SEO: It is the art and science of getting your website listed in search engine results for more search terms and listed higher than all the others. This is a pretty important factor to website success … and business success. So, it would seem tragic if you had done almost all the right things, but then you just forgot some of the basics.
Nobody is perfect. We all forget things. I want to give you a reminder of something that I frequently find overlooked by WordPress blog owners when they set up a new blog, and as the blog grows. The basic principle can apply to any website, really. The little things really do add up, and this is a quick SEO tip that you can use to improve your SEO so fast that you may wonder why you ever neglected it.
WordPress Category Descriptions
Sure, you have set up your categories, and you may add to them now and then. Blogs change over time, and so their focus changes. Categorizing your content is important, and so you probably did not forget that part. What I find that a lot of people do forget is to optimize WordPress category descriptions to match their content.
WordPress categories are a way to make it easier for people to find more information on the same topic. They also help search engines to better index your blog. It only makes good sense to have your category descriptions reflect the content of that category correctly, and keep it up to date.
The category description is where WordPress gets the page description for category pages to include in the meta description. If you do not have a description, or it is an old description that does not reflect changes to your blog and to the state of that category, your blog is missing an important element.
Using “Noindex, Follow” in WordPress Category Pages
You may say, “but I have a noindex, follow meta tag in my categories.” This is good, and I do, too. I use “All in One SEO Pack“, and I recommend it to others. It allows easy management of meta indexing directives.
I do not want search engines to index my categories, but I want them to know exactly what the categories are about and then follow the category page links to my article pages. It makes sense that I should give them a good meta description.
It may seem trivial, but when you consider it, many of the things we do to optimize our websites for search engine ranking really are just little pieces. Those little pieces add up to be one big picture, and until you get them all together, the puzzle is still not complete.
Managing WordPress Category Descriptions
Just to be sure I did not give you a great idea and motivate you to take action, but not follow through with a “how to”, I will tell you a couple of tips on where to go and do this, and also what to include.
First, for anybody unfamiliar with where to edit WordPress categories. Depending on the version of WordPress you are using, you will find it in your blog administration either under “Posts” and then “Categories” or under “Manage” and then “Categories”. From there, you will see all of your categories listed. Simply click on a category name and add or modify the description. I would not suggest changing the “slug”, because it would change the URL and upset your internal link structure and search engines would have to learn it all over again.
Editing Word Press Categories is Simple
Now that you are ready to edit your blog categories, try to create a description that reflects the emphasis of the category, and how it relates to the overall content of the site. As an example, my “Internet Marketing” category description reads as follows:
“Internet marketing has many sub-categories and this information focuses on marketing content creation, SEO, and social media marketing.”.
As you can see here, it reflects the blog category, but it also reflects how it relates to the overall subject of the blog.
I hope you have found this to be useful. It is sometimes easy to forget the little steps, but they all matter.
For more useful WordPress-specific tips and tricks, I recommend my friend, Ruhani Rabin‘s blog. Here is a link directly to his WordPress category where he has a lot of useful articles about tweaking WordPress blogs.
In every industry there is a list to be on. You know, an industry “A” list. TopRank Online Marketing Blog works hard to maintain such a list in the online marketing industry. It is called the BIGLIST, and it is an A-Z list of search engine marketing and search engine optimization blogs. I agree with much of the list, but I found 26 different places where it was lacking. I will share my findings, but first, I will explain some things about my industry. The World Loves Fruit Stripe
Links Rule SEO
Links are something that make or break SEO efforts. Anybody with a website should know this by now. Good SEO are particularly skilled at creating incoming links to websites, and rely on compelling content that people want to link to. Most SEO fail at linkbuilding, but the good ones have something special. Great SEO are some of the best hookers, because they “hook” you into reading what they have to say, and “hook” you into linking to it because you want to share it with others.
Any SEO blogger worth their weight in Fruit Stripe gum will write some sort of “link candy” now and then. You know, that stuff that you just cannot resist linking to or sharing to others because the SEO whipped out a Jedi mind trick or because his sexy eyes just compelled you undo an extra button.
Of course, when these linktacular search engine optimizers are looking for incoming links or to rank tidily for some given search term, it is best for them to be relatively covert about it. Nobody wants to be fooled by some SEO guy’s trickery and clever tactic of doing something that will improve his own lot in life. It is why guys like Chris Brogan announce that each affiliate link is an affiliate link and that he may benefit if you go and buy something. It is perceived as if he was hurting you by making a dollar for helping you to find the offering. So in the order of transparency, I will tell you that I want you to link to my blog like a junkie wants another hit of smack. There should be no shame in respectfully asking for assistance, and a link is not a con job or a threat to global well-being.
