Thursday, November 21, 2013
How To Increase Traffic To Your Blog Using Your RSS Feed: Part Two
By Steve Shaw
In last week’s post, the first part of a tutorial on increasing traffic to your blog using your RSS feed, I showed you how to submit your RSS feed to RSS/blog directories, along with what I consider to be the top 15 RSS directories.
This week, I’ll be showing you a second way to put your RSS feed to work promoting and building visibility for your site. Again, it’s very easy to set up, only takes a few minutes, and once done works for you on auto-pilot on an ongoing basis … a.k.a. worth doing!
Presuming you’re on Twitter, this involves adding your RSS feed to software called Hootsuite … so that every time your blog is updated with a new post, your Twitter feed is automatically updated too.
Of course, the same information is not restricted to just the RSS feed of your blog – if you publish videos on YouTube regularly for example, they provide you with a RSS feed you can plug into this too. Other services or websites where you publish regularly will also likely provide you with a RSS feed you can use.
1. Sign Up With Hootsuite (It’s Free!)
Go to Hootsuite and sign up for an account – they do have paid options available which you may find useful at some point in the future, but you don’t need a paid account for this tutorial.
2. Add Your Twitter Account
Currently, in the second part of their sign up process, you can add your Twitter account:
After clicking the Twitter button as shown above, a new window pops up allowing you to then authorize Hootsuite to use your Twitter account.
Once done, you’re then all set to start using Hootsuite.
3. Add Your Blog’s RSS Feed To Hootsuite
Now you need to simply add your RSS feed to Hootsuite – from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen, go to Settings > RSS/Atom as shown:
Click the ‘+’ button to add a new feed:
Now you need to copy the URL of your blog’s RSS feed to your clipboard ready for pasting into Hootsuite. Assuming you have a WordPress blog, your feed will be at /feed, for example http://yourblog.com/feed – make sure it’s accessible and correct, and then paste it into Hootsuite in the Feed URL field:
You’ll see various other fields available which you’ll need to set accordingly:
- Network to send feed items to … Select your Twitter account that you just added
- Check this feed for new posts every … Unless you publish your blog more frequently, leave this set at 24 hours
- When new posts are found, send up to … Of course it’s personal preference, but for most purposes you’ll want to leave the 1 post at a time option set
- Include text from post in messages (checkbox) – Leaving this checked will mean Hootsuite will ‘fill’ the Tweet with text from your post, presuming your title hasn’t already used up the available characters (personally, I’m leaving this unchecked)
- Prepend text to each message … Something like [New Blog Post] can help differentiate these tweets from others you may make and can be more ‘user friendly’ for your followers
- URL shortener for links … Up to you, but personally I’m leaving the ow.ly option preset
Click the Save Feed button and you’re done!
Now every time you post something new on your blog, you’ll automatically be keeping your Twitter followers updated too, attracting click-throughs to your blog (including from new audiences via Retweets), and helping to build positive search engine signals for your site.
How To Increase Traffic To Your Blog Using Your RSS Feed
RSS (“Really Simple Syndication“) is a common form of XML that allows your content to be distributed far and wide, and attracts links and traffic back to your site.
As with any other aspect of content marketing, to get the real benefit of RSS, you firstly need to ensure your content has the right level of quality in order to attract attention in the first place and provide real interest and value to your readers. Get that right, and the rest falls into place naturally …
The good news is that if you’re following my content tree methodology, and have a blog post as the root of the rest of your content, an RSS feed is automatically built into WordPress (which you’ll find at /feed on your blog, eg. http://yourblog.com/feed). That means you can get started with this immediately …
However, RSS feeds aren’t just restricted to WordPress – you can create one for any type of website where you are adding new content regularly. Sites like YouTube, Facebook and Hubspot all provide individualized RSS feeds that you can use to further syndicate your content and promote your business.
So let’s look at the first of two free but powerful ways to get your RSS feed out there right now and working hard for your business … it’s information you can take advantage of immediately.
