Acorn SEO

WordPress Update Services List – AKA Monster WordPress Ping List 2012

Andrew Wheeler — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:23:20 +0000

Own a WordPress blog? You should follow the steps below to update your services list. Having a wordpress ping list (2012 updated) in your services list increases the chances of the search engines and news crawlers discovering your content. Once setup, it’s fully automated, and will ‘ping’ your services list whenever you click publish. To learn more about how ‘pinging’ works, click here.

Just click Settings > Writing:

… and scroll down the page:

Here is the wordpress ping list (2012) to copy paste:


http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.co.jp/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://audiorpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://bitacoles.net/notificacio.php

http://bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://blo.gs/ping.php

http://blog.goo.ne.jp

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php

http://blogdb.jp

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc

http://blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://blogoole.com/ping/

http://blogoon.net/ping/

http://blogpeople.net/ping

http://blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://blogsearch.google.ae/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.at/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.be/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.bg/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.ca/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.ch/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.cl/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.cr/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.hu/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.id/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.il/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.in/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.it/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.jp/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.ma/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.nz/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.th/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.uk/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.ve/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.co.za/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.ar/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.au/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.br/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.co/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.do/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.mx/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.my/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.pe/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.sa/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.sg/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.tr/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.tw/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.ua/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.uy/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com.vn/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.de/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.es/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.fi/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.fr/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.gr/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.hr/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.ie/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.in/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.it/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.jp/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.lt/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.nl/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.pl/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.pt/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.ro/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.ru/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.se/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.sk/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.tw/ping/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.us/ping/RPC2

http://blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://blogsnow.com/ping

http://blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://blogupdate.org/ping/

http://bulkfeeds.net

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://catapings.com/ping.php

http://coreblog.org/ping

http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi

http://feedsky.com/api/RPC2

http://fgiasson.com/pings/ping.php

http://hamo-search.com/ping.php

http://holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/

http://imblogs.net/ping/

http://lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://mod-pubsub.org

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

http://mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatt

http://mod-pubsub.org/ping.php

http://newsblog.jungleboots.org/ping.php

http://newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://packetmonster.net/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.amagle.com

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.blo.gs

http://ping.blogg.de/

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc

http://ping.blogoon.net/

http://ping.blogs.yandex.ru/RPC2

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.fakapster.com/rpc

http://ping.fc2.com/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.feeds.yahoo.com/RPC2/

http://ping.kutsulog.net/

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://ping.namaan.net/rpc

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.snap.com/ping/RPC2

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se

http://ping.wordblog.de/

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc

http://pingoat.com/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://popdex.com/addsite.php

http://r.hatena.ne.jp/rpc

http://rcs.datashed.net

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.bloggerei.de/ping/

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger

http://rpc.britblog.com/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com

http://rpc.reader.livedoor.com/ping

http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.twingly.com

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://rpc.wpkeys.com

http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx

http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz

http://snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php

http://topicexchange.com

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://wasalive.com/ping/

http://weblogues.com/ping/

http://weblogues.com/RPC/

http://www.a2b.cc

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.bloglines.com/ping

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.blogoon.net/ping

http://www.blogpeople.net

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://www.blogroots.com

http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://www.blogroots.com/tbpopuli.blog?id=1

http://www.blogsdominicanos.com/ping/

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.catapings.com/ping.php

http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2

http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/

http://www.imblogs.net/ping/

http://www.lasermemory.com

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/knapps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/ping.php

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://www.octora.com/add_rss.php

http://www.popdex.com

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.snipsnap.org

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://www.wasalive.com/ping/

http://www.weblogues.com

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC

http://www.xianguo.com/xmlrpc/ping.php

http://www.zhuaxia.com/rpc/server.php

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

http://zhuaxia.com/rpc/server.php

http://zing.zingfast.com

… Click save and you are done. Easy! Remember that excessive pinging is not advised, and if you are making multiple edits to blog posts you should use a ping management plugin to avoid unnecessary pinging. ‘Spam’ pinging these services will result in your requests being ignored.

Comments welcome below.

acornseo.com/wordpress-update-services-list-aka-monster-wordpress-ping-list-2012 is ranked 4.5 out of 5. Based on 7 user reviews.

Written by Andrew Wheeler, a SEO Consultant based in Zurich, Switzerland. Founder of the SEO Company, Acorn SEO and author of the book 101 SEO Secrets. you can connect with him on Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn. Please leave your comments below.

