Grow your blog

What is an SSL Certificate and why do you need one?

“SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and, in short, it’s the standard technology for keeping an internet connection secure and safeguarding any sensitive data that is being sent between two systems, preventing criminals from reading and modifying any information transferred, including potential personal details.”

So, now that we have that latin all figured out, let’s talk about this a little more.

Back in the Fall of 2018, Google decided, in order to help with the privacy and security of websites, it was going to “require” all websites to have an SSL certificate. This is a certificate that proves that your site is more secure. It means that it is harder (not impossible) for bots to capture your private information, and that of your subscribers on your site.

But you may be saying “I don’t capture anyone’s info” – well, in actual fact you do. YOUR site captures information about YOU – your log in, your email, your name. These are all things that hackers can use to get information from other sites.

So, how do you get an SSL – simple, contact your hosting company. If you are with Siteground, then your SSL is included in your price. Other hosting companies can charge you upwards of $70+USD to have your site SSL’d.

The other thing, once your site is SSL’d you won’t get that pesky “UNSECURED” warning from GOOGLE, and having one will help your SERP and help Google to rank you higher.

So, basically – RUN, don’t walk to get your SSL on your site set up!

Hey, come and check out our Facebook page and give us a like! We love to know what people are looking to learn in WordPress world! Our group, The Bloggers Bistro is filled with an amazing group of Female Entrepreneurs learning how to blog to promote their business, their passions and their voices!

The Future of SEO and Blogging

If Google’s devastating Panda and Penguin
updates taught the internet anything, it’s that content creators can’t rest on
their laurels and hope to keep relying on the same SEO techniques forever.

Google is constantly updating, improving
and tweaking its algorithms to make its search tool smarter and more effective
at matching search terms with the right results. If you don’t adapt and evolve
with those changes, then you’ll be left behind!

The best SEO strategies then need to involve
an element of prediction and speculation. Creators need to look at trends and
clues and use these to predict the future of search and of Google. So where
exactly is the industry heading? The answers might surprise you…

Google is Becoming too smart!

The big change is that Google is moving
away from simple search to become a much more powerful AI. This is most evident
when we look at Google Home and the Assistant packaged with Google Pixel
phones.

Google wants users to be able to talk to it and it wants to provide them
with answers without them having to open up a web page and search through the
content. More and more people will be relying on voice search and this
fundamentally changes the game: we use voice very differently from the way we
type our searches!

When typing, most of us will tend to write
the precise search term we’re looking for. For example, you might search:

“Length of a piece of string”

When asking Google by voice however, you’ll
be much more likely to use a conversational tone and that means you’ll be more
likely to ask:

“How long is a piece of string?”

How
This Changes SEO

So, what does this have to do with SEO?

Your initial impulse might be to assume
that you now need to use search terms that sound more like questions. But that
would result in some pretty awkward-sounding content.

Instead then, Google is aiming to deliver
on this ambition by changing the way it matches content. Instead of looking for
precise matches in search terms and content, it is now able to understand the
actual question and the context and use this to provide a much more relevant
result (most of the time).

This is where LSI – Latent Semantic
Indexing – becomes so important. LSI is the use of synonyms and related
language in conjunction with classic key phrases. And when used properly, this
can give Google much more context while also avoiding keyword-stuffing
practices.

Another thing that search optimization now
needs to take into account, is the role of structured data. This is content
that uses markups to tell AIs like Google what particularly content is about.
This is what lets Google show recipes, times, ratings and other key information
right at the top of the search through ‘Google Quick Results’ and the knowledge
graph.

Don’t try to second-guess Google but keep
this direction in mind when designing your own SEO strategies. Google is more
than a search engine – it is an AI.

How to Build Trust for Your Website

If you want your website to be as
successful as possible, then there are a lot of different factors that you need
to take into account. Which of these is most important all depends on who you
ask but one thing that we universally know to be highly important is ‘trust’.

Google wants to provide its users with answers. This is one of its main services and if Google can’t do it, then people will look elsewhere – such as Yahoo – to get what they’re looking for.

But in order for Google to provide answers,
it needs to know which sites it can trust. The results pages are not ‘curated’,
meaning that Google doesn’t have a team to actually check the content. And that
means that it needs to start recognizing sites that deliver popular answers in
a programmatic, algorithmic manner.