Submit Your Feed To RSS/Blog Directories
The following represents what I consider the current top 15 RSS directories you should submit your RSS feeds to. I’ve added notes where appropriate, along with current Alexa and Google PR information.
Registration is mostly required for these sites in order to submit your feed, but I’ve added an appropriate note to the sites where you don’t need to register.
Technorati
Alexa: 1,609
Google PR: 8
After registering and logging in, click through to your profile (click your username on the menu bar) and then go to the My claimed blogs section, and click to start a blog claim.
Blogdigger
Alexa: 20,144
Google PR: 6
No registration required.
Feedage
Alexa: 8,444
Google PR: 6
After registering, confirm your account before submitting a feed.
Feedcat
Alexa: 28,772
Google PR: 6
Plazoo
Alexa: 25,944
Google PR: 6
No registration required.
RSS Network
Alexa: 35,482
Google PR: 6
No registration required.
Ice Rocket
Alexa: 15,376
Google PR: 6
Requests your blog’s URL rather than RSS feed – after adding, add http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080 to Settings > Writing > Update Services (in your WordPress dashboard) to ensure they are pinged each time you publish a new post.
URL Fan
Alexa: 93,467
Google PR: 5
As well as adding your feed, add http://rpc.urlfan.com/ping to Settings > Writing > Update Services to ensure they are pinged each time you publish a new post.
RSS Micro
Alexa: 33,864
Google PR: 5
Gave an odd error on trying to submit, but might have been a temporary issue.
Codango
Alexa: 32,759
Google PR: 5
No registration required.
BlogRollCenter
Alexa: 35,164
Google PR: 5
Feedgy
Alexa: 40,157
Google PR: 4
No registration required.
NewsIsFree
Alexa: 84,132
Google PR: 4
After registering, click Feeds on top, then Add Feeds in the left-hand margin, though submission didn’t actually work when I tried it, just came back with ‘Nothing found’ error – possibly a temporary issue.
FeedSee
Alexa: 28,028
Google PR: 2
No registration required.
FeedListing
Alexa: 28,073
Google PR: Unavailable
No registration required.
I’d recommend to simply spend an hour or so (it shouldn’t take more than 4 or 5 minutes on average per site) submitting your blog’s feed to each of the sites above … it’s work you only need to do once, but stand to benefit from for a long time to come.
Any sites I’ve missed or any suggestions? Let me know below …
In my next post, we’ll look at the second way to increase traffic to your blog using your RSS feed(s), taking full advantage of what RSS offers in order to promote your business and raise your online visibility on auto-pilot.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Using Content To Improve Search Engine Ranking
Effectively you’re developing a wide range of bait through which you attract your marketplace, and hook them into your website.
But how do you ensure your content is optimized for the keywords you focus on, so you get search engine rankings for your bait, and attract click-throughs from potential customers?
I’ve been involved in search engine optimization for over a decade, have numerous #1, top three and first page listings for a wide range of keywords, including #1 placements for keywords with millions of competing results, and have done for years (including seeing off numerous Google algorithm onslaughts that have devastated other sites and businesses) … so know a thing or two about what it takes to rank, and rank well, over extended periods.
I’m not talking about gimmicks, or the latest shady practice that might work now but will get you stung long-term … but creating the type of site that delivers exactly the type of value Google wants to deliver to its users, and the type of site they can’t help but rank well because it’s best of breed and not doing so would be a disservice to their users.
Essentially it’s about using quality content, optimized well, to improve the search engine ranking of your site as a whole … and it’s one of the best investments in your business you can make.
Imagine if you had over a hundred separate content items on your site, each ranked for different keywords within your particular niche … it’s a powerful insurance policy against search engine algorithm shifts, because even if your ranking on some of them drop or fluctuate from time to time, the likelihood is that taken as a whole you’ll continue to attract traffic through the other content on your site, optimized for their own keywords.
And, by having content on other sites too that link to your own site, you continue to attract and drive traffic that way too.
So let’s dive straight into content optimization, and exactly how to use content to improve search engine ranking.
Obviously I can’t cover everything in a single blog post, but I’ll summarize seven of the most important elements for effective content optimization, and then go into further depth on each of them in future posts.
