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Remember when MTV used to show videos? You know, the thing their name stands for? I’ve heard that video killed the radio star, but what about everyone else? Despite the growing number of artists, it seems as though the cultural icon has just turned to a long list of reality TV programming.
There’s something to be said for video -- not just musically, but on your website. Boosting your blog’s presence is a multimedia effort. No matter how much content you have up on your site, your visibility will increase with video content.
Having a blog is great, and having content on the site is better, but mixing it up with other forms of media is what can increase ranking and get you noticed. Adding video content to your blog is one of the easiest and most effective ways to score SEO points and gain Internet traffic.
Depending on what kind of blog you have, incorporating videos into your posts is also a great way to demonstrate a point. There are blogs in the online universe that exist solely to comb through and find the best videos, whether they are newsworthy, informational or just plain funny. Either way, the blog with the video is more likely to attract visitors than text alone.
Adding video content to your blog is not very hard. If you’re using WordPress, a simple click of the button or HTML code will help you insert your video into the blog. Make your own videos, add them to YouTube and then add them to your site if you like. By utilizing video content, your blog has taken the next step towards become a dynamic multimedia center. Video may have killed the radio star, but it’s giving the blog new life.
Beat Competitors To Rank For Keywords Not Machine
When you’re setting up a website, one of the first things you’re going to have to come up with is a domain name, that URL that people need to type in to get to your site. This is a great thing about the Internet. Nowhere else in life do you get to choose your own address. Well, you may get to choose it, but you don’t get to choose what it’s called. You’re stuck with: 5489 Drab Place or whatever. Online, your address can be whatever you want it to be.
Within limits. You can’t choose anything obscene and for that matter, anything with an “X” anywhere near it has probably already been co-opted by some porn site. Pretty much every four letter or fewer letter combination has already been used, as is probably every word in the English language not in combination with one or more other words.
So what’s a name-maker to do? Keep in mind that your domain name is also your URL, the thing people have to remember in order to type it in to their web browser in order to get to your site. Try to make a domain name that describes your product or service without getting too wordy: WeCleanYourDrains.com rather than TheBestPlumberInTheWorldThatOffersaVarietyofPlumbingServices.com. I’d also avoid too many syllables and too much alliteration. ResplendentRedRackets.com sounds like a distinctive name for your site that sells tennis gear, but it may be more trouble that it’s worth. Was it RedResplendent or ResplendentRed? What was that first word again? Try to keep it simple.
While the choice of a domain name may not seem that important in the greater scheme of things, the fact is, it is your introduction, the first thing people see about your site, and like they say in the commercial, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression."
What’s The Good Word: Blogs And Keywords
Certain words -- nay, many words -- are so vulgar that they cannot be repeated on television (unless you subscribe to cable). Even more words just sound bad, despite their true meaning: banal, disgruntled, moist. Every year, the National Spelling Bee tests the knowledge of how words are correctly spelled, starting with the contestants announcing each individual letter and ending with most of the kids in tears. In short, words are everywhere, often causing suffering.
But what about keywords in a blog? Those words should be carefully selected the same way a sushi chef delicately filets a fish. The keywords you use in a blog make all the difference between how many people view your site.
Considering keywords is easy, especially when you are running a niche site. For example, if you sell paraphernalia related to words – dictionaries, crossword puzzles, National Spelling Bee baseball caps – you want to put those keywords all over your blog. The reason blogs are so successful with businesses is because it casually yet effectively incorporates content into your site, no matter what the site is about, thus bringing in precious Internet traffic through SEO.
So if you’re writing a blog concerning the latest version of Scrabble, you not only want to include keywords in the tags section, but you want to make sure those keywords are inserted into the blog without overusing them. Scrabble, board games and word games are all phrases that need to be repeated with finesse. Use them, yet don’t rely on them, for SEO practices. Keywords should also appear in subheadings as well as in the blog to help attract even more traffic.
Now, did you even notice how many times I just the term “keyword” in this blog?
I’ve been writing a lot this week about the joys and pitfalls of affiliate marketing. While I’m still not quite an expert on the subject (though a lot closer than I was a week ago) there is one thing I’ve realized, and that’s the importance of making sure your website is one that interests you.
When people are considering what kind of website they will use as the basis for their affiliate program, they usually think first about what will drive the most traffic to their site, what subject will catch the attention of search engines and send hordes of Internet consumers streaming to their pages ready to start an endless cascade of clicks on the affiliate ads that rest within.
