Get Yourself Out There!

This is a pretty obvious topic for SEO, but I had to touch on it and maybe I can point out a thing or 2 that can help.  When I do designs for people, I get asked SO often, "How do I get people to see my blog?".  Well, that is the question, how do we get people to see our blogs, and not just anyone, how do we get relevant, interested readers?  Below is a list of some ideas to get you started (no specific order).



Advertise
Advertising is the FASTEST way to get your name out there.  Obvious I know, but it really can pay off!  Make sure that if you are looking into advertising, that you really do your homework though.  There are so many options out there, and blogs out there.  How do you pick one that will benefit your blog the most?

First, make sure that the readers of the blog or website that you want to advertise on, are the readers that you are looking for.

SEO Quick Tip: The "ALT" Attribute

This is a super easy thing that you can do to improve the search-ability of your site, and to make it more user friendly.

What is the ALT?
ALT is an alternative text for images.  So if an image doesn't load properly on a website or page (and how often does that happen, a lot...), the alternative text is what will replace the image.


Why is it so important?
ALT is so important, because it tells Google and other search engines what they can't see in an image, they don't know what that image is.


How to use the ALT Attribute:

1.  If the image displaying text, like my example below, then you need to put the text that is displayed in the image in the alt attribute. 

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a MUST have if you are trying to understand and improve your search ability on the web.  It allows you to explore and see what Google sees when it crawls your site.  You can sign up for a free account here:  https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

The first thing you need to do is to add your site or blog, you will see this on the homepage after you login.

How to Install Google Analytics on Blogger

This is another super basic item on my agenda for SEO Week, but it is essential.  Google Analytics is one of my favorite ways to track and analyze the traffic on my website and blog.  If you don't know what your traffic volume is like, and where visitors are coming from, you are walking in the dark.  It's FREE, it gives you oodles of information, and you do not need a counter or button displayed on your blog. It installs slightly different from other counters, in that you don't put code into an HTML Gadget on your sidebar. Here is how you do it:

Step #1: Set up a free Google Analytics account: http://www.google.com/analytics/




Step #2: Select ALL of the code, open a new window in your browser and go to your Blog.

Meta Tags

I wanted to start SEO week out with some basics, so the first thing on the agenda is Meta Tags.  It is a really easy thing to add to your blog or website, but it is super important.

What is a Meta Tag?
Meta tags are html tags that are used to describe your site or blog to search engine.  The most common and important tags are the title tag, description tag, keyword tags, revisit-after tag, and the robots tag.

Why are Meta Tags important?
Meta tags are important because they convey to google, yahoo, bing, etc. what your site is all about.  When you search for something, the search engine is searching for keywords found on different sites.  When you get a list of search results, your meta tags help determine what comes up.  The first example shown is my other blog (I have already used meta tags in it).

This second example is what this blog looks like when you don't have Meta Tags (I only put meta tags up last night, so they don't show up yet):