Blogger-made-simple!

"How to use basic SEO on your blog and why you should"

2010-01-23T01:42:00.001+00:00

SEO - you will or will not have heard of it and do or do not understand it, it is important in some ways but not so important that you should get obsessive over it, just getting some simple basics in place and learning as you along by experience, what works and doesn't work for you (your blog) is enough.

Don't worry if you have already started your blog, you can implement and change things with blogger and from here on you will have the added benefit of the basics being considered with each post you do.

If you have yet to start your blog, you have the opportunity of considering the added benefits of this basic SEO knowledge to make a better choice from day one.

So, what is SEO and why does it matter for your blog(s)?

Search Engine Optimisation. In short, optimising for search engine results.

Some could say it's "gaming" the SE's (search engines) to improve results and of course there are good and bad sides, tactics, methods. Obviously we are only doing good, nothing to be gained long term from bad tactics.

Yet as there are so many different aspects to SEO I want to just focus on the very basic few every blogger should implement from the start.

Keywords, one of the most important main aspects to SEO anyway, nevertheless the basics have to be understood and used.

Consider a search engine and how they give you the information you search for, whatever search engine you use, you will have to enter one thing 100% of the time... that is "words" and it's ONLY words that search engines have to work with for a searcher, after all you have to write something.

These words, or "search terms" like questions are known as "keywords" to those who use SEO knowledge in any way. Keywords matter.

What I see some people get wrong is the way they look at the keywords and how they then use them, putting to much importance on the actual keywords then overusing them when they write, "keyword stuffing" as the worse cases are known as.

Far better to look at your keyword(s) as a theme... then use it as a theme.

Every niche, topic could be broken down to one or two keywords, and these will be the hardest to get seo results for, for example "blogger" .. how many sub themes and therefore keywords under that?!

Google "blogger" without "" and you see what you would be up against if you were to target that main keyword theme, at this time of writing it is 153,000,000 competing sites!.

But it's not often anyone just types one word into the SE's search box, more likely a question.

Which is why people use what they call "long tail" keyword phrases, these are several word phrases relating to the overall main top keyword so in this example, even a question is a long tail search term.

Maybe they would have theme based on the keywords : "how to use blogger, blogspot, tips" ... at this time 3,220.000 !! *cough.I know, just used this very blogs link with that phrase as the example, with admittedly a bad phrase to compete with, but it will make sense soon enough why, and if the links are also keyworded like that, it is an SEO benefit, not that I rank anywhere for it...for now!

A better keyword phrase I could link this blog to is "how to use blogger" and at this time it's 58,100,000, so alot bigger, a wee bit to big and I rank nowhere with it!

But this real search (click it) "blogger made simple" shows 13,100,000, at this time, alot less than the last one and I come second with this blog, and forth with my main personal blog which is showing a post about this blog. (at this time)

But, less people competing also means it's likely less people are searching with that phrase too.

And... that's ok, because over time keywords change, variations arise, phrases people search for change, SE's are also getting better with results over times, so it benefits you to use several variations of the theme.

Note I didn't say strictly the keyword itself, just the theme, this is for a reason.

A huge portion of searches, as google have said, have not been used before, so people are using very different search terms and probably using the search box in different ways too.

Basic SEO changes start with the reader experience, not the machine.

REO, then SEO - Write for the reader first, machine second.

The truth is you are really writing for the user, reader first, then the search engines. Get the first right the second works itself, while following some basic SEO knowledge while you go along will help the second improve.

REO? I just made it up, (you heard it here first) but what do I mean by it anyway?

Reader Experience Optimisation.

Lets face it, its readers that matter, even if you are with the intent of monetising your blog or other such "gains" and many will say crap blogs make money and such, yes they do, but not forever, one google slap to the way they rank you and its gone...

Anyway, the point is, if your blog content is reasonable and people read it, it's showing use, (crappy blogs dont) so the main and most important thing in my opinion is to give the reader what they want, strive to improve their experience first, giving them better content, adding to their experience however you can, while keeping it all related to your main theme, and that will show the SE's your blog matters for that theme and therefore those searching within it.

If this post is making some sense to you, and you are learning something about "basic SEO and why your blog needs it" you may well come back for another read.

The other thing is if the readers like it, they will be more likely to share it, sending you new readers, more traffic in other words, this will continue depending on the experience you give the new readers, impress them too, impress them first.

Not every reader is equal, which means you won't please everyone, but strive to continually improve what works.

Not all traffic is equal, which means SE's need to learn from your blog what traffic you want, and what your theme is, which is why you write for them second, and they go by the keywords you target among other things, bear in mind there is no benefit to overdoing it either, it can backfire.

Basic SEO is to use your theme "words" where possible, where it fits in, adding other various themed words will also benefit simply because you will never know what search terms some people find your blog with, more so if, as google already said, many searches are new phrases...

Who knows when you will hit the right sentence that someone just types into the search box one day, that frustrated person typing in "how do I add this damn feedburner to my blogger blog" while pulling their hair out.

I wrote this post for you, the reader, but I also use the basic SEO I write about within the post, keeping to the overall theme of blogger for the new user, blogger made simple.

