(Image via CrunchBase)

One of the ways that blogs can be evaluated is the ‘Bounce rate’.

Any of you who have Google Analytics installed on your blog already know what this is all about. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to your site which read only one post and bounce away without looking at another page or article. The smaller the percentage the better –at least below 50%, 30-40% better, with 20-25% more like it and less even best.

1. The easiest way to improve the bounce rate is to add a plugin that automatically produces links to ‘Related Posts’ at the end of every article you post. It gives your readers options for more articles to read on your blog.

2. Another good tool is to have a ‘Popular Posts’ Plugin that will produce a widget prominently displayed at the top of your blog like this site or in the sidebar. It introduces new readers to your best ‘blasts from the past’ and provides them again with new reasons to stick around.

3. You could also provide links in your sidebar or make your own widgets to publicize any series or to list your best posts on a particular subject.

4. One of the best ways to ensure that readers stick around for a while is to provide internal links within the post itself to past articles containing important or related info. This one takes a little more time but the rewards are worth it.

5. The single best way to encourage visitors to stick around is to improve the load time. If a post takes too long to load (15 seconds or more) than chances are your readers will not take the time to load a second page. Website caching programs or plugins are a great help in this area. Here’s several posts with help on the loading issue:

-10 Ways to make Your WordPress Blog Faster 

-The Importance of Browser Checks 

-WordPress: What’s the best Caching Plugin? 

-Re: WordPress Plugins—What I’ve discovered (Some make the blog slower)

Image by cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr

Searching the internet tonight I came across a very helpful article listing 3 basic rules all bloggers need to pay attention to:

“The 3 Things You Need to Learn About Blogging”

Here’s what BloggingPro writer James Dunaway has at the top of his list as far as blogging essentials:

1. Learn SEO

2. Respect Online Reputation

3. Write by heart

Read what he has to say about each.

‘Writing by heart’ or from the heart is the single best advice that I have ever come across in any article about blogging. If you don’t have some interest or passion about what you are writing about, you can’t expect any of your readers to find anything interesting about what you have to say.

Sometimes I get the impression that some bloggers put a post up on an event or issue merely because it happens to be going viral at the time, not necessarily because they care about it one way or another. If you don’t really care it will show and searchers will bounce out of your post before the end of the second paragraph if not before.            *Top

Ever wonder how your blog or website stacks up against all of the rest?

Here’s a tool that will evaluate your site in a minute or even less: <<Website Grader>>

It’s easy! Just go to the site and enter your URL, add an email address, and then click on the “GENERATE REPORT” button. It is amazing how much you can learn about your site in the comprehensive report that quickly follows.

I have been using this tool for a couple of years now and check up on the progress of all of my sites every 6 months or so. The grader points out all of the strengths and weaknesses of your site. I have found it to be very useful in helping me to see where I can make needed improvements.

See the nifty badge above? This blog scored a ‘92’ this time around –far better than the first time. My best blog scored a ‘99’ –hooray!

HubSpot is the sponsor of the grader and also gives you the opportunity to download a “Free Guide: Introduction to Search Engine Optimization.” The guide is business oriented but the basic principles are useful for anyone wanting to improve the effectiveness of their site.            *Top

(Image via CrunchBase)

First of all you may be asking- What the heck is ‘Google Panda’ anyway? It certainly is a question I asked when I first came across a reference to it.

‘Panda’ is the name assigned to Google’s latest algorithm. The program that rates everything on the web and determines what gets linked to and decides whether that article of yours is listed on Google’s first page during a search or shows up 2000 links later.

Over the years business folks have spent a great deal of time, effort, and money trying to figure out how to beat the search engine and get their website consistently listed at the top. Most of us who are part time bloggers end up reading an article or two and hope for the best. Usually well written original content wins Google over and rises to the top just like cream.

