Articles archived for February 2009
Search Engine Optimization does not involve the complexity of algorithms, trends, and scripts. The truth is, there are simple techniques that experienced web developers and SEO specialists consistently implement to get effective results. The first and most basic SEO techniques begin in the head.
While developing the correct mindset is important, what I really mean is the HTML content between each web pages opening and closing
Every well developed web page has key elements within these tags that might seem inconsequential but actually play a vital role in not only search engine listings but page distinction and identification. These aspects perform the simple duty of providing basic information to a client’s browser and can be easily overlooked or under appreciated.
The Title Tag
The most important tag to include within the head of any web page is the title. The title is displayed at the top of the browser window (and may be displayed on the content tab in some browsers). The content of a web pages title tag is also, often the title used on web links, particularly in social media submissions and almost exclusively in search engine listings. It sets a readers expectation of what is to follow.
Because the title is one of the first elements rendered by the browser, it is the perfect opportunity to begin optimization. Search engines give this prime web real estate more weight when calculating results and considers the title a vital element on every page. The choice of an effective title for your web pages can significantly impact the quality and quantity of your search engine leads.
Meta Detail: Description
While there is some debate regarding the weight of search terms used in the description meta tag, this tag plays a significant role in the results of your search engine optimization. In the past, search engines used the description given in this meta tag when displaying search results. Now, while results usually gather their information from the instance of particular keywords in the pages main content the description meta tag still impacts search engine rankings.
Google representative, Vanessa Fox confirms that the tag plays an important role. It is important to use an unique description for every page to prevent duplicate content penalties. While it is impossible to know exactly how much power your web page description holds in final results, it is opportunity to optimize your pages with a mind to your keywords and content that should not be overlooked.
Meta Detail: Keywords
There is no arguing that keywords and keyword phrases generate maximum impact when optimizing you web pages for search engine results. The keyword meta tag allows us to add additional focus to up to twenty keywords and keyword variations every page. The methods of selecting keywords and using keywords effectively in your site content is more than this post could possibly begin to contain but in most cases, the obvious keywords to use are self-evident.
While there is no way to control how, or if, the information you provide in these tags is displayed in search results, the inclusion of accurate, relevant, and unique keywords and descriptions can influence a searchers choice to click through to your site. They allow searchers to evaluate the quality and relevance your content may have for their current needs. This leads to increased targeting and decreased bounce rates.
Points To Remember
- Search engines each work in differing ways.
- Small changes can create a significant increase in resulting traffic.
- SEO techniques are often basic and simple to implement
- Each page of your website should have these important head elements
- Each web page should have a unique title, description, and keywords.
Finally, when considering SEO remember – UNIQUE – RELEVANT – DESCRIPTIVE
Any questions?
It can be so easy to lose your passion when the drudgeries of freelancing are upon us. When Susan Johnston asked for guest bloggers I was recovering from such a lull myself and thought it was the perfect opportunity to share the techniques I use to reignite my passion.
You can read, Reignite Your Passion For Words on The Urban Muse!
Thank you for the opportunity to guest post on your blog, Susan.
When I asked how freelancers handle their workload when sick it seemed unanimous, we all do our best to work right through illness and fatigue. Ultimately, continuing to work when unwell leads to lowered productivity and extended ailments. The simple fact is, if we don’t rest when ill, we won’t recover as swiftly. Indeed, the added stress of needing to meet deadlines and maintain quality can increase the severity of our affliction. What are some alternatives to working through illness?
When a traditional employee calls to take a day of sick leave the manager will make arrangements to have someone else work that shift. They might find an employee working on cross hours, hire agency staff, or temporarily increase the team workload, but someone is there to fill the shoes of the absent worker. Why don’t freelancers ask for help when they are sick?
Recently, I’ve been reading James Chartrand and Mason Hipp’s, The Unlimited Freelancer. In this fantastic e-book they talk about the vital need to outsource or cross-source. This could be a perfect example of how freelancers benefit from asking for help.
