If you can’t see the video, watch it on the blog.
OK, so 2009 is here. What are you going to do to take your blog to the next level? A few months ago, you had a great opportunity to learn how to diversify your online income streams with Online Business School. The challenge for 2009? Taking your WordPress SEO seriously.
(By the way, in the I-know-what-I’m-doing department, I think it’s worth noting that my review for Online Business School is the only affiliate link for the same product with any real search rank after the actual page on Itty Biz when searching for the keyword “Online Business School”. For “Online Business School review”, I’m number 4, behind Princeton and Harvard.)
This year will be a year of change like no other. Those of us who use blogs and social media to market our business are at the vanguard. I predict that a huge number of new online businesses are going to flood the marketplace this year due to the recession.
That means you want to position yourself as best and as strongly as you can so that your blog and business rise above the chaos. One of the most effective ways to do this is to make sure your blog is found in search. That’s what search engine optimization does for you. And if you haven’t paid attention to it, yet, 2009 is the year to start. It’s the one best way I can think of to keep you ahead of the incoming tsunami of online businesses (many of which will have blogs).
And if you’re part of this new crop of hopeful online businesses, than using a WordPress blog for your site and learning SEO so you’re found online will be the one smart thing you can do to leap ahead of all the other new guys. You can pull ahead of the pack while they flounder in obscurity.
How will you learn WordPress SEO? Watch the video to find out.
Looking forward to January 7th now. It should be interesting to see how things shape up this year in SEO
Yay! Finally! I can’t even tell you how excited I am! I’ve already started a blog post about it, sitting in draft mode waiting for details after I get my hands on it.
@Rob – You know it, man. 2009 is gonna be interesting in all kinds of ways.
@April – I have a copy sitting here with your name on it.
I think 2009 will be a huge year for bloggers. I think many bloggers will be getting some world fame due to their success and knowledge of blogging
Do you want to know whats funny Donny? There really isn’t that much to know about blogging. It is all normal ideas about how to run a great business. Yet, people still approach it the wrong way because they’re looking for an easy way out. They want to start a blog and find overnight success, which is ridiculous.
I just started in the business blog niche and I on average spend 4-6 hours per article. And you know what else? I spend even more time trying to build relationships outside of my genre. Unfortunately, people don’t want to hear this. They want to have the 4-hour work week.
@Michael You should consider creating a master list of wordpress seo plugins. I know there are a few out there but many of them are outdated.
@Derek – On the one hand, you’re right about all the normal ideas on how to run a great business are a part of blogging. On the other hand, most people actually don’t know what those ideas are, and those ideas have to manifest within the entirely new framework of the internet. So, that still makes it a little difficult for people.
I do have a list of the best SEO plugins for WordPress in SEO-Nomicon, so it’s deliberately not comprehensive. (In fact, I’m teaming up with WordPress SEO plugin master Joost de Valk on something special to coincide with SEO-Nomicon. Shhhh…)
Started a wordpress blog late 2006 – Then launched a website using bespoke CMS 2008 on same domain. Question: should we incorporate the blog into the website CMS moving away from wordpress or leave on worpress despite having full CMS on rest of site? (current situation: http://www.revealrealestate.com (main site) and http://www.revealrealestate.com/blog (wordpress)
@Reveal – Kindly observe my comment policy, thank you. Next time, your comment will be deleted.
Without seeing your admin backend or your membership area, it’s hard to say. The problem with anything bespoke is the maintenance and redesign costs. I don’t see anything off-hand that couldn’t be done with a WordPress-as-CMS situation. If you’re happy with the results, don’t worry for now, especially if you have in-house or readily available developers/designers.
I think this information will be an invaluable resource to anyone who expects to get the very best possible return on their investments. What I mean by this is simply that if your using WordPress as a blogging platform or CMS as a means to draw organic search result to your website and it’s content you need to know this information and encourage peoples efforts to provide it to you. Bravo!
The best SEO is good content, its the best way to build your loyal user base and blog network. There is no short way.
@Bill – You’re correct, but only up to a point. “SEO is good content” is a pithy saying, but it doesn’t explain anything or help anyone. What’s good content? The answer might be: whatever your audience wants. So then the question is: what does your audience want? The answer to that suddenly starts looking an awful lot like keyword research and other SEO activities.
Basic marketing/business is to find a need and meet that need in exchange for money at a profit. People literally search for what they need online: they go to the Google box and type in some words. So, if those words weren’t consciously woven into your blog content, then your post doesn’t show up in a search. If people can’t find your site, you basically don’t exist online.
So… yes, good content is the best SEO, but it would be more accurate to say that good SEO is good content.
SEO is no shortcut, my friend. It’s a fair bit of work. There’s a hell of a lot more than people realize that goes into “good content.” You can’t build a loyal user base if the users can’t even find you online.
Hope that helps explain the content/SEO relationship. They’re two sides of the same coin.
This is a question about WordPress and SEO in general. I am just starting to set up a WordPress blog but then a webmaster I am dealing with tells me that TYPEPAD is much superior over WordPress for SEO. He says that the SEO is already built into the system with TypePad. It’s hard for me to believe that WordPress would have an inherent SEO weakness. Could you comment?
@Randy – whenever you hear the worlds “built-in SEO” just run the other way. It’s B.S. All that means is that the capability to add certain information exists, such as a meta description. It does not magically convey upon the blogger the knowledge about how these features should be used. WordPress is no more superior to TypePad in this regard. SEO exists between the blogger’s ears, not in the blogging software.
Having said that, WordPress is still superior for the sheer magnitude of customization options that exist.