The Maine SEO Blog

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

A while back, I wrote about what to do when you can’t think of anything to blog about. This post goes a step further. Do you feel like you’ve been keeping up with your blog pretty well, but your posts are always a similar flavor? Let’s spice it up a little…

1. What’s your competition up to?

Use Google’s blog search to search for blogposts in your industry. You’ll have to sort the junk, but I bet you’ll quickly feel inspired with some new and different posts.

2. Write more about what people are already finding

Check out your Google Analytics Traffic Sources section, then in your keywords. Scroll to the bottom of the list – deep down in the long tail. Only a few people found you with these keywords, but perhaps there’s opportunity to expand on some posts you’ve already written by incorporating some of that long tail language.

3. What’s hot in your industry right now?

Have a favorite blog(s)? Follow what’s happening in your industry right now and blog about it. Sure, you won’t be the news source where people find out what happened first; but you’ll certainly be able to put your own, unique spin on it. Or, if you don’t have many other favorite blogs, you could always use one of these cool tools.

4. IRL (In Real Life)

Does something ever happen in your day-to-day life that makes you think “Man, I could relate this to something in my blog!” Grab a piece of scrap paper, a voice recorder, or your phone and jot your idea down! You’d be surprised how you can relate something completely unrelated to your industry.

5. Use what you already know

Tips and tricks you use every day may be common place to you, but not your audience. Write a quick tutorial blogpost or, better yet, create a video how-to!

6. Incorporate FAQs

Are your customers constantly asking you the same questions? Chances are, it’s probably more than just your customer base asking those questions. Make sure you write those questions down when you’re on the phone with a client.

What are your tricks for spicing up your blogposts?

Photo credit: recycle this

Nicki Hicks
Don’t get stale

This morning I attended my second Social Media Breakfast Maine (#SMBME), and this time I was lucky enough to be invited as a presenter. Today’s event was split into two sections:

• What is SEO and Real Time Search? (by the brilliant Kasi Gajtkowski)
• How to Use SEO to Optimize Your Blog and Social Media Updates (by moi)

As far as my portion of the presentation, you can view the full slideshow below, but here are some of the biggest things to take away:

• SEO Goals
  • Short-term:
    • Rank better
    • Drive traffic
  • Long-term
    • Sell more products/services
    • Have more email signups
    • Make more conversions
• There should be a balance between please the search engines (SEO) and pleasing your audience (personability).

For tips on how to optimize your blog/social profiles, you’ll just have to view the slideshow

Who doesn’t want more hours in the day? We all do.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the secret that will add minutes to your day; but I do have some that will help you use your time more wisely.

Blogging

1. Have go-to blogpost ideas ready for a rainy day. Try some of these easy tips to get started.
2. Repurpose your content by guest blogging or article marketing. Take an existing blogpost you already have and put a different spin on it, or elaborate on a certain point.

Social Media

1. Use services to send out mass status messages to all of your social media profiles. My favorite is ping.fm.
2. Spend your time where your audience is at. If they’re on Twitter, be on Twitter. If they’re on LinkedIn, make sure you’re answering questions on LinkedIn. If your audience isn’t in a particular social space – and you’re pressed for time – I would argue it’s not worth being there.
3. Use Networked Blogs for Facebook, and skip having to worry about posting every blogpost to your fan page. Use a service like Twitterfeed to have blogposts auto-tweeted.

What about you? What are your tips for saving time blogging/social media success?

Nicki Hicks
Let’s work smarter, not harder

Photo credit: tonivc

Today marks two years that I’ve been at flyte. Two years…really? It goes by fast. I just wanted to say a few things about what I’ve learned in the past two years. And it’s a lot, so I’ll try to be brief.

Your style will come with time. I just read my very first blogpost and…yikes! Content’s not terrible, but I just don’t write like that anymore – I hope. Hopefully, my writing’s a little sharper these days. Then again, I could be dead wrong.

Be who you are. As with so many things in life, being yourself undoubtedly proves to be the icing on the cake. Sometimes you might be snarky, other times argumentative. It doesn’t really matter…as long as that’s who you (or at least part of you) are.

Writing for the web is different than other types of writing. You may very well be a very gifted author, poet, or journalist…but there is something very unique about the Interwebs.

Calls-to-action, bulleting, bolding, and linking, oh my! It’s not necessarily the most natural way to write, but it is the most intuitive online and it’s what web users are used to; and it just takes a little getting used to (see Point #1).

So, thanks. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for reading. Thanks for commenting. Thanks for coming back. I truly appreciate it.

Nicki Hicks
I’m all choked up

Recently I noticed one of my posts had 47 pingbacks. Forty. seven. Most of them were just filth – simply plugins that pull “similar” content. (And by similar, I mean that when I mention the word engineering, that my post shows up on Engineering blogs.)

Like this blog, many blogs mix comments and pinkbacks by default. Amongst all of the pingbacks, you can imagine how comments are lost.

So…are pingbacks worth having?

A lot of blogging platforms (WordPress included) automatically nofollows trackback, pingback, and comment links; so you aren’t losing any link juice or SEO value. Other than (maybe) a diamond-in-the-rough link, I don’t see much value in pingbacks.

The argument for pingbacks

There is always the other side of the coin. The one time I’ve seen value in backlinks is when I link to authoritative websites, like the official Google blog, that allow pingbacks. Here’s the traffic I got after linking to the Google blog for an April Fools Day post:

Lesson learned? It’s ok to link to others, but that doesn’t mean you have to allow pingbacks.