How can you make sure that this all works
for you and your site is considered one of the ‘trusted’?

The
Right Links

The first and most important way to
accomplish this is with the right links profile. You need to attract links from
sites that Google already trusts – but how do you know what sites those are?

One strategy is to look at Google’s ‘In the
News’ section. Here, Google highlights breaking stories by sharing posts from
popular news sites and sites in that niche. This is a very important tip
because in order for Google to share that content as news, it must already have a high amount of trust
for those sites – and this will rub off on you a great deal.

Another tip is when possible, to try and
get a link from a .edu or .gov domain. Google likes these sites because they
have obviously got a certain amount of credibility and by aligning yourself
with them, some of that credibility is likely to rub off on you as well!

Branding

Another useful tip is branding. Google likes brands and has shared this information openly in the past. If your site name is currently the same as your keyword – rather than a catchy company name – then you’re doing yourself a disservice. (The Purple Teacup is already taken – just letting you know)

Likewise, you should also try to get links from other big brands. Google knows brands like Coca-Cola, like the BBC and like The Verge and that means they can pass on a lot of credibility.

Check out our article on SEO and Branding here.

Degrees
of Separation

Of course it’s not exactly easy to get
links from the BBC, or from the biggest sites in your niche that Google is
featuring. So what can you do if you’re still ‘small fry’?

One answer is to think of this as a game of ‘degrees of separation’. If you can’t get a link from the BBC, then getting a link from a site that has a link from the BBC can work a great deal!

Researching
Backlinks

How do you know what links a site has pointing to it? Simple: use a backlinks tool. And this also has the advantage of allowing you to research precisely which links worked for the biggest sites in your niche… so that you can build the same ones! Check out our article on being a guest blogger – guest blogging is great for backlinks

Whatever you do, keep blogging – the more content you have the happier Google and other Search Engines are!

Looking for ways to improve your SEO? Check out our SEO Awesomeness Course – an incredible resource for categories, tags, and keywords. And join us over in the Bistro! Our free Facebook Community where all the fun bloggers hang out and tag about WordPressy stuff.

What is Bounce Rate and what does it mean?

So, you are looking at your analytics for your blog and you see “Bounce Rate” and honestly, you have no idea what it means or if yours is good or not. So, let’s talk about it!

According to Google – “Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (or web sessions). It is the percentage of visits in which a person leaves your website from the landing page without browsing any further. Google analytics calculates and report the bounce rate of a web page and bounce rate of a website.”

HUH? Basically, it is the percentage of people who come to your site, look at one page and leave. (Yes, it can get more technical – but this is the best and easiest way to explain it)

So, what is a good rate? On average, most sites rates are between 25-70%. An excellent rate is between 25-45%, a medium level would be 45-60%, with a higher, but don’t worry about it rate being 60-70%.

So, what can you do to improve your rate? There are a couple of fairly easy things.

What is Bounce Rate and what does it mean

1. Write posts that are tied together. Sometime you will write a post that is fairly wordy (say over 1200 words) take the time to split that into two or three posts, and hyperlink them together.

2. Write good call to actions in your blog that TELL people what to do. If you want someone to check out another article – literally write “I have another great post similar to this one, check it out here – or something like that.

3. Make sure to include multiple links and options in posts so that people have a chance to pick where you want them to go. And make sure your links actually go where they are supposed to.

Branding and SEO

Why
a Brand is Crucial for Good SEO

Many marketers will make the mistake of viewing their SEO and their broader marketing as being separate. The assumption is that marketing entails things like social media marketing and advertising, whereas SEO also known as ( Search Engine Optimization ) involves adding lots of content to your website and using keywords. The two are entirely different and there is no crossover… right?

Some site owners will even go as far as to
eschew marketing altogether and instead focus on only SEO as a tool to boost the status of their website.

But marketing and SEO are not separate. In fact, they go
hand-in-hand and each supports the other. If you’re going to come up with an
effective SEO strategy, then it needs to
take into account an effective marketing campaign. And this includes things
like social media marketing, web design and branding…

Why
Brand Matters

So how does creating a great logo, web
design and site name help you with SEO specifically?

