Understanding Domain Authority & Page Rank

Let us begin with the origins of Page Rank which began as a research project in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. Both students on successful completion of project, went on to create Google Inc and Google Search Engine.

Page Rank of your blog is calculated by the number of links and quality of links which point to your blog. So if you are a travel blogger and your article has featured in National Geographic with a mention of your name and a link to your blog, Google will pick it up and raise your reputation by a small bit. Page Rank is a mathematical formula. Google crawlers also known as spiders or crawlers move from website to website searching and hunting for links and them feed the data to Google Servers who process the mathematical formula to decide Page Ranks.

Domain Authority is relatively recent introduction by Moz. It takes into account a large number of factors to rank your blog on a scale of 0 to 100 to determine the probability of your blog featuring in Google Search Results. Nature of content is also taken into account which means, your blog may not have a high Page Rank but can still come up in search results due to high quality and unique content. New blogs will start with DA = 1.

Abuse of Page Rank and unleashing of Panda updates

Since Page Rank is an algorithm, it is easy to fool it. SEO experts realized this and started manipulating search results by inserting artificial links in exchange of money. This way the page rank of a website increased in no time without relevant content. Authors and Webmasters started cheating on their audience by posting crappy content and yet figuring high on the Page Rank. Spammers went a step ahead and created high ranking websites with absolutely unreadable content. Once these websites achieved a high page rank, their links were sold to new websites to gain overnight popularity. Blogers too started boosting their articles to make them “sellable” to sponsors. It soon dawned upon Google that it has to do something drastic just to stay relevant as a search engine.

Though Google is the king of search engines, it Google had to work hard to strike a blow to these SEO experts. By 2009 Google began developing more advanced version of Page Rank and began rolling it out in 2011. Within days, large number of websites lost their ranking and relevance on Google. In a single swoop, the Google Panda updates cleansed the internet and the search world of the most horrific of manipulations. At the same time, Google urged webmasters not to focus too much on Page Rank. It went on to add that, many site owners seem to think that Page Rank is the most important metric for them to track which is simply not true. As a final death blow, Page Rank was last updated in 2013 and Google turned off display of Page Rank from 2016 on wards.

Till date Google keeps telling everyone the importance of high quality content and has not put up any technology in place of Page Rank.

Panda update has put many SEO experts out of business. There were Schools of Digital Marketing which taught the entire course focused on just how to improve DA and PR by manipulating back links.

Plan for Bloggers

0 – 1 years – Fine tune blog design, post regular content. Research well. Put your social media plan in place and stick to it.

1-3 years – Connect with fellow bloggers and expand your reader base. Increase your social circle. Master your keyword strategy.

4 years on wards – Your blog has enough authority now. Contact popular websites and magazines to offer your services as blogger. Reputation will ease the process.

Problem is that there are too many SEO experts out there with crappy ideas and plans to boost your blog. As a blogger do your own research and devise a plan. As a human remember the age old saying, “There is no substitute for hard work and patience”

The post Should bloggers run after domain authority and page rank appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

What is a link party

A website who is hosting a link party will announce the theme of the week. Visitors can submit a link of their article post through a form. Visitors posts links appear below the post. Websites hosting a link party have a few recommendations. There has to be a linkback or mention in the post about the link party. You have to visit the other links and leave comments.

Advantages of joining a linkup

• Among the articles which you write on your blog consisting of 300 words or more, a picture post is refreshing change.
• Lots of bloggers at one place. That is a treasure trove of connections.
• Do post a comment on other links along with the link to your blog article. Bloggers usually reciprocate.
• Plan for a link up in advance and bring out the photographer in you.
• A blog can be of any theme or niche, but can always post a picture.

How to host a link party

There are two ways to host a link party on your website. First is by placing a custom code and custom design. Other easy way is using tools. Two of the most popular tools are Inlinkz and Linky Tools 2020. You can also have a look at Mister Linky. First create your account and then your first linkup by creating a code and then inserting the code in your blog post. Here is an example of a link party. Tools are simple to use and straight forward instructions.

