A new blog

[Dizzydiza]

Someone on a craft forum...(ok i know another forum...when do I ever have time to actually work....or come to that, do my ironing ), mentioned about having a blog and how it helps the ratings of the website on Google. So I had a wee look and thought "I can do that". So I launched my new blog and promised a local business forum (yep another forum) that I wouldn't be bothering them with my trivia anymore. From what I understand simply by having lots of links to my website from the blog can improve my ratings with Google. Ok but other than posting links all over the place eg forums like this and one on my tiara website how do I get people to my blog? The other burning question is can people really be bothered to read blogs and am I just wasting more of my spare time doing this?
Oh and before all you search engine optimisers out there think oh this is a good opportunity to get some business as this woman dont know what she is doing....I am a little hobby business with little or no money and I cant handle extra work as I am a one person operation with huge family commitments

But....I would appreciate anyone having a wee look at my blog and passing some comments on it and any of the 2 questions I have asked above.
Thank you
Di

My blog

[andrewburnett]

Oh and before all you search engine optimisers out there think oh this is a good opportunity to get some business as this woman dont know what she is doing....I am a little hobby business with little or no money and I cant handle extra work as I am a one person operation with huge family commitments

Hi Di, alas I am one of the aforementioned SEOs
But unlike many others I am happy to offer you a bit of advice to get you started, I'm a firm believer in karma so if my advice does help you feel free to climb the local minaret and shout your praises for all to hear

Having a blog will, in itself, not help you rank on Google. That is, in my opinion, a missconception. A very common missconception, but a missconception nonetheless...
What will help is having a blog on your own domain with relevant links placed naturally in the text, just a couple per blog post will do, it should remain readable for human visitors!!

If your hosting allows for it I would recommend getting WordPress installed on your own domain - it is super simple, trust me If you can host a WordPress blog on your own hosting let me know once it is set up and I'll give you a list of extensions that will make it kick SEO ass for you

The bottom line is that for your site to climb the rankings you need to look at a number of issues. A cursory look at your site has revealed the following things you can do to improve your rankings:

1. Both www. and non www. versions of your domain resolve - fix this using .htaccess redirects if your site is on a unix or linux server (google .htaccess www redirect - there are millions of guides which are all the same)

2. Your page title contains only your brand name - are people liable to search for your brand, or for your products? Fix this by including at least one of the keywords you wish to target, make sure it reads naturally.

3. You don't have an h1 tag on your front page - get one and make sure that the keywords you want to be found for are in it, but so that they read naturally.

4. Consider slightly rearranging your site (there is a lot you could do, but I don't want to make this too daunting or time consuming for you) Having a clear menu structure either at the top of the page or down the left hand side will help visitors find what they're looking for on your site... granted it will, if at all, have a negligible effect on your rankings but it will definitely mean you lose less visitors who reach your site - it took me over a minute to find "contact" for example.

5. Get rid of the nextreme tracking nonsense and sign up for google analytics - that's about the best you can get for free - google know a thing or two more about webtraffic
than most other companies and let you profit from that for gratis, it'd be daft not to

If you follow the above tips and are not in the top 100 results for your major keyword within 6 months, I'll do it for you for free - seriously. Obviously I can't offer to do this for everyone, but every now and then it pays to be helpful

Anyway it's Friday night and it's been a long week

[Dizzydiza]

First of all I have to apologise....I didnt mean to be rude Andrew...especially as your new on the forum. By nature I am not a rude person but lately I have so many sales calls that I find that I am getting short on politeness. People don't seem to understand that hobby business = low income. I laugh into myself every time someone calls and ask to speak to the person that deals with advertising and they are always surprised to hear me say that they are speaking to that person.
I have had a wee read of what you have said and I knew hubby was waffling when he said blogs help with your website it was just that I read it on another forum from a lady in a similar business to myself saying the same thing I thought maybe hubby is right...hence my blog.
I have to admit quite alot of what you have said has slightly gone whoosh over my head but if you have the patience via this website to go through it with me I would really appreciate the help. I promise I will be delighted to sing your praises if it stops some of these sales calls.
So the first question is....I have a link on my website index page to My Blog....I take it that wont help with my ratings?
I have heard of word press surprisingly through my hubby again <insert roll eyes here> So I have to ask my hosting if I can install wordpress to create my blog with them rather than use blogspot?
Ok I can guess you should now realise I havent a clue what I am talking about.
This will be quite a long process with me as I have so many other responsibilities, website, blogs etc are not priority. Three days of ironing unfortunately are.
Diana

[andrewburnett]

Hi Diana,

absolutely no need to apologise. I didn't take it personally, I get those calls too - which just goes to show the amount of research these buggers put in to it.