I wrote of the need to have a basic understanding of SEO and why it matters for your blog, while also doing some it in this blog post itself, helping my SEO for the main overall theme of blogger-made-easy, the blog where blogspot users get the basics, and leading by example, doing what I say.

SEO matters, but when overdone it doesn't.

Write better for the reader, they are the ones you want sharing you content, this only leads to the SE's giving it more "weight" anyway, thus ranking you higher over time because what you share is relevant, real, and on topic, if lucky, some readers will even link to your content, giving you the all important backlinks with keywords, something SE's like, more so when "anchored"... that is the links are written as a keyword phrase, like the ones I shared above.

Basic SEO, in short, to be done from the start, great relevant content which is keyword focused, and make your content easily shareable, easy to link to.

"How to add feedburner feed to your blogspot blog"

2010-01-06T13:45:00.001+00:00

How to configure and utilise your blogger RSS feed for readers to subscribe to your blog's instant updates.

For a better RSS use and analytic's I use feedburner which you will have with your google account.
Once you have made this account just simply create your feedburner feed url by adding your blogs existing url. (blogspot.com address) to the box where it says "burn a feed" which creates a feedburner feed url to use instead.

Then you can simply configure your feed using the tabs in the feedburner dashboard.

Anytime you publish a post on your blog it will automatically update your feed and ping those who have subscribed to your feed, the post will then show up in those users RSS reader, if you subscribed to this blog already you will know what I mean when you look in your in your RSS reader, yes you do have one if you have yet to subscribe, you have google reader with your account.

I know.. they give us everything we need!

Now you have a better chance of making use of your feeds using feedburner as opposed to a normal blogspot feed.

You have analytic's of the feed and can also optimise your feed with several chicklets to use (mine is a plain orange icon as seen above).

Make use of a decent feed because people do use RSS readers as it enables them to devour more content in one page, it also is one way the readers share your content, with a simple click in the RSS reader they can share with all those in their contacts who use the reader, this is good for getting your work out to more people.

You should ask your readers to subscribe to your feed.

On that note don't forget to subscribe to this blog for updates as they come in.

"How to add stats to your blog"

2009-12-05T00:33:00.000+00:00

Having set up your blog and started to write content to share with your readers you will want to know where those readers come from and what content you share they like, the only way to do this is to add some form of statistic set up.

Knowing where the readers come from is going to help you with growing your readership.

For simple and effective stats I recommend you use statcounter which I have personally used for most of the time I have been blogging, a few years and I am happy with it.

Setting this up on your blogger blog is very simple, as long as you follow the instructions carefully within statcounter.

A tip would be to open your blogger "layout page" in one browser tab/window and the statcounter page in another.

Once you have set up an account (it's free), choose "add new project" then on the next page add your blog name and also your blog url (the blog address ie: http://howtousebloggertips.blogspot.com ) then choose the category and leave the rest of that as is, on the "next" page choose invisible counter if you don't wish to show the statcounter icon or counter on your blog.

Follow the instructions for adding the code statcounter gives you onto your blog via the layout page, choose to add a widget to the BOTTOM of the layout page.

Simply copy paste it and save. Done.

But another important factor you should do, that is create a blocking cookie to stop YOUR own visits to the blog from being counted.

Do this by simply clicking the "blocking cookie" link on the top of the stats main page, this will create the cookie, if you add any projects you should recreate a cookie to block all your visits to all of your blog stats.

Once you have this set up and running you will need to get readers and then you have stats to check out.

You will learn plenty as you along with the stats, click your named blog in the stats page then check the main links on the left sidebar...the ones to use for the start are "Recent came from" and "visit length" to determine where your visits come from and the time spent on the blog.

These stats once you start getting them will encourage you to improve the factors, knowing where the visits come from will give you the data to know where to promote your blog, time spent stats will give you an indication of how "sticky" your content is, whether people are reading it all or not reading it.

Now you have an easy to use and follow stat package to utilise.

"How to create links in your post and why they should be anchored"

2009-12-02T02:43:00.001+00:00

As promised on the last post here we will learn to add a link and also learn about why it should be an anchor link...and what exactly an anchor link is.

Let's start with creating a link within your post, the easy way.

As you can see from the picture above I have shown a real link and you can see this link on the last post regarding how to add an image to your post.

You see what I also did there?

I created an anchor link, which I will explain shortly but first let's get the linking method itself out of the way so you then know how it's done.

Choose the words you wish to create a link with, do this by simply highlighting the chosen words, in the above case (as in the image) I chose "Google account" which you can see to the left of the blue pop up box in the image, then I clicked "link" on the top of the editor as you can see right above the left top corner of the blue box, the link used is for gmail.com as you can see.

(Note : you can change the chosen words "Google account" in the actual blue pop up box if you needed to)

This is very simple to do and you should use links where you can, where it's relevant.
As you add your link, you can easily test it using the little "test link" link and know if you have done this correctly.

Now let's move onto why you should use anchor links and what they are.

In the anchor link example above and below the image, I linked to the post previous to this one, I also used the very words the post was about, this is an anchor link, the words used matter.

