SEO For Bloggers

By Deryl S. Lampkin

I. What is SEO?

SEO is search engine optimization. It is a strategy for making your website or blog search engine friendly. Search engine friendly is putting the right things in the right places. In essence, giving the search engine what it wants and having those things in the places the search engine expects to find them.

II. Why is it important?

SEO is important because search engines are the primary way Internet users find what they are looking for on the Internet. Users type in keyword phrases to find information relevant to their search terms. When a site is optimized, it highly increases the chance of being listed on the first page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). If your site does not appear in the first 2-3 pages of search results, you will not likely get the benefit of free organic search exposure.

III. Things you as a blogger should do to optimize the structure of your blog

There are various things a blogger should do to optimize their blog structure. The structure of the blog refers to elements of the blog that gives the blog searchabilty and usability.

Searchability Elements

v Keyword Relevant URL

v Keyword Relevant Page Title

v Keyword Rich Content

v Keyword Relevant h1 Tags for Page Headings and h2 & h3 for Subheadings

v Descriptive Alt Image Text

v Descriptive Keyword Relevant Anchor Text

v Generate XML Sitemaps

v Create Compelling Meta Descriptions

v Use Highly Searched/Low Competition Keywords

Usability Elements

v Intuitive Navigation

v Site Map

v Archive

v Clean Uncluttered Page Layout

v Navigation Buttons at the End of Post

v Sharing Buttons

IV. Things you as a blogger should do to optimize the text content of your blog.

Content Optimization

Some of the key factors that optimizes blog content include:

v Relevancy

v Keyword Richness

v Using H1 and H2 Keyword relevant tags

v Less is More (Don’t make posts excessively long)

v Limit the Number of Post per Page

v Keep IT Simple (Don’t clutter page with too many options and distractions

v Make posts Interesting and Informative

v Make Anchor Text Descriptive and Keyword Relevant

v Utilize White Space

v Use Short Paragraphs

v Use Images and Text Wrapping

v Inbound Links from Trusted Sites with Link Authority

V. How video, images or other media can help your optimization efforts.

Video is a multimedia format for presenting information. It engages audio and visual senses. It can incorporate music, spoken words, sound effects, images, photos, motion, visual effects, text, and animation. This makes it a powerful way of communicating.

Uploading videos to a video-sharing site like YouTube makes it searchable and accessible to large communities that may not otherwise become aware of your site. Optimization of your video content can link to your site and increase link juice, which can help increase your ranking and generate new visitors to your site.

You can careful craft text to accompany your video. You can optimize things like the video title, tags, content description; include keywords and a transcript of what is being said in the video and it is sharable and the number of views are trackable.

VI. Beyond ‘traditional’ optimization; using social media to enhance your blog SEO

Social media is about community, conversations, and sharing. When people find interesting, entertaining, and useful information on the Internet, they often want to share it with friends, family, and community members. Social media is a great way to expose your brand to relevant communities and connect with social brand evangelists and potential new site visitors and customers.

Engaging in social conversations helps build relationships and brand awareness. It helps a company to get a better feel and understanding of their audience’s needs, interests, and concerns. Having these insights positions a brand to better serve their target market.

Summary

Blogging is a critical part of the social media landscape. Blogging is one way to create fresh and engaging content. That content is said to be Search Engine Optimized when that content is relevant, keyword and quality link rich. Social media extends the reach and impact of SEO by giving search engines other media sources beyond text-based content to present to searchers. Therefore, blogging is a very powerful tool for connecting with social communities and pulling in new visitors to your brand website.

Ten Effective Ways To Boost Banner Click-Through

This is a FSU class project to create a video summary of a selected article. Here is my video.

Laptopsforall Banner Ad for Bulk Purchaser (FSU Class Assignment)

Laptopsforall Banner Ad for Female Student (FSU Class Assignment)

Laptopsforall Banner Ad for Male Student (FSU Class Assignment)

Laptopsforall Video Ad for Women (FSU Class Assignment)

Online PR Strategies

Article 2 JC Penney Mobile Couponing Pilot Project

JC Penny is piloting a mobile couponing project in Houston, Texas. I think that they will have success with mobile couponing because people tend to not use coupons when they require extra work to use them. When you have to cut them out or have to remember to take it with you, this calls for extra steps and extra thinking and memory. People have so many things to contend with these days. When you make life easier and more convenient for them, they are more likely to engage.

Mobile couponing certainly accomplishes making it convenient. The consumers usually have their cell phone with them. If the coupon is readily available in their cell phone, which eliminates all the extra steps associated with paper coupons, the consumer is more likely to use them. As long as the coupons are easy to retrieve from the phone, women will love the idea.

Making them aware of the program is a matter of promoting it in the media currently used by the consumer such as JC Penny’s catalogs, sales papers, website, etc.

I think that mobile couponing is a logical progression in step with the evolution of technology. Everything that can be digitized will become digitized in time.

One company that is seeing notable success with mobile couponing is Domino’s Pizza. “Domino’s has seen significant growth from its mobile initiatives and plans to increase its investment in the mobile channel going forward.”