Sure, we marketing people are always supposed to operate under the guise of being truly altruistic and never doing anything for our own gain. After all, that is what people respond to the best. If some Murnahan fella in Topeka, Kansas tries to get a leg up and hop on a list of popular search engine optimizers who are known for killing grizzly bears with a rubber band and a toothpick, he had better be kind of hush hush about it.
Oh, for crying out loud! Did you really think I would do something that resembles conformity? Heck no, I want on that damn list, and I will fart sunshine if it will convince you to share my blog with everybody you know and ever hope to know (and their unborn children, too). Sure, I want links … I want a squillion links, but I want them for the right reasons and I am not taking food off your table to get them. I am not conning anybody for a link to my work. I am sharing information and providing value to my readers. I may even cause you to chuckle now and then, and on a good day I can make you shoot a good load of steamy coffee from your nose. Other days I may piss you off, but if I don’t get a death threat now and then, I just didn’t reach enough people. I have learned that you cannot make butter if you don’t stir the milk and polarize your audience now and then.
I like earning a living, and I am not afraid to say it. I work very hard making money for my clients as a search engine optimizer and social media marketing guy, and I have three kids to feed. The killer instinct is alive and well in Mr. Mark Aaron Murnahan, and the great news is that I am one of those toothpick-wielding grizzly bear hunting SEOs who truly does care about doing things well. I have been in my industry since the mid-1990’s and I have been behind the curtain as many clients’ great Wizard (I live in Kansas, so Wizard of Oz references are dear to me).
OK, so on with my disappointment from TopRank BIGLIST of SEM and SEO Blogs. I want to share 26 things I think TopRank has missed, and ideas to make it better. Oh, and by the way, you may also get some benefit from these useful links to blogs by other search engine optimizers. You see, there I go being useful again … I cannot help it, even when I am pushing another piece of link candy and serving my own agenda.
Listings Missing from TopRank’s BIGLIST of SEM and SEO Blogs
I found a full 26 places (one for each letter of the alphabet) that TopRank missed the mark on that BIGLIST of theirs, and I am going to share them with you. Since it is an alphabetical list of top SEOs, I will go through the 26 missed opportunities to improve their list in alphabetical order. I will include the listings immediately before and after the “oversight”, so it will be easier to reference when you look at the TopRank BIGLIST on their site.
Aussie Internet Marketing Blog – Sean Rasmussen writes “down under” about practical tips on a variety of online marketing topics including SEO, blogging, social media and general web 2.0.
Insert “aWebGuy.com SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog by Murnahan” Here
B2B Online Marketing Blog – The folks at Business.com have put together a fine resource for B2B businesses and marketers with a problem/solution format that includes case studies, conference coverage and insights on search, social media and a few Business.com product posts from time to time.
Beanstalk SEO Blog – Dave Davies blogs about news in the search engine and online marketing industry.
Insert “Bear-Killing SEO Blog by Murnahan” Here
Being Peter Kim – Previously with Forrester Research, Peter Kim now works with an Austin based strategic consulting practice that is developing an enterprise class Social Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) suite. He continues to blog about social computing, social media marketing and insights of high value to internet marketers and business leaders.
Charlene Li’s Blog – Previously a Forrester Analyst, this blog that also covers social computing and digital marketing topics.
Insert “Clever Linkbaiting That Nobody Will Notice by Murnahan” Here
ClickEquations Blog – Craig Danuloff writes this insightful paid search product blog from Commerce 360 on PPC, analytics, and internet marketing in general.
Daily SEO Tip – Search Marketing blog guru Loren Baker and SEO smartie, Ann Smarty have partnered to deliver practical, usefuland often creative SEO tips that are good for new pracitioners as well as experienced online marketers.
Insert “Damn Linkable Stuff by Murnahan” Here
Dan Zarrella – Dan is a self described, “Social Media and Viral Marketing Scientst”, and a web developer who blogs about the social media, viral marketing and SEO focused research he does and tools he’s created like the Link Attraction Factors tools and the recent Tweetbacks blog plugin.
Epiphany Digital Marketing Blog – This UK agency offers a mix of internet marketing posts from agency staffers on search, social and industry topics. Many of the posts go into detail about insights, testing and general observations from solving digital marketing problems.
Insert “Eternally Grateful Linkbaiter by Murnahan” Here
Everett Sizemore – Aka @balibones is the SEO at Gaiam and recently launched this blog dedicated to SEO. Gotta love the tag line because it’s keyword rich AND creative: “SEO Consultant – Organic Farmer of Keywords and Tomatoes”.
