might have given me a self-esteem boost, but I can also count on the fact that they aren’t a real person.
• Do the website/email address look bogus? Often, the website will point to a deep page on a spammy website. No need to visit the site to confirm…unless you want to chance a computer virus.

When the spammer uses their real name, that makes these steps that much harder. However, there’s one question you can ask to solve any question of “to approve a comment or to not approve”: does the comment add value? The amount of value is up to you – but answering this question will quickly help you decide whether or not to approve the comment.

3. Rock star comments

These comments, hands down, add value. The commenter is committed to adding the conversation.

There you have it, folks. Now head over to your blog and start cleaning up that comment spam!

Nicki Hicks
Spot the Spam