#1: Outsourcing or cross-sourcing can allow you time to recover while not losing the potential income or goodwill of your clients.
While it might seem like paying someone else to work on your behalf costs you money the truth is, the long term benefits far exceed the short term expense. When we are sick, every hour we work produces less; less quality, less quantity, less results. Our clients have expectations and we have to work harder than ever to meet those expectations. By hiring healthy workers we can still meet the demands of our clients, and even surpass them, while reducing the stress to complete everything ourselves.
#2: Leverage your time by outsourcing or cross-sourcing.
We all have a limited number of hours each week with which we can work. Many freelancers feel locked into those hours as the only hours available to them. Locked into these hours we have a limited growth potential, we can only take on a set schedule of clients, jobs, and commissions before making sacrifices in other areas of our lives. By employing others we can increase our available hours, two freelancers doubles your available time.
#3: Take on more commissions, expand your clientele.
Why sacrifice sleep to meet a crushing deadline? Why give up time with our children because we have one more article to research and write? Why turn down that fantastic commission, disappoint that potential client, because we’ve already a full plate of work this week? The truth is, we don’t have to give up or turn down, anything. By working with others we can accept more work than one freelancer could complete on their own. More commissions and more clients means more money, for everyone.
#4: Do more of the work you love and none of the work you hate.
Even when we are sick there are emails to answer, invoices to send, and any of a hundred small jobs that we hate to do. These maintenance tasks need to be completed but honestly, any able worker could do what takes many hours of each day. By outsourcing these tasks you can focus on the aspects of your freelancing career that you love.
When a freelancer gets sick, they can either work through the illness, turn out mediocre results, delay recovery, and miss deadlines, or we can ask for help. Develop a team of freelancers you can turn to when your workload becomes unmanageable or illness descends.
Can you think of other reasons to outsource? Have you ever considered outsourcing some of your work when ill? Where do you find quality freelancers when you need help? What other alternatives are there to working through illness?
One of the things I hate most about freelancing is sick days. Now, in a traditional job you have an acceptable number of days when you can opt to take sick leave and still get paid. Freelancers however, often find themselves needing to work right through all kinds of illness. We have deadlines to meet and the money doesn’t come unless we’re putting in those hours.
This week, I have the flu. I feel like I’ve been kicked in the nose by a very angry horse. Everything aches and I just want to sleep. I know you’ve all been there. Year after year the flu does it’s rounds and no one is entirely immune. When illness strikes, creativity, focus, and motivation flee. We’re left with looming deadlines, an unhealthy pile of tissues, inordinate quantities of orange juice, and children who are clever enough to stay away from our eroded tempers.
How do you handle sick days as a freelancer? Do you attempt to take a day to sleep it off or do you work twice as hard to get everything done that would have taken half the time were you well?
I’m sure many of you have heard about the tragic bush fire disasters that have torn apart the south eastern States of Australia. Being an Aussie girl it hits close to home. Every year the scorching heat of our summer creates the potential for this kind of horrific outcome and it is hard to remain unaffected and harder still knowing there is very little we can do for those lives decimated by smoke and flame.
One way we CAN help is by sending cash or supplies through the various crisis management and support avenues that have been swiftly erected. The Australian Red Cross and The Salvation Army have been pooling their resources to help needy Australians and at times like this need our support more than ever.
One incredible online think tank has created an amazing deal to offer something more to readers, web professionals, and victims of the Victorian bush fires. Sitepoint, a site filled with articles and ebooks (Fresh Thinking for Web Developers and Designers) is offering $149.75 worth of e-Books for $29.95. The entire proceeds go directly to the Bushfire Relief, to help our Australian friends and family recover from this tragic loss.
If supporting a great cause isn’t enough these ebooks are packed with information. I had already purchased, devoured and loved The Art & Science of CSS so the opportunity to add 5 more Sitepoint ebooks to my collection was one I couldn’t pass up.
