Website Beginners Guide

Learn How to Start Your Own Internet Site & More

Blogging

Blogging is one of the best ways to improve your Search Engine rankings and should be in your SEO Strategy forevery website.

Moving from Feedburner to Google Feeds and Why?

Filed Under: Blogging, Search Engine

If you are running your feeds through Feedburner, you should know that Google bought that service in 2007.
Now they are making the next step, moving the feeds from Feedburner.com to feeds.google.com.

And you have to follow… and you should do it before the end of February 2009.
How? well there is nice instruction written by Michel Martin from Pro Blog Design on How to Move from Feedburner to Google

I just moved my Feeds over to my Google account and it is really easy and you cannot !! go back!

The analytics are nice, although I cannot click on the time line anymore to go to the statistics of my readers, you now have to use a drop-down menu to choose that date.
But you can see the mail addresses of the people who subscribed via the Feedburner email option.

So that  is nice, there are however also a few drawbacks…

Even with the Smart-feed options active, you now just get a limited number of options if you want to subscribe to my feed:

Feedburner to Google losing smartfeed

So it seems Google is now cashing in on the Feedburner service and using it to promote their own services and adverts.

Why the move from Feedburner to Google feeds?

Here are some ideas that are on my mind that might be the reasons for Google to force this move upon us Feedburner users:

  • Getting the feed data into the central Google index would mean easier and faster integration into the search results pages (well that would be nice:-))
  • Monetizing the feeds by adding an easy way to integrate adsense adverts (lets see if that works?)
  • Getting more grip on spammers that use a lot of feeds via Feedburner to spam the search index
  • Promoting their own feed reader instead of giving people the choice of their favorite feed reader service
  • Promoting the use of Google personal page to integrate feeds instead of offering the option to using services like Netvibes
  • Taking away the second email subscription option and instead driving people to wards Google mail.

All these reasons will have a large impact on some of the services and companies that where integrated or build on the Feedburner service…

Can you think of any other evil and non-evil reasons, please post them in the comments.
I would love to read your ideas on the reasons for this move.

Weblog engines reviewed by Smashing magazine

Filed Under: Blogging, Drupal, Joomla, WordPress

Yet another great post from Smashing Magazine, this time Glen Stansberry wrote post reviewing of 10 Weblog Engines among them WordPress, Drupal and Joomla!

Af course they included MovableType and ExpressionEngine which I also tried but didn't like that much.

Looking and writing about the following aspects of each engine:

  • Programming language.
  • What features you’ll need.
  • The size of the software’s community.
  • The age of the software.
  • If you are planning on extending the Blog.

For Programming language my favorite is PHP, Like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla! (and Typo3)
Features are within the core or easily integrated with Extensions like Components,  Plugins and/or Modules.
Both these Blogging platforms have very good community to support you, although Joomla! is the biggest at this moment.
Age for me is really not much of an issue but for you looking at the first release dates…
WordPress started in 2003, Drupal in 2001 and Joomla! in 2005 as a fork from Mambo that was build from 2000 (Open source Dual license in 2001)
Extending your "Blog" is really easy with all the packages I favor.

Focus on Blogging

But when it comes to Blogging, WordPress works best for me and in the Smashing magazine post Glen wrote one simple statement under Drupal and extend it later on to Joomla!
        "it’s not just blogging software. Drupal is community software. "
Which is exactly how I see it…
You can use Joomla! for Blogging and with Drupal you can do the same thing, but I just don't like the Drupal control panel that much to write blogposts.

One other great article comparing Drupal and Joomla  mentioned in the post is from Steve (Hope you get a lot of traffic from this Smashing magazine article!)  over at Alledia on Joomla and Drupal.(Needs an Update since the release of Joomla 1,5 ;-)

All in all, a nice overview of the Blogging Engine landscape of today from Smashing Magazines, and for me its good to see that Joomla now is also considered a Blogging Platform although still with some limitations.
But those limitations can be overcome with the right setting and Blogging Components for Joomla.

What Title to Use in Joomla or WordPress

Filed Under: Blogging, Joomla, Joomla Seo, Optimization, Search Engine, SEF, SEO, SEO Optimization, WordPress

If you run a Joomla or WordPress Based website, you are of course constantly creating quality content for your users.
Writing the best Titles like www.copyblogger.com told you how to do.

But there are several options in Joomla, and with the right Plugin you get something similar in WordPress.

If you create new content in Joomla, you find yourself with two Title options:

The Title and the Title Alias.

Joomla Title and Title Alias

The first option is what is going to be the title of you page and is show as a content header.
The second option is not shown anywhere on the page.. so what's the use of this option?

Most SEF Components have the possibility to use this alias as the base for there URL rewrite.
So you can have an Title that says:
“The best Content Management System, Joomla or WordPress”
but the alias is written “Joomla or WordPress CMS”
With the use of the alias, you URL is going to be http://www.example.com/joomla-or-wordpress-cms.html
instead of the longer title based version
http://www.example.com/The-best-Content-Management-System-Joomla-or-WordPress

But with the paid version of Joomla SEF Patch by www.joomlatwork.com you get a second title option:

The HTML Title

Extended HTML Title Tag with Joomla SEF Patch

Now this title is the one that gets indexed by Google and other Search Engines… this is (after good content) the number one Search Engine Optimization tool.

