Simple SEO Tips That Every Blogger Need to Be Well-Versed With

Understanding SEO from Blogging Perspective

Most new bloggers who are just starting out on blogging, believe that, it is all about simple writing and expecting people to discover your content on the Internet, in one way or other while others, think that social media is the only best way to drive traffic.

Yes, social media is a great way to market your blog, but you have to spend countless of hours and resources to ensure your content reach your desired audience. A few bloggers know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and how if well implemented can bring in free traffic from search, without that much effort.

Implementing SEO on your blog can improve ranking in Search Engines. So what are these Simple SEO tips?

Let’s look at them in details as follows:

Link Building

Link Building is all about connecting different elements on your website i.e. pages and posts on your website, and or with other external websites or blogs.

You can build links on your blog in different ways:

• Connecting related posts or articles on your blog
• Guesting posting on Authority sites in your niche, find blogs in your niche, and build relationship with the site owners, you can then request to post a guest post on them.
• Commenting on other blogs, but most people misuse this method, to effectively build links through blog commenting, ensure you leave comprehensive comments on blogs, something that would convince someone to find more information about you, or your site.
• You can post in forums, while leaving behind your site link. 

Write High Quality Content

Focus on writing well researched articles that can provide useful information to your audience. Google likes high quality content.

Write Headings that are good both for People and Search Engines

Although most people would make a mistake of focusing so much on optimizing content for search engines, until they forget that actually they are writing for people and not machines. While it is good to write good headings that would rank well in search engines, ensure that they are also attractive to people. Use the right keywords that make sense to people and not just search engines. The ultimate goal here is to find the right balance between the people and search engines.

Use the Right Keywords

Using the right keywords is an important determining factor when it comes to getting a targeted traffic from search engines. Use Keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner to find the right keywords for your content.

Keep an eye in any changes with regard to SEO

With the advent of Internet Technology, things keep changing daily; ensure you are update with current trends in SEO. You may find that your site has lost ranking simply because you haven't implemented the latest SEO update!

You can also read:

•  How to Promote your Blog with Twitter Marketing
• 7 Steps to Search Engine Optimization Success on Google

Bottom Line

Optimizing your blog for search engines is important task that every blogger needs to know about to benefit from free search traffic. When you are starting out on your blogging journey keep in mind these simple SEO Tips.

Why you should host your Blog with iPage

iPage provides a reliable web hosting services to many customers worldwide. I have been using iPage web hosting services for over 2 years now. They provide a good support and are always ready to help you when you need any assistance. I haven’t experience any problems with their services for the time I have been with them, that is why I would recommend them to anyone who wants to start a new website or switch from their current host.

They have good web hosting plans for anyone who wants to host a website with them.

iPage offers affordable rates as compared to many other web hosting service providers. To get started with them, they will give you a special offer of $1.99 hosting fee per month (At the writing of this post). Normally these rates are at $7.99/month, so if you are a new blogger and want to save some money then you will definitely go for this special offer of $1.99/month.

This special offer of $1.99/month comes with many other goodies like:

• Free Domain Registration
• Free SSL Certificate
• Free Email Address
• Free Domain Transfer
• 30 day money back guarantee
• Free drag and drop site builder
• Free 24/7 support

You also stand to benefit from other extra offers like:

• Bing $100 Ad Credits
• Free WordPress Building Tools
• Google $100 AdWords offer
• Free Sitelock security tools

Ready to set-up an account with iPage? Click here.                     
You can also read: Secrets of 17 Successful Bloggers you can use to Build a 6 figure Online Business

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, if you click on them and proceed to make a purchase, I will earn a commission.  

Key Guidelines to Choosing the Best Domain Name

A Domain Name is a sequence of words, phrases, abbreviations or characters that serves as the Internet address of a network or a computer. A Domain Name can also be defined as an identification string that defines a realm of administration or control within the Internet.

Domain Names are formed by the Rules and Procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a Domain Name.