A bad anchor link would say something like "click here" which tells the search engines like Google nothing of what the link goes to, using the words of the post itself as I have done shows them exactly what it's about.

This does matter, it means links gain "weight" with the search engines for the words used within that link.

This may seem confusing at first but it's really straightforward and makes sense once you see it more often on the websites you use, read.

For example having a link to a dog training site using words like "horse" for the link would be silly and irrelevant to the content beyond that link. Much better to have it say... "dog training"?

Therefore if possible always use the words that are relevant to the linked content itself, they matter, they are your anchored links.

I do hope that makes sense and you now know not only how to create the link but also how to format it for best effect.

Any questions?

"How to add an image to your blog post using blogger"

2009-12-02T01:31:00.002+00:00

Ok now you have a post up on your blogger blog you may decide you want to add an image or a graphic to improve how it looks, or to enhance the message of the post itself.

There are a few ways it can be done, but to keep it simple lets use the easiest method which is pretty straightforward. As you have a Google account (blogger is part of it) your images will be added to your Picassa account which is automatically created for you.

Indecently if you right mouse click the image below, choose new tab or window you will get to see the image in my Picassa account, it will show you the image in larger format.

For now, lets get the image added to your post the easy way.

The editor used in blogger looks like the picture below, that is if you have the settings on the new editor, look under settings for your blog and on the basic page (the first one under settings) choose the new "updated editor" at the bottom of the page, then save, note this will save the settings for all blogs you create within this dashboard.

As for the editor itself and adding images to your post, this is done using the square image box above the insert image text you see in the picture, to the right of the word "link".

This opens up a pop up window asking you to choose your image, either from your pc or via a weblink if your image is hosted online.

Once you click upload it should then add the image in the post also a little blue strip will show under the image from which you choose to resize or move the image to suit you.

Note this is shown in "compose" mode as you can see on the tabs to the top right of the editor.

Clicking the edit html tab will show you the raw html language that is used for the building of the website, post which is handy in your learning process of understanding how this whole thing works, you will see the html code that renders the image, if you add an image before writing anything then check the html you will see the raw code for the image itself only.

Adding an image to your blog post is quite easy once you have done it for the first time, for best results please use your own images, or at least ones you have permission to use.

There you have an easy explanation of how to add an image to your post using blogger.

Next we will address adding links to your post, and the importance of it being an anchor link where possible, a good example is right here in this post as you can see above where I linked "Google account" and that link example is what we will address the next post.

"How do I get started with blogger"

2009-11-21T03:28:00.008+00:00

One of the most common questions I hear from people pretty new on the internet in general, that is friends have even asked me, so with that in mind I decided to set this very basic step by step guide blog up, to share tips and such to help you or anyone who is interested in creating a blog.

Importantly I have set it up using the very tools I write about, showing you how it's done in plain English while also...

Doing as I say.

If you have never created a blog or website before, why choose blogger and blogspot?

Good question, as a long term user of blogger, still using both blogspot blog (bloggers own free hosted subdomain hosting, like this very blog at the time of writing) and having hosted blogger based blogs on my own domains I think experience tells me far more than some of the "experts" (most self proclaimed), would say to you...even I have read some of their "tips and whatnot" and shook my head in disgust at the misinformation and misleading "tips" shared as though from experience.

Merely opinion most of the time.

The so called experts say you must have your own domain...while true it's often better as you then OWN that blog, it doesn't mean you should always use them, abandoning the blogspot set up is just silly in my view.

Even if you decide to go for it with a new domain...

Getting the domain and setting that up is not so straightforward as these experts would have you believe...many have never done it themselves and pay someone else to do all this "dirty work", makes sense for these "employees" to find it easy...it's what they do!

That doesn't help you when it comes to sorting your own out but right now it's not even needed, blogspot is fine for the new blog creator.

Now I am not saying I am an expert, but I do know what you need to know and that is the reason this blog was started, to help you with getting your own blog set up with ease and set up to work right for you.

There are benefits to using blogspot such as it being free, simple and in some cases the only way of getting things up in order to find out which blogs (if you do a few) you should get a domain for without wasting money.

The dashboard itself allows you to control several blogs in one place, unlike some other platforms where each blog gets it's own dashboard.

So, before anything else just go set a blog up already... or set up a gmail account then go to blogger.

This is the page where you create your new blog, if you unsure yet of what your blog will be about just set up a dummy blog, naming it anything as it's just to learn the process with. Don't worry about it at this stage just getting familiar with how it works is the main thing.

On the next page you will be asked to choose a template, leave it with the default which will be the same as this blog you are reading.

The reason is simply that this is the most basic and straightforward template to learn with while it will also make sense when reading this blog here (at the time of writing), although this blogs look could change sometime I will keep it on this basic one for as long as possible for your benefit.

Then you will be asked to create a post, my advice would be to simply do a test post, then write a few words and publish, not to worry about it as any post is editable and deletable.

This means you will get to see your actual blog as it looks live.

Now you should have a blog with your first small post showing, along with the basic added content by way of "widgets" that show on the right column. RSS, followers and archives.

The widgets and such are all added and deleted or just moved around on the "layout" part, as seen by a link on the blogger dashboard.