Artfire LInk Blog: search engine optimization

One of the most effective ways to market your business is blogging. Some old school web designers call it articles. But it's generally the same, any way you say it: fresh, consistent content draws traffic to your website.

What is a Blog? It is a web site where individuals or groups can write opinions, commentary, updates about events, information, facts, news and features on a regular (and hopefully consistent) basis.

The term "Blog" came from a slang blend of "web log". But the challenge is how to create a "great" blog! Great blogs are interesting, intuitive and interactive. They invoke thought, ask questions, make you ask yourself questions, give you that "I get it!" brainstorm of an idea, they are inspiring, innovative and make you want more. A great blog is creative and offers knowledge.

When you start out a good blog..it feels like braking the ice with your readers. Your uncertain what to say, how to say it and if you will be accepted for your words. That's normal. Let me say this, you will not please everyone all the time. But, think of it as meeting new friends, asking them about themselves, talking about yourself. Tell people about what you do, what you love and what you know.

My best blogs come from reading other content like books or news articles. Sometimes my content comes from forums on an informative site. But my very best blog entries comes from deep thought about people, things, places, holidays, what if topics..and I most usually come up with them in the shower or doing dishes. The most difficult thing is to stop immediately and write or type them out.

A good blog post has several components.

Keyword rich title
original content (no copy and pasting)
2-8 paragraphs (to long could get boring)
complete sentences and grammatically/spell checked
thought provoking ideas or questions
author talks to the reader as if they are long time friends
links in keywords to other websites on the net, both familiar and unfamiliar
1-5 images of relevance linked to other pages or websites
the authors name: "written by..Jane Doe"
the author's website and social media links
RSS feed and social sharing links(if not automatically added by code)
References if applicable with a link to the page you got it from
Comment form on the bottom for reader interaction and response

So how do you begin? When a thought, opinion or idea strikes you, write it down. You may run across a great tip or how to online, write about it. Never, ever copy and paste sentences from one site to yours. Then, do some research on rich keywords using synonyms (examples: mug versus cup, jewelry versus jewellry, handmade versus hand crafted, etc..) with the Google keyword tool. Incorporate those keywords that have relevance to your subject into your paragraphs.

Add images relevant to your subject that are directly related and somewhat related. If you use Wordpress or other blog platforms that allow titles and descriptions when you add the image in your text editor, fill out all the fields as completely as you possibly can for good SEO (search engine optimization: how well search engine indexes your content)

Add links to other sites by your own sites and friends sites. Maybe add links to wikipedia subjects. Do searches in Google and Yahoo for the keyword and link to a first page, non competitor site.

To link an image or a text to a url(hyperlink), highlight the object and click the "link" on your toolbar in the editor. The javascript window will open and ask for the url and maybe a title.

You should have at least 1-5 "live" links in a paragraph. Keep in mind that just adding the url itself will not automatically link to the site. Those are not "live" links. Make your blog as easy as possible to navigate for your readers or you will find a lower page rank.

The Anchor text is the text you hook the url into. These words should be keywords or phrases increasing your SEO. For some blog platforms, you have the option to open a "_blank" page or "same" page. Always open a new or blank page so the reader doesn't loose your site if a link is clicked. Popup windows are not a great idea as they are often blocked by browser security.

If you still struggle with adding any links, you may need to clear your browser cache. Do this by saving your content as a draft first..Then press Ctrl + F5. The page will refresh automatically (why you save your work first) If you struggle with saving your work, highlight the entire draft and copy to your clip board, then clear cache and paste back into your editor for saving. Always periodically save your work to prevent any miss haps.

If you struggle with what to blog about, the next time you learn something new on the net, from a Facebook post, or forum, write a note to self: "blog about...".

Susan ~ ArtFire LInk
ArtFire LInk on Facebook
ArtFire LInk Group
On Google+

This is a retype from our COO Tony Ford at ArtFire Chatterbox posted this morning at 8:24am Tucson time. This is very important for all of us to note not just for our listings, but also our blogging, our posts and other Google searchables.

I knew this was an issue from using an awesome cdrom tool I have called "Website Promoter" I bought off of Ebay for a couple of bucks.

Here is what Tony had to say!

"We received an email from Google base this morning that some of the feeds from ArtFire.com have been temporarily removed. This is because some of the items on ArtFire had "excessive capitalization".

Google requires items to be grammatically correct with proper title capitalization. Those folks using all caps to try to make their titles more attention grabbing may now have zero products in google base. We see this kind of title on other venues quite often.

The difference is that we will be auto-altering your titles to adjust to this guideline and sharing the information with you. If you are using all caps on ArtFire.com you can start by changing those titles. If you are using them on other venues with Google base, you should consider changing them there as well.

We do not know how many accounts are affected at this point. It is a good idea to use proper grammar on your titles and descriptions.

This also suggests that Google Base (shopping) will continue to develop more sophisticated filters in the future. For this reason it is important that you follow guidelines and not try to use hyphens or misspellings to try to work around prohibited terms. (wine spelled wi-ne or whine) for example.

In this case, it appears to be only some accounts that were inactivated, but google can and does ban entire websites permanently from google base for repeat violations. That means that one or two sellers who attempt to "fool" google can cause all sellers items to be removed from google shopping.

Thank you for your attention to this issue. We have already made the adjustment to auto-correct new items before submitting them to google.

Here is the email we received from google:

"Thank you for submitting your products to the Google Merchant Center.

We've recently reviewed your items and noticed they contain errors.

Because of these errors, we've temporarily removed your items from the search results. Please correct the following problems with your items:

Issues:

- Excessive capitalization

-----------------

- Excessive capitalization: Some of your items' titles contain excessive capitalization. Please use standard spelling and grammar, and avoid all unnecessary use of capitalization. Please visit

http://google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160057to ensure your items comply with our Editorial Guidelines.

After you've corrected the errors, please upload your items again. If you're using the scheduling feature to submit your feed, we recommend that you upload the corrected feed manually before your next scheduled upload.

In addition, please know that your items are automatically re-evaluated.

Therefore, you do not need to reply to this email confirming that you've resubmitted your feed. We'll notify you if any additional corrections are needed. If you have any questions, please visit our Help Center to find answers to frequently asked questions.

Sincerely,

The Google Team"

This is extremely important as sites that are repeat offenders are permanently blocked from Google! If we don't change this phenomenon then we could all loose out. If you see a listing on ArtFire that has some illegal spellings...such as "wine" or "free" or are misspelled, you can message the artisan and refer them to the forum or this blog. If you are an Etsy seller, make sure you check those listings also. Capital letters seem to catch attention, but in reality, all it does is get you kicked off of Google base.

Disallowed Words