Okay. I used to write a little bit, each week, about search engines-- how it worked, how to do better with THE GOOGLE, how to make THE GOOGLE happy, etc. Boring stuff...yet profitable for those interested in #1.
I have received many emails and comments from ActiveRainers telling me that, after making the changes I had recommended, their site moved up nicely in the Google rankings. I helped one client move up about a hundred-and-sixty positions for Denver Real Estate Agent and things are looking good for a page one takeover! (Yes, I give away free love, but I also get a few paying clients each month.)
If I helped you do better in The Google, and you haven't emailed me, come on already! Give me a break! I am extremely grateful to hear that my techniques are as effective as I claim! I am only 95% sure most of the time, so please cement that other 5% for me.
So, I've got information for you my friends. It's good. But of course, before I tell you...
...let me promise, as I always do, that your Google ranking will be improved one week to ten days from today if you do this as instructed today. If you are currently on page 2 for your key phrase, you will move to page 1. You might even jump from page 4 to page 1-- I can't really say, but the Magic 8-Ball just might give you a prediction!
But please check your ranking now and then comment about how you moved upward after this tip; I would greatly appreciate it.
Here it is:
This is slightly sneaky, but those of you that read my posts regularly deserve this sneaky tip. It's not "black hat" and we aren't breaking any rules...but it's a little sneaky-deaky-- only because it's smarter than the average bear. This is going to be one of those things that you say..."Ah! Of course!"
Of course you notice that every blog post that you create allows you the opportunity to add "tags" at the bottom. 95% of us use those tags exactly as we think they should be used- which is wrong by the way. We truly want our blog to be easily navigated by our (fantasy of) thousands of loyal readers (yeah right) searching for a particular topic.
Personally, I believe my readers only read my "most recent" post and don't mess around with searching my categories. However, whether I am right or wrong, something else is reading those tags for sure: Googlebot.
Do you notice that your own tags (or article description) create a "category" on the right side of your blog? You CREATE PERMANENT WORDS AND LINKS, read by Google, with those words you enter so casually.
These are important words and phrases with regards to your mission in life! If you are a Mackinac Island T-Shirt Store and you are creating permanent "keyword tag" links, you could create a zillion categories about everything from "Apache Trail" to "Zebras".
And that's what most of us do, right? Heck, that's what I've been doing-- not so badly as my example-- but not that great either. Do not get overly specific when" tagging" your articles. You WILL dilute your blogs true purpose and confuse The Google.
If you are a Colorado Real Estate Agent, then you should decide on about 4 or 5 categories (or "tags"), and be sure that everything you write fits neatly into one of the five categories, period. And make sure that every single category mentions something about your job, however it may fit in. (Real estate, mortgage, staging, etc.). More about this in part 2, by the way. Stay tuned!
One very important key to Google success is helping Google to understand, clearly, what your site is about exactly. The key word or keyword here is "exactly." Don't confuse Google with article tags like "my breast cancer." I recently wrote about my own breast cancer for example, but darn it, this blog is PRIMARILY about mortgages and I only served to confuse Google with that tag.
Instead, I should create a category called "AZ Mortgage Broker Fighting BC" and put every single post I make (about my breast cancer fight) into that category. Can you see why? You narrow down the perspective of your site / blog and you also tell Google that even though there is something about "fighting BC" in there, every single category has something to do with me being an "AZ Mortgage Broker."
You want to write about ski conditions now and again? Tag it as "Colorado Real Estate, Ski Property News".
It's technically accurate and you can lump every skiing-related post into that category. You also mentioned "Colorado Real Estate" and "Property"! Great! Don't dilute the power of your blog by messing it up with a different "tag" or "category" for each week's ski report.
The more links / categories you have, the more your "theme" is diluted. If you tag your articles as such: "January skiing conditions", "February skiing conditions", "March skiing...", etc-- you are making a big mistake. Google will have no idea what your site is truly about and you will be overtaken by better organized Realtors, loan officers, stagers, whatever. You need a website with a clear scope regarding content. You can still post ski conditions-- in fact, I would highly recommend such a practice-- but do it the right way!
The bad thing about blogs is that we tend to write about whatever comes to mind, and that doesn't give our blog a clear topic for the search engines to "bite into to". However, if you really think about it, you could really loosely connect every topic that you write about into a real estate related category.
How about this: Tag every article that "doesn't quite fit" as "Misc Ramblings from a Calfornia Realtor." Get it? If you write about the Gilroy Garlic Festival for example, you can honestly tag it as a "misc ramblings from a California Realtor" and it would be information-rich and keyword stuffed. You see? Don't tag it as "Gilroy Garlic Festival" for goodness sakes! (Unless you want to attract Google-searchers looking for festival information-- rather than people looking for real estate services.)
You wouldn't be doing anything dishonest-- you would just be organizing your blog intelligently.
I'm writing a part II to this article on Thursday. Believe it or not, there's more. If you don't "get" something so far, just click on my profile and email me. I'll be happy to walk anyone through this.
But before I get this question: Yes, you can go back and fix every single one of your former posts and go with the far better five-category system that I recommend. I highly recommend you do exactly that. It just makes sense, I promise.
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