Tag: WordPress

Categories
Getting Down to Business

I’m Here, Where are You? (The importance of the Title tag on your site.)

I see it almost every day while reviewing sites & content for Wholly Matrimony. Photographers and other wedding vendors that make it so that you have to dig through their site to figure out where on earth they are located.

I’ve said this before, but stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and go look at the Title on your website. This is the thing that displays at the top of your browser window. Does it say “Happy Sunshine Photographer” and nothing more? Or better yet “Index” or “Home”?

Yeah. Change that. Go on in there and change it to say something helpful. “Happy Sunshine Wedding Photographer, Orange County, California” Make it easy for someone to figure out where you are at. Trust me, if they can’t find it fast enough they will move on. The Internet is vast & wide.

This is especially important if you have a Flash site without a splash page. Google and the other search engines can’t read your site. So you need to at least tell them where you are.

You get BONUS POINTS for including your city & state somewhere on the site as well – ideally, the footer of every page and on your contact & about page. Even better if you include your phone number too. Who doesn’t want BONUS POINTS???

“But Christine! I want to do destination weddings! I’ll travel anywhere!”

Ok. But your site right now doesn’t even tell people you shoot weddings. Or where you are coming from. So you’re competing with every other photographer that thinks location doesn’t matter. You just threw yourself into a much larger pool. Full of sharks. Get out & save yourself. Even if the visitor to your site lives in another country, they still want to know where you are coming from.

So what does your Title say about you?

Categories
Creative Geek

Posts on Building Better Blogs…

I’m working on my editorial calendar for the next two weeks for all of my blogs, and I realized that I want to write something to help YOU. But I want to know what that is – straight from you. If you could have help & guidance about how to build a better blog to make online marketing of your business work for you, what topics would you like to see covered? What can help you out?

I’ve got a list going, but I’d love to hear what it is you need so I can make it even more specific!

Categories
BlahBlahBabble

Testing out MacJournal…

Prepping for a road trip, I wanted a way to post to my blog while offline. I’m hoping that MacJournal does the trick and allows me to write blog posts while offline that I can post later on.

… And, it worked! Although it thinks it timed out. Hmm. Well, either way – yay! Blog posts written offline! SWEET!

Check out MacJournal if you need a way to write blog posts offline and post later to your WordPress blog!

Categories
Getting Down to Business

WordPress + Scribe SEO Plugin…

Copyblogger is one of my favorite sites to read, full of so much good information about building a better blog. So when Brian started talking about a WordPress plugin to help improve your blog’s SEO, I was really curious and couldn’t wait for it to come out! Scribe makes copywriting for SEO so simple and easy! Check out the Copyblogger post about Scribe for more details!

I’m using it along with the All In One SEO Pack Plugin, so when I finish writing a post I add a Title, Description, and Keywords there, this is something the SEO Experts in Salt Lake City Utah advised me. Then I choose “Analyze” on the Scribe Plugin, and it reviews what I wrote and makes suggestions of things I can do to help my SEO for my post.

No more trying to write an exact match domain by Silver Dollar SEO Madison post stuffed with keywords. Just write naturally. Then take a minute or two with Scribe to help make your SEO rock! It will show you what the search engines will think you’re writing about, and suggest changes based on what text people use when they search for things online – helping people find you!

All of this comes with a very, very small price. I can tell you that since putting this into place on my wedding photography blog, my inquiries *and* bookings have increased, so it has definitely paid for itself! Matter of fact, I’m considering paying for a full year in advance! Definitely worth every penny!

Scribe will come in 3 plan levels at 3 different monthly price points:

  • Advanced: 300 evaluations a month (around 100 pages or posts) for $97
  • Publisher: 120 evaluations a month (around 40 pages or posts) for $47
  • Starter: 30 evaluations a month (around 10 pages or posts) for $27

    • But until February 26, 2010, at 6:00 pm Central, you get the Advanced plan for the Starter price – only $27 per month (and you keep that price for as long as you stick with Scribe).

    You can’t beat that. It is one of the best deals around, and as more and more people research & plan their weddings online, you want to be up there at the top!

Categories
Creative Geek

It Starts at the Top…

I can’t tell you how often I’m reading a blog or a website, and I glance up at the title bar on my web browser only to see a completely pointless title like “Home” or “Blog” even worse, the name of the company that mad the template you’re using for your portfolio.

Stop what you’re doing right now and go look at your sites. What is your title? What is it saying to people?

Titles are used in countless ways — first and foremost, it is the information that Google pulls when it is displaying your site among their lists. It is also what the people that read your site, your potential clients, see if they are using tabs in their browsers, when they bookmark your page, and so much more!

If your title isn’t clear, how will they ever find you again? If your title says something like Bl*d*main or Templates for Photographers, does that help you? Or the company that made your template?

To change your blog’s title in WordPress, log in and go to Settings (it is the last item on the column on the left). Under General Settings, right there, you will see “Blog Title” as an option – make it something that helps people and computers! Start with your business name, and then maybe include where you are located at. People always want to know that!

Be sure to change the Tagline as well while you’re there. I noticed yesterday that even if you don’t have that showing up on your blog’s template, it does get pulled by Facebook. Looks a little silly if it still says something about you being just another WordPress blog, because we know you’re not just another anything. You’re FABULOUS! Now help the world see that!