Believe it or not, too many post tags is really a bad thing when dealing with WordPress. Sometimes I see people with something like 30 tags for each of their posts. Not a good idea, especially if you have a lot of posts.

Why? Because Google give each site a quota on the amount of pages it will index for each site based on a bunch of criteria. And each time you tag a post and it is indexed, it counts as one indexed page. That means, if you have a page with 30 tags, you are taking away from your total 31 indexed pages. 30 for the tags and one for the article.

Now if you have a ten page site, this shouldn’t be a big deal. But if you blog often, that means your older stuff is most likely being taken out of the index. And too many tags can also slow down your site and if they are older tags that have been taken out of the indexes, they can be giving your visitors error messages as they are no longer connected to an indexed post.

So you should be managing your tags wisely. And if you want to speed up your site and do a little spring cleaning, you can delete old tags that are no longer needed. There is a great post on how to actually do this.

Uniformity is Key for Tag Topic Authority and Usability

Tags can help your website topic authority if you allow tags to be indexed and use them correctly. Tag uniformity is important so get into the habit of choosing from “most used tags”  rather than make redundant tags for the same topic. Tags are also case sensitive so make all your tags upper case or lower case and stick to it.

Let’s say for example that you write a post about foreclosures in North Carolina and tag your post “Foreclosures North Carolina.”  Down the road you write another post and tag it “North Carolina Foreclosures.“ Further down the road you write another post and tag it “foreclosures (lower case f) North Carolina.”

In the above example, three separate tag feed pages were created for the exact same topic and tag topic authority was diluted.  Not only that, when a visitor clicks on ”Foreclosures North Carolina“ within the tag cloud, they access only those posts tagged in the exact same way, even though there maybe other posts on the same topic, tagged in a slightly different way.

You should really read the rest of this as this is one of those topics that I think most people aren’t even aware of. I know I wasn’t until someone mentioned the “post tag cap” on a webinar and I started doing a little research to see if it was true. Yes, it is. And I also found that too many tags actually slows down your site as well. Not something I ever would have looked for as the culprit.

Here’s the whole article… http://www.getfoundnow.com/how-to-use-tags-for-wordpress-blog-seo.htm

Let me know if you have something to add to this in the comments below.  Or other things we all should be watching out for.

Are you using the “author” tag when publishing your content? If you’re not, you really should be. Why? Simple, using the author tag does a few things like building up a portfolio of content directly connected to you that in turn builds trust in your readership over time. In addition, the tag also makes it easier for people who feel you are a someone worth reading easier to find more articles written by you.

And it can really help you keep your content. I get scraped all of the time. Adding an author tag can let the search engines know that the scraped content is owned by you. Most scrapers do not take out meta data. So they end up publishing your content with your author tag. Nice!

Here’s how to use this. In any article you write on a given domain, include the rel=author attribute in a link back to your profile on the same domain. If I write a blog post on ChristopherSPenn.com, in that blog post I should link back to, say, my about page on ChristopherSPenn.com. It’s really that simple.

For example, I could put a byline on this blog post when writing it that says something like “By Christopher Penn“, and then link that up to my about page on my site. In the link, I’d add the rel=author attribute, like so…

Now I’ve attributed this post to me on my site, linking back to another page on my site. When the scrapers come by (and they inevitably do), they’ll pick up this post and reprint it word for word on some other site, but now there’s a mismatch. Rel=author on ChristopherSPenn.com points to my about page on ChristopherSPenn.com, but the same article on IScrapedYourJunkAintNothingYouCanDo.com will be linking off site – an indicator to Google that the scraper is not the real thing.

That’s not the only authorship change you should make, though. Google also included a rel=me attribute in their documentation to address authors who write on multiple sites. If you’re contributing in more than one place, Google is asking you to link your profile pages. For example, if I write regularly on someone else’s blog, I should put a link on my profile page on that blog to ChristopherSPenn.com and put a reciprocal link on my about page on ChristopherSPenn.com to the guest blog. This tells Google I’m the same author, and I suspect then shares the “AuthorRank” across both sites.

This is also another ‘social signal” that can help bring more people to your posts and sites which in turn give you stronger analytics. And if people are looking for your material as an author, they are, hopefully, actually reading the stuff. That means low bounce rates and more time spent on your sites. Again, better numbers for Google’s algorithm, better rankings. And then there is the “like” or “share” prospect as well.