Your Title
Yes, you’ve heard it before, but there’s a reason for that – it works! If your content is about something (i.e. your keyword), it stands to reason you’re going to see it in the title for that content.
So ensure your keyword appears in your title, and preferably (but not essentially, as some may suggest) towards the start of the title to signify its importance – there are numerous flags that, when taken in unison, signify to search engines what a particular piece of content is about, so don’t get too hung up about any one of them.
It’s a case of gently indicating to the search engines what your content is about, not taking them by the scruff of the neck and shaking them until they understand – most folks don’t take kindly to the latter, search engines are no exception, and will treat you accordingly afterwards.
Your Content
Another obvious one, but again vitally important. Your keyword needs to appear at least once within the content itself.
Preferably, it should appear towards the beginning – say in the first paragraph, underlining what the content is focused on – and then somewhere else in the content too.
The key is to keep it natural – your content should naturally be about the keyword anyway, in which case the keyword will appear at natural points within the content. So don’t get too formulaic about keyword placement or keyword density – primarily, create the content for the reader, not the search engines, and just keep half an eye on the keywords you’re using without in any way trying to cram them in inappropriately.
Do that, and the keywords tend to sort themselves out anyway, in exactly the manner that will be most effective for you in the search engines.
Which leads nicely on to the next section …
Semantic Variations And Natural Language Usage
Many keywords you find and want to focus on won’t lend themselves to natural incorporation in a sentence.
In that case, just adjust them a little so they do … stick a keyword in a sentence in an artificial way, and Google will sniff it out a mile away, will know immediately you’re creating content for them rather than for their users, and your site will be treated with the disrespect it deserves (and you won’t get visitors sticking around or sharing your content either – it’s a clear lose-lose, so stay away).
For example, if you found the keyword internet marketing small business, you’re going to have difficulty making that sound ‘normal’ in a sentence. It’s fine to make it natural (scratch that – you should make it natural), and use phrases like internet marketing for small business, internet marketing for your small business, and so on.
And use keywords and phrases related to your main keyword too, rather than just dogmatically sticking to the exact phrase in question. What you’re aiming for, as previously stated, is for the content to be naturally about the keyword in question, which will naturally (that word again, and for good reason!) use variations of the keyword in question.
So, as you may have noticed, one of the keywords focused on in this piece of content is content optimization – so, and in a very natural way, I’ve also used phrases such as the following, and not worried about a specific formula in terms of keyword placement, density, etc.:
- … content is optimized for …
- … quality content, optimized well …
Relevant Locality
A key to well-ranked content, and good ranking for your site as a whole, is to make all your content relevant to a particular niche.
This gives Google a good understanding as to what your site is about as a whole, and will give it a certain level of authority within its niche.
Just as a quick example, content about dogs on a site that has content about all manner of topics won’t rank as well as the same content on a site that has content about different animals, which in turn won’t rank as well as the same content on a site that’s purely focused on dogs.
Even better if it’s a site on a specific breed of dog … the tighter the niche and the more specialist your site is, the more authority your site will tend to gain, and the better it will rank, simply because of the lower competition levels out there.
This goes too for content that links back to your site – links from generic sites about everything will be a lot less powerful than a link back to your site from a credible site within the same or related niche. The increased authority of their site transfers to yours.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is where you’re linking to content on your site from other pages on the same site. When you link using keywords that exactly match or semantically relate to the keyword(s) you are focusing on in the content you’re linking to, it helps Google and other SEs further understand what that content is about. It’s another signal, another flag that helps your ranking.
Take another look at the very top of this post, and you’ll notice I’ve done exactly this, providing an internal link to my previous post with the keyword I want Google to understand that content is about:
Again, it’s important to keep it natural, and if you are linking to the same piece of content multiple times, use variations of the keyword and throw some non-keyword focused links in there too (eg. “my previous post“) – the last thing you want to do is appear as if you’re trying to game the search engines.
Instead, and in a very natural way, you’re just helping them understand what the content on your site is about, while maintaining the priority of delivering a high level of value to your visitors.