Flyte Blog – Rich Brooks writes about web marketing for small business.
Insert “Forever Linkbaiting by Murnahan” Here
Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing – Excellent group blog from Forrester on various aspects of interactive marketing from B2B social media to search marketing to research and industry news.
Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog – The team at Vancouver BC based Elastic Path, an ecommerce platform, blog all angles of conducting tansactional business online ranging from general marketing to usability to social media. There’s are also a series of podcasts from last summer worth checking out.
Insert “Getting a Toothache from Sweet Link Candy by Murnahan” Here
Holistic Search Blog – UK based Peter Young blogs mostly about internet marketing topics with an emphasis on tips, commentary and insights related to SEO, PPC and online marketing.
Insert “Honest Marketing Ideas by Murnahan” Here
Hubspot Marketing Blog – The team at HubSpot writes about internet marketing and online lead generation for small business.
I – Com Blog – Searched, designed and developed. That about sums up this Manchester based internet marketing agency blog that covers design, development, copywriting and search marketing.
Insert “I Think This May Pass as Linkbait by Murnahan” Here
Ignite Social Media – Ignite is a social media consultancy with the company web site running as a blog. Topics logically emphasize social media with some optimization flavorings. More information on the post authors and a fix to the 404 on the job openings page would be nice.
Junta42 Blog – Joe Pulizzi takes his own advice and provides great tips and advice on marketing and retaining customers with content which is really spot on if you subscribe to the “give to get” principles of social media marketing.
Insert “Just a Bit More Link Baiting by Murnahan” Here
Justin Freid – As Traffic and Lead Delivery Optimization Manager at Petersons.com, Justin Freid posts his personal insights and tips on SEO, PPC and Social Media on this very new and very well designed blog.
Keyword Driven – This is Acronym Media’s agency blog (55th floor of the Empire State Building) which has a variety of posts on SEO topics, tools and observations from a mix of staff. Although, with just 2 posts in December and only 1 in January, blogging isn’t a high priority at the moment.
Insert “Kids … Did I Mention I Have Kids? by Murnahan” Here
KoMarketing Associates SEM Blog – A group/company blog covering SEO, PPC, events, industry news/trends, tips and a lot of personal insight. These folks are clearly involved in, and have an opinion on, what goes on in the industry.
Local SEO Guide – With Andrew Shotland it’s all about local internet marketing and he blogs it well.
Insert “Look! Another SEO Blog by Murnahan” Here
LyndiT blog gets our attention for great design and user experience in this BIGLIST update. Lyndi Thompson is a Social Media and Online Marketing Specialist and like me, is addicted to peanut M&Ms. Besides writing about a mix of social media, SEO, web design and online marketing topics, you might be interested to know Lyndi lives on a mini farm, owns several animals including a donkey and supports some great causes in the Northwest.
Mannix Marketing Blog – This agency blog focuses mostly on SEO, web design & Internet marketing as well as agency news and involvement with industry events.
Insert “Mark is Just Short for Marketing by Murnahan” Here
Marketer Insight – This is an agency blog from the team at WebSiteBiz covering “current thinking and strategies related to improving online marketing” with search, social media and analytics focused posts from Eric Dudley, Kyle Bumgardner and Tom Dressler.
Insert “No Good Reason to Overlook aWebGuy.com by Murnahan” Here
North South Media Blog – This Scotland based agency blog offers tips, news, interviews and an interesting “Top SEO Companies” feature each month that ranks regional, national and international SEO agencies by keyword rankings.
Online Marketing Blog – Lee Odden and TopRank team members blog about search marketing, social media as well as interviews, reader polls, SEO blog reviews, marketing tips, guest posts from industry leaders and SEM conference coverage.
Insert “Only One BIGLIST Listing is OK by Murnahan” Here
Optimized! – Mary Bowling is an experienced online marketer who writes for a Local Search Marketing column for ClickZ. She’s also blogged her observations and insights about a range of SEO topics and of course, local SEM since December 2007.
Practical Blogging – Adsense, affiliate advertising & general blogging help from Robyn Tippins.
Insert “Pretty Hard to Miss This SEO by Murnahan” Here
Proactive Report – Sally Falkow blogs about online PR and social media
Insert “Quite Interesting Blog by Murnahan” Here – The only “Q” blog on BIGLIST.
Read/WriteWeb – Next generation web technology from Richard MacManus.
