Wheres Your Web At? http://www.wheresyourwebat.com Effective Web Design and Internet Marketing Strategists 07853 138868 Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:52:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Increase Conversions by Fixing HTTPS Errors http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/08/14/increase-conversions-by-fixing-https-errors/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/08/14/increase-conversions-by-fixing-https-errors/#comments Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:51:48 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=266 Imagine an elderly grandmother – we’ll call her Grandma Moz. She’s about to make her very first online purchase.  She’s used a computer before, but feels some anxiety giving out her personal information over the internet. Then, just when she’s about ready to enter her credit card number, the following message pops up:

What does Grandma Moz do?  If she is like 30% of most internet users, she runs and hides her credit card back into her wallet never to be seen again.  And the unsuspecting website loses the sale.

The 30% is not a statistic based on a large data set, but rather the experience of an actual client website I work with that recently installed HTTPS on its checkout pages. Instead of seeing an increase in conversions, as would be expected, sales actually dropped after installing HTTPS.  A brief investigation showed the culprit to be error messages coming from a single browser – Internet Explorer 8.  FIxing the problem became an adventure.

What is an HTTPS Error?

HTTPS is a secure way for browsers to communicate directly with servers using encryption.  Without going into the technical details (which I am not an expert on) HTTPS  causes your browser’s address bar to turn green or blue on sites like PayPal and SEOmoz’s checkout pages.  In Microsoft’s IE8, the overly scary security warning pops up if it detects any HTTPS errors – meaning that some part of the page has been called from a non-secure source.

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/08/14/increase-conversions-by-fixing-https-errors/feed/ 0 The Fonts of Web 2.0 http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/08/02/the-fonts-of-web-2-0/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/08/02/the-fonts-of-web-2-0/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:17:45 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=262


There is no official standard for what makes something “Web 2.0”, but there certainly are a few tell-tale signs. These new sites usually feature modern web technologies like Ajax and often have something to do with building online communities. But even more characteristic among these brands is their appearance. Web 2.0 sites nearly always feel open and friendly and often use small chunks of large type. The colors are bright and cheery — lots of blue, orange, and what we jokingly call the Official Color of Web 2.0: lime green.

You can see some of these striking commonalities in Ludwig Gatzke’s compilation of nearly 400 Web 2.0 logos. Read on for a breakdown of the fonts used in a few of our favorite brands.

http://fontfeed.com/archives/the-logos-of-web-20/

Manchester Web Design

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/08/02/the-fonts-of-web-2-0/feed/ 0 Zonda R smashes Nordschleife Record http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/zonda-r-smashes-nordschleife-record/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/zonda-r-smashes-nordschleife-record/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:41:11 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=255

The visuals to go with the “record.” Pagani blasted its Zonda R over the Nürburgring for the purposes of testing production components. Removing all the mystery from the endeavor, the in-car video shows the view out the window as the driver of the R resets yet another bar at 6:47. We put “record” in quotes simply because this flier isn’t road legal, so we’re in all kinds of gray area. But it beat the Ferrari 599XX, and that’s feat unto itself. Follow the jump for the sights and sounds.

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/zonda-r-smashes-nordschleife-record/feed/ 1 Twitter’s oldest user, Ivy Bean, dies http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/twitters-oldest-user-ivy-bean-dies/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/twitters-oldest-user-ivy-bean-dies/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:26:43 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=251

A Twitter member who was thought to be the oldest member of the micro-blogging site has died aged 104.

Ivy Bean from Bradford, who became the oldest person to join both Facebook and Twitte,r has died at the age of 104.

An announcement was made on her official Twitter page, @IvyBean104. “Ivy passed away peacefully at 12.08 this morning. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you but it was a very difficult thing to do.”

The great-grandmother had been unwell for a number of weeks and tweets appearing to be from Pat, the manager of Ivy’s care home, said: “Hi everybody its Pat. OUR IVY IS HOME she is still unwell but happy to be back she sends her love but she is tired so you still have me,” last Wednesday.

On Friday she posted: “Hello this is Pat again, sorry to tell you all this but Ivy is very poorly at the minute, we are all hoping she gets well soon.”
Web design Macclesfield
Peter Andre is believed to have phoned the centenarian before her death and messages of love and support had been sent to her in her final days.