External Linking
Internal linking can go a long way in terms of improving your search engine ranking for specific pieces of content, but external linking helps indicate that your site has authority in the wider web as a whole.
Improving your bounce rate will help improve search engine ranking
External linking is where other sites are linking to pages on your own site.
The key is to ensure, as always, that it all remains natural – and key to this is building up the links to your site from a wide variety of different sources.
This variety of inbound links – or backlinks – is incredibly important. If all your links come from one source (eg. a specific type of site) or from a particular type of marketing (eg. blog comment spam), it looks manipulative in terms of SEO, immediately flags your site as questionable at the very least, and your site will likely be penalized as a consequence.
Don’t join dodgy linking schemes or pay for links from other sites. Don’t leave spammy blog comments. Don’t give much credence to the latest trick that can get your site ranked at the top within 48 hours – even if it works, it won’t last. The only thing that works long-term is creating value for your visitor within your specific niche, and working with the search engines to help them (gently, gently) understand what your site and the pages on it are all about. Period.
Your focus has to be on contributing value to the web, through which you happen to get a link (or sometimes several) … rather than desperately trying to get a link and doing the bare minimum required to get one.
Some things you can do include contributing articles or guest posts to other sites, submitting helpful videos to sites like YouTube, contributing to blogs and forums through informative, considered comments and responses, and building up your social media presence.
Above all, create the best content you possibly can as part of your long-term content strategy, so that people start linking to you entirely naturally, including through various social media accounts … you want the type of content that when people see it, they are naturally inspired to share with their own community because you offer so much value.
Watch Your Bounce Rate
Improving your bounce rate will help improve search engine ranking
As the adage goes, what you measure, improves. And that goes for bounce rate too, so, using Google Analytics – or whatever analytics software you use – keep an eye on your bounce rate with the aim to improve it over time.
When people find your content, you want them to stick around your site, and not bounce straight off again heading somewhere else.
Think about it … if someone clicks through to your site from Google, and then goes straight back to look for a different result, it immediately signifies that the visitor (Google’s user) did not get what they were looking for. Which means that maybe Google hasn’t ranked your site as well as it could have (and you can guess what happens to your ranking as a result).
On the other hand, if Google sees searchers clicking through and sticking around, obviously that’s a positive result for your site, for which you will be rewarded positively in terms of some improvement to your search engine ranking.
—-
Use all the above to optimize each new piece of content on your site and you’ll find your search engine rankings steadily improve over time.
Not just that, but you’ll find you maintain those rankings for the long-term too – you’ll be exactly the type of site Google are aiming to provide for their users, rather than the type of site that has got a high ranking artificially and that each algorithm update aims to bust.
Read more on http://blog.vwriter.com/optimize-content-properly-keywords-rank-well/
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
The threat to Data Security on the "Smartphone's Times"
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
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Thursday, September 5, 2013
Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch to launch next month?
Waiting a new smartphone can safety underwater: Sony Xperia Z1 is the best choice!
What's the great things on Sony Xperia Z1?
Let's starting with the display, Sony Xperia Z1 comes with a 5-inch Full HD TRILUMINOS display boasting a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and X-Reality for mobile. The X-Reality display analyzes each image and optimizes the quality to deliver the highest quality videos to the user.
2. The Qualcomm quad-core Chipset 2.2GHz
Sony Xperia Z1 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 800 quad-core chipset with a clock speed of 2.2GHz. The lastest chipset of Qualcomm can helps the working so well and faster.
3. The storage can expand up to 64 GB
The device offers users with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage with microSD card support of up to 64GB or more if needed. The phone features a slim and attractive design with 144 x 74 x 8.5 mm and weighing only 170 grams. The device also supports 4G LTE, NFC, WiFi, WiFi hotspot and Bluetooth.
So, if you had an iPhone, you know the Apple's device can not expanding their storage. But you can do it with Sony Xperia Z1 simply by a microSD card. ( So I hope on a some day, Apple allow their users upgrading the storage of iDevices)