Are you tired of working hard creating a great blog post only to have to endure the tedium of posting it on every single social media account, not knowing how it will look? I get it. I’ve used Publicize and Hootsuite but they did not give me the control I now get using Blog2Social, This can be used as a plugin or a web app so there’s no excuse not to use it. Not only does Blog2Social schedule your posts for the best times (or the times you choose) but it allows you to preview how it will appear and even lets you change the images posted. You can even set up recurring dates to repost each one for each social network and edit on the fly. I’ve been using Blog2Social for myself and client sites and I can tell you, it saves time and money and it has increased conversions across the board.
Sitemaps. Sitemaps are incredibly important for SEO. One of the problems I see often is that sites use the Date/time of when the sitemap was generated as the last-modification date for all of the Pages in the sitemap file — that isn’t useful, it’s not when the primary content of the page has changed. Similarly, if your server returns a dynamic date for all URLs, then that’s not the date a sitemap file should be using since it’s not when the primary content has changed.
Back in 2005, the search engine Google launched the Sitemap 0.84 Protocol, designed to use the XML format.
A sitemap is a way of organizing a website, identifying the URLs and the data under each section. Previously, the sitemaps were primarily geared for the users of the website. However, Google’s XML format was designed for the search engines, allowing them to find the data faster and more efficiently.
Google’s new sitemap protocol was developed in response to the increasing size and complexity of websites. Business websites often contained hundreds of products in their catalogs; while the popularity of blogging led to webmasters updating their material at least once a day, not to mention popular community-building tools like forums and message boards. As websites got bigger and bigger, it was difficult for search engines to keep track of all this material, sometimes “skipping” information as it crawled through these rapidly changing pages.
We create and submit sitemaps for every client weekly, more often for sites that change regularly. We use PRO-sitemaps to ensure our clients’ websites are being indexed regularly by search engine bots. Their free version is good, as long as you generate a new sitemap each time your website changes. The paid version or PRO ACCOUNT is automated and will generate and send your sitemap out on a schedule you define. It will also inform you of any broken links on your website.
Related: 6 Ways Your Brand Can Stand Out From The Competition
Backlink Backfire. Are you like me when you see those “get backlinks fast” ads and shy away? I can never be certain that any of those quick and easy backlink services aren’t going to backfire and get me or my clients blacklisted. so I just don’t use them. I found a much better and safer solution from my friend Mark at T-Ranks.com. Read the article at How to Build Backlinks – 5 Quality Tips and start utilizing those techniques to create quality backlinks. If you want it done faster I do recommend the PBN through T-Ranks.com. A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of blogs and websites that are owned either by an individual or a business entity and which you can use to generate authentic and authoritative backlinks to money sites.
Related: Blog SEO: 11 Tips to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO (like a Pro)
Redirects from old domains. If you have previous domains or multiple domains pointing to your website, be sure they are set as permanent (301) redirects. You can keep them indefinitely since you never know who may still use it to find you. Also, make sure your contact information is correct so you don’t lose control of them as they could easily get taken over by spammers.
Local Business Directories For SEO. While many of your potential customers search Google for information on local services, inevitably a large portion of them find their way to a local business directory listing (aka “online yellow pages” sites). Many of these directories not only have substantial brands/marketing budgets to drive traffic, but they also do well in organic search rankings for important local searches. So even if business owners can’t get their site ranked high for a specific search term, your local business listings and relevant business data (phone number, address, category, service offering, professional services, products and services, etc.) can appear on the local directory site that ranks for that term. Perhaps even more important is that links to your site and mentions of your business (aka “Local Citations”) can help your site rank well in both “national” organic search as well as in the Google My Business (Google’s local listings) results.
The fine folks at Local SEO Guide published a great list on their blog post: The Best Online Local Business Directories for SEO. Be sure your business is listed on as many of these as possible.
Don’t have the time for any of this? We do. Contact us and let’s create a strategy or simply get your sitemaps up and running. It costs less than you think and the benefits are well worth it.
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