Like this blog post? You’ll love the book. 178 pages covering 101 actionable tips and tricks to increase rankings, traffic and revenue for your business. Click here to order 101 SEO Secrets directly from Amazon. Not convinced? Click here to receive your free SEO tips and tricks delivered spam free to your inbox.

How to 301 redirect a WordPress site

Andrew Wheeler — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:02:50 +0000

The process of setting up a 301 redirects in your .htaccess file is straight forward using cpanel, but needs to be followed in the correct order. This step by step guide will help you through it.

Order Your URLs

First, you want to make a list of the URLs you wish to redirect. If you only have one or two broken links you are looking to redirect, just paste the URL’s into notepad for later. However, if you are migrating a much larger site to a new domain (much like we did earlier this week for AcornSEO) you will want to ensure every link of your existing website is taken into account to avoid loosing out on SEO value and returning 404 errors when you migrate to the new site.

There are a number of methods to order your links, we prefer either generating a sitemap, and using the Screaming Frog software. You should also run your website through a tool like open site explorer, and filter by page strength to ensure important pages are not missed from your audit. You might be surpassed an old blog post or forum thread has gained PR and trust rank that you wouldn’t want to loose.

Login to cPanel

Once you have your list, login to cPanel and scroll down to the ‘Domains’ section and click ‘Redirects’ as show here:

You will then be able to enter your URLs on the next screen directly to your .htaccess file:

Ensure ‘Permanent 301′ is selected from the drop down
Enter the address of the page you wish to redirect
Enter the full URL of the new destination
Make sure the radio button selects both with or without www
Click Add to put your 301 inplace!

How to 301 redirect a WordPress site

You can then repeat the process with all the URLs you have even for WordPress sites. The effect should be instant, so it’s easy to test if you have done it correctly. However, there is a common problem with some WordPress code in the .htacess file getting in the way of the cPanel code. When you test, if you get a 404 error, you most likely have this conflict within your .htaccess file.

To fix this, download your .htaccess file via FTP. Next, open it in notepad and you should have something like this:


# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]


# END WordPress

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^organicseospecialist\.net$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.organicseospecialist\.net$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/www\.acornseo\.com\/" [R=301,L]

The above code shows my cPanel redirect (visitors to organicseospecialist.net should get forwarded to acornseo.com) below the WordPress code. In order to fix your 404 redirect errors, just move the WordPress generated code under the redirect you have just setup in cPanel, like so:


RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^organicseospecialist\.net$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.organicseospecialist\.net$
RewriteRule ^/?$ "http\:\/\/www\.acornseo\.com\/" [R=301,L]

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]


# END WordPress

With this fix, your 301′s should now redirect correctly. Add your comments below for additional support.

HTML Title Tags For SEO

Andrew Wheeler — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:07:08 +0000

Adding title tags to your pages is an important, yet extremely easy, HTML tweak you can make to your pages to increase ranking positions. The title tag will get displayed in the browser window (see above graphic) in addition to the search result pages. The title tag enables you to inform the search engines of the subject and content of your page, and used correctly will make you more likely to appear for your keyword targets.

The title tag appears in the HEAD of your HTML document, and would read as follows:


Your interesting keywords here

There is no exact rule to the number of characters you can use within a title tag, but remember only 70 characters are shown in the search results, so users won’t see anything over that. The SEO crowd generally guides people to use under 100, more commonly around the 60-70 mark. A recent whiteboard friday video from Cyrus Shepard showed us that Google can, in theory, crawl and index page titles with unto a 1000 characters, but we wouldn’t recommend using that many!

Ian Lurie over at Conversation Marketing makes an interesting point about avoiding the use of ‘pipes’, computer code which looks like this: | in your title tag as they could cause problems for the search engines. Personally, we use them and haven’t experienced any issues, but his logic is sound.

We generally use 2-3 keywords per title tag that best describe the content of your page, with the most important keywords at the beginning of the tag. For example, if we wanted to rank for ‘seo secrets’, we would make sure those words are at the beginning of the title tag:


SEO Secrets to increase search rankings

and not:


Increase search rankings with our SEO Secrets

You should avoid having your company name at the beginning of your title tag. Save that for the end. Infact, even if you don’t include your company name, chances are you will still come up in response to someone searching for you. This depends largely on your domain name, social signals, on page content and meta description.