How to shut ‘em off

If you use WordPress, turning off pingbacks is easy. Just go into your Admin under Settings > Discussion. Uncheck “Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)”

Remember, any old posts will still have pingbacks activated – so you can either manually delete any new pingbacks or manually uncheck pingbacks among specific posts.

Nicki Hicks
Anti-pingback

Clients often ask: I understand and appreciate the value of blogging, but shouldn’t I keep some things a secret?

The answer is two-sided. Obviously, you should keep classified information to yourself – even product or service pricing, if you prefer. Otherwise, as long as you feel comfortable (from both a moral and business sense) to share, share!

Think about it: your competitors, industry leaders, and others who are sharing information, ranking well, and getting leads. That should be you.

Here at flyte, we write about everything from what a good bounce rate is in Google Analytics and advice on keyword rich URLs to how to print Keynote presentations and what #ff is exactly.

Why?

Well just take a look at the Analytics for the Maine SEO blog. Here are the top five keywords that bring this blog traffic…

…or the top 6 keywords over at the flyte blog…

So you see, putting information out there is a good thing. You might just be able to give someone the tip they’ve been scouring the Interwebs for.

Does it mean do-it-yourselfers get my service for free?

Yes. But, then again, a lot of people don’t have time to do what you do. Which is why they have to hire you.

Nicki Hicks
Sharing is Caring

…or at least your online presence.

1. Get writing practice.

It’s easy to get stuck in one writing style on your own blog. Guest blogging can help expand your horizons and push your writing limits.

My first guest blog post was a very sarcastic one on SEOmoz’s YOUmoz (their user-generated blog). It was just for fun; but not everyone was laughing…

…but I did something a little different. The caveat: not everyone will enjoy what you write.

2. Expand your network.

Connect with industry leaders, your blogging heros, and more! Which leads to…

3. Start the conversation.

Blogs with a broader reach than your own tend to get more comments. Be prepared to answer them!

4. Get inspired.

Conversation, other posts on the blog, and a number of other factors could lead to inspiration for more blogposts.

I received the following comment from a fellow SEOmozzer…

…which led me to write this sarcastic sister post about Google Webmaster Tools. Writing several guest blogs led me to writing this post. See the snowball effect?

5. Get more exposure.

Last, but most importantly is the exposure you get from guest blogging. Whether it’s to a new and different or maybe just a broader audience – exposure, if nothing else, is the reason to guest blog.

Usually the service (and those who run it) will tweet about it:

And they’ll also include a bio signature with some pretty influential links:

Convinced guest blogging is for you?

Get out there and start writing! Nearly every industry will have some user-generated content blogs, it’s just a matter of finding them! [Update: For a great new resource for guest blogging, check out the My Blog Guest forum - which connects guest bloggers from a ton of industries!]

Nicki Hicks
Guest Blogger

If you’ve talked to a web marketer lately and they give you tips, I’ll bet I know one of them: Blog.

If you’ve talked to a friend about a wonderful idea you have, I bet I know what they said: Blog about it.

If you’ve asked a question online recently, I bet I know where you found your answer: A blog.

I think you get the point.

Blogs are just, well, awesome. Put aside reasons for the average foodie to take beautiful high def photographs of their latest creation and start a blog (though they do have the best recipes), there are a ton of SEO benefits to blogging.

You can target the long tail.

Through keyword research, have you found some of those beautifully extraordinary keyword phrases that you can seem to put anywhere on your website? The blog’s the place for ‘em.

It’s wonderful link bait.

Blogs are one of those mythical creatures where it doesn’t take a whole lot of link building work to build up those backlinks. Sure, you have to do some, but put a great resource online and people are sure to find it. Plus, people really appreciate specific, targeted posts that answer their burning questions.

Social media’s all the buzz, but don’t discount a space with a few more characters to say something.

Not only are people saying Get a blog, but they’re also saying Get on Twitter! Get on Facebook! Get on LinkedIn! Get on TheSuperCoolestSocialNetworkEver!

What do you do? If you can manage the time to blog and be on all the hippest social networks, then by george, do it. But at the end of the day, it’s all about content creation. That said, go where you can create content around more than 140 characters: to a blog. (Then, if you have another extra moment in your hectic life, just be sure to tweet about your posts )

Incorporate images, video, and podcasts.

Let’s not forget these things also rank well on the search engines. Optimize any of your images/videos/podcasts the best you can and make sure you’ve got some text!

Nicki Hicks
Blogging for SEO

Image by alamodestuff

Many blog platforms are set up, by default, to catch any spammy looking email address or website, as well as a comment with more than two links within it. Of course, the blogger always has the ability to refine these parameters; even approving on a comment-by-comment basis. If your comments are getting disapproved, this might be why:

Your name isn’t India SEO. That may be what you do – and kudos for the attempt to incorporate as much anchor text as possible; but I’m sure your mother didn’t see you for the first time and think I shall call him India SEO.

You’re not adding value. While “Really great post, I’ve subscribed to your blog” might boost the ego of the blogger, it does little more than that. The comments section is meant to create a conversation – not accentuate an ego trip.

You included links in your comment. While readers might find a substantial resource over at your website for Viagra, I’ll thank you to not include links like that. Every blogger is different, so while many don’t, I approve comments with links if they provide a valuable resource – especially when I know the commenter isn’t linking to their own site.

All of these things add up to one reason your comments are being disapproved: you look like spam. Whether you’re trying to be or not, commenting using these tactics makes you look like a spammer and any blogger, if they’re paying attention, will delete and/or block your comments.

Nicki Hicks
Are you adding value?