Popular Linkup pages

Wordless Wednesday
A nice catchy theme, simple design. They give a theme for the week and the link appear below the post. Themes are generic in nature and quite broad based. Wordless has been around for 5 years plus.

Skywatch Friday
This is another popular linkup where the common theme every week is sky. Pictures have to contain a sky or portion of it. Since theme is the same and known in advance, bloggers can plan their posts well in advance. Skywatch is here since 2008. This is much before Instagram was conceived.

Our World Tuesday
Similar to Wordless Wednesday, this one also has a weekly theme. It is better than Wordless because it shows a thumbnail along with the link. So if you have an eye catching picture, it will value add.

The post Submit links to websites to get more traffic – Link Parties appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

• Hosting service provider
• Domain name
• Hosting package
• Addons like SSL, etc

All these can be purchased as a single package from a hosting service provider. These components are well integrated. Here is what you will generally go through.

• Selection of domain name with the suitable package.
• Creation of account with hosting provider and payment process.
• Installation of WordPress though a single install software.
• Housekeeping.

Hosting service provider

Service providers give you a combination of tools so that you can start with a website. There are various types of hosting. Primary are Linux hosting, Windows hosting, cloud hosting and dedicated WordPress hosting. WordPress hosting is a bit expensive but worth the extra bucks. Hosting account provides with Cpanel access with total and easy access to hosting account. You can create subdomain, SSL certificates, Mail addresses, File manager, edit php files and so on. Sometimes you get a choice of location of servers. US servers are the least expensive. Most important we get a single click WordPress install like Softaculous. Popular hosting providers are Siteground, Bluehost, Hostgator, Godaddy, Hostinger and a few hundred more. Once you have shortlisted you service provider, you move on to the next step.

Domain Name

This is the most trickiest part of the whole thing. A .com domain name is the ultimate prize. But all the common name and combos are gone. A .in name may or may not be desirable as you might find, traffic going to your .com counterpart. Select and shortlist number of options before finalizing getting the one of your choice. As part of the freebie, try to get the hosting package which gives a free domain name, even if it is for a year.

Domain name should be catchy, simple to pronounce and remember, should reflect the nature of your blog and preferably should not have a spelling mistake. There are a ton of extensions available now, but remember, .com is a top level domain name.

Hosting package

All vendors give a 50% discount over the entire package when buying for the first time. Check the freebies carefully. GoDaddy still does not give a free SSL certificate. Check for the best deal with freebies like SSL, Business mail and domain name. Also go for the maximum duration say three or five years. You get the 50% discount either way. So go for the best package. Take help of a technical expert if required because this is going to be the deal of a lifetime. Package integration is a breeze with most of the top hosting providers. But the very reason why I always recommend top hosting providers is that their technology integration and programming is top notch. The tier two hosting providers have integration issues which leads to headache for all th ethree years you take the package. Once the domain and rest all are set, you can go to install the website.

Single click WordPress website install

Automatic installers usually take care of the technical aspects of WordPress installation. You should keep details like email address, blog name and description handy. A few clicks and your WordPress website is ready. It might take anything between a few minutes to an hour for your newly created website address to propagate through the DNS servers. After that you can login to the admin account.

Post WordPress install

• Secure your account with a strong password.
• Anything can go wrong, so choose the best option for a backup and take regular backups of your blog.
• To not overdo with plugins because they are a security risk and also slow down the website.
• Choose a theme which meets your requirement.
• Get the basic pages ready and apply for adsense as soon as possible.

The post What is a self hosted WordPress website – a simple guide appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Blogging re-defined

Both Facebook and WordPress began roughly in the same year. In the year 2003, Google acquired Blogger platform from Pyra Labs. While Blogger and WordPress are true blue blogging platforms, Facebook started off as a social network. If we go back to the aim of blogging, all the three of them provide the ability to allow the user to post articles, photos, audio and videos. Which brings us to the question, is YouTube a complete blogging platform.

Different ways to blog

The two distinct approaches to blogging is via website article way and social media platforms way.