Be quick and order your ebooks today because this deal ends Friday the 13th of February. Please, help Sitepoint reach their Bushfire Relief target and get your 5 for the price of 1 ebooks right now!
How do you measure success?
What is the image that comes to mind when you think of yourself as successful, or when you imagine other successful people? For many of us, success is distant, something almost intangible that we are constantly reaching for, striving toward.
The real trouble with success is it’s a moving target. On our endless journey toward this obscure sense of what we wish for ourselves, we forget to acknowledge the small milestones. Each time we reach those milestones we are already looking ahead to the next.
There are two questions I try to ask myself regularly:
What is your concept of success, today? and
What have you already accomplished?
The first question gives us the target, the second rewards and acknowledges the milestones we’ve already reached. It’s important to pause and acknowledge your successes. Take a moment to look around you, see how far you’ve already come, because the horizon remains a distant point every step you take but the distance behind you becomes an expansive haven of success.
Alex Noble said, “If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.”
For many, success equals happiness. Knowing that right this moment, we are already successful is uplifting and confidence-inspiring. In this very moment we have fostered many successes, there are a great many things we have done right. Right now, what have you accomplished up to this moment?
When building on your list of accomplishments look beyond your business or career and consider your personal successes. Do you have happy, healthy children? Wow! That is a HUGE success! Being a parent is one of the greatest challenges and every day offers a thousand potential successes. Have you done something to strengthen your romantic relationship recently? Have you read something interesting, written something inspiring, connected with others, had an idea, put a new plan into action, watered the garden, checked a chore off your to-do list?
Your life is full of these small, milestone successes. Pause in your dogged-determination toward your future success and see the pebble-strewn path you’ve already walked. Each pebble is an accomplishment, an achievement, a hurdle you’ve conquered and a step you will never have to take again. Reward yourself for having come so far.
To follow without halt, one aim; there is the secret of success. And success? What is it? I do not find it in the applause of the theater; it lies rather in the satisfaction of accomplishment.” ~ Anna Pavlova
THEN, set your new target firmly in your sights. Make sure it is a new success that isn’t so far distant the edges blur. Ensure your vision of success today is sharp, clear, and inspiring. See your success, feel it to the very depth of you, and step those pebbles on the path toward it.
I was recently re-reading a guest post, “Learn it, Live it, Write it!“, written by Jenny Greenleaf about this time last year. In the post, Jenny talks about this mantra and how learning to live it and write it helped her career grow. In 2008 she continued to do amazing things as she learned, lived, and wrote. As I read over her post again, I started to really think about the questions she asked last year.
What Are MY Future Goals?
What are YOUR future goals? Have you thought about the direction your blog, career, or writing will take in the coming months? I have!
The fact is, I want MORE! In 2008 I made some significant leaps forward. I had some wonderful commissions, committed to a few long term projects, and began to step away from freelance writing to encompass my love of editing and web technology. I grew as a freelancer, and it was wonderful, but what I have today is not enough to sate my appetite for the work I do.
In 2009, I am dedicated to maximizing my potential. I am putting a great deal more of my every day energy into my current projects and spending several hours a week actively seeking new job leads, marketing my services, and socializing through the community.
What turn can you take to re-awaken your snoozing career?
I will develop strong, balanced, and giving friendships. Freelancers often lead rather solitary lives. I’ve found that embracing others enlivens me. I need to be able to turn to a friend when I’m struggling with fear or to share my joys.
I’ve never truly felt comfortable reaching out to others. As such, making friends is a constant struggle. This year I want to learn more about making and sustaining enriching relationships. I want to embrace friendship with people who share my passion for freelancing, web technology, writing, and more. Do you want to be a part of that with me?
What can you do to propel your career in the direction it wants to go?