Firstly, creating a brand for your site is
something that Google highly recommends. Real companies are not called
‘How-To-Get-Big-Biceps.Com’, they are called ‘CrushingMuscle.com’. Brands help
to give a business – and a website by extension – a persona and an identity.
Think about the sites that are most successful
on Google and you’ll likely find that they all
use a brand rather than just a keyword as their site name!

Another reason that brands matter to Google
is that brands matter to users. If your site has a great logo, a smart web
design that matches the logo and a clear ‘mission statement’, then you’ll find
that your visitors find it much easier to get behind your message and to become
fans of your content.

That in turn means that they’re likely to
spend long on your site, reducing your bounce rates. It means they will be more
likely to share your links too. These are both things that Google will look at
and view as a sign of a high quality website.

Another important reason to build a strong
brand and spend time creating a site with high production values, is that it
will send the right message to other site
owners. You know, the sites that you want to work with when building links? Try
and get a guest post from a top blog if your site looks like spam and see how it works out for you…

How
to Design a Great Brand

So how do you create a great brand?

A great brand doesn’t start with a logo but rather with a mission. It starts by knowing exactly what it is that you want to deliver to your users and exactly what sets you apart from the rest. Your logo is then an expression of that and a label that will tell people what to expect when they come across your site. This is where it starts!

The “Vanity Plate” for your Website

You have heard of Vanity Plates for your car, what if I told you that now you can have a EMOJI url for your website!Click To Tweet

(copy this and place it in your browser)

the?☕.ws

Yep, that’s right – The Purple Teacup Co has a “The purple heart cup dot website” URL. Now, why would you want something like that?

It’s cool
It’s a way to stand out
With URLs getting longer, this is a great way to shorten it!
It’s fun

So, how do you get a super cool, fun way to stand out, emoji URL – simply – go here

Once you decide and pick your fancy smancy new URL – where can you send it? Literally anywhere on the internet – you could have it go to your own website, a Facebook page or group, a campsite, you could even send it o a link to a profile on your Instagram or Pinterest. As long as it has a URL – you can forward it there!

Then, you want to set up the Domain Forwarding. I recommend adding “masked forwarding” so that it doesn’t get all “yucky” on the way through the internet (are you likely all the technical words I am using in this article).

So, go, and make a fun little emoji URL – and I would love to see it – come and join us in the Bloggers Bistro on Facebook. Lots of great free training, just like this one!

So, you have decided to be a Blogging Influencer, but don’t know what to do?

Hey, so you have decided to try your hand at being a blogging influencer – but not sure where to start? Here are some simple tips to get you going.

1) First of all, choose a domain name that is somehow related to the business you are in or related to your personality. For example, if you are looking for a domain name for your essential oil business, you might want to try using a name like www.oilsbyjane.com or www.usingessentialoils.com. It is important to use a real domain name. Your visitors will not take your business seriously if you use a free domain name like www.tripod.com/essentialoils, or www.angelfire.com/essentialoils. A lot of the good domain names are already spoken for, but if you are patient enough, you will search and find one that is still available. If you think that you will need more than one domain name, get that one now too, as thousands of names are taken up each day. Do a search under Google using the names that you are thinking about. You will find some very reasonably priced domain registrars. The cheapest one that I have found so far is at SiteGround They are a full-service operation offering web hosting and domains. There is some other great info here.

2) You will need a hosting service for your domain name. The hosting service allows your domain name and all of its content to be viewed on the internet. This is easy to handle. You have basically two choices here. You can pay for the hosting service or get it for free. I highly recommend the paid version. Simply, no company is going to give you something for free, so either you or your readers are going to be seeing a LOT of advertising. Overall, I recommend Siteground (see above). Their hosting packages include everything you need with no weird add-ons.

3) Once you have your domain name and hosting service taken care of, you will probably need a way of uploading your web content to your site. I recommend WordPress. There are other builders out there, and while WordPress isn’t always the easiest – it is going to give you the most bang for your proverbial buck. There are hundreds of free themes that you can use to get you started.

4) Your using essentialoils site probably needs a little more customizing. Look at other sites on the internet for comparison and see what could be improved visually on your site. Does it need any flashy graphics? There are many free graphics available on the internet – just do a search with google. Once you are happy with the way your website looks. Make sure you are backing up your site as you go along because there are few things worse than customizing a website and if something bad happens to your computer or hard drive, losing the web content forever.