The domain name is the first thing your potential customers look for when they are seeking for you online. If you have a complex or confusing name that is mixed with hyphens & numbers, which is difficulty to type or spell, then you might lose your potential customers.

We are going to discuss the guidelines that will help you choose the best Domain Name for your business or whatever you want to put online.

Keep the Domain Name Short, Simple and easy to Spell

A short domain name makes it easy for people to write it without making spelling mistakes.

Use the Right keywords in the Domain Name

The right keywords helps improve your site rank in search engines like Google. Therefore it important you do your research well to find which keywords will rank well if used in your domain name.

Looking for a Domain Name? Get a free one at iPage

Choose a Domain Name that will help market your business

A good Domain Name will tell people what you do without them even visiting your site. Customers will get a clear idea of what you do from the Domain Name.

Make it Unique as possible

Unique Domain Name will enable your site to stand out as a brand and this will make it easy for your customers to find you online.

Make it easy to remember

Choose a Domain Name that anyone can remember easily after hearing it for the first time e.g. Businessandlifetips.com.

Choose the Best Extension

We have different domain extension for example .com, .info, .net, .biz etc. but .com extension remains the best choice if you can get it. So always aim for .com extension unless if you can’t get it.

Consider buying all the Domain Extensions

If you are able to buy the domain extensions that are directly related to your Domain Name, then go ahead and do it. This will prevent people from buying them and using them to do the same business as yours. You can buy these domain extensions and direct them to your actual domain.

You can also read: 

• Step by Step Guide to Mastering WordPress
• Why you need to Host your Website with iPage

Don’t include hyphens or numbers in your Domain Name

People prefer Domain Names that have no hyphens or numbers. So to avoid turning off your potential customers, don’t include hyphens or numbers in your Domain Name.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, if you click on them and proceed to make a purchase, then I will earn a commission.

How to Promote Your Blog by Adding a Call to Action

A call to action is a task you would ask your readers to perform on your blog; this can be as simple as requesting for a like or share on a post. This can happen while the reader is going through the article or in most cases at the end of the post.

Most Bloggers fail to give their readers anything to do at the end of the post and this may lead to your readers leaving your site immediately they finish reading the post. To avoid this from happening, you can employ call to action on your site.

We have several types of call to action which you can use to engage more with your audience as discussed below:

Ask your readers to comment on your post

This can happen at the end of the post. Simply request your readers to leave a comment or a feedback about the article they have just finished reading. For example, you can ask them to share additional information on the topic.

You can also read:

• You Go-to guide, to creating Ridiculously Good Content
•  Simple SEO tips that every Blogger needs to be well-versed with

Invite your readers to join your email list

You can also invite your readers to join your email list. An email list is a useful blogging tool where you can share your latest blog posts with your subscribers and drive traffic to your blog.

Make a product recommendation

If you blog on a particular niche, it is easier to make a recommendation on a product in that niche. Your Audience will see you as an Expert in that field; hence it becomes easier to recommend to them related products.

Invite your readers to interact with you on social media

Having a good social media following is a key to succeeding online as blogger, and one way to grow your blog following is through call to action. Simply invite your readers to connect with you on social media. You can also ask them to share the posts or ask you questions on your social media profiles.

Create a blog at less than $2/month with iPage

Bottom Line

Adding simple call to action can help you improve the results on your blog. When writing posts, ensure you keep in mind about call to action and you will be amazed by how this can increase your interaction with your audience on your blog.

If you have any other type of call to action or question, feel free to share in the comments below, otherwise you can share this post with your fellow bloggers.

You can also read: Why you need to Host your Blog with iPage

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, if you click on them and continue to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. 

How to Promote your Blog with Twitter Marketing

Most businesses overlook the power of Twitter Marketing hence fail to consider it in their marketing strategy. Twitter as a marketing tool, can bring in great results in terms of audience reach, conversions, sales leads etc. Actually, Twitter is a vital tool to many businesses growth online.

To start, you need a good marketing strategy in place, that involves Twitter as a Social media marketing tool.