How to Add Title Tags To WordPress

Adding title tags within WordPress is very easy. Simply install the All In One SEO plugin, and activate the plugin. Now when you navigate to your posts and pages, scroll down and you will notice the options box (if it doesn’t display, make sure you have it checked in your screen options panel at the top) ready for you to populate:

Has The iPhone4 S and iOS5 Changed SEO?

Andrew Wheeler — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:14:22 +0000

Part of the new features with the latest iPhone 4 S is the voice recognition software, Siri. Siri is able to take notes, set reminders and todo tasks by voice – a handy and useful feature that works far better than previous versions seen on other devices.

If the system works (early indications are it does, very well) combined with Apple’s market share, then this sort of innovation is likely to become widespread and adopted as ‘the norm’ when it comes to interacting with your mobile device.

Think about where Siri (and the Android competition) will be in 12months. Do you think we’ll be telling Siri websites we want to visit? What about searches we type into Google? The obvious progression of voice is for this type of deeper interaction.

With that in mind, if someone wanted to visit your website using their voice, could they do it?

Is it difficult to pronounce by someone outside of your company? (If you get a ‘how do you spell that?’ response a lot, that’s a good indicator)

Is it loaded with hyphens?

Acornseo.com is easier to voice than seo-company-switzerland.com. If you are in this position (I am too) then consider registering a new, shorter, easier to voice domain name. You can 301 redirect your old one easily and the users will be none the wiser, and you’ll be voice ready.

Do you miss-spell a word in a ‘flickr.com’ style manner?

Again, make sure you register the correct spelling of the word (if possible) and 301 redirect it.

What about searches we currently type into Google?

If Siri takes off, mobile users won’t be typing into Google as much. Google will still be the mechanics behind the scenes, but users probably won’t be viewing a full page of results.

Search queries will also get longer as the accuracy and adoption of Siri increases. Voice enabled devices will enable us to make full sentence commands in the search engines. Think about how you are going to address this for the mobile market.

And That Twitter Website Thing.

Take this:

“iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Combine with this:

“iOS 5 makes it even easier to tweet from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.”

= No more excuses. Your customers are here. You need a company Twitter page and to start tweeting stuff, right now.

Do Search Engines Use Meta Tags?

Andrew Wheeler — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:19:00 +0000

One of the most outdated SEO methods is to try to optimize a page or website using the meta tags. The search engines no longer use the meta tags for ranking. This had proven too easily manipulated, and led to an internet filled with spam.

In fact, Google’s singular greatest accomplishment was finding a replacement for meta tags and other on site SEO methods, replacing them with linking data. If you are still trying to use the meta keyword tags to optimize your site, don’t bother. It is a complete and utter waste of time.

The Meta Description

The story is somewhat different for the meta description tags. It is still true that the search engines do not use this tag in any way to determine rankings. That said, they still use it in a crucial way. Specifically, when a page is displayed in the search engine rankings, the description listed below the title of the page typically contains the information from the meta description tag.

Any sane internet marketer realizes that rankings are not everything. Traffic and conversions are the primary goal. A user is much more likely to click through and visit a page if the description grabs their attention. For this reason, the meta description tag should be treated like advertising copy. Its primary purpose is to convince users to click on the title and visit the site from the search engine results. It is your chance to tell the searcher that your site contains the information they are looking for, to pique their interest, and to draw them onto your site.

Most search engines will display only 155 characters of the meta description tag. For this reason, you will obviously want to keep the description shorter than this. Any longer and the user won’t be able to read the entire description. This limitation shouldn’t be cause for concern. Frankly, most users probably wouldn’t read any more if they had the chance.

Fitting your most important keywords into the meta description tag is advised if possible. The search engines will bold the keyword, which draws the user’s attention to your site. Despite this, the optimal meta description tag will serve as more than a list of keywords. It should compel the searcher to want to learn more.

Ideally, each page on your site should have a different meta description. If this isn’t possible, it may actually be better to avoid using the meta description tag at all. The description should be targeted toward people who are searching for the specific information found on the page. It should not be a company slogan or anything similar. This becomes especially problematic if your site gets multiple listings in the search results. If every page has the same description, the searcher will think that the pages are identical, even if they contain different information. This eliminates the advantages of having multiple listings.

Only alphanumeric characters should be used inside the tag. If you include a quotation mark inside the tag, it will cut off the message, making it useless to the searcher. If quotes need to be included in the description, you can use a single quote instead of a double quote.