In March Ivy Bean visited Downing Street to meet with the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and also met Peter Andre as part of his TV show Peter Andre: The Next Chapter, describing the singer on Twitter as “good looking” and saying that Gordon Brown “wasn’t as good looking as Peter”.

She also wished Peter Andre’s daughter Princess a happy birthday through her Twitter account.

Her name is currently the third most popular trending topic on the site in the UK.

Twitter legend Stephen Fry tweeted earlier on Wednesday: “I hear the divine @IvyBean104 – the oldest twitterer – is not very well and needs our best wishes.”

Ivy Bean was the oldest person to join Facebook when she was 102.

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/twitters-oldest-user-ivy-bean-dies/feed/ 0 Beautiful Inspiring Pinhole Camera Photographs http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/beautiful-inspiring-pinhole-camera-photographs/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/beautiful-inspiring-pinhole-camera-photographs/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:09:22 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=246

The Camera is a remarkable piece of innovation. However, it is people — professionals and newbies alike — who make it truly remarkable. It’s the photographer behind the camera. It’s his imagination, passion and talent and knowledge of the medium. You don’t need a high-end costly equipment to get beautiful results. Just your talent and a way of looking at things differently is together more than enough for a great shot. It’s also the ability to envision the final result in your mind which is also important.

A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a single small aperture — effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. You can easily construct this camera by yourself using things lying around like match boxes or any kind of boxes, paper, duct tape etc. The small amount of light passing through this pin sized hole produces image on a photographic film or a CCD sensor.

If you don’t want to get your hands dirty on creating a pin hole camera by yourself, you can use your DSLR with some modifications (replacing camera lenses with a pinhole). Also, pinhole cameras are available in the market: and they are quite popular, too — after all, you don’t have to worry about the focus and distortions as there are no lenses involved. Also, you might end up with lovely motion blurred photographs.

In today’s weekend post we present beautiful and inspiring photographs created using a pinhole camera. Please notice how photographers use the camera creatively to produce quite remarkable images. At the bottom of this post you will find links to some photographers and references to related resources that will help you get you started. Also, we listed related Flickr pools which contain thousands of further examples of what can be achieved with this technique. Get inspired, folks!

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has one of the most influential and popular Twitter accounts? Join our discussions and get updates about useful tools and resources

Read more at>

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/25/the-showcase-of-beautiful-pinhole-photography/

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/28/beautiful-inspiring-pinhole-camera-photographs/feed/ 0 Mini back in the WRC http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/27/mini-back-in-the-wrc/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/27/mini-back-in-the-wrc/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:37:51 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=241

Were it not for the efforts of John Cooper and drivers like Paddy Hopkirk on the European rally stages of the 1960s, the Mini brand probably wouldn’t have the beloved reputation that it does today – in fact, it’s possible it would never be around today at all. BMW has confirmed a longstanding rumor with today’s announcement that Mini is heading back to international rallying with the Countryman WRC beginning in 2011.

The Countryman WRC is being developed by long-time Subaru partner Prodrive for the new Super2000 regulations and will run in select World Rally Championship rounds in 2011 before taking on the full 2012 season and beyond. The rally special will have a turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four with all-wheel-drive. Prodrive started work on the project early last year and testing will start this Fall.

MINI set to join World Rally Championship from 2011.

* 27.07.2010
* Press Release

Munich. MINI is making a comeback on the international rally circuit. From 2011, the brand will compete at selected rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and will go on to contest the entire season from 2012 onwards. This involvement is planned for several years.

The car charged with this task is the MINI Countryman WRC, which is being developed by Prodrive, in close cooperation with MINI, and is based on the production model. The powerful heart of the racing car is a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo-charged engine from BMW Motorsport. The car complies with the new Super2000 regulations put in place by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which stipulate the use of turbo engines with 1,600 cc displacement and four-wheel drive combined with an increased emphasis on road relevant technologies. The result is a significant 25 per cent reduction in overall costs. The first test drive for the MINI Countryman WRC, which will also be available to customer teams, is planned for autumn 2010.