Obviously if you are writing crap content, this isn’t going to help you at all. But if you are really writing great stuff, which you should be doing always, then this is a great way to turn a one time reader into a life long fan.

Bonus tip: use rel=me on links from your about page to your social networking profiles. It may be difficult to add the reciprocal link (I tried on LinkedIn and Twitter to no avail, Facebook I was able to from my page’s app, and Flickr allowed me), but at least you can signal to Google that those are your profiles on the major social sites. If the concept takes off, I suspect some of the social networks will start allowing you to add the attribute, or do it automatically.

To read more on this topic and get some information on a great plugin to automate this, check out this link and share this post with your friends on FaceBook and Twitter. And feel free to tell me what you think about the author tag in the comments below. Do you use it? Is it useful? What are some other great ways to exploit it?

http://www.christopherspenn.com/2011/06/how-to-use-relauthor-tags-for-seo/#.T2K0heKcGfg

Backup Creator by Robert Plank

I was just really lucky and purchased a great new plugin that backs up your WordPress websites. It’s called Backup Creator and it was created by Internet Marketer Robert Plank. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for me.

I was looking into backup options and found they are either messy, technical and/or expensive. So when I saw one for $7, I bought before reading anything. It was worth risking seven bucks to me.

And since then, a few hours ago, I have downloaded and played with this thing. And all I can say is AWESOME! Soooo easy! It is a WordPress plugin. You load it to your site like any other plugin. Nothing special or out of the ordinary at all.

Once you’ve placedt the Backup Creator plugin on your blog, click one button and you are done. It backs up everything including your database, settings, links, what ever in just a few seconds. Then you can save a copy of your entire website to your desktop with just one click. So now if your server goes kaput, no worries. You have everything you need. How can it possibly be easier?!

To transfer a blog to a new server or where ever you want, just install a new, fresh WordPress installation and add the plugin you saved. One click and presto, you carbon copy blog is now active. It really is that easy! This plugin is amazing. Hats off to Mr. Robert Plank for this one.

Here is how I plan to use the Backup Creator plugin. I have a lot of AdSense and affiliate sites with a lot of premium themes, plugins and what have you. Now I can make one ‘template blog’, and use that every time i create a new site. No more uploading all of the plugins, themes, etc…it’s all done for me.

I know this is hypey, and I apologize. I just haven’t seen this kind of value soooo cheap in a very long time. One time payment of $7 right now. Then it’ll go up to $17. Still a steal at either price. Most of the backup software I was looking into were $90+.

The closest thing I saw to this was Jason Fladlien’s WP Twin. This is better! And btw, I wonder how Jason feels about all of this as Robert Plank is his mentor. Interesting

Here are a few tidbits from the website:

Instant Backup

Just click one button and your backup is automatically created and shipped to the secure destination of your choice

Clone-It Technology

Our proprietary Clone-It technology ensures that you can quickly and easily deploy unlimited number of client sites pre-configured in just seconds

Restore Anywhere

Instantly restore your website or WordPress blog to any destination you like

Protect Yourself

Whether you have a blog that you use to keep your family updated on your latest vacation, operate a successful online store or create websites for other people you will feel better knowing that your blogs, websites and templates are just a single-click away

If someone thinks they can recommend something better, please let me know. But you’ve gotta check this baby out…here is a link to the WF thread.

I just thought I’d update the blog with some personal observations. I just messed up one of my Adsense sites that just made its first click. It was $1.20 so I am pretty happy and hope many more will follow. The problem came when I started messing around with the URL structure. To make a long story short I locked myself out of my site and couldn’t get back in. So I needed to go into phpMyAdmin and play with some settings. I’ve done a few other things where I also needed to go into phpMyAdmin.

At first I was petrified. I am not an engineer in any way, shape or form. I was an English major in university. But over the years I have learned quite a bit. Still can’t code though. So when I need to dive into databases, I get scared. But that ‘fear’ of messing things up is slowly passing.