Bulcher, 2009, http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/commerce/4102.html

Cellfire mobile coupons are reported to be successful in comparison to the print coupon world. “In the print coupon world, industry average for redemptions is around 0.58% but for the mobile coupons from Cellfire, redemptions are in the 5 to 15% range.”

Marriott, n.d., Retrieved October 5, 2010 from http://mmaglobal.com/articles/mobile-commerce-coupons-2d-codes-and-purchasesoh-my

In May 2008, McDonald’s launched “Kazasu Coupon (kazasu = pass over)”, in order to convert the millions of members already registered on the McDonald’s mobile site…Since its launch this service has been a huge success.

Article 1 Digital Coupons

"Does "digital couponing" cause consumers to forsake brand name products over cheaper products or services? If yes, explain why you agree with this article. If no, why do you disagree with this article? Do you think the reason is brand loyalty? Do you think that well-known brands offer more discounts?

"Does "digital couponing" cause consumers to forsake brand name products over cheaper products or services?

I would answer yes and no to that question. There are consumers that are brand loyalist. They almost emphatically will stick with their brand no matter what. On the other hand, there are people who purchase according to what’s in their best interest or according to what their pocket dictates.

In some cases the name brand product is little or no different in quality or quantity from the generic or off brand. The store brand in many cases such as green beans for example may come from the same source. The only difference is the name brand has a fancy label, a well advertised, well known brand name and cost more. In this case, I would forego the name brand for the bargain brand.

In other cases the off brand is relatively as good as the name brand and in some cases better. Lastly, sometimes it is a matter of how far you need to stretch your dollars. If your money is tight and you need certain items and the only way you can get what you need is to go with the off brand products, then that is what best in that situation.

So if a coupon reduces the cost of a product in a tight budget situation, whichever product the coupon is associated with, will be the choice for many budget conscious shoppers.

Well known brands sometimes offer more coupons in order to stay competitive with competitors that can easily garner market share. However, some off brand, particularly new brands will offer coupons to get consumers to try their product.

“To attract new shoppers, retain existing customers and increase average sales, a wide range of suppliers including Kroger, Safeway, CVS, Walgreens, K-mart, HEB, Duane Reade and other intermediaries are leveraging online coupon programs and recording double-digit results, claims Crisp. “

Wicmandy, 2009, http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/the-age-of-digital-coupons.aspx

            “Large retailers -- including Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500), the world's             biggest -- are wrestling with having too many types of brand-name products.             At the same time, shoppers are buying less and looking for bargains.  So             unless a particular brand is a top seller in its category, it's getting knocked off             the shelf -- and sometimes getting replaced by a cheaper store brand.”

Kelvilanz, 2010, http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/15/news/companies/walmart_dropping_brands/

I do opt for generic brands when the perceptual difference between the generic and the name brand isn’t significant enough to be worth the difference in cost.

Flexo, 2007, http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/i-buy-generic-brands-and-store-brands-sometimes/

Laptops for all video ad

This is another one of my Full Sail University Viral Marketing class projects of a fictitious company called laptopsforall.com.

We Can Make it Happen

This is the first of my Full Sail University Viral Marketing class projects of a fictitious company called laptopsforall.com.

Amazed and Enraptured by A Double Rainbow

This is a viral video about a guy who has sited two perfectly arched rainbows in close proximity to each other. He was fortunate to be able to capture the experience on video. This encounter amazed and enraptured him to the point that he was so overwhelmed, he could not contain himself.

My thoughts and reaction to this video was that the rainbows indeed were a great site to see, however this guy is going on and on as if he had just captured Jesus or Osama bin Laden on video.  It was hilarious how this guy was so into this to the point of breaking down into tears of amazement.  This is a funny video to watch.

Web Start-Ups Pitching Their Companies

In the video below, individuals were given the opportunity to pitch their company to a panel of four members and the panelist critiqued, asked questions about their product, rated them and ultimately voted to determine the winner of the competition. Each contestant was given sixty seconds to pitch their product.

The New Marketing Media Environment Must Live Or We Die Economically

The new marketing media environment consists of marketing tool elements such as: YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Blogs, Webinars, Podcasts, Videocasts, AdWords, AdSense, Affiliate Programs, Craigslist, online gaming, and others.

The good news is most of these tools are currently offered for free. The bad news is many of them face the potential threat of becoming extinct if they don’t find a way to profitably monetize their business. Many of these companies are operating deeply in the red.

One Day Um Gonna...?

How many times have you told yourself, “one day um gonna do…?”. We tell ourselves that because that’s the vision or dream we have in our mind, but “the reality” (the visible circumstantial evidence) staring us in the face tells us that, that can’t happen right now. So we file it away in our memory in a file folder labeled “one day um gonna do”. And every time that illusive day approaches, some other circumstantial evidence presents itself and prompts us to re-file that goal or idea.

Welcome Aboard The Entrepreneur Ship

Welcome aboard the Entrepreneur Ship. I am the captain of this vessel Deryl S. Lampkin. We are to embarking upon a voyage across great digital oceans in quest of discovering the sought after Island of Success. Many budding entrepreneurs have long sought to find this coveted island with little or no success.