I am committed to finishing my current novel. I will be in New York from the 26th of May to the 2nd of June, 2009 and will pitch my book at the pitch slam following Writer’s Digest’s Writer’s Conference. A great deal of work remains to be done. I really need to knuckle down and GET IT FINISHED!
This project has been hindered a great deal by fear. I fight against an anxiety attack every time I come to the screen with the intention of writing another scene. I don’t understand what causes this fear. There are a thousand reasons and yet none of them compare to the prospect of NOT finishing. To propel my career forward I must finish this book and fear is no longer permitted to stand in my way.
Are you working on projects that have become stale?
My plurk friend, Shelley Heath, recently said, “Maybe your heart is not really into it as a topic anymore. Maybe you need to spread the wings further and catch something of interest“. Honestly, I don’t believe it the case on that occasion but there are elements I’ve become disheartened with. As freelancers, we must be involved in the sales aspect of our business. It is vital to be able to sell yourself and your services. This is an aspect of the business I’ve always struggled with.
Part of what I do in cooperative effort with Miss Michele and Serenity Bly of Future-Tarot.com is write copy for their weblog. SALES copy. There are fantastic readings available but the copy on the page needs to ‘call to action’ those who visit, it needs to entice them to buy, it needs to SELL itself. I know I can write sales copy but for some reason the prospect has been leaving me stale.
The project itself is one I LOVE, either I need to find a way to get beyond my sales copy blockage, or hire a writer to write the sales copy for me. I would much rather focus on the web technology and maintenance aspects. That is one fact that leads me to Jenny’s final question:
Do you need to find a new niche?
I have spent a great deal of time focused on the idea of myself as a freelance writer. I write very well and I can admit that, but my heart isn’t really in putting words to a page. Writing non-fiction is something I feel dispassionate about. I NEED to create, and web copy, sales copy, non-fiction articles, magazine articles and etc. just doesn’t spark my fire of creativity.
I need to focus on those elements where I can FEEL my creativity thrive. The design and programming I do as a Web Technician, for example, creates something real and visually tangible. It also caters to my need for instant gratification because every time I write a new program or edit a design element I can SEE it in action immediately. THAT is where I want to put my focus. That is the niche I feel most comfortable within.
Ask Yourself These Questions
How are you feeling about your career and the direction of your life going into the coming months? Can you answer Jenny’s questions, make changes, and buoy your hope that this year will be one for fantastic change and growth?
There are some fantastic experts in the field of SEO but Joost de Valk has to be one of the best. He specializes in Search Engine Optimization for WordPress users and not only does he share wonderful tips and advice to enhance your SEO he has also developed a number of useful plugins that make it easy for non-programmer WordPress users to put SEO into action.
Spend an hour with Joost de Valk! Honestly, it is an hour very well spent. You’ll want to keep your notebook handy because in one hour Joost de Valk shares links to plugins and tips to optimize your WordPress blog for search engines. Of course, if you’re like me and find listening to videocast difficult to follow, Joost de Valk has broken down many of the tips he shares in this video on his blog, “WordPress SEO – Yoast.Com“. If you’re really eager to learn simple ways to optimize your blog for search engines you should read and watch, then discuss your thoughts in the comments!
WordPress SEO & Optimisation Strategies a4uexpo London 2008 from existem on Vimeo. I’d like to share my thanks to Squeaky from Mad Mouse Blog for first bringing this great video to my attention.
What were your favorite tips from Joost de Valk’s presentation? Have you started using any of these tips on your own blog? Is there anything you disagree with in Joost de Valk’s approach? Please, share your thoughts in the comments.
Would you like to get the word out about your blog, website, or business? Want to showcase your writing talents, add a byline to your portfolio, and practice writing for the web? What about simply increasing your sites page rank with some link love and social media perks? We’d love to have you guest post at Writer’s Round-About!
Simply pitch me an idea via email or go for it with a writing, editing, or web related topic. It would be fantastic to share the voices of a large range of writers and I’d love the opportunity to showcase your bio, blog, book, etc.