When Not to Use the Meta Description Tag

If the purpose of the page is to target three or fewer keywords that have the potential to bring in a great deal of traffic, it is typically a good idea to include the description. On the other hand, if they page is not highly keyword targeted, and it’s primary purpose is to address a more complicated issue for the reader, it is often a better idea to avoid the description tag. Any long tail keywords found on the page will not be displayed in the search listings if the description tag is in place. This means that the page could rank well for a keyword, but the keyword won’t be listed in the description, making it less likely for a searcher to visit the site for that specific keyword.

When the search engine automatically scrapes the site and fills its own description, it always displays the keyword that the searcher was looking for. Long tail pages are best completed with no description tag.

How To Optimise Your Flash Website for Best SEO

Andrew Wheeler — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:35:12 +0000

Google has become considerably more advanced over the years, and one of the most impressive changes that they have made is the ability to read Flash.

Flash is a format that allows for interactive animations to be displayed on a website. In the past, Google was unable to read any of the information that is stored within a Flash file. Today, it is able to sift through the code to find links and snippets of text, making it possible to discover Flash content in a web search.

This is excellent news right? So, what is the best way to optimise a flash website so that it will be properly crawled and indexed by Google?

There isn’t one.

The fact of the matter is, Google still can’t read Flash reliably enough to optimise a site built using only Flash. It would be a mistake to say that you should never use Flash. The interactivity and aesthetic offered by the format can be very pleasing to users. The importance of user enjoyment should never be understated.

That said, it is a waste of time to try to optimise a Flash file for SEO purposes. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the content is all found on one URL. One of the most effective on-site SEO strategies is to build several different pages on your site, each one with its own title targeting a specific keyword. This way, Google can bring a searcher directly to the page on the site that contains the information that they are looking for.

Not so with Flash. If the entire website is built in Flash, then all of the content is found on the same page. What might look like different pages through the Flash interface are all the same page according to Google. To avoid this problem, a separate Flash module needs to be created on each page of the site.

While Google can now read text within a Flash file, it can’t be expected to do so reliably. Much of the text will typically be transformed into images for aesthetic purposes, and won’t be picked up by Google. The text that is extracted from the file will often be read out of order. The text is not organized into headers and paragraphs and bold keywords that Google can understand, making it impossible for the search engine to determine which phrases are most important.

The only real way to avoid this problem is to include a full transcript of the information found in the Flash file on the page. This is actually strongly advised for all non-textual media, including any form of video or audio. The information can be listed below the Flash module. Absolute minimalists might think that this is less attractive to visitors, but most won’t even notice.

In most cases, Flash is embedded. In other words, the Flash file isn’t actually located on the page that it’s viewed from. This means that the actual content of the Flash file is located on some unheard of page of the website that nobody will ever link to. Google has said that they do not index the external files that are called by Flash, meaning that the authority of the Flash file itself is extremely low, if it exists at all. All of the authority goes to the page that the Flash file is viewed from.

The best way to optimise a flash website is not to optimise the Flash on the site at all. From an SEO perspective, the entire site should be built like a traditional website. It should contain title tags with keywords in them, separate pages for every subject, internal links including anchor text, and so forth. From that point forward, there is certainly no harm in adding a Flash file to each page of your site for the sake of the user’s enjoyment. Just make sure that the content in the Flash file matches the traditional content on the page. If it doesn’t, you run the risk of never getting the content indexed.

How To Grab Your Readers Attention In 5 Simple Steps

Andrew Wheeler — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:00:36 +0000

You may have just had the best idea in the world and scribbled down the best news article of your career. You may have the scoop on how to end world hunger or cure cancer, or even just have the latest gossip on Justin Beiber’s new hairstyle. But all the most beautiful content about all the best ideas in the world aren’t worth anything – if you can’t get anyone to read it.

I crafted that headline specifically so that you would click and read it, because I want you to read this article. Its nothing sinister, I just want to increase my readership and get people on my blog – You probably have much the same thing in mind when you write your articles. But how can you set yourself apart from the other six billion monkeys with typewriters? With 80 visitors out of every 100 to your website just skimming over your titles and then leaving, and with studies showing only 20% of the visitors to your website are actually reading anything past the headlines… There isn’t much margin for error.

