Author Archive
Links – The More the Better
Improving web positioning is a constant challenge to companies using the Internet to do business. One way to improve your standings with the search engines is to have as many sites link into yours as possible and having a regular blog is a great tool to enable this as it gives people a valuable reason to link back to your site.
The two most utilised means to facilitate linkbacks to your website or blog are trackbacks and pingbacks.
Trackbacks allow you to track sites that refer back to your site. You’ll find them listed at the end of a post next to comments. Trackbacks are very useful for users as they allow interested readers follow the thread of a blog topic through different blog articles. For a great pictorial explanation of trackbacks see Plastic Bag – its an old post but still relevant. The downside to trackbacks is that they tend to attract spam because the links aren’t authenticated.
Pingbacks also allow you to track links to your page but unlike trackbacks, these are not displayed on the blog page so users can’t click through to other posts. Instead, you receive notification within your blog engine that another site has linked in. Pingbacks are more simple to set up than trackbacks (many blog engines automatically track pingbacks) and they attract less spam because the links are verified.
There’s something very narcissistic about trackbacks – they are the ultimate way to blow your blog horn but beware the less trafficked site; trackbacks will only draw attention to your limited audience. Pingbacks on the other hand are more subtle but still achieve the ultimate objective of attracting links back to your site and what are blog search engines for other than tracking blog threads anyway? Seems with all the spam and hassle getting set up, trackbacks may be more nuisance than they’re worth.
Blog Titles Made Simple
The title is the most important aspect of any blog post and its worth taking time to get it right. When writing a blog its always the first thing I do: this gives me time to play with it and enhance it as I am writing the piece and it allows for collaboration with other writers.
Good blog titles are key to strong search engine positioning so think about how you can effectively use the keywords you want associated with your blog in the title. Use the most appropriate keywords and don’t try to use too many. If you do this well your blog’s standings will improve.
According to CopyBlogger only 20% of people who read a blog title will read the rest of the post. One of the best ways to get people to read your blog articles is to use a compelling title. The title is always the first thing people will read when they find your post, if the title isn’t appropriate or is boring, dull or too long people won’t click through to read the full post. So keep it simple, short and to the point – the title should be a burst of information that is pertinent to the subject of the article encapsulated in seven words or less. It should grab people’s interest and make them want to read more but it shouldn’t be too blase or kitsch.
Tag It!
A tag on a blog or article is just like a tag on your shirt: it’s a label that provides brief information about the item in question. A tag on a shirt usually gives the name of the maker or sometimes (in the case of my kid’s) the owner’s details. In other words tags give brief information pertaining to that particular shirt. With a blog or other web posting its the same: a tag is a word or very short phrase that describes concisely what the subject of the piece is all about. Think of them as keywords used to identify the content within.
Extending the shirt analogy, if I lose my shirt and there’s a tag on it with my name on then I’m more likely to find it again. Same goes for tags on the Internet: they are used to make it easier for people to find items such as articles, blog posts, photos, video clips and so on – stuff that interests them.
Blog search engines and bookmarking pages such as Technorati and Del.icio.us use tags extensively to make it easier for users to navigate the blogosphere – users can even give articles their own personal tags so that they can organise information in a manner suited to their needs.
Marshall Kirkpatrick has some more great reasons why you should use tags in his 13 Reasons to Use Tags article.
Tagging a blog article is really easy. Most blog software allows you to create categories that are relevant to each post. These categories are the tags that blog search engines will use to categorise your piece. To use them, simply categorise each blog post before publishing by checking the appropriate word or phrase or adding a new one and checking that.
Here are a few points to remember when you’re coming up with tags:
1. Tags must be concise (1 -2 words max);
2. Tags must be relevant;
3. There is no limit to the number of tags you use;
4. Remember to check your spelling.
The Scoop On Google Reader
Google Reader is a great piece of technology developed by the folks over at Google labs that lets you easily subscribe to information on the web. In tech terms, Google Reader is an RSS or Atom feed aggregator. For those of us without propeller heads, this simply means that it allows available information on the web such as blog articles, e-zine pieces and news bulletins to come to one central place so that you can log in and enjoy at your leisure.
RSS – not so simple after all!
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication but judging from the questions I have received recently, from a user perspective its not really simple at all! Basically, RSS is a means by which information can be published and made available over the Internet to interested parties in one central place. For a user, this means that you can subscribe to information you want from specific blogs, news feeds, e-zines and so on and have this information sent directly to you in real time as updates are made.