Website articles method

The free options available for bloggers are as follows

• Blogger by Google – The most beginner friendly option for bloggers with many of them staying on. You get a subdomain by Google and simple blogging interface. Blogger or Blogspot has been around since 2003 without many changes in design. Integration with Google Adsense is added advantage. Simple design means you can focus on blogging and creating content.
• WordPress – Rich in design and functions with themes and plugins. Launched the same year as Blogger, WordPress has grown from a blogging platform to a content management system. The core functionality as a blog tools will not change. You get a sub domain from WordPress and many features far better than Blogger. The WordPress smartphone app helps you to get more followers in a focused manner.
• Others – There is Wix, Weebly, Jimdo, Shopify, SquareSpace, the list goes on. Everybody is vying for the site builder space. They all want to take the complexity out of design by providing templates and giving all functions like payment gateway, shopping cart, etc in the form of simple drag and drop modules. All of them give a subdomain and website for free.

Paid options are as follows.

• Self Hosted WordPress – If you are in for the long haul, self hosted WordPress is the way forward. You have complete control over design and SEO is a breeze. Looking for sponsors or joining an ad network, this options works best. besides giving a professional look. Choose your hosting provider with care since it is going to be a three to five year commitment. Go for the longest duration pack since you will get a straight 50% discount on your first transaction. Check for free addons like SSL cert and business mail.
• Paid plans by WordPress.com – Plans include custom domain, ads by WordPress, spam protection, CDN and much more. It is like a single platform giving cutting edge features of WordPress. But comparatively, plans are expensive.
• Other options – Google Domains provide an option to buy a domain and link it with blogger website. It also give business mail options under G-suite. Except for the basic integration, the setup remain buggy and customer care is non existent.

Blogging by Social Media method

Popularity of social media networks has tempted the masses to change the definition of blogging. People now assume (wrongly!) that posting updates is a form of blogging too. Here are a few pointers suggesting otherwise.

• Blogging is necessarily writing an article of between 300 to 600 words. How will you post a 300 word update on Facebook timeline.
• Every social network keeps insisting that they are only for updates from friends and family.
• Google does not show search results within the social networks.
• Social media posting is for entertainment purpose, at-least that is what your followers will believe.
• Brands are given promotional tools for business purpose which are misused by influencers to boost follows and likes.
• This confusion will remain because blog articles are also called posts and social media updates are called posts too!

Here are a few social media networks and what they can be used for.

• Facebook – To check-in public places of interest like restaurants, shopping malls, picnic spots, museums, gardens, etc. Post pictures and videos of travel experiences. Use a Facebook page to post short stories, poems or funny one liners.
• Instagram – If you are photographer or travel blogger or posting restaurant reviews, this app can work with short updates.
• Tumblr – Can be used to write posts sometimes detailed ones too.
• YouTube – Integrated with Adsense, this has become the big daddy of money spinning vloggers.

If you are an aspiring blogger, you need to take a long and hard look towards social media before taking a call. Businesses and brand have a presence on social media without need for a website. But for a blogger, a website is the only sign of true identity.

The post Ways to blog – Is social media posting a form of blogging appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

• Get big on social media, start with Facebook
• Use the WordPress app
• Have a presence on LinkedIn
• Use posts on Google My Business
• Answer questions on Quora
• Email marketing is not dead
• Guest posts
• Submit to online directories
• Write for reputed websites
• Do what Google likes

Get big on social media, start with Facebook

Facebook is the largest social network. Be present in your dual role as a webmaster and author. Just by posting your article link on your time line will get you enough views to begin with. But for that make sure you have relevant friends and followers. Increase your social circle. It is a good idea to open a Facebook Page for your Website or brand. If you are on WordPress, link your website/blog to a Facebook page for auto-post to the page. Build followers on your page. Connect with potential readers. Join groups to promote your work. On the other hand, note that reckless posting of links is not liked by most groups. You will be reported and banned.

Follow just about the same for any other social media accounts you might open. Ensure the accounts profile is complete and uniform across all accounts. Make sure website link is inserted in the about section of profile. Social media networks like Tumblr and Twitter allow for direct posting of links. So these should be on the top of your priority list. There are far too many options of social media. Be careful that you do not over exert with your link posting.