That said, it’s only partially good if your content only gets read. The ultimate victory for the modern blogger is to get the content passed on. Tweeted on Twitter. Posted on Facebook. Emailed. Commented on and discussed in Forums.

If I can get you to pass this article on to all your friends and help them write better, stronger titles on their articles, that would be a fantastic result. But to get there – it all starts with the headline.

So, what kinds of headlines grab the attention of the morbidly curious browsers out there and reel them in to peruse and share your content? Is anything with Paris Hilton in the title game? How about Lindesay Lohan? Or is there more to it than opulent name-dropping?

All good headlines share in common this one secret:

They give the reader an irresistible reason to keep reading.

That may sound vague and noncommittal to you, but it’s the truth. There are a number of ways to give that irresistible reason to your readers. No matter what product, service, event, or celebrity you have to write about, you can use a simple formula to embed such irresistibility into your title that it will take the strongest self-control in the world to shake it off.

1. The Magic Colon : Use It Before A Dramatic Phrase

So there’s nothing magical about colons. The point is that using a subject, a colon, and then a dramatic phrase of pure hype can often be an effective way to grab your readers by the throat and pull them into your article. If the hype following your colon must be slightly exaggerated or overstated to compete with the other crazy bloggers out there, you can always add a quick disclaimer in the following text.

Play around with this formula a bit to get a good handle on it. Try a few boring subjects – green tea, seo services, or socks, for instance – and see if you can make them alluring with a good post-colon buildup…For example: “EXPOSED: 3 Simple Ways To Cure Stinking Socks In Under 2 Minutes!”

2. The Superlative Hero

Using superlatives in your titles is a psychological trick that helps to reel in people who might not even have been interested in the first place. Including these ‘ultimate adjectives‘ soothes peoples’ minds that not only have they not missed the definitive word on the topic, but that after reading your article they will have remedied their gross under-education all in one place in only a few minutes time.

smart = the smartest
young = the youngest
fast = the fastest

…Test this formula out by using a couple of the adjectives above in your next few headlines.

3. List Headlines

Titles with list numbers tell the readers that the article is going to be easy to read and digest. There’s just something about a step-by-step formula that has us humans watering at the mouth when it comes to ingesting information. Personally, I blame Ikea. For example:

“5 Great ways to…”

“10 Ways to Make Your First Million…”

List headlines also give a simple and direct idea of exactly what the content of the article is going to be about. I might not have time for a tangled and jumbled thesis on the benefits of exercising, but I might just have time for Five Ways to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle Mass.

Putting a number figure in your title mixes things up and makes it stand out from all the other word-only titles. This formula can be used not only as a certain amount of reasons, secrets, or tips; it can also be effectively included in your title as a dollar figure or a plan for a certain number of days.

4. The Monster Opened his Gaping Mouth and…

…Then kept reading the article. Tickling the curiosity of your readers is one of the best ways to get your articles read. Although these are some of the most difficult headlines to write, headlines that pique the curiosity are also some of the most effective. Humans, much like cats, are curiosity-driven creatures and the curiosity gland, once invoked, is hard to ignore.

Tease your readers by dangling the most intriguing idea of your article in an abbreviated form as bait for your headline. You could include a controversial statement from your text, a secret that you promise to reveal, or even just two odd words thrown together like a ‘black swan’.

When using this formula, it’s important not to let down the audience cheaply after your shocker title. Try to make good on your controversial, baiting, curiosity-invoking headline by dishing up the goods to your reader. Be creative about your headlines but also be trustworthy.

5. And Some Sample Headline Words That Just… Get Read.

The Secret of…..
Little Known Ways to……
Here’s a Quick Way to….
How you can quit your job and make even more money (pulling on the ‘have your cake and eat it’ strings)

6. *Bonus: How to Ruin the Best Headline in the World

Titles that win Nobel peace prizes are only as good as the articles that follow them. You could create the most jaw-dropping title known to man but if it fizzles out with a boring opening statement and a pointless, rambling article your content will not be shared. Back up your brilliant headlines with brilliant articles.

If you’re going to use your headline to hype up your article, make sure it lives up to most of that hype. If you tell me it’s the last article I’m ever going to need to read on the topic, make sure it really is the very last article I will ever need. If you advertise a list of 10 Mind-blowing Reasons to Do Something, make sure those reasons really are mind-blowing and that that something really is worth doing in the first place.

The title is designed only to get the readers reading the content. If the content is not enjoyable, your blog will not gain readers and your readers will not pass on your content. After you’ve successfully grabbed your reader’s attention, good content is the only way to keep it.

