This
wont have to be a long entry to explain how valuable the channels
feature is. You might have read
my other article about channels and
if you haven't take a look and I apologize for the length but its
very in depth. Brad Andersohn wrote a great introductory article on
the
new channels feature here. In that article he wrote
“Should
I Channel my previous posts? Yes, at least the ones you
want
to show up in specific Channels” but he didn't really explain
how
this might have a huge benefit for you, so I wrote an article on that
subject here and how you can not only get free points for
your
profile but you can get a huge Google Juice benefit as well.
Ok
so now you are probably wondering what my point is with all this.
Well if you haven't been excited about the channels yet let me show
you an example of why I am getting excited all over again. I noticed
just a few weeks ago that the channels themselves started showing up
in search results. At first I didn't put much thought into why or how
and suddenly a light bulb went off. There was a specific reason I was
seeing these in the SERPS
(Search Engine Result Pages or in
layperson's terms my search results on Google.) It wasn't just
coincidence, I was the one making them show up... well that is you
and me both!
Huh?
Well
it's a collaborative effort (ruh-roh I just realized this might be a
longer article) between all the Active Rain members and myself
included and each one of us gets to reap the rewards. By collectively
building content on the channels we are basically putting weight on
each channel and thus it starts showing up in the results. But they
wont show up for you unless you are contributing to them and getting
them to work for you.
Huh?
What
I mean is that you need to contribute to the channels and here's how.
If you look at Brad's
post again here you can see
that the channels are divided into different categories. Each
category has a unique potential to work for you. It has always been
suggested that you try to work the Long Tail
and I wrote an article on that
too here. By being diverse in your
subject matter you have much greater potential in being seen by in
the search results and everyone wants that right? Well the channels
are no different. The more you diversify, that is the more you post
in each channel, the more they start working for you. Take a look at
this:
Click on the photo for a
larger picture.
You
can see the channel as the 4th entry on Google
by
searching for my city and state, Eau Claire Wisconsin and simply the
word Selling. If you click on the link there you come to this page:
Now
I am not positive how it works exactly because I don't work at Active
Rain but maybe someone from there can shed some light on this. My
guess is that it is showing up for my city because I have been
creating content on different channels using my city and state for a
topic. The reason I have been doing this is because very few people
from my area are using this website and I thought if I concentrate on
one subject and gear the content towards people in my area it would
be useful to them when they use the channels features. I don't know
if you should do this or if its recommended that you do so, it might
not even be the reason why its showing up in the results. But I do
know that my blogs show when you click on the link and thats what I
want.
I
can show you other examples but the basic premise is that you can
work the channels to your benefit and you can get them to do some
amazing things.
The
bottom line is diversify. Work the Long Tail to your advantage and
build content in every single channel you can. The more subjects you
cover in your blog the greater potential you will have in search
results.
If
there is something in this article that is erroneous please inform me
so that I can change it. I hope that it puts even more importance on
the channels and how you can effectively use them.
Thanks.
If you would like to work
with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.
;)
;)
Great blog post. I wasn't using the channels feature much and I wasn't sure of the new channels. I will check it out!!