This decision sees MINI continue its success story in the world of rallying. In the 1960s, the MINI Cooper S caused a sensation with victories at the legendary Monte Carlo Rally. The company also tasted success on many occasions in the European Rally Championship. Having already demonstrated the sporty character of its models in many countries in the MINI CHALLENGE, the brand is now taking its presence in motorsport to a new level with the commitment to the WRC.

Ian Robertson, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Sales and Marketing, says: “I am delighted MINI will be represented on one of the most popular stages in international motorsport. The success enjoyed on the rally circuit has made a vital contribution to the image of the brand. MINI customers have always shown great interest in motorsport. I am convinced we will add a few more chapters to our success story in rallying. The MINI Countryman provides an excellent basis, from which to create a competitive racing car for the world championship. In Prodrive, we have a strong and experienced partner. We will work hard together over the coming months to ensure we get the project on track right from the word go.”

“This is a very exciting new motorsport programme,” said Prodrive Chairman, David Richards. “During the 1960s MINI captured the imagination of the world when the tiny car took on the might of V8 powered Fords and won what was then one of the toughest motorsport events, the 4000km Monte Carlo rally. I believe our new MINI will become a firm favourite of the latest generation of rally fans, just as it is adored by its millions of owners across the world. We already have a significant number of confirmed customer orders for the new MINI rally car with the first deliveries scheduled for the start of the 2011 season.”

Prodrive has been working on developing the MINI Countryman WRC since early 2009. The company was formed in 1984 by Richards, who won the World Rally Championship as co-driver to Ari Vatanen (FI) three years earlier. Based in Banbury (GB), Prodrive has developed into a leading independent company in the motorsport and automobile sector under Richards’ guidance, and today employs over 500 staff. Prodrive’s many successes currently include six overall victories in the World Rally Championship, five titles in the British Touring Car Championship and three class victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours (FR).

BMW was present when the World Rally Championship made its debut back in 1973. Achim Warmbold (DE) and Jean Todt (FR) tasted victory in their BMW 2002 at the Alpenfahrt Rally in Austria. However, MINI’s tradition in this discipline stretches back even further: Pat Moss (GB) clinched the first victory with the MINI 850 at the 1959 Mini Miglia National Rally. MINI ultimately enjoyed its finest hours at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967: the MINI Cooper S celebrated three overall victories at the most iconic rallying event in the world. Paddy Hopkirk (IR, 1964), Timo Mäkinen (FI, 1965) and Rauno Aaltonen (FI, 1967) joined the list of winners at this prestigious event. In 1965, “Rally Professor” Aaltonen also won the European Rally Championship. Tony Ambrose (GB) and Mäkinen finished second and third to round off an excellent overall result for the MINI Cooper S. In addition, MINI drivers also enjoyed many individual wins at renowned rallies throughout Europe. The last BMW World Rally Championship victory was achieved in 1987 in Corsica by Bernard Béguin (FR) driving a BMW M3 which was built and run by Prodrive.

From 2011, over 40 years down the line, the MINI Countryman WRC will be charged with adding further chapters to this success story. It bridges the gap between the classic MINI concept and a contemporary Sports Activity Vehicle. The brand’s first model to feature four doors and a wide-opening tailgate, it offers more space – which can be used in a wide variety of ways – to go with its raised seating position and optimised ride comfort. Plus, the “go-kart” feeling for which MINI is a byword has been preserved and takes on a new dimension with the optional MINI ALL4 all-wheel-drive system. The MINI Countryman expresses the defining virtues of the brand in terms of design, premium quality, handling, efficiency and the scope for customisation – and does so in an absorbingly individual way.

The next step down from the racing version is the MINI Cooper S Countryman. With its twin-scroll turbocharger and direct injection now complemented by fully variable valve management, the 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine in the range-topping model offers by far the best balance between output and fuel consumption in its displacement class. The engine generates an impressive 135 kW/184 bhp and allows the MINI Cooper S Countryman to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.6 seconds. Furthermore, the MINIMALISM concept sees wide-ranging technology designed to reduce fuel consumption and emissions – such as Brake Energy Regeneration, the Auto Start/Stop function, Shift Point Display and the need-based operation of ancillary components – fitted as standard and in model-specific combinations.