Use the WordPress App

WordPress has two options, a self hosted version and wordpress.com. The WordPress smartphone app is designed for both. It is the only app of its kind which brings together all WordPress users on a single platform. On a selfhosted WordPress website you need to connect with Jetpack plugin and enable the like and follow button. Use the app to build up an audience and network. Even a new blog or website can easily get views this way. The app is still buggy and will give some tense moments before working smoothly.

Have a presence on LinkedIn

Once logged in, go to Profile in the Posts and Activity section. Here you can directly post a link to your article. WordPress supports auto-sharing of article links to your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is your online resume. It works on profile building and connections. Connect with, like minded people and potential audience. An investment of building connection even for a few minutes in a day will help build a strong network.

Use posts on Google My Business

Google My Business is on its way becoming a social media and networking platform. It allows posting of products and services and posts on your map marking. These posts can be linked to any URL or link. Bloggers can make an entry on maps without making their location public. First time visitors who reach your location from Google Maps should be able to get an idea of you blog based on the posts on Google Maps. Also make sure that all information is filled up and upto date on your map marking.

Answer questions on Quora

Quora has become one of the most popular platform for people asking questions. Why not, research on what questions people are asking the most. While answering question, you are allowed to post a link to your article. Happy answering. Quora began as a simple question answer website. Today they have grown the scope of their activities and given more tools for visitors and viewers. But the novel idea of asking simple questions and many people answering is simply great.

Email marketing is not dead

All apps and platforms have a way to place subscribe option on your own page. In addition you can build your own email mailing list. Make catchy newsletters and give links to your articles. Make sure the articles have a high readability value. WordPress users make sure you have the JetPack plugin installed which places a subscribe button on your pages. If you are into offers of products or services, email is one of the safest ways to reach out to your potential customers.

Guest Post

A guest post was the best way to build connections with confidence. Till Google clamped down on its abuse. Google never banned the use of a guest post. It always wanted to filter out the paid content from genuine articles. So if you are marking paid or promotional posts with the nofollow tag, all is well with Google. Despite the negative aura around it, guest post is still a great idea. Get hold of relevant people to invite them to write on your blog.

Submit to online directories

Just like guest posts, website directories also faced the music of Google penalty. A well maintained directory however will drive enough traffic to your website articles. Choose your directories well. Forums also work the same way.

Write to reputed websites

Get in touch with webmasters and editors of news websites and those catering for your niche. Impress upon them to post an article written by you. It is much easy to approach them now, unlike the old days of printed word where you had to deal with pesky publishers. Start small and grow big. Along the way, do advertise your own website. It is also easier in case of single admin websites, they do look for guest posts from time to time. If writing for free, negotiate your terms and conditions well.

Do what Google likes

Above nine points pretty much will give you a good head start. But do not forget the one thing that matters, SEO. Google from time to time advertises what it wants out of webmasters and publishers. Few of those guidelines are hazy as always. But keep yourself posted and updated with regards to what Google wants. Few of the evergreen stuff is good website design, fast servers, great content, well researched key words and scores of other things. Follow the blog or tweets of those who matter. With all these things taken care of, most of the hard work of reaching the audience will be done by Google.

The post How to increase traffic and visitors to your blog/website appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Creating an account

https://www.weebly.com/

Once you open weebly website, your choice is between two options

This options are cleverly laid out. Many entrepreneurs are setting up online stores. They need something easy and fast to work with. Next option comes the type of blog or website you are looking for.

Once you are through, you get the standard interface which straightway shows you how the website will look. The blue button on top can be clicked to start editing.

Choosing a sub domain

Weebly provides a free sub domain. The first paid option begins with a custom domain. A TLD is perfect choice for starting a professional website or blog. The interface allows you to pick up the correct name of your choice.

Tools for site building

Drag and drop blocks are listed on the left side. Menu is on top. This makes the interface predictive and user friendly. There is hardly any learning curve. All types of basic blocks are available at hand. Blocks can be moved, resized and dragged around.

One of the killer feature of Weebly is Google Adsense integration, which is also block based.