Quick And Easy Google Optimisation Tips

Andrew Wheeler — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:42:27 +0000

Say what you will about Facebook, Twitter, and brand identity. These are all excellent ways to promote a business online. That said, if people can’t find your site in Google, most people will never hear about you.

Yes, big name brands like Amazon don’t need Google to be discovered, nor is it necessarily a good idea to rely strictly on SEO as a traffic source in the long term. Still, if you don’t take advantage of Google optimisation tips, you are missing out on a massive source of traffic.

How Do I Move Up on Google?

There are so many ways to answer that question that they can’t all be covered here. To sum it up, you need people to link to your site, and you need to optimize your site in order to rank for specific keywords. How exactly this is accomplished is a source of great controversy.

In the short term, you could do it by using automated software to flood the internet with links back to your site containing your keyword. The problem with this strategy is that if you achieve any kind of meaningful success, you will find yourself “above the radar.” Competitors are likely to spot what you are doing, and report you to Google. Make no mistake, Google’s algorithm still has no way of telling the difference between a manufactured link and a natural one. But if a Google employee spots what you are doing, they could easily penalize your rankings, or remove your from the index entirely.

The methods listed above are considered “black hat,” meaning that they could get you in trouble with Google, although they are not illegal. If you plan on running a legitimate business for years to come, these strategies should be avoided.

Keyword Research

No matter your strategy, you will need to use some form of keyword research in order to get the results you are hoping for. This means you want to find keywords related to the topic of your site, that are searched for by a great deal of people, and that present competition which you can beat. You can start with the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, which allows you to find related keywords, and lists the number of people who search for them each month.

You can then take a look at the competition for each keyword. It is helpful to use the Google Toolbar to see the PageRank of your competitors. If the PageRank is higher than 3, this means it is significantly more difficult to rank for the keyword, although enough links from the right sources will allow you to beat anybody.

On Site Optimization

Your site should consist of pages about your high traffic, low competition, high profitability keywords. The keywords should be found in the title of each page, and the article should deliver on the title. Don’t worry about keyword density, just make sure that you write the best article on the subject that can be found on the web. Link your pages together, using the keyword in the link, and pointing the most links at your most promising pages.

Links

Getting links is the core of SEO in its current incarnation. The ideal link contains your keyword, comes from an authority site related to your keyword, and exists inside an article about your keyword or something closely related. There are two basic ways to accomplish this: guest posting and link baiting.

A guest post is exactly what it sounds like. It is a post that you have written that is posted to somebody else’s site. The best guest posts come from site owners that you have contacted directly and built a working relationship with. In the context of the post, you can link back to your site.

There are also services such as PostRunner and Build My Rank which simplify the guest posting process, although the links don’t come from sites with as much authority. The easiest links come from sites like EZineArticles, which are known as article directories. These sites allow you to submit articles. Since the links are easy, the sites have less authority, and the links are less effective.

Link baiting is simply the process of writing content that people like to link to. It is the most legitimate method of building links, and perhaps the most difficult. Those who are incredibly skilled at it, however, find it to be easier. This is because of the fact that they can write much less content in order to attract the links that they need to rank.

How To Optimise Your PDF’s For Best SEO – Can Search Engines Read PDFs?

Andrew Wheeler — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:15:47 +0000

Unlike image, video, and audio files, the search engines have actually gotten quite good at reading PDF files.

They often contain extremely useful information. If they are found on your site, it is a mistake not to take the time to optimise them for maximum visibility.

Can search engines crawl PDFs? Yes, but as with text you should make it as easy as possible for Google to do so in a manner that makes it clear what the document is about. To start, you should choose a file name that is keyword focused, the same way that you would choose a page title. The words should be helpful to users, and they should take into account search volume and all the same factors of traditional keyword research.

Do the same for the title of the page. Preferably, the title and file name should be identical, or as close to identical as formatting will allow. The character limit for the title is the same as it would be for traditional title tags.

A PDF file has a description field. This should be treated the same way as the meta description tag of a page on your site. In other words, it has no relevance for ranking, but it is displayed below the title in the search engine listings. A good description field will make a searcher more likely to visit the site. Again, the character limitations are the same as with a standard meta description.

There is no reason to suspect that the author field has any bearing on ranking either, but if you want to properly brand your site it is a good idea to include the brand in this field. No harm is done by including the author’s name instead, of course.