The MINI Cooper S Countryman and MINI Cooper D Countryman can be ordered as an option with MINI ALL4 permanent all-wheel drive. Here, an electromagnetic centre differential positioned directly on the final drive varies the distribution of power seamlessly between the front and rear axles. In normal driving conditions up to 50 per cent of the drive is sent to the rear wheels, in extreme situations as much as 100 per cent. The result is a new, traction-led expression of the agile handling for which MINI is famed.

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/27/mini-back-in-the-wrc/feed/ 0 Stockport Football Fixtures 2010/2011 http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/26/stockport-football-fixtures-20102011/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/26/stockport-football-fixtures-20102011/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:11:16 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=234 Stockport countys first game of the 2010/2011 football season is away to Southend


Cost effective web design and Google optimisation in Stockport – Wheres Your Web At?

Sat 7 15:00 A Southend FL2
Tue 10 19:45 H Preston LGCP
Sat 14 15:00 H Wycombe FL2
Sat 21 15:00 A Stevenage FL2
Sat 28 15:00 H Shrewsbury FL2
September
Sat 4 15:00 A Macclesfield FL2
Sat 11 15:00 H Bradford City FL2
Sat 18 15:00 A Oxford United FL2
Sat 25 15:00 H Aldershot Town FL2
Tue 28 19:45 H Accrington FL2
October
Sat 2 15:00 A Burton FL2
Sat 9 15:00 A Gillingham FL2
Sat 16 15:00 H Barnet FL2
Sat 23 15:00 A Lincoln City FL2
Sat 30 15:00 H Hereford FL2
November
Tue 2 19:45 A Morecambe FL2
Sat 13 15:00 A Bury FL2
Sat 20 15:00 H Torquay United FL2
Tue 23 19:45 H Port Vale FL2
December
Sat 4 15:00 A Northampton FL2
Sat 11 15:00 H Crewe FL2
Sat 18 15:00 A Cheltenham FL2
Sun 26 15:00 H Rotherham FL2
Tue 28 15:00 A Barnet FL2
January
Sat 1 15:00 A Chesterfield FL2
Mon 3 15:00 H Morecambe FL2
Sat 8 15:00 H Gillingham FL2
Sat 15 15:00 A Hereford FL2
Sat 22 15:00 H Lincoln City FL2
Sat 29 15:00 A Rotherham FL2
February
Tue 1 19:45 H Chesterfield FL2
Sat 5 15:00 A Torquay United FL2
Sat 12 15:00 H Bury FL2
Sat 19 15:00 H Macclesfield FL2
Sat 26 15:00 A Bradford City FL2
March
Sat 5 15:00 H Oxford United FL2
Tue 8 19:45 A Accrington FL2
Sat 12 15:00 H Burton FL2
Sat 19 15:00 A Aldershot Town FL2
Sat 26 15:00 H Southend FL2
April
Sat 2 15:00 A Wycombe FL2
Sat 9 15:00 H Stevenage FL2
Sat 16 15:00 A Shrewsbury FL2
Sat 23 15:00 A Port Vale FL2
Mon 25 15:00 H Northampton FL2
Sat 30 15:00 A Crewe FL2
May
Sat 7 15:00 H Cheltenham FL2
]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/26/stockport-football-fixtures-20102011/feed/ 0 Icons Icons Icons http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/26/icons-icons-icons/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/26/icons-icons-icons/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:53:41 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=223

Loads of great icon sites on the net, this is one of my favs,

http://www.iconspedia.com/

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/26/icons-icons-icons/feed/ 0 Yet Another Related Post – WordPress Plug-in http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/03/yet-another-related-post-wordpress-plug-in/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/03/yet-another-related-post-wordpress-plug-in/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:29:18 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=213 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site. Key features include:

