Dear SEO

Throughout the semester my writing has both improved and changed. I have never been a poor writer, but there were many things that I was unaware of before I entered this course. Some of these things were minor mistakes that I have merely been overlooking in my past writing courses; other mistakes were major ones that determined not only the organization of my papers, but also the clarity of them. Fixing these mistakes has not been easy and I find myself repeating them sometimes. This is not because I do not care to fix them, but simply because I have made a bad habit out of them. In my first essay, written on my connection with a childhood toy, the baby doll, I had a lot of trouble using specific evidence to back up my opinions and my perspective on things. At the end of one of my paragraphs I wrote, “Taking care of the baby doll was a major chore and a lot to handle”. Afterwards I did not go into details as to how taking care of this toy I played with was a chore or what made it hard to handle. Yet when it came to my second essay which described an advertisement, I did much better. I used specific examples and details from the ad that helped to support the points that I made throughout the essay. During the course I also learned how to fix my technical mistakes. Often times I used passive voice instead of active voice. For example, in my third essay which compared and contrasted the two television shows Grey’s Anatomy and House, I wrote “Every episode is revolved around one particular medical case” instead of saying, “every episode revolves around one particular medical case”. When I did my revision I made sure to fix this mistake and also look for the same error in other papers. In this same essay I also made the mistake of using second person instead of saying “the viewer”. I realized that I made fewer of these errors in this third essay than the first two, yet I was still having some trouble with them. Because of that I paid closer attention to this mistake for the fourth essay and did my best to fix the problem. This third essay was also the one that I did my major revision on. The first draft that I handed in was decently written, but it was unorganized and it did not contain enough contextual background information. Because of these errors I received a “C-” as my grade. In order to fix this, I added examples from specific episodes and provided detailed analyses in order to explain them and their relevance to my thesis. Along with the need to add more background information, the peer revision that I was given showed that I also needed to add more transitions in order for it to flow better. I fixed this and also rearranged the paragraphs so that they fit more coherently. It was also suggested that I reinforce my thesis more throughout the paper. To correct this mistake I added more examples and showed why the personal drama with the two shows that I talked about was the main appeal, rather than the medical issues that the show dealt with. Another problem that I realized I kept continuing to make was the irrelevance in some of my paragraphs. This was clear in my first formal essay which talked about a childhood toy. I was writing about how I can now look at the situation I had with the baby doll in a new perspective because I am older, and how I can now handle things more responsibly. I then go on to talk about how I am a cheerleader and being a part of a team has made those responsibilities come out: but there was no direct connection to the point I was trying to make. At the time I thought that it worked well with the essay, but now looking back on it I’m glad that in my later essays I focused more on relevant information instead of ones that do not make sense. As far as major improvements, I have fixed my technical errors the most. Along with now knowing when to use active versus passive, I have fixed other mistakes as well. I no longer use conjunctions. I had a big problem with that because I was so used to writing informally and not having anyone correct me on my mistake. The use of conjugations makes a paper seem less informal so I learned to look for them more carefully when checking over my work. My use of pronouns also improved. In my first formal essay I started a paragraph with “This later on reflected my avoidance and timid reactions to infants”. To start a paragraph that way, using the word “this”, made what I was talking about very unclear to the reader and also made the paper confusing in general. Little mistakes such as these can truly make or break a paper. If I focus on being more specific with my language then the quality of my writing will improve dramatically. Another technicality that I had trouble with were citations, and they were especially a problem when it came to writing the third essay. In this paper I talked about specific examples from different episodes of the shows that my paper was based on. Due to the fact that I am a big fan of these programs, I myself did not need much refreshing when it came to knowing and talking about specific examples. Yet I often forget that I need to write my papers as though the reader has no idea what these shows are about. Therefore I need to cite the sources and go into detailed explanation about the examples I am providing. I have to make the reader feel as though they have been watching the show for years. As a writer I believe one of my strengths is often my grammar. It is very rare for me to have spelling errors and I have been pretty consistent with my correct comma use and semicolon use as well. My main weakness as a writer is the lack of precision in my writing and also my informal language. I have gained a lot more knowledge on how to make my papers more concise. And I also learned that just because you are being concise does not mean that you have to state one thing and move on to another right away. It is okay, and correct, to analyze what you are talking about. The way I used to understand it was that analyzing was simply giving more examples. Although it does include backing up your point with examples, you also need evidence and opinions and references that help support your point. There is a lot more to being a good writer than I once believed. It is difficult to take the criticism and try to fix it and turn it into something positive, but looking back on my revisions it has made my papers much better.

