Get better Google search results for your blog
How to get your name, book, and blog posts to come up in Google searches.
What comes up when you Google your name and your book? Anything? Try mine- Google Jen Smith SICK. I come up in eight of the top ten listings most of the time and my book and blog have only been out since mid February. How does this happen? I'm going to share with you some of the top trade secrets that have been shared with me by Scott Wasserman of WSI Internet Marketing. http://www.wsiwikipro.com/
First off have the Platinum SEO Pack plugin installed in your wordpress blog. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is free! http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/platinum-seo-pack/ When the SEO plugin is installed it is simple to use. You will be prompted to fill in additional information before publishing a new blog post. There will be a box for you to fill in the title of your article and a description. Make sure your title is brief and accurately descriptive. If your blog post is pulled up in a Google search this exact title and description will be viewed. This gives you control and the ability to write a catchy description that will hopefully cause someone to click on your link. I am a control freak and love this feature! Before my SEO enlightenment I had no idea we could control the wording around a Google search listing.
Another advantage to SEO is better URL structure. Google loves this! I have no structure in my life and kind of flip flops around from project to project day to day but that doesn't mean my URL's can't have some structure! Instead of a long mish mash of letters and symbols, my URLs are now easy to read for people and Google. First is the name of my blog, the date of the post, and the name of the post. Here is a sample. http://jensmithsick.com/2012/03/01/when-is-an-author-really-an-author/
Pretty groovy don't you think? And most importantly, don't forget the tags. Tags are words that you choose to help Google find your page. Use distinct tags for each individual post that are relevant to that particular blog post and I always include my name and the name of my book. Google will sometimes use these tags to pull up your page. Other times Google will choose to use a section of your page's text. The SEO will have a special box for you to include your tags. WordPress also has a box to add tags. Make sure you always fill in both boxes. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of SEO here it is. http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Another easy, free, and great way to increase your chances of being pulled up by Google is a no brainer! Join Google plus! Ok I'll admit I didn't think of this myself despite the fact that it is a no brainer, but my brain has been compromised by a past filled with debauchery and other shady unmentionables, what's your excuse? Anyways, think about it like this, who rules the search world? Google! So why wouldn't Google choose to be partial to pulling up results from its own platforms? They do! Not only do I belong to Google plus, I have a share button for Google plus on my blog and I share every one of my blog posts to the Google platform by clicking the Google plus share button. If you don't have a Google plus share button, check out Shareaholics. It's free! http://www.shareaholic.com/
Shareaholics can give you an additional row of share buttons in your blog post. Put share buttons at the top and at the bottom of your post. The bottom is important for those folks who actually read entire posts before they decide to share them. WordPress does have share button options that can be utilized but Shareaholics will give you additional share buttons. In my opinion the worst thing you can do in today's social networking world is have a great blog post and no share buttons for me to tweet it and share it on Facebook and Google plus. Nothing annoys me more and screams social network newbie!
If you can't figure this stuff out on your own pay someone else to do it, like my friend Scott. Shop around as prices vary greatly for Web support. But hopefully, at least, this article will help you understand what you need to ask for. The next thing you need to know about Google is that they love content. The more (preferably good) content on your blog the better chances of it being pulled up so go blog your brains out!