5) At this point, you probably already have uploaded your website and have it online. Now you need to drive visitors to your site. One popular way of bringing traffic to your site is to use a free link exchange or free link trading service. For the free link exchange service, you just sign up and put a little bit of code on your website (this allows other website banners to be viewed on your site and vice versa). The free link trading service is very simple also. You simply add another pillowís link to your links page and vice versa. This trading of links increases the popularity of your site greatly with the search engines. One of the most important things you can do to gain traffic is to get listed with the major search engines. Go to each search engine, or use a free service like www.AddMe.com and add your website there.

6) Please be advised that is illegal to Spam on the internet or via e-mail. Spamming is sending unwanted e-mails or putting internet advertising material, or internet material in general where it should not be. That being said, another method of marketing and promoting your site is to add your site to casino and gambling message boards and free for all links pages. Please check to see if it is ok to post your info there first, and in which category, and anywhere else before posting there. If you ìSpamî, you risk losing your internet service provider, and possibly your web host with all of your web content. Itís just not worth the trouble.

7) Another way of promoting your website is to create content that you get a lot of questions about so that you can share the links with people who keep asking you the same question. Win / Win – the person gets the answer, and you get traffic to your blog!

While this is a really simple starting point for your blog – if you would like more information, please join us in our FREE online community.

Niche Blogs And Why They Make Such An Excellent Affiliate Marketing Tool

Blogs or more specifically… Niche Blogs are simply blogs that are topically focused and target a specific market and/or niche.

More importantly, though, these blogs contain targeted information that your target market is searching for.

This is KEY.

As an affiliate marketer, we are always told that information, whether its an article, review, ebook, e-course, report, mp3 or podcast, is a key Pre-Selling tool before your potential customer decides to buy what it is that your offering.

This is where Niche Blogs come into play because of there many capabilities and functions.

The biggest advantage Blogs have is they give you the ability to syndicate your content and/or information through a technology called RSS(Real Simple Syndication).

The types of content you are able to syndicate are as follows:

– Articles
– Product Reviews
– eBooks
– eCourses
– Special Reports
– Mp3 Files
– Steaming Video(A.K.A Pod Casting)

Are you starting to see the advantages to blogs or more importantly, having a network of affiliate Niche Blogs?

I hope so.

Also, with your blog comes an RSS Feed that your potential visitors can subscribe to.

What does this mean for you?

Simple. Whenever you post to your affiliate Niche Blog or network of Niche Blogs guess who will INSTANTLY receive that post?

That’s right, whoever subscribes to your RSS Feed.

Are you starting to see the many benefits of having a Niche Blog and incorporating it into your affiliate marketing mix?

Only you can answer that.

Another great thing about Blogs, in general, is that search engines love them and everytime you post to your Niche Blog it “Pings” the search engines and other RSS Directories you’ve submitted to letting them know that there’s new fresh content for them to come and index.

The more you post, the more pages that will be produced, which means… more for the search engines to index, which means… more traffic to your Niche Blog.

The best way to take advantage of your new source of traffic and maximize your Niche Blog profits is to modify your blog template and add Google Adsense and your affiliate programs marketing materials to it.

By doing this, every time you post to your Niche Blog your marketing message will always be there and Google Adsense will display targeted ads related to your content.

Now, I can’t go into a lot of detail on how to modify blog templates in this article simply because that’s an article within itself and then some. If you want to learn more about blogging – you can join our free Facebook Community here.

All I really wanted to get across to you is the advantages to having your own Niche Blog as part of your affiliate marketing mix to help market your affiliate programs to your target audience.

Blogs are here to stay so we might as well take advantage of them in any way that we can.

Are you interested in starting a Niche Blog? Coming soon – we will help you build the blog that is right for you! Make sure to join our community, and we will help you build a better blog! Ready to start now, here are some tips!

Grow your blog

The Right Links

Branding

Degrees of Separation

Researching Backlinks

Blogs or more specifically… Niche Blogs are simply blogs that are topically focused and target a specific market and/or niche.

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All you need is love. And tea. Must have tea.

The
Right Links

Degrees
of Separation

Researching
Backlinks