Insert “Really Similar to Read/WriteWeb if You Squint Hard Enough by Murnahan” Here
Receptional – Added on November 2007, we’re happy to see this UK based blog re-added to BIGLIST. Dixon Jones and the team at UK internet marketing agency Receptional blog the gamut of web marketing topics including affiliate and search marketing, usability, analytics and social media.
SEO and Tech Daily – The Daily Scoop on SEO, SEM, PPC Trends, Analytics, Web 2.0 start-ups and more!
Insert “SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog by Murnahan” Here
Seoaware Blog – Freelance writer and web designer Melissa Fach blogs about her thoughts on search marketing and points to many articles of interest.
The Leading Edge– PR and social media guru Sally Falkow has her own blog on this list already, but also shares her insights on trends in PR technology for popular PR industry publication Bulldog Reporter. Sally’s advice includes online PR, social media and search marketing.
Insert “The Least Obvious Linkbait Ever by Murnahan” Here
The Search Insider – Not to be confused with MediaPost’s “Search Insider”, this blog from Wpromote’s Mike Mothner provides insight into pay per click and the business of search marketing.
Trail of the Fire Horse – Another excellent Canada based search and social media marketing blog comes this time from the very smart/savvy Dave Harry aka “the Gypsy”.
Vertical Measures Blog – This Phoenix, AZ agency blog focuses on SEO, link building, agency events and industry observations, Posts are written mostly by Social Media Architect, Kaila Strong.
Insert “Very Underestimated SEO by Murnahan” Here
VIZION Blog – Search Engine Watch columnist Mark Jackson and his team at VIZION blog about a wide range of SEO topics, worth subscribing to for sure.
WebConnoisseur – Dustin Woodard’s thoughts on search, web analytics and the web in general.
Insert “Web Guys Don’t Linkbait by Murnahan” Here
Web Ink Now – David Meerman Scott helps innovative marketers use digital information effectively.
Insert “X Should Be SEO’d Too by Murnahan” Here
Yoast Tweaking Web sites – This blog from Joost de Valk covers web design and SEO from the Netherlands.
Insert “Yoast Who? I’ll Show You Yoast by Murnahan” Here
This concludes my list of 26 Ways to Improve TopRank’s BIGLIST of SEO. Now, I know I am not supposed to do this, because people don’t like to see other people get ahead. However, if you want to share this with others who may find it to be interesting, I will tip my big white SEO hat to you.
When I think of all the things I do to improve client’s search engine ranking, it is enough to make a non-SEO and non-geek’s head spin. It all gets so complicated and geeky that there should be no wonder why many SEO will not shake your hand unless there is money in it.
Today I want to offer you a fast, free, and easy to understand list of actions you can take right now to improve your search engine ranking in under one hour. I don’t mean an hour per day, an hour per week, or an hour per month … one hour, and that’s it. Then you can go back to doing things you enjoy. I even broke these steps down for you in maximum increments of ten to twenty minutes, but none of them should take you that long to complete. That is, unless you don’t want to take my word for it and you need to do a whole bunch of extra research to see if I just made this all up to trick you.
This is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of SEO tricks and tips to put the SEO industry out of business (I still want to earn a living, after all). This is just sixty minutes we are talking about here. Sixty minutes that will count! So, here it is … a list of six ways to improve your search engine ranking in under one hour. Better yet, it will only take you a few minutes to read this.
Add a link to your website on LinkedIn. LinkedIn can provide valuable link relevance for your website that search engines will recognize. If you do not have a LinkedIn profile, set one up right now. It will take less than ten minutes, and it will be worth it. It is simple, and even if a squillion people do not see it, search engines will, and they will follow the link to your website, thus improving your authority with search engines. This goes for many other social networking sites as well, but the clock is ticking and we only have an hour to get through this list.
If you already have a LinkedIn profile and you have your link on your profile, that is great. You are not off the hook, though. Update your LinkedIn status with a link to a compelling page of your website that others maybe have not already seen, and that search engines may not have not already seen. You can automate this process with a service such as Ping.fm or others, which offer updating of multiple services. Update each of your social networks with the latest content from your website, unless you are ashamed of it and you want to keep it a secret.
Improve Search Engine Ranking, Minutes 11-20: Google Profile Links
Add a link to your website from your Google Profile. If you do not already have one, it is very simple to set up, and the value of the links on a Google Profile are fantastic. They may not look very fancy, but Google Profiles are a good place to be sure your links are present. You may add multiple links, and I suggest adding some of your top priority links that you want people or search engines to notice.
In case you are not familiar, here is my Google Profile and you can create your Google Profile here. If you do not already have a Google account, the setup is simple, and it offers many other tools, but we are keeping this under one hour.