  1. An advanced and versatile algorithm: Using a customizable algorithm considering post titles, content, tags, and categories, YARPP calculates a “match score” for each pair of posts on your blog. You choose the threshold limit for relevance and you get more related posts if there are more related posts and less if there are less.
  2. Templating: New in 3.0! The YARPP templating system puts you in charge of how your posts are displayed.
  3. Caching: Improved in 3.1! YARPP organically caches the related posts data as your site is visited, greatly improving performance.
  4. Related posts in RSS feeds: Display related posts in your RSS and Atom feeds with custom display options.
  5. Disallowing certain tags or categories: You can choose certain tags or categories as disallowed, meaning any page or post with such tags or categories will not be served up by the plugin.
  6. Related posts and pages: Puts you in control of pulling up related posts, pages, or both.

http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/

]]> http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/03/yet-another-related-post-wordpress-plug-in/feed/ 0 25 Organic Search Engine Optimisation Tips http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/03/25-organic-search-engine-optimisation-tips/ http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/2010/07/03/25-organic-search-engine-optimisation-tips/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:08:30 +0000 Mark C http://www.wheresyourwebat.com/?p=209
  • Think about what you’re offering – With search engine optimization you must always keep in mind what a visitor gets/can get from your website. Whether it’s reading free blog content or the opportunity to buy a product, make sure there is a reason why people should come and visit your website, and always remember it. This will help you focus your SEO content on the keywords that matter.
  • Think about what people are looking for – A bit of an extension from the last tip, it’s very important that during keyword research, you should know what people are looking for. What you’re offering and what potential ad-clickers/subscribers/customers are looking for is rarely the exact same. However, you can make it that some of your main keywords are what people are actually searching for. This works great with longtail keywords, even after Google’s May Day update. For example, if your a car dealer, because people looking for a car might search “affordable safe cars”, make that one of your keywords, even if some of your cars are expensive.
  • Internal linking is key – How can you rank high in search engines without too many external links? Although most webmasters, even those involved in internet marketing and SEO don’t know it, internal links are just as important as incoming links from external websites. Learn more about internal linking.
  • Use anchor text - Any kind of link can be made more beneficial to your website by using anchor text. Anchor text is your actual link text. What does anchor text tell search engines? What keywords you want to rank high for. “Click Here” isn’t exactly a great link anchor text. Learn more about using anchor text effectively: How To Target Keywords Using Links.
  • Your page titles aren’t supposed to be focused on users. – They are supposed to be focused on delivering your important keywords to search engines while still making sense to ordinary visitors. For example, a great page title would be “25 Search Engine Optimization Tips” and not “25 Tips That Will Skyrocket Your Search Engine Rankings”. Although the second title has more words, the first one puts a lot more focus on the biggest keyword: “Search Engine Optimization Tips”. So titles are for search engines. Where do you focus on pulling on readers? Your post titles. (If this wan’t obvious, your post titles don’t have to be and shouldn’t be the same as your page titles.)
  • Your post titles should contain keywords, too. – Although, as said before, the page title is the place to focus on SEO, your post titles shouldn’t be left alone completely. Make sure your post titles have your most important post keywords, while still attracting visitors.
  • Don’t use dirty URLs – URLs are another opportunity to tell search engines what your page is about, and if you have a dirty permalink structure, URLs are just a missed opportunity.  But know that they don’t have to be. With a little help from WordPress, you can get yourself some awesome URLs, which will be explained more in the next tip.
  • Use keyword-rich URLs – Building upon Tip #7, it is essential to go beyond using clean URLs. For example, http://yourblog.com/post-123/ may be a clean URL, but it isn’t a keyword-rich one. http://yourblog.com/post-name-123/ is a good URL and just http://yourblog.com/post-name/ is even better. To be concise, within your URLs, you should use your main page keywords while still making the URL short and memorable.
  • Use root URLs for important pages – A root URL is the URL of a page that is located at the root folder of a website. For example, http://yourblog.com/about.php is a root URL and http://yourblog.com/about/index.php isn’t. Important pages should have root URLs because a root URL signals to search engines that a page is important and should get some extra power. However, overdoing this causes a loss in its effectiveness.