With a standard Joomla installation, you content title is also the HTML title.
But you might want to keep the content titles short, and the HTML titles extended with some extra keywords…!!

This functionality is also integrated in the latest version of JoomSEF, in the edit URL section.

The Title Options in WordPress

You may not be aware of it yet, but there are similar functions in WordPress.
Just start writing you post, and you are editing your Post Title, which (if you have permalinks enabled) becomes the content of your URL as well.

But there is this nice option in WordPress that is called “Post Slug”

WordPress Post slug URL Option
Here is where you can change the URL that is used for you Post, especially useful if you have a long post title..
Just shorten you Post slug and the URL will be much shorter and easier to pickup.

And with the right Plugin you also have the possibility to change your HTML Title, or as some call it, you SEO Title.
There are two Plugins that can do that for you:
The SEO Title Tag Plugin which is great for rewriting titles in bulk, and for page titles rewrites, and the best part is, you can use it in combination with the next Plugin.

This Plugin not only gives you the HTML title rewrite option, but also the best way to insert Metatags like keywords, and with the use of the “Optional Excerpt” to fill the MetaTag description.
This Plugin is really the All in One SEO Pack for WordPress and this one is a must have for Search Engine Optimization.
WordPress All in One SEO Pack Options

It does even more than just the Title rewrite as you can see.
It can even fill your Metatag Description automatically with the first words from your post…

If you want to use it with the SEO Title Tag Plugin, just untick the Rewrite Titles and the Titles from your other Plugin are used.
So if you are starting a WordPress Blog, go for this Plugin form the start and you will do allright.

Title use Conclusion

The HTML Title tag is very important for your Search Engine Optimization.
Not only should it be written to draw people to your website, it also should contain your targeted keywords.

With the options I mentioned above, you have now the possibilities to extend the power of the HTML Title tag beyond your post title and keeping your URL short as well.

Make good use of it, and don't forget to write some keywords, but even more important, write very good excerpts of you post and content in you description tags.
Because in essence they are small adverts for you page that show up in the SERP Pages of the mayor Search Engines.
So work extra hard to create those descriptions.

Google Referrals 2.0 for Publishers

Filed Under: Affiliates, Blogging, Search Engine

Just a quick post to complete the Google goes Global with CPA links…

The Google Adsense group just posted an article on line about Google Referrals 2.0 for All Adsense Publishers and that answers my question in the previous post.

However, at this moment the Referrals 2.0 is currently only available in Referrals-supported languages…
So I guess it will take a lot longer before I can see any Dutch referrals

I just wonder what these new “bought” links from Google will do for the ranking of the referrers website…
Guess we have to wait and see how these paid links are working out.

Early Adopters use Gmail and RSS feeds, are You an Early Adopter?

Filed Under: Blogging, Optimization, Search Engine, SEO, SEO BLogs, SEO Optimization

I was reading an article by Wil Reynolds on The Thinkseer Blog about the Question Do you attract early adopters 

According to the recent research of Hitwise Wil Reynolds mentioned Gmail traffic has increased by 17 % since its no longer an “By Invitation only” service, but free for all.
Initial thoughts occur from this research, stating that in the US Gmail is used by Early Adopters that this is a new way to focus on those Early Adopters.

In his post Mr Reynolds makes a good point on stating that people who use RSS Feeds to keep up-to-date also are in the Early Adopter section and that RSS feeds could be a good way to target them in you marketing strategie.

Gmail and Feedburner

How nice to see…. Google and Feedburner..
If you use Feedburner you of course have set the Smartfeed Option to make sure you users can subscribe to your feed more easily than using an xml file..
(Feedburner – Feed – Optimize – Smartfeed)

But one thing most Feed publishers don't use (yet) is the ability to have Feedburner bring your Feed updates to email users.
(Feedburner – Feed – Publicize – Email Subscriptions) (Tip !!)
At the moment you as a publisher can choose between Feedburner, Feedblitz or R-Mail to handle those mail subscriptions for you.

I guess its just a matter of time before Google is going to integrate its Gmail service with a One-Click-Button to provide the updates via Gmail.
Why? Because there is just much more space for advertisements in Gmail then in a Post Feed…
Was this the real reason to buy Feedburner?

Now I love Netvibes to get my RSS feeds brought to me, does that make me an Early Adopter or just a Follower..

My call to action

It seems to some people that a Blog post must have some kind of “Call to Action”.
I normally just like to inform people about how I look at some things an write about that perspective.

Reading the post of Wil Reynolds, I do want to take a special approach to this one.
You see, I like Wil.. I did a post on a SEO video of him at the Affiliates Summit on my other Joomla SEO Blog on which he left a nice comment.
The content of the video is even better….be sure to check it..

So I thought it would be nice to return a favor…
Besides pointing Wil to The Real secret of getting Feed Subscribers
I hope you check out the Thinkseer Blog , read the informative posts and bring them up to the 100 Subscribers sooner than the end of this year :-)

For Wil a have a call to action to… Wil, this is your Feedburner subscription panel now:

Please activate the email subscription possibility from Feedburner and get into the Gmail user's Early Adopters crowd with your blog… :-)

For you and everybody else, if you happened to like this Blog post, here are the Feedburner options to subscribe to this Blog with your favorite RSS reader… or receive them by email..