Once you are satisfied with the look and feel, you can hit the publish button.

Concluding remarks

Weebly is awesome. Websites like Weebly, Wix and so on, provide ease of use and convenience. Setup is matter of minutes and integration is good. Apps help to boost the productivity of your site. Though it lacks greater flexibility, the advantages overcome everything.

The post How to start a website on Weebly appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Earlier we had seen the first essential page from a blogger point of view.

http://startblogwriting.com/essential-pages-blogger-privacy-policy/

Using Jetpack Plugin for creating a Contact Us page

WordPress users install Jetpack plugin for the variety of features and performance that it provides. Jetpack also provides a Contact Form that making a Contact Us page a breeze. Enable the Contact Form in Jetpack Settings under Writing Tab.

A detailed explanation of Contact Form can be found at the following URL.

As seen from the above, the Contact Form option needs to be toggled and turn on bright blue. Once on, a Contact Form button is visible above the text editor.

Jetpack uses a shortcode to insert a contact form on a page or a post. This form can be customized to add more fields. Once customization is over, the contact form shortcode is displayed in the text area.

Contact page for Blogger by Google

Blogger platform by Google uses gadgets to add a contact widget on your blog. The option is available in Layout. Where ever you want to place the gadget click on the Add a Gadget button.

Blogger gadget does not have any customization options.

Of course you can always use a html code to insert a contact link to your email.

The post Five Essential Pages for a Blogger : Contact Us appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Date of review : Mid 2016

What is Pinterest

Pinterest is your personal collection of pinup boards. To use Pinterest, a user has to login.  If you dont want to use Email and Password for login, they provide Facebook login. Joining Pinterest is free and as on 2016, all services of Pinterest are free. Only time will tell whether the services remain free or business priorities take over.  After joining Pinterest, you can start with your first board and populate it with pins.

Difference between a board and a pin

A board is similar to a notice board or a pinup board where you can place pictures or printouts or any printed matter. Boards display information for a finite duration. As a Pinterest user, your virtual board can have permanent material or you may refresh it to server fresh content to your followers.

A pin is the material which you place on a board. In case of Pinterest, it is a photograph, an info graphic or a video clip. So in short, number of pins can be placed on a board. A Pinterest user can have any number of boards.

Adding a pin to a board

Pinterest allows a user to upload an image to a board or to pick up an image from a webpage by entering a URL. Once you enter the URL and click next, Pinterest displays all images from that webpage and allows you to pick the image to pin up.

This feature is specially useful to photo bloggers who can first publish a post of images or gallery and then use Save from Website button to add all or selected images to the board.

There are three clickable area as highlighted above.

• First the entire image links to the web page or blog post from where it was picked up by Pinterest using the ‘Save from a website’ option.
• Second is the Visit button which links to the web page again from where the image was picked up from.
• Third is the description which was entered for the pin, and now has published in a clickable link.

Pinterest however advocates the use of the browser button for the best experience. This button is available for major browsers and adds the image in a similar manner.

Pinterest Setting and Profile

Settings and Profile is the editable part of Pinterest. Settings is the all encompassing place to control the following options.

• Business Account Basic. Contains info like email address, contact name and the all important Delete Account button.
• Profile. Here user can have a username, business name, profile photo and link to your website.
• Notifications. To keep you updated with happening on your boards.
• Home Feed. To show recommended boards.
• Social Networks. Used to link up with social network. Bloggers be careful of not to overdo it.
• Apps. To manage any linked apps.

Bloggers should take care to linkup their blog.

Pinterest Analytics

Analytics feature is free at this time. It gives you minute details on how many hits a user had on a particular board and the details of the visit. Analytics are in detail and hence useful to a blogger to track pins.

Widgets

Developers section provides tools to prepare widgets for your website. Save Button, Follow Button, Pin, Board or Profile can be created to display on your blog/website.

Pinterest is a World Catalogue rather than a Social Network website. All similar web applications are marching towards a social network design. Pinterest has decided to stand apart by showing off their USP, a Pin Up.