  • (Effectively) Use a navigation bar. – Your navigation bar is a great way to tell search engines what pages of your site are the most important. Because the navigation bar is ranked high by the VIPS search engine ranking technique, which ranks how important certain parts of a page are, links from the navigation bar have a very high priority and transfer a lot of link juice. So in order to effectively use your navigation bar, simply link to pages that you feel are important. Again, overdoing it reduces the power of this technique.
  • Don’t be afraid to fill your footer up with content – Your footer is a great place to link to relevant content. For example, as a blogger, you might want to put “Recent Posts” and “Categories” lists on your footer using plugins. This interlinks your webpages and ensures that no blog post is left behind. :)
  • Write blog posts teeming with keywords – It has always been important to use keywords in your content. But this is especially true if you’re a blogger, because as a blogger, you have the opportunity to write thousands of words teeming with keywords and publish it on your website. Non-bloggers, however, don’t have this chance. Most bloggers, even business bloggers, don’t keep SEO in mind when writing posts. While you should always focus on your actual writing, the best tip I can give you on writing keyw0rd-rich blog posts is that whenever you are in your WordPress Admin Panel dreaming up a new post for your blog, keep search engine optimization in your head.
  • Make sure search engines don’t think your website is two websites – This is a huge mistake in the on-page search engine optimization of most websites. Because most webmasters don’t properly indicate that their “www” URLs are the same as their “non-www” URLs, search engines have reason to believe that their site is split in two parts and half of its content can be copy-and-paste found somewhere else on the site, potentially causing a duplicate content penalty. In addition, your search engine ranking power can potentially be cut in half. To fix this, learn how to redirect your non-www URLs to your www URLs or vice-versa using a 301 permanent redirect. A good tutorial for doing this can be found here: http://www.stepforth.com/resources/web-marketing-knowledgebase/non-www-redirect/. This can also be done using the Redirection plugin for WordPress.
  • Link to non-indexed content – Unless you manually submit URLs to search engines, (which I do not recommend due to potentially long waiting times and quite frankly, manual submission is a waste of time) it might be true that not all of your content was indexed by the major search engines. So how do you fix this without wasting valuable time with manual submission (for every single page of content you write)? Simply work on linking to non-indexed content. Think about it. How do the search engines naturally crawl the internet even without any submitted URLs? They find links, follow them, and index the linked page. The more powerful the links are, the faster search engines will pick them up and index your content. So by linking to your content consistently and efficiently, you have a good game plan for getting your website indexed in its entirety. Links from external websites aren’t even necessary for this process. By linking to your content from other pages on your website, you’re helping it get indexed faster – and besides, as a content writer, this shouldn’t be hard for you. Just be sure to link to other posts and pages often in your content and you’ll be completely indexed in no time. Hint: Don’t waste time doing this for archive pages and tag pages, they are unimportant and you should probably add a “noindex” tag to those pages anyway to avoid a duplicate content penalty because those pages do nothing but repeat your already-indexed content. Long hint, huh? :)
  • Make it easy for visitors to share – Most serious bloggers implement sharing plugins into their blogs. But most of the time, the usual sharing plugin isn’t enough. My favorite, and in my opinion, the most powerful sharing plugin available for any blogging platform is the Topsy Retweet Button. An older alternative is the Tweetmeme Button. Both of these plugins allow readers to retweet in just 2 clicks. You can also use the officialFacebook Share Plugin for WordPress to allow readers to easily share your posts to their friends. Links from Twitter and Facebook are nofollow, so they have no direct SEO benefit. However, they do have a huge indirect one. New readers from these social networks are a lot more likely to link to and share your content than regular visitors. But that’s just indirect SEO using Twitter and Facebook – so what can you do to increase direct linking to your content?
  • Reward linkers – You love links pointing at your content. But so do other bloggers! A great way to reward linkers is giving them a linkback. Luckily, by default, WordPress does this for you – pingbacks. Pingbacks are acknowledgments of incoming links in the form of linkbacks. Some bloggers believe that pingbacks are only a way for spammers to get links to their own content quickly and easily. All they have to do is link to a blog post of yours, and they get a link from it. I strongly disagree with this idea. Linkbacks are a medium for connections between you and other bloggers, but more importantly, they convince other potentially important bloggers to link to you.
  • Write quality blog comments – Blog comments have a bad rep in the blogging community. Why? Because of the spam bloggers have to deal with every day. But your blog comments don’t have to be like this. Blog commenting has the potential to give links that are just as powerful as links from guest posting. By writing quality blog comments on dofollow blogs, you’re giving yourself powerful links that are within quality content. My biggest tip for blog commenting is to add to the discussion. Whether it’s to agree or disagree, all blog comments should add to both blog posts and previous comments.