Then Google makes changes in their algorithm and the process starts all over with folks trying to discover the new golden Google fleece once more. Here’s a timeline of the major algorithm changes over the years including the most recent:

o 2003-05-01 “Fritz” update
o 2003-05-16 “Florida” update
o 2007-01-25 “defused” update
o 2009-02-20 “Vince” update
o 2010-05-01 “Mayday” update
o 2011-02-24 “Panda” update
o 2011-05-10 “Panda 2.1″ update
o 2011-06-16 “Panda 2.2″ update

(Source: ToddNemet.com)

When I started blogging nearly 6 years ago the big deal was getting as many links as possible and the sources really didn’t seem to matter that much. So I bought a automatic program that got my site linked to on 1000 others or so and boom- we had instant Google credibility. I can remember one Christian ministry that would provide your site with hundreds of reciprocal links if you joined their directory for a small fee of $30 or so. I declined on that one.

Then a few months later link farms and unrelated directories became a liability that got your site banned to Google’s version of outer darkness so adjustments had to be promptly made.

What Google is consistently looking for is to be able to link to real information and real content rather than a site with just a bunch of misleading ‘key’ words that fool the search bots.

If you are producing original content and providing real information than most of the time your stuff will rise to the top. Nevertheless, it is always good to know what Google is looking for and what they penalize. Here’s 2 interesting articles by David Jackson with info on Google’s latest:

“Google Panda Update: 11 Important SEO Facts You Should Know”

“Google’s Panda Update: Haters, Cheaters and Consequences”

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        (Image via Wikipedia)

One of the strangest facts for a new blogger to fully comprehend and accept is that when one writes a blog article it is actually copyrighted and its use is subject to the writer.

There is a great blending and sharing of stuff through social networking sites and through private emails that many times totally disregards copyright propriety. Folks send articles, pictures, and music across the Internet all the time to personal friends or friends of friends. It really doesn’t become a problem or an issue until whole articles are put up on Facebook or copied on blogs for the entire world to literally see without permission from the original author or even worse, without any links or attribution. It happens all of the time.

Images and pictures are even more of a problem. One really doesn’t have the right to put up a picture on a blog that is borrowed from another site without permission. Also, one can actually be sued for using pictures from regular news sources. Fact is, one really doesn’t have a right to put up a picture from the AP unless one is an actual paying subscriber to their news service.

When you are starting out and your blog has only a few readers you may get a pass but as you gain some credibility and significant international traffic how you handle other folks copyrighted material will become an issue. It is better to learn how to properly link and attribute sources right from the beginning.

Here’s an excellent article on copyright facts and issues from The Blog Herald: 

“5 Copyright Facts Every Blogger Should Know”

One of the ways to increase traffic to your site is to increase the authority and search results from Google and others. Genuine links to your site are helpful in this process.

However gone are the days when ‘just any old link’ will do, and some can get you in trouble with Google and actually blacklist your site with search engines or downgrade its authority at the very least.

Here’s a list of Don’ts when it comes to linking:

1. Automatic Website ‘Submitters’

When I began blogging 5 years ago I bought a ‘Website Promoter’ program that submitted my blog to 600,000 or so search engines and directories in 3 minutes or better all around the globe.

It actually worked back then and got my blog some instant international visibility. But it also ended up getting me all sorts of unwanted spam attention with literally hundreds of emails calling for confirmation of links for my site to directories I really didn’t want to be on and reciprocal linking to lists or promotions that were nothing more than ‘link farms’.

Search engines and real directories stopped receiving auto submissions long ago and now treat them as unwanted spam.

*TIP: A day doesn’t go by that I don’t receive email info or see a link on some website about some kind of ‘new’ program that will automatically submit your site to all of the important directories and get you hundreds if not thousands of valuable links. Don’t bite- SAVE YOUR MONEY!

2. Link Farms

5-6 years ago link farms might have actually helped but now all they do is get you in trouble and potentially blacklisted by Google. If you don’t know what a ‘link farm’ is just ‘Google it’ and read up.

3. Link Exchange Schemes

Link exchange schemes used to work but now they can only hurt you particularly if the sites you are linking to are commercial or have entirely different content than yours. Hundreds of ‘exchanged’ non-related reciprocal links can get your site downgraded as some kind of spammer.

4. Links from Related Pseudo Sites

Years ago folks used to create a bunch of fake sites on Blogger (free) with little or no real content in order to provide links for blogs or websites they were trying to build up or promote. Used to actually work but like any other SEO strategies it was abused big time.

At one point over 40% of the Blogger blogs were actually fake spammer sites filled with AdSense ads and related links. I even heard of one guy in Utah that created a program that automatically set up 10’s of thousands of Blogger sites all filled with nothing but AdSense ads and related commercial linking.

