BLOG LIKE AN EXPERT PART I by Lois W. Stern

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BLOG LIKE AN EXPERT PART I

HOW TO WRITE WORDPRESS BLOGS THE SEARCH ENGINES WILL NOTICE 

by

Lois W. Stern

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You’ve worked hard writing your blog. Why keep it hidden?

If you want the Search Engines to take note of  your WordPress blog,  here are some important steps you should take.

 

 

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When I started Tales2Inspire I knew wanted to achieve something special, but hadn’t a clue how to get there. (My guess is that Tales2Inspire would still be nothing more than a dream if I hadn’t started working with a skilled media specialist!) Little by little Don McCauley has been teaching me the ropes: how to make those search engines work for Tales2Inspire and all its winning authors. 

I’ve learned that effective blogging takes time and effort, but if you follow the rules, your search engine rankings will begin to soar. Thanks to Don, I am slowly mastering those rules for successful blogging, using WordPress.com as my anchor. Let me share a few of the basics with you.

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MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR BLOG TITLES 

Create the title of your blog using some key words to match its theme. (In the screen shot below, notice how I used the key words Inspiring Story in the title.)

Repeat your title as the first words in the body of your blog, using the H1 tag, (In the screen shot below, notice how I included those same key words, as part of the intro to the blog while using the H1 font (See the gold letters: Inspiring Story of the Week: The Miracle of Maggie by Claudia Domb.)

Repeat your key words again in your first sentence. (Notice the repetition of the key words, “inspiring story” in the initial sentence: This is the most inspiring story of a miracle . . . The Miracle of Maggie)

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 MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR KEY WORDS 

The first time you use your key words in the body of the blog, place them above any images. (Notice how I placed the key words, “Inspiring story” above the Tales2Inspire logo.)
 Repeat those key words in the body of the blog at the suggested ratio of once every 100 words.

 

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MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FEATURED IMAGE

 Go to MEDIA and select one image to highlight your blog, or import a new one. (See the screen shot, above. Note how I selected the image of a woman grasping her head, obviously frustrated by her computer, to visually represent this story.)

After you select your representative image, look to the right for the Attachment Details panel. (Again, refer to the screen shot, above.)

Complete the image side bar information. (Note how I filled in the blanks for title, caption, alt text and description in the above

screen shot.)

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MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR CATEGORIES AND KEYWORD TAGS 

 Scroll down a bit further on your Word Press blog screen to see a place to enter categories and tags/keywords.

 

Select one of those categories as your Primary by clicking on the words Make Primary in the right column across from it.

 

 

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MAKING THE MOST OF OTHER NIFTY SEO TOOLS 

 Go to WordPress plugins and download the free Yoast plugin. This plugin will provide you with some other useful tools.

 

See the screen shot below. Note the green circle next to the words Readability Scale at the top left corner. Because that circle is green, I know that my blog posting for the story Canadian Geese will be easy for viewers to read and understand. If that circle was red, I would know that I would need to edit that blog further.

 How to improve your Readability Score – Make it easy for readers to scan your blog. Here’s how:

* Shorten some of your longer sentences.

* Use fewer sentences per paragraph.

* Replace some of your difficult words with more commonly used ones.

* Break down long sentences into two shorter ones.

* Simplify a complex sentence by rewording it.

 

 Click on the Pencil/Edit snippet bar below the Snippet editor to expand it. (See the screen shot below for an expanded view.)

Add your SEO title, SLUG and META description. The screen shot above shows how I added my SEO title, SLUG and META description to this blog posting. (I had to play with the wording a bit, but when the green bars fill in completely, you will know that you did a good job!)

Add your Focus keyword(s) below the Snippet Editor.

 

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A QUICK REVIEW VIDEO

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CLICK HERE TO READ PART TWO

BEST PRACTICES FOR PROMOTING YOUR BLOG 

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Lois W. Stern
www.tales2inspire.com
Click here for a F*R*E*E Tales2Inspire book.

Don McCauley
www.freepublicityfocusgroup.com

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