  • Give your content a wider audience – One of the best ways to spread your content and your website is to give it a wider audience. Many bloggers are under the impression that the only way to do this is if you’re already a highly influential content writer. This is not the case at all with guest posting. Guest posting puts your content and your backlinks on important pages, not only increasing your website traffic but your search engine rankings as well. This post is a guest post. Giving your content to other bloggers in your niche may seem like helping your competitors, which in the long-run, it actually is, but as the writer, you’re the one who benefits the most from a guest post.
  • Avoid JavaScript links – Google has only begun reading JavaScript and has said many times in the past that you should avoid JavaScript links. Often, they will not be indexed properly and your links may just turn up to mean nothing in the watchful eyes of search engines. This may hurt your internal linking and could lead to many of your pages not being indexed in search engines.
  • Keep your website fresh – Why do search engines love blogs? Because they are a reliable source of fresh quality content. It’s essential, especially as a blogger, to keep your website and its content fresh and updated. One of my all-time favorite resources available on the web right now is only what it is in my eyes because it is updated frequently. But again, keeping your website fresh doesn’t just keep visitors coming back for more. With fresh content coming in often, search engines will place more authority on your domain (therefore increasing your search engine rankings) and decide to index your website faster. Your website can always be improved, and so can your copywriting levels.  Just remember that although guest posting is powerful, Google has said that your own website should always come first when it comes to your content writing.
  • Tell search engines what your images are about – “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Not to search engines – with today’s technology, no search engine can index the content present in images. But there still is a way to tell search engines what your pictures are all about. ALT text. “alt” is an attribute you may give your images, like this: <img src=”tree.png” alt=”Tree” /> Your ALT text should tell search engines what a normal visitor would see when looking at your image. You should try to place a keyword or two in your ALT text. Doing this tells search engines what your site’s pages in general are about. For the best results make sure every single image on your website is paired with some keyword-rich ALT text.
  • Submit a sitemap – A sitemap is like a guide that search engines can use to index your website. Without it, some of your content may not even get the opportunity to be indexed. In other words, it’s important to correctly create and submit a sitemap because it tells search engines about pages that they might not otherwise discover. This holds especially true with blogging. As a blogger, so much valuable content is available for search engine spiders to index, but they won’t get to it without a sitemap guiding them. A great WordPress plugin that I personally use in the automatic creation and even submission of sitemaps is the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. If you use another plugin, you can submit your generated sitemaps and feeds (as sitemaps) to Google Webmaster Tools.
  • Use Google Webmaster Tools – You’d be surprised about how useful Google’s webmaster resources are. They have a complete minisite for webmasters and the questions they have, but more importantly, they have made available their webmaster tools. From Google Webmaster Tools, you may submit sitemaps, edit crawling setting for your website, remove sitelinks, change your URL, play around with even more site configuration settings, check some stats about your rankings including links and important keywords that Google has picked up, deal with crawling problems, test your website as Googlebot, and even track site performance. Now there’s a reason to use your Google account to get started.
  • Blog comment – But not for the obvious reason – building backlinks. Nope, not even for building connections with other bloggers. Why should you comment on other blogs? For the reasons above, but what else? Actually I’m not even talking about blog commenting. I mean the reason why you should browse blogs and maybe comment on them along the way is that if that they are SEO blogs, by reading and commenting, you are educating yourself in SEO. You may find yourself jumping the ranks because of the new things you learned from visiting blogs and taking a good read.
  • Give visitors a reason to link and share – My final tip of the day. Linkbaiting is important and it is definitely the most organic and natural way to build popularity to your content. So how do you linkbait or “sharebait” as I like to call it? As a blogger, just provide content that makes your readers want to share. Just write from the heart and share your experiences with your readers. When I see an article that deserves it, I don’t fail to retweet and link to it.
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