Archive for Blogs
4 Important Components To Effective SEO Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsGenerating consistent traffic for your website may seem like a daunting task, and while it is not easy, it is a very simple process. Understanding what it takes will help you to learn the skills you need to improve your page ranking on your own terms. Here are four important components to effective SEO marketing.
1) Keywords: This is the core of all SEO marketing. Search engines are based on an index of keywords that web crawlers use to identify the relevance of sites based on search engine inquiries. The more relevant, specific, and unique your keywords are, the better your chances of performing highly in a search engine inquiry. Free tools, like Google Keyword Tool or Wordtracker, can help you if this is difficult, which it probably will be in the beginning.
2) Titles: Along with keywords, a unique and catchy title will surely attract many curious visitors to the content on your site. The more enticing and interesting your title the better the chances are that visitors will return for more later.
3) Backlinks: This is the most technical aspect of SEO marketing. Backlinking entails links that you have embedded into an article that you posted on a third party site that will direct a visitor back to your site. The more backlinks you post on quality, highly-visible sites, the more likely your traffic will increase from referrals. When your links are clicked from these third-party sources, web crawlers recognize this as an increase in your popularity, which boosts your optimization rating.
4) Directories: You can easily and quickly submit your site to a variety of web directories, like Google and Yahoo. All you have to do is go to each particular search engine and fill out the form they supply for web site directory submission. This will automatically add your site and the related links to the web crawler index, which will update your score every time it searches the web.
Books & links to help you with WordPress
Posted by: | CommentsA book that can greatly assist in learning WordPress is shown below. For basic easy-to-read and understand, the Dummies Book is a good read.
You can find many free WordPress themes on www.wordpress.org and by doing a Google search for “Free WordPress themes”.
Domain Registars
GoDaddy is one of lowest priced Domain Name suppliers and is very easy to work with. They also have very good telephone support.
Web Hosting
We have used both Bluehost and Hostmonster to host our websites. This site is being hosted by Hostmonster.
Start a Travel Blog Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been reading a few questions on various travel agent forums asking for help starting a website. I built my first website in July 1994 when there was no easy-to-use editors or software. I really like the WordPress platform which is what is being used on this site. It is very easy to edit, update and maintain. If you take a few hours to read the online documentation at wordpress.org or purchase one of the many books explaining how WordPress works, your time will be well-spent. On thing to keep in mind when purchasing a book, make sure it is current and not 4 years old and many versions of WordPress past.
There are websites where you can purchase graphics and nice themes for a reasonable price. The cost of these items is much less than paying a webmaster foreven a simple business card style website. It is easy to add content as you find the time to learn more about how it all works.
I would purchase a domain for $7.99 per year and host it with one of the $4.95-$6.95 per month webhosts rather than host it on one of the free hosts. You will be able tgo customize your Blog easier and have more options. If they were to close your account or go out of business you may not have a backup and could lose all of your data. This can also be the case with a self-hosted WordPress site, but there is an easy to use Database Backup Plugin that only takes a few minutes to install and setup.
I’ll list some of the theme sites and hosts where you can host your WordPress application in my next post. Even though WordPress is mostly called a Blog, it can easily be used as a content managemnet system (CMS) with the right theme. Other than saying “Powered by WordPress” a the bottom of the page, you probably would not know it was not a custom formatted website.
Start a Travel Blog
Posted by: | CommentsUsing easy to learn WordPress, a travel agent can quickly publish a travel blog. If you specialize in a destination or a special market, say the Caribbean or Honeymoons, a specific blog can be a huge plus for you. A few things to consider when starting your blog:
Have a game plan in mind. If you are a Jamaica specialist and have traveled to the Island many times, let it be known. If there are side trips, excursions that are different from the traditional resort or cruise ship excursion, publish this information. Your readers will appreciate your advice and may contact you for booking assistance for their next vacation.
If you have personal photos that show the destination, this will add more impact to your story. Like they say, “a picture is worth a 1000 words”.