The Best Plugin WordPress

Search Engine Optimization (SEO ) is most important for getting listed your sites in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask . If you use wordpress then you may be familiar to wordpress Plugins. Here is list of Top 5 WordPress Premium SEO Plugins

Features Of Smart SEO (Search Engine Optimization – WordPress plugin) The easiest way to optimize your wordpress website for search engines! Settings – Here you have: Autocheck current post Autocheck timing – in seconds Title separator (default – ) Seo title position – in admin post listing Show smartSeo score On plugin deactivate – remove all current settings on plugin deactivate. Reset to default. SEO rules and settings. Keyword in title tag Keyword in Title tag – close to beginning Title tag 10 – 60 characters, no special characters Keywords in description Less than 200 chars.Google no longer relies upon this tag, but frequently uses it. Keywords in keywords Less than 10 words. Every word in this tag MUST appear somewhere in the body. If not, it will be penalized for irrelevance. NO single word should appear more than twice in the Meta tag as it is considered spam. Google purportedly no longer values this tag, but others do. Keyword in alt text Should describe graphic – Do NOT fill with spam Keyword density Individual keyword density 6% – (each keyword/total words) Keywords in H1, H2, H3 Keywords in font style – In strong, bold, italic, strong. DEMO / DOWNLOAD WordCompress WordCompress is a premium plugin designed for SEO and improving user experience and website performance. WordCompress is a compression and cache total that takes the existing code layout of a WordPress blog which includes CSS files, JavaScript files and HTML code. WordCompress will then minify all the code by deleting comments, whitespaces and compress the entire code into a single executable line. External and internal CSS and JavaScript files are also compressed. WordCompress has a cache system which means that before the user loads any of your blog pages; tags, author pages, posts, categories and the homepage – there will be a compressed updated version ready; WordCompress automatically updates in the background whilst your making new content and changes. WordCompress improves your rankings for PageSpeed as our software is automatically built to comply with the latest PageSpeed factors. SEO UI and UX Benefits Download time reduces about 45% File size reduces more than 80% Extra spaces, lines, and comments will be deleted. DEMO /DOWNLOAD NOW xCommenter is a powerful SEO WordPress plugin that will post unique (spun) content to your posts and pages and pings all the major RPC + search engines after the comments are posted. This will add unique content to your pages, entice user interactivity, and improve your SEO efforts by making your posts and page content fresh and updated when crawled by Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. - What xCommenter does: xCommenter will automatically create comments on your blog posts and WordPress pages. It does this by analyzing the post title, content and tags to determine find relevant Yahoo Answers comments and questions. Optionally xCommenter will then run the content through a powerful content spinner API to make the content more original and unique to improve quality. xCommenter then can approve it’s own comments if you wish, and once a new comment has been made xCommenter will then optionally PING the updated page URL to all the RPC Ping services listed within your WordPress Admin panel, getting the updated page crawled and indexed quickly and more frequently. All of this is done on auto pilot. DEMO /DOWNLOAD SEO Auto Title Suggestions Features Full automated Keyword research Compare Keywords Shows how many websites compete for a keyword Easy and Fast installation All languages supported This plugin gives you full keyword research power right at your fingertips while writing your post titles. It changes the way you write your titles: Enter a keyword related to the posts topic. Click on “Show Suggestions” You will now see a list of related keywords plus the amount of competing websites for each keyword. You choose a keyword with low competition and use this in your post title. DEMO/DOWNLOAD Key Features: Easy to adapt in your wordpress site All colors can be set in plain css OOP based SEO (search engine optimization) optimized. The biggest advantage over other full javascript or flash solutions is that the tiltles and descriptions from the video’s are placed into the source of the page so it can be retrieved by the search engines All scripts are well documented and uses shortcodes Checks if youtube video can be embedded Works in all major browsers DEMO/DOWNLOAD

About Google Penguin and Pointless

Google is at it again! With the Google Penguin update, some websites have seen a big drop in traffic. If your site was considered spammy, Google may have knocked you down a few (or many) pegs on the search engine results pages.

No matter what happened with this SEO update it’s important for you to realize something. Google will probably never stop tweaking and adjusting their algorithms. Your job with SEO is never ever going to be done (NEVER! Cue: evil laugh…)

Continually tweaking the algorithms is Google’s concerted effort to operate with continuous improvement principles. It’s how they hope they’ll hang onto the lion’s share of the internet search market by staying ahead of evil SEO super villains who find ways to fake their way to the top.

What does this mean to you, the company who isn’t trying to game the system and who just wants to do the right thing so that you can attract customers to your site and provide them with an honest-to-goodness product or service? It means you’ll want to continually watch your back, for one thing!

Should you just forget SEO and leave things to chance since Google seems like it is constantly trying to stop people from succeeding at it? No. The right strategy for SEO is more important than ever. The right strategy should encompass doing your very best to please your customers and to make quality a top priority.

• Don’t get as hung up on keyword density.

• Don’t be as concerned about link juice and linking strategies.

• Do get really in tune with what your customers want.

• Do put quality at the top of the priority list and keep it there.