Fill out every field.
The information on what fields are used by which search engines in limited, but there is certainly no harm in filling out all of them. It provides the search engines with more information to crawl, index, and rank. Even if some of the fields aren’t used by the search engines today, they may be in the future. Additionally, it is simply more professional to be as complete as possible, and makes the document more useful by more interfaces.

Tags can be added to make the file more organized and easier to categorize by various sources. Accessibility features can be added such as magnifiers and screen readers, making the document more useful to more people. Alt tags can also be added to any images in the file, and should be treated in the same way as tags for traditional images.

Include a link to the home page of your site, and any other relevant pages on your site. This is just as useful for PDFs as for standard pages. An added bonus is that other websites might host a copy of your document. If they do, this provides you with a free backlink back to your site to help improve your rankings. Be sure to write protect the document so that it can’t be edited by other people who choose to host the document. You want other people to host the file, but only if it hasn’t been altered to remove the links back to your site. Otherwise it is simply theft without attribution.

Despite the fact that PDFs can now be crawled and indexed much better than in the past, it is still worth it to include HTML versions of the file on your site. In many cases the HTML version is still more easily crawled. It is also more easily used by casual searchers. Of course, a PDF is more easily shared online or printed. Providing both gives you the best of both worlds.

Basic Keyword Research Guide: Simple Steps For Keyword Success!

Andrew Wheeler — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 12:48:11 +0000

One of the most important and most neglected aspects of search engine optimization is keyword research. It takes a great deal of time and effort, and often money, to rank a site for a given keyword. Without performing at least some keyword research before doing so, you will have no way of knowing if it is worth the effort.

Before optimizing a site, you need to take the time to find keywords that are profitable, that bring a great deal of traffic, and that have competition that you can beat.

It is always possible to pay for keyword research, but this is not always necessary. Here are some keyword research tips that you can take advantage of in order to ensure that your efforts are not in vain.

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool

AdWords is the advertising service offered by Google, which allows users to pay every time a user clicks on their advertisement. The advertisements are displayed when a specific keyword is searched for. This tool is designed for advertisers, letting them know how many people search for a given term. When you enter a keyword into the tool, it will display related keywords. It lists attributes such as the number of people who search for the term, and the average CPC (cost per click) that an advertiser is willing to pay.

This information will not necessarily tell you exactly how much a keyword is worth. The value of the keyword will depend on how you are monetizing your site, how good your conversion rate is, and so forth. Despite this, it is a good way of finding the most profitable keywords.

Your Competition

A highly profitable keyword is worthless to you if you have no chance of beating the competition. A rudimentary method of checking out the competition is to download the Google Toolbar, search for you target keyword, and look up the PageRank of the top four or five results in Google. PageRank is a measure of Google’s algorithmic view of the authority of a site. If your competitors have a PageRank higher than three or four, you will need quite a few resources to beat them in most cases.

Common Sense

Some very successful marketers use little more than common sense for their keyword research. They brainstorm keywords that sound profitable, and perform a search for them. They check to see if there is a great deal of advertising surrounding the keyword. They check out the competition and ask themselves if they can honestly build a more useful site or page on their site.

No matter what other strategies you are using, it is still important to use some common sense. The AdWords keyword tool isn’t always accurate. PageRank is not the only factor that Google uses to rank sites. Never let research tools trump common sense. If your gut tells you that you can’t build a site better than the competition, any success that you have is likely to be short lived.

The opposite is also true. A page can have a very high PageRank and be almost useless to the user searching for a given keyword. It might rank exclusively because of its PageRank, and be almost completely off topic.

A Word of Advice

No keyword research guide would be complete without mentioning the importance of diversification. Do not allow yourself to become attached to any given keyword. The most effective strategy is to pursue a subject and become the dominant authority on that subject.

Keyword research is useful because it gives you a goal for SEO purposes and because it helps you find topics that are worth covering. That said, if you cover your topic in full you will start to draw in search engine traffic for keywords that you never intentionally targeted. This is called “long tail” traffic, and it makes up 70 percent of the searches on the web. Becoming too centered on specific keywords will cut you off from this 70 percent of visitors who could find your site.

Keyword research should be used more as a way of detecting signals from your target audience. It lets you know what users are interested in and what they want to know about. If you answer questions that nobody else is asking, you will start to attract natural links.