So, how can one use Twitter effectively? Let us look at the key factors that you need to consider when using Twitter as a marketing tool for your website or business.

Create a Compelling Profile Description

Your Profile should be comprehensive with Key information on your business. This is the place you need to show what your website/business is about. This is the first point of interaction between you and your potential customer, therefore ensure anyone can be able to know what your website is all about without even visiting the website. Include location and a link to your website, and or your landing page or services page. Be clear and concise, so that you can drive your point home in the most easiest way possible.

Use your Header Image Correctly

Don't just upload any image in your header that does not show anything to do with your website or business or doesn't tell people more about your website. Create a Header Image that provides a message to your Twitter audience so that when they see it, they know what your business is all about.

Tweet Frequently

Note, the life of a tweet is very short, send out tweets frequently that are new, educative, inspiring, and provide value to your audience.

Also read: How to Drive Massive Engagement On Twitter

Share other people's content

One way of attracting other people's attention, and increasing your followers is retweeting, and sharing other people's content. Many, will follow you, or retweet your content back.

Participate in Twitter Chats

I use Twitter chats to meet new audience, and interact with Twitter Users, These new people you meet, are potential customers and even followers.

You an also read:  How to Promote your Blog using a Call to action

Use Twitter Lists

Twitter lists helps me as a website owner to keep up with the new people I meet on Twitter, and wouldn't want to forget about them. Twitter list, makes it easy to find these people, and check on their tweets regularly, or contact them.

Engage with your followers

Don't make it a habit of just tweeting your own tweets. Make retweets, like tweets from accounts of your followers. This is how people will recognize your website or business online or remember your brand name.

Use the Pinned Tweet Effectively

Use the pinned tweet, to advertise what you offer at your website. This way anyone visiting your Twitter profile can see what exactly you sell online.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags is a powerful tool that can amplify your content reach on Twitter. Leverage on hashtags that are used in your niche, or create yours and stick to them. Use hashtags whenever you are tweeting. Whenever I make any new tweet, I include hashtags. This makes it easy for people to discover the tweets even days later.

Bottom line

Twitter has enabled many websites and businesses to grow online. If you are a blogger, or you own a business website, you need to consider using Twitter as a marketing tool. Remember to consider what I have discussed above when utilizing Twitter in your marketing strategy.

Simple ways to Promote your Blog

To promote your blog successfully, you need to optimize it for search engines, this way; you make it easier for your site to appear higher in Ranking. Social Media marketing also can play a key role in blog promotion. You can need to create profiles for your blog, on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Mix, Flipboard, among others. Build your audience on these platforms, and engage with them frequently. Facebook Groups if used well can drive really traffic to your blog, but note Facebook can also limit your posts reach, and even delete them, if you keep sharing, so use it wisely.

Commenting on other blogs especially those in your niche, can also drive some traffic. We have several communities online that are helping bloggers to promote their blogs like Bloggers Traffic Community here, you get to meet bloggers in all niches, Interact with them, and help grow each other online. 

You can also read: 10 ways to drive free traffic to your Blog

We also have blogging networks like Hubpages where you can write online, and build your profile as author in a given subject, while marketing your blog. 

You can also, look for blogs in your niche, that are well established, read through articles and comment on them, sharing your feedback about the post. Your comments should be insightful, that can attract readers to click back to your site to learn more about you.

You can also guest post, on Authority sites, this create backlinks to your blog, which will benefit you in terms of SEO and Traffic. Networking with fellow bloggers, is also a good way of establishing yourself online, visits their blogs, share or comment on them, they will likely visit yours in return, creating some traffic to your site. These are just but few ways to promote your blog for free, we have many others but you can start with these discussed in this article.