None of that works anymore except to get you blacklisted.

5. Reciprocal Linking to lessor Sites (or Worse)

You have to be careful who you link to. There are always friends, readers, and fellow bloggers that you might develop a relationship with along the way and naturally exchange links with.

However, you may have exchanged links with another site a year or so ago when you were new and it seemed to be a good deal for all but if the site you are linking to doesn’t produce similar content it really doesn’t help.

Then if the site is on a much lower level than yours or goes dormant it can actually hurt. Even worse if it turns into a spammer or the new owner of the domain now cranks out porno.

*Tip: it’s a good idea to check out all of your blogroll links at least once a month. A couple of times I have let it go for several months only to be unpleasantly surprised.

6. Links to Commercial Sites

At some point you may decide to monetize your site to pay for your expenses or even make a little money. You may be doing nothing more than promoting your own books, records, or your own commercial business. No problem.

However, too many commercial links on your site can actually get you downgraded and even classified as a spammer. How much is too much? Google AdSense actually provides guidelines for advertising.

Conclusion:

Remember for the search engines like Google it is all about good content. A site filled with commercial links doesn’t leave enough room for what really counts. Real content.

Anyone who has been around a while and searched for some specific info on the Internet only to find out that the interesting title with so much promise took you to a pseudo-site with little or no content and tons of commercial links and ads. This is what the search engines like Google are trying to eliminate.

Content is king and backlinks to real content are always golden.

*Tip: Google actually provides helpful guidelines for websites and blogs: “Webmaster Guidelines”

(Image by mansikka via Flickr)

Ever click on a link and end up on a 404 page? Everyone has–it is one of those little frustrations that we endure on the net. That’s why it is a good idea every once in a while to check out the links on your own blog. Some suggest that it be done once a month at least since search engine like Google supposedly downgrade or penalize your site if you have too many broken ones. Another good reason to take care of it is for your readers.

I was recently surprised to find that a good number of the links on my ‘Getting Started’ page no longer worked. Not only did I have to get rid of the broken links but in this case find new articles to replace the issues I was trying to cover on that page in the first place.

Actually I was just scratching the surface. Anyone who has been blogging for a while has far more broken links in the archives than one would ever suppose. One thing to keep in mind, anytime you link to an online newspaper, magazine, or news source site after about a month or so they stuff it into their archives and the links you used no longer work. Now what do you do—actually what can you do?

WordPress Plugin: Broken Link Checker

In the process of checking my links over the weekend I remembered that a month or so ago I had come across a WordPress plugin that was suppose to help you find every broken link on your blog: Broken Link Checker

What does it do? Once installed it finds every single broken link on your blog and makes it possible to correct them all. Actually an incredible plugin. Each bad link can be edited or unlinked directly from your dashboard on the ‘Broken Link Checker’ page without manually having to go to and edit each individual post or page separately.

I had 46 broken links on this blog but it only took a half an hour to correct it all—amazing.

The only draw back is this– When the plugin is first activated it sort of locks up the backend for a while till it goes through your entire blog and finds all of the bad links. I found it difficult to do anything else with the blog till it was done. In the case of this blog it took nearly 10 minutes or so. It was much longer for my news commentary site which ended up having 135 broken links.

What was really great—after I fixed all the broken links the home page actually loaded way faster than it did before.

Update: After using it for a week I found that the backend continues to lock up each time I go to the dashboard and you really can’t do a thing until the Broken Link Checker checks for bad links. It’s no big deal on some of my smaller blogs but those with several hundred posts take way to long to load and resolve.

Solution: I deactivated the plugin and will turn it on at least twice a month to correct any broken links.  

*See some of the articles below for more on this issue–Xenu Link Sleuth is another program that some recommend. Also LinkPatch is a service that will monitor your site for a small fee.

A Valuable introduction to Google. All of the Google tools and services are mentioned and examples are given on how to sign up, set up,and use Google stuff.

Also, Google SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a major focus of the book.  There’s Lots of info. in the book to help if you are starting out or if you would like to increase the traffic or ranking of an existing website or blog.

<<Read the complete review on my Book Reviews site>>            *Top