Sure, keywords, tags, and other SEO elements are still important. But search engines look at obvious attempts to game the system. They also look at your conversion rate to see if you’re doing a good job of servicing the traffic they send you. When the search engines measure your site, they want to know if you’re doing things in a way that is bringing you converting traffic. If they send you 10000 visitors today and 0 of them convert, search engines will re-assess whether or not you deserve that traffic.

By the same token, if you’re on the bottom of page 1 and are getting more positive results than your competitors in spots 1 and 2, search engines will take notice and you’ll inch your way up those ranks.

SEO isn’t Pointless!

If you’ve lost rankings, you might be thinking that SEO is pointless. But it’s not. It’s important to do things so that your customers can find you. The right SEO strategies also include smart on-page optimization strategies that logically walk the visitor through the site. The best SEO results happen when you know your customers, know your industry, understand how search engines work, avoid duplicate content, avoid common SEO mistakes, et cetera.

SEO isn’t the be-all and end-all. Make sure you employ diverse online marketing strategies. Content marketing, social media, pay per click, email marketing, and other marketing methods can all help you too. Develop multiple streams of traffic and a solid customer relationship management strategy so that you don’t have to continually chase after new traffic as your only source of income. Your existing customers can keep buying and can be a great source of word-of-mouth referrals as well!

Apple’s Biggest Innovation: The Swipe?

Years from now, will we look back and realize that Apple’s biggest innovation was not a device, but rather a physical gesture? 

The right-to-left swiping motion used with Apple devices to sort through photos or to navigate certain apps is quickly altering how we seek and absorb information.

David Payne, chief digital officer of Gannett & Co. Inc., parent company of USA Today, delivered this point eloquently at the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summitearlier this month. In his opening speech, he pointed out that the digital world changed when Apple introduced “touch” with the iPod, and then more broadly with the iPhone.  

Touch screens had been around for years, but Apple brought them into our daily lives, in particular with the iPhone. As a result, the way we engage and interact with devices has changed, as evidenced by the dramatic decline in sales of the BlackBerry. And now with the explosive growth of the iPad, it’s about to change again. This time, though, it will be even more dramatic. 

Payne referred to the “swipe” as the game-changer, or as he called to it, “petting the cat.” This new right-to-left world has caused Gannett to rethink the traditional “top-to-bottom” experience of its websites, in particular how it organizes content. As evidence, Gannett has incorporated this new “petting the cat” thinking into its new USA Today app (it’s worth downloading). 

Last week, Fast Company ran a story on a new technology MIT developed that enables users to drag files across devices with a swipe. Coincidentally, it’s called Swyp. Nathan Linder, a PhD student in the fluid interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab, said, “Our framework allows any number of touch-sensing and collocated devices to establish file-exchange and communications with no pairing other than a physical gesture.”

Apple’s impact on design has enjoyed much acclaim and is noticeable in almost any new technology designed. But what may be overlooked is the impact Apple has had on the user experience and how users interact with technologies. And that impact goes far beyond just Apple devices. 

For example, one attendee mentioned that his 3-year-old went up to the television and tried to “swipe” it to change the channel. A colleague mentioned that she is  constantly cleaning her computer screen because her kids try to open photos on her desktop by touching them. Apple has, and continues to have, the ability to change consumer behaviors, requiring the rest of the world to catch up.

Marketers must now realize that we are a step behind. We recognize the importance of adapting digital assets to fit the device, but we haven’t thought through the ramifications of “petting the cat” behavior. The swipe is here to stay. It’s now time to reset our navigation point from North to South to East to West.   

You Must Include This Keywords

Keywords are the most important SEO element for every search engine, they are what search strings are matched against. Choosing the right keywords to optimize for is thus the first and most crucial step to a successful SEO campaign. If you fail on this very first step, the road ahead is very bumpy and most likely you will only waste your time and money. There are many ways to determine which keywords to optimize for and usually the final list of them is made after a careful analysis of what the online population is searching for, which keywords have your competitors chosen and above all - which are the keywords that you feel describe your site best.

1. Choosing the Right Keywords to Optimize For

 

 It seems that the time when you could easily top the results for a one-word search string is centuries ago. Now, when the Web is so densely populated with sites, it is next to impossible to achieve constant top ratings for a one-word search string. Achieving constant top ratings for two-word or three-word search strings is a more realistic goal.

For instance, If you have a site about dogs, do NOT try and optimize for the keyword "dog" or "dogs". Instead you could try and focus on keywords like "dog obedience training", "small dog breeds", "homemade dog food", "dog food recipes" etc. Success for very popular one-two word keywords is very difficult and often not worth the trouble, it's best to focus on less competitive highly specific keywords.