Improve Search Engine Ranking, Minutes 21-30: Link to Social Media Profiles
Create links to your social media profiles from your website. This not only allows others to communicate with you more closely, it will add link relevance to your social media profiles, which already link back to you. You may think that social media profiles all come pre-built with link authority, but it is not entirely true. Some seem to be valuable almost from the beginning, but others can use a little help. Linking to them will boost their link relevance (which you should want anyway), and when they link back to you the wonderful circle is complete. Don’t worry, it does not need to be as elaborate as my list of social networks, but your website should link to some of your most used social networks.
Your social media profiles already receive link relevance from outside sources, and you probably already made certain that your profiles are relevant to your business. Whether your business appears in searches by way of a social network or to your site directly, you still win. You win even bigger if they are cross-linked, sharing and boosting authority for the same topics. This is making sense now, right?
Improve Search Engine Ranking, Minutes 31-50: XML Sitemaps
Create or update your XML sitemap. Since I want to keep non-geeks from going googley-eyed and falling asleep, I want to explain that this is easier than it sounds, and is important to help search engines index the contents of your website. XML sitemaps are not the kind of sitemap that people use to find their way on your site. They are a kind of sitemap which is used only by search engines.
If you have a WordPress blog (as many millions of people do), simply add the massively popular Google XML Sitemaps plugin to your blog. It is a free plugin, but it is definitely worth a donation to Arne Brachhold for his efforts and your time saved. Roughly 3.8 million people have downloaded this plugin, so don’t be silly and say that it is way too hard to use.
If you do not have an XML sitemap because your antiquated website does not generate sitemaps automatically for you, then use an online sitemap generator to crawl your site and create one for you. Once it is created, simply upload it to your website and then add it to your Google Webmaster Tools. Yes, you already have this, because you have a Google account. You were paying attention to minutes 11-20 above, right? Great, then you already have a Google account, and you can follow the simple directions from Google about creating and submitting XML sitemaps.
I gave you 20 minutes for this one, just in case you need it. The clock it ticking, and you can do this!
This assumes that you have an existing RSS feed, but even if you do not, you can create RSS feeds and still get a lot done within this hour. Create a Feedburner Feed, and do not skip this part, because it is a big one. It will only take a tiny little bit of your time, but it is extremely valuable. You can create a Feedburner feed here. Just look for “Burn a feed right this instant” and enter the link to your feed (usually something like http://awebguy.com/feed).
The links from a Feedburner feed are quite valuable, and since it is suggested that you link to your RSS feed from every page anyway, it only makes sense that you should link to a feed with all the SEO usefulness of Feedburner. Plus, if you have great information to share, odds are good that you will also benefit by having people subscribe to your feed, which is the more obvious reason for Feedburner. See my Feedburner feed for aWebGuy.com to see what the feed looks like. It allows users to subscribe by email or RSS, and there are many Feedburner options that you may tweak later. In fact, the email subscription forms on my blog are Feedburner subscription forms. We are going to keep this under an hour, so for now let’s just be excited that you will have those awesome links pointing back to your website from Feedburner.
Improve Search Engine Ranking, Minutes 56-60: Blog Comments
You now have just four minutes left, so let’s make these count in a big way! I want to preface this by saying that you should never, under any circumstances spam a blog comment form. It is a huge point of contention among bloggers and it is very rude to the blog owner. At the same time, it is not only very acceptable, but also very appreciated by bloggers (me included) when readers leave their productive or considerate comments. It does not have to be a perfectly crafted work of art, but it should be relevant to the article.
You may be shocked to know the value of your comments on a reputable and popular blog. When you add your URL (web address) where it is asked for in a blog comment form, it creates a link. Somehow between absurd rumors that “nofollow” links do not provide great value in search engines and people’s hurry-up, scan-and-click way of Internet life, the tremendous link value of a blog comment is often overlooked.
Although I would discourage focusing on blog commenting as a cornerstone tactic in your SEO efforts, adding your comment to a blog post can greatly increase your website link authority over time. Doubt me if you like, but you read this far, and there is surely a good reason you found this article. This blog has significant link authority (see SEOmoz mozRank), and if you comment with courtesy to my blog and my readers, your link will be right here for search engines and people alike to follow.
If you finished the list early, the next big step would be to create some website content that is worth sharing with others on social media and social bookmarking sites. When people share a link to your website because you provided something useful to them or that they think will be useful to others, it is extremely valuable to your search engine ranking. (Hint: Something like this article. ;-))
Insert “aWebGuy.com SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog by Murnahan” Here