Anyway, my turn to apologise now What I was offering with the advice above is much more a fishing rod than a battered cod...

I really can't spend the sort of time it'd take to go through each part of the process step by step, it would be quicker to do it all for you - but I'm only going to do that IF you have implemented all the steps above and they haven't worked....

Forget about installing WordPress for the moment. They are not nearly as difficult as you imagine - they will literally take less than a day to do, seriously. You have an excellent tool at hand (google) for each and every one of the 5 steps above.

The 5 steps you can do yourself, again:

1. Both www. and non www. versions of your domain resolve - fix this using .htaccess redirects if your site is on a unix or linux server (google .htaccess www redirect - there are millions of guides which are all the same)

2. Your page title contains only your brand name - are people liable to search for your brand, or for your products? Fix this by including at least one of the keywords you wish to target, make sure it reads naturally.

3. You don't have an h1 tag on your front page - get one and make sure that the keywords you want to be found for are in it, but so that they read naturally.

4. Consider slightly rearranging your site (there is a lot you could do, but I don't want to make this too daunting or time consuming for you) Having a clear menu structure either at the top of the page or down the left hand side will help visitors find what they're looking for on your site... granted it will, if at all, have a negligible effect on your rankings but it will definitely mean you lose less visitors who reach your site - it took me over a minute to find "contact" for example.

5. Get rid of the nextreme tracking nonsense and sign up for google analytics - that's about the best you can get for free - google know a thing or two more about webtraffic
than most other companies and let you profit from that for gratis, it'd be daft not to

Bear in mind, I'm giving you a fishing rod for free - battered cod is expensive.

[Dizzydiza]

Hi andrew
no worries.....if i dont ask i wont know whats being offered for nothing

no 1.....i havent a scooby what that is
no 2.... my page title is dizatiaras.....tiaras being what i make. if i change it to dizatiaras&jewellery i thought the spiders that search websites dont like the & bit.
no 3... I dont know what a h1 tag is but i have meta tags after the page title with lots of keywords
no 4...i use dreamweaver but i am not experience enough to improve the layout but all of my customers have said what a nice easy site it is to navigate....and again i dont have funds available to employ a web designer
no 5...i will certainly look into google analytics

thanks for the free fishing rod.....thank goodness i dont like battered cod.

[andrewburnett]

Hi Diana,

Shy kids get nae sweets, asking is never a bad thing

#1 google it.

#2 - page title should be relevant to page content - look at my site for inspiration on how they should look - starters for 10: "tiaras | scottish tiaras by dizatiaras" on your page about tiaras.

#3 you don't have to know what it is, just use it (seriously though - it is a header tag)

#4 You're using the best tool available to novice coders - I worked in macromedia tech support for 5 years - use the split view to learn how html works (it's how I learnt the basics)

#5 Google analytics are a million times better than the stats you currently have, also if you use analytics then I wouldn't be able to see all of your stats - whether you like it or not you have competitors - why give them the advantage of seeing where your traffic comes from?

See, your rod just got a better reel

[Dizzydiza]

Think I got the h1 tag licked

1 done 4 to go....but its bed time for me...church in the morning

[Dizzydiza]

Changed the page titles and installed google analytics....how cool do i feel

I think the biggie is still the resolving www and non www versions of my domain.....whatever that may mean.....off to google it but the chances of me understanding it will be interesting to see....lol

[andrewburnett]

You'll be fine

It is a lot easier than most SEOs would have you believe. Don't get me wrong there are serious benefits of having a professional SEO, but for hobby sites you really don't need it.

Actually I hust dug this link out for you on the resolving of www and non www:
Redirect incomming links with .htaccess to prevent duplicate content penalties - enarion.net

It also explains WHY quite well - just ignore the bits that are too techie for you

Remember it doesn't matter whether with or without www - just choose whichever one you prefer.

[Dizzydiza]

Just to let you know I am loving the Google analytic's. The redirecting of domains are a work in progress. I had to contact my hosting to make sure it was ok to use that file on my website....and it is