You can also read

• How to Host your Blog with iPage
• How to Blog for Profit without selling your Soul

Ways to make Money Online with your Blog

Blogging has evolved to be the best way to generate income online. Many people are earning a living online just from blogging. So, how can you make money on your blog? Lets look at ways bloggers are leveraging on, to cash in on their blogs:

• You can sell a service directly to your blog audience
• Create a membership site
• Create your own digital product e.g. a course, E-book, Audio file etc. and sell to your readers
• Build an email list around your blog, and promote products to your Subscribers
• Host a webinar and promote products to your audience
• Write product reviews and sell them as an affiliate
• Market products as an affiliate and earn a commission on making sales
• Create a job board
• Sell directly listings 

You can also read:

• How I replaced my Day-job with Blogging Income
• Over 20 Sites offering opportunities to make money online

Where to make money online Testing Websites

Web testing is the process of checking a website or web application thoroughly before it is launched to the public or once it is live on the web.

Web testing is performed to find problems, such as bugs or any other issues that may affect negatively the website or web application. With web testing, you can be able to find areas that need improvement and hence make the overall results from the website or web application better.

To help perform tests on websites or web applications, testing companies hire freelancers to perform specific tests on websites/web applications and provide a feedback.

We look at some of the best website testing companies that you can work for and make extra money online as a website tester.

TryMyUI

With TryMyUI you can make $10 for each successfully taken test, a typical test lasts 15 -20 minutes. It is simple to apply, after sign up, you are given a sample test, if you are successful, you’ll start getting invitations for new tests via email.

There is no limit to the number of tests you can do on this platform, but you have to be invited to be able to do the tests. Payments are made via PayPal. Tests are cleared for payments after being reviewed and accepted by graders.

Testing Time

Testing Time provides an opportunity to earn up to €50 per hour testing websites. It will take you very short time to sign up and complete your profile, note, they use your profile to match with test projects, so ensure you complete up the profile with the relevant details. If your profile fits a project, you’ll get an email invitation. You can either choose to participate or not. You pick on time that fit your schedule to complete a test project. Note, opportunities are awarded on first come first served basis, to avoid missing out on new test opportunities check your email regularly for test invitations and respond as quickly as possible.

Once you complete a test, you will get paid within 10 days via PayPal.

Get paid blogging opportunities here.

Startuplift

Startuplift provides a platform where you visit websites, complete assigned tasks, and then share your thoughts through a well written responses. They pay $5 for every feedback that is accepted. Payments are made via PayPal.

uTest

uTest hires people online to perform website, software and apps tests. They hire freelancers worldwide to help them test web, desktop and mobile applications. Anyone can join this platform; you don’t need to have prior experience to register with uTest.

When you join the platform, you will be invited automatically into the sandbox program. If you perform well in the sandbox program, you stand a high chance of getting many invitations for new tests.

uTest pays for each bug you identify and is approved. You are also paid for test cases, surveys and other types of test cycles. Each test cycles pays a different amount and also it depends on our test rating. Gold, Silver and Bronze rated testers earn more than a new tester. The more tests you perform, the higher your move in the rank, hence more pay for your completed tests.

Normally each test ranges between $10 to $50. Payments are made via PayPal or Payoneer. 

Userlytics

Userlytics hires testers to review websites for various companies worldwide.  You can review a website using your personal computer or a mobile device. While reviewing, you use Userlytics software to record your voice and computer screen. Each website review has a different set of guidelines on what you are supposed to do. After registering and setting up your account, you are sent tests invitations via email.

You get paid $10 for each website you test, but this amount maybe more. Payments are made via PayPal for the tests reviewed and approved by the clients.

You can also read:

• How to make money online with Amazon
• Best sites offering Transcription jobs online

User Testing

User Testing hires freelancers to perform specific tests tasks on websites.  Testers get paid $10 for each completed test. A test consists of a 20 minute recording and answers to four follow up written questions.

When you sign up, you are given a sample test. If your sample test is approved you start receiving email invitations on new test opportunities. Normally new tests are posted daily. You will need to have a PC or Mac plus a Microphone to be able to perform tests. Additional your computer devices must meet additional requirements like having the current browsers to able to work on this platform. The full details are provided on their website. You are also required to to download and install the screen recorder onto your computer before you starting testing out websites. 

Payments are made via PayPal  for tests successfully completed.