Save

The post The Blogger and Pinterest (dis)connect appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Date of review : Mid 2016

Difference between a Facebook account and Facebook page

Simply put in, the Facebook Account is for people who are your friends, while the Facebook Page is for people who are your customers. While as a blogger, you can choose to use only the account to link up with friends and post links to your blog articles. But eventually you will the saturation point of either adding more friends who may or may not be interested in friendship and/or reading your blog.

Facebook Page on the other hand is designed keeping business interests in mind. It has a large number of tools to showcase your business to your customers. Facebook is constantly upgrading and adding more features to the page for business. For bloggers using a Facebook Page the following things are essential.

• A brief about your blog
• A brief about yourself
• A gallery of your images
• A link to your blog
• Profile picture and Cover Page
• Name and Username
• Phone Number and Email Address

Difference between a Name and Username

A Username will be displayed in the format as a URL.

A username is searchable by appending the character @. It will also be displayed under the name. So in the above example, soonev is the username while the name for the page has been given as soonev.com.

A username has to be available to be claimed. Once claimed, it can be changed, but it will take some time so that it is available for others.

Selecting a name will be governed by the policy guidelines of for names.

Insights

Insights as the name suggests, gives you analysis on each activity that your page has encountered with the audience. It shows the organic and paid hits clearly. Insight also covers page activity like which info was accessed by visitors.

Publishing Tools

Publishing tools allow user to schedule the publish of a post. It also gives a snapshot of details of each post. There are a lot of tools available for business users. Explore and tune each setting so that it can help your blog the best.

Save

Save

Save

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Getting Started with Blogger

If you already have an account with Google, either by Gmail or YouTube or Google Plus, you are good to begin. If not you need to open an account with any of the Google Services. You can also straightway begin with Blogger and open a Google account from there.

Look for the yellow colored Blogger icon after expanding the nine small boxes on the top right of your screen.

Once you click on Blogger, the linking process of your Blog with Google account and creation of a new blog begins.

At this time please note that it is highly recommended that you already have a Google Plus profile in place. Google Plus is the social networking arm of Google. It has not taken on the social networking scene as Google would have hoped it to, but still it is a formidable platform and an integration with your blog always helps.

Once your profile is confirmed, you can continue to Blogger.

Starting a New Blog in Blogger

Look for the New Blog button on the left side of the screen.

Click on the button to open the New Blog interface.

There are three things to be chosen here

• Your Blog title
• The address of your blog
• Template of your blog

The blog title will appear in the Title Bar of your web browser and on the top portion of your blog. The address of your blog is what will appear in the address bar. It is a sub domain of blogger, and it is always in the form of

something.blogspot.com

where ‘something’ is what you get to choose.

Be very careful of what you choose for the Blog Address. Once chosen it cannot be changed or transferred. There are some work around and some tricks but they are basic at best.  You can of course use a TLD as your blog address too. This part will be covered later in a separate article.

A template is what defines your blog design. Google has been very slow on providing options for users. Third party templates are available which help bloggers a lot. But at this time, design options are far far limited for Blogger.

Once you have finalized all three options, click on the Create Blog! button.

Writing your first post

Blogger works out of the box. So after your blog is ready, instead of navigating the options it is best to write a new post for your blog and then check how it looks.

For that locate the New Post button on the top left and click it.

Once you click on the new post button, it opens up the writing interface.

Like the Blog interface, even the new post interface has got lots of options, but those can be explore later. Right now it would be suffice to say that all the essential tools to blog are packed in here by Google.

Start typing the text of your post in the post area, and once you are satisfied with the post, press the publish button.

How a post is published

If you have a Google Plus profile, the post will prompt you to publish it on your google plus profile so that your friends and followers can view your blog post. Beyond that nothing else is asked from you and your post is published. You can view your post in your blog by clicking on the view blog button.

The scope of the article is to cover the basics of Blogger. Eventually we will see all the options in detail in future articles.

You can also have a look at similar articles from another website dealing with How to start a blog on Blogger by Google.

For a tutorial on how to setup a free blog on WordPress.com check out this article

The post How to start a blog on Blogger by Google appeared first on Start Blog Writing.