The first thing you need to do is come up with keywords that describe the content of your website. Ideally, you know your users well and can correctly guess what search strings they are likely to use to search for you. You can also try the Website Keyword Suggestions Tool below to come up with an initial list of keywords. Run your inital list of keywords by the Google keyword Suggestion tool, you'll get a related list of keywords, shortlist a couple of keywords that seem relevent and have a decent global search volume.
When choosing the keywords to optimize for, you need to consider not only the expected monthly number of searches but also the relevancy of these keywords to your website. Although narrow keywords get fewer searches they are a lot more valuable than generic keywords because the users would be more interested in your offerings. Lets say you have a section on your website where you give advice on what to look for when adopting a dog. You might discover that the "adopt german shepherd" keyphrase gives you better results than a keyword like "german shepherd dogs". This page is not of interest to current german shepherd owners but to potential german shepherd owners only. So, when you look at the numbers of search hits per month, consider the unique hits that fit into the theme of your site.

2. Keyword Density

 

After you have chosen the keywords that describe your site and are supposedly of interest to your users, the next step is to make your site keyword-rich and to have good keyword density for your target keywords. Keyword density although no longer a very important factor in SEO is a common measure of how relevant a page is. Generally, the idea is that the higher the keyword density, the more relevant to the search string a page is. The recommended density is 3-7% for the major 2 or 3 keywords and 1-2% for minor keywords. Try the Keyword Density Checker below to determine the keyword density of your website.

Although there are no strict rules, try optimizing for a reasonable number of keywords – 5 or 10 is OK. If you attempt to optimize for a list of 300, you will soon see that it is just not possible to have a good keyword density for more than a few keywords, without making the text sound artificial and stuffed with keywords. And what is worse, there are severe penalties (including ban from the search engine) for keyword stuffing because this is considered an unethical practice that tries to manipulate search results.

3. Keywords in Special Places

 

Keywords are very important not only as quantity but as quality as well – i.e. if you have more keywords in the page title, the headings, the first paragraphs – this counts more that if you have many keywords at the bottom of the page. The reason is that the URL (and especially the domain name), file names and directory names, the page title, the headings for the separate sections are more important than ordinary text on the page and therefore, all equal, if you have the same keyword density as your competitors but you have keywords in the URL, this will boost your ranking incredibly, especially with Yahoo!.

a. Keywords in URLs and File Names

The domain name and the whole URL of a site tell a lot about it. The presumption is that if your site is about dogs, you will have “dog”, “dogs”, or “puppy” as part of your domain name. For instance, if your site is mainly about adopting dogs, it is much better to name your dog site “dog-adopt.net” than “animal-care.org”, for example, because in the first case you have two major keywords in the URL, while in the second one you have no more than one potential minor keyword.
When hunting for keyword rich domain names, don't get greedy. While from a SEO point of view it is better to have 5 keywords in the URL, just imagine how long and difficult to memorize the URL will be. So you need to strike a balance between the keywords in the URL and site usability, which says that more than 3 words in the URL is a way too much.
Probably you will not be able to come on your own with tons of good suggestions. Additionally, even if you manage to think of a couple of good domain names, they might be already taken. In such cases tools like the Tool below can come very handy.

File names and directory names are also important. Often search engines will give preference to pages that have a keyword in the file name. For instance http://mydomain.c*m/dog-adopt.html is not as good as http://dog-adopt.n*t/dog-adopt.html but is certainly better than http://mydomain.c*m/animal-care.html. The advantage of keywords in file names over keywords in URLs is that they are easier to change, if you decide to move to another niche, for example. 

 b. Keywords in Page Titles

The page title is another special place because the contents of the <title> tag usually gets displayed in most search engines, (including Google). While it is not mandatory per the HTML specification to write something in the <title> tag (i.e. you can leave it empty and the title bar of the browser will read “Untitled Document” or similar), for SEO purposes you may not want to leave the <title> tag empty; instead, you'd better write the the page title in it.

Unlike URLs, with page titles you can get wordy. If we go on with the dog example, the <title> tag of the home page for the http://dog-adopt.net can include something like this: <title>Adopt a Dog – Save a Life and Bring Joy to Your Home</title>, <title>Everything You Need to Know About Adopting a Dog</title> or even longer.
c. Keywords in Headings

Normally headings separate paragraphs into related subtopics and from a literary point of view, it may be pointless to have a heading after every other paragraph but from SEO point of view it is extremely good to have as many headings on a page as possible, especially if they have the keywords in them.

There are no technical length limits for the contents of the <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, ... <hn> tags but common sense says that too long headings are bad for page readability. So, like with URLs, you need to be wise with the length of headings. Another issue you need to consider is how the heading will be displayed. If it is Heading 1 (<h1>), generally this means larger font size and in this case it is recommendable to have less than 7-8 words in the heading, otherwise it might spread on 2 or 3 lines, which is not good and if you can avoid it – do it.