The reality is that making an affiliate site successful usually takes time and effort, and you won’t always see dividends right away. That’s why it’s important that the focus of your site be something that’s going to make you want to come back and work on it every day.
Listen, I know mortgage loans aren’t anyone’s favorite topic, but if you have an interest in real estate, it makes a lot more sense to make mortgage loans your focus than say, poker. On the other hand, poker is perfect affiliate site for someone like me, who is constantly glued to episodes of the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker, and whose eyes glaze over when he hears talk of things like “negative amortization,” “variable rate mortgages,” and “Private Mortgage Insurance.”
They say “do what you love and the money will follow.” Base an affiliate marketing plan around something you love (or at least like) and even if the money doesn’t follow, you’ll have a good time giving it your best shot.
Furthering Your Education in a Fast Paced World
I was in the middle of graduate school when I first found CKMG. Boy, was I thrilled to take a break from the full-time grind of academic study. However, after a year-long hiatus, my unfinished business is looming and it's time to get back to the books, at least part time.
Which brings me to the point: education is a continuous process. In order to stay sharp in your chosen field, it's necessary to exercise and enhance your skills. Always look for ways to build on your existing level of expertise. I'm a firm believer in furthering education to meet the demands of this fast paced world.
Online classes are a flexible option for those juggling various obligations. You have the convenience of learning what you want, when you want, from the comforts of your own home.
In many cases, you don't have to be a traditional student to take advantage of the resources offered by the school. Look for courses in the extended learning program at your local community college or university. This is a great way to enhance your skills and stay up-to-date on the latest advances in your field.
Although, frames have become slightly outdated as a method of structuring a website, it's helpful to realize why their effect can have such a negative impact in terms of search engine results.
A frame is an html tag that allows you to load multiple html files into one browser screen. People often use this method as means of keeping a stationary navigation, while allowing the user to search through individual content pages.
Although it is now possible for search engines to identify and find the individual files associated within the frameset, the main problem with frames consists of them not allowing any links to those individual framed pages. In other words, you can only bookmark one URL for the web address and this is for the frameset file itself.
This hinders the site because users cannot bookmark any of the content, and it's impossible for outside sites to link in to any other pages besides the homepage. If the individual page is found by chance using a search engine, it will load as only the frame content and will be orphaned from the usually crucial navigation frame -- this will greatly hinder your SEO ranking efforts.
For websites with frames, all traffic to the website has to come in through the front, ensuring all of the frames of the website are included. This obviously hinders all other traffic linking in to the individual sub pages. Since all traffic is directed to the front home page, this makes optimizing the rest of the site for individual pages nearly impossible.
Since frames were mostly utilized in order to create a stationary navigation (i.e. navigation that stays in the same position while the rest of the page scrolls), the use of CSS (cascading style sheets) has greatly remedied this problem and created much better SEO website design possibilities. CSS allows certain elements on the page to take on various types of positioning properties. One of these properties is 'Absolute' positioning, which gives that element an absolute position that stays at the same point regardless of scrolling. This now allows the same result while using only one html document. Returning to a layout that utilizes only one html document being viewed at a time creates a page that is easier to optimize for search engines.
--Marco del Rio
I was an excellent American history student. I read the textbook cover to cover and earned the top score possible on my high school AP test. In short, I know my facts.
But memories get rusty after several years of ignoring the books in favor of TV. Did you know that Tulsa is home to one of the top ballet companies in the country? Or that Colorado Springs was originally founded in the hopes of building a health resort in the late 1800s? Maybe you had no idea that Virginia has no major professional sports teams, but that Washington, D.C. has one of each and is home to the most monuments in one area. If you didn't know, a simple search with SEO methods could probably tell you. The other way to find out is wait for the latest and greatest from CKMG.
Oh, the fun facts you learn when you are tasked with acquiring as much knowledge as possible about all 50 states in the U.S. of A. and its top 50 cities. From Omaha to Oklahoma, Seattle to South Carolina, I’ve read about them all in the past week in preparation for CKMG’s newest venture, City Info Search. The site will cover every state in America and discuss everything from restaurants, nightlife and shopping to points of interests and historical sites. City Info Search will be about finding what you want to know about any city, anywhere in the U.S. And yes, there is a good chance you will learn that Arizona is the fastest growing state or that the beach is accessible from any point in Rhode Island within 30 minutes. Three cheers for red, white and blue!
--Nadia Osman