My number one recommendation to newbies as far as websites go? Get a decent hosting account like a $7 a month account at InMotionHosting.com. Place a CMS like WordPress or Drupal on the server and play. Play a lot! Break things, then red how to fix them. Un-install and re-install a few times. Use auto-installs and htp installs. Push all of the buttons. If it all breaks so badly you can’t get it going again, un-install it and do it again!

See, I used to be so afraid to do anything because I thought I might break something. But truth is, so what? Now obviously you shouldn’t do this on a money site, but just get a cheap domain to play with and do just that, PLAY! See what all of the buttons really do. If you do what I am saying, you’ll be farther than most others whether they be new or old timers on the net. So play, have fun, and don’t break everything!

Step 1

Choosing a topic or niche

A website needs to be about something, so here are a few website ideas.  It doesn’t matter what topic you decide to make a website about in the beginning – (I am saying this from a learning perspective, not a monetization perspective). But you should make it one single topic and not on just a bunch of random things or thoughts. There are a lot of reasons for this. First it is far easier to get traffic to a site that has specific information or a specific goal in mind. And in truth, no one wants to read about what you ate for breakfast or what perfume you are wearing today.

Also, sites that are built on a specific topic are also a lot easier to monetize. Why? Well, if you are creating a website about bird keeping, then the people that visit your site will be interested in bird keeping as well. So if you know the people that are visiting your site are interested in bird keeping, then it is statistically better to offer those people either products or services about bird keeping.

Offer them something on flipping websites, and I think 99.9% of your visitors will run away very quickly. Also, one of the fastest and easiest ways to monetize a website is with AdSense. One of the things that makes AdSense so great is that the ads that appear are usually targeted specifically for your website. The more specific your website is on a specific topic, the better AdSense can deliver its ads. That means the ads are targeted directly to your customers. And all without you doing anything other than posting some HTML. This is a good thing!

Topic vs Niche

What is the difference between a topic and a niche? A topic is usually much broader than a niche. A topic may be fish. A niche may be fresh water fish, saltwater fish, fish as food. The more specific the niche, the easier it will be to get people to your site. Or get your site ranked. Why?

Think of entering a search for fish into a search engine. The search engine will give you all of the results for fish. Fish keeping, breeding, eating fish, fish recipes, all of it. Now if I want to talk about keeping fresh water fish in an aquarium, it doesn’t help my site to have people looking for fish recipes stopping by. So I create my site and it’s content to go after and be visible in the search engine results for keywords relating only to my keeping fresh water fish in an aquarium niche.

Now instead of competing to be seen with everyone else who has the word fish on their website, now I am only competing with those people that are also targeting aquariums and fresh water fish. That is a lot less competition! For some real world examples, this is what Google returns for fish…About 395,000,000 results (0.13 seconds)

This is for freshwater aquarium fish…About 1,410,000 results (0.10 seconds) Where do you think I could get people to notice my site first? And as I said, the people who do find my site are looking for my information and not fish recipes. So there is a much better chance I will get a click on my AdSense ads or get someone to buy my fish affiliate product and therefore make more money.

Having people go to your site and not find what they were looking for is very bad. Search engines are getting smarter by the day. They do take into account the length of time people spend on your site. So if you are thinking you want any and all traffic to go to your site and everyone keeps leaving your website in a few seconds, your ranking in the search engines and your websites’ visibility will decrease as well.

Ideas for your Niche

So the first thing we need is a clear understanding of what niche we want to focus on. Some ideas to get the creative juices going would be something you already know a lot about and therefore could create content easily and preferably, for free. Your content, and in turn your readers’ interest in your content, usually go hand in hand with your enthusiasm and passion for the topic.

If you think you don’t know much about anything – which you do if you just think for a few minutes, everyone knows something someone else doesn’t – then think about something you’d like to learn more about. Pick a topic that really interests you and learn about it. Then build the site as you learn, thus creating content as you learn and implementing what you have learned and sharing those results with your readers.

You might also get some great ideas scanning the big article marketing websites like ezinearticles.com to see what others are writing about. Or check out Flippa.com, the biggest auction for buying and selling websites to see what is selling. See what is making the most cash and getting the most bids. Check out Yahoo Answers. http://answers.yahoo.com/ See what kind of information people are seeking right now. And answer some questions for some free links and visibility to your site as well.

No? How about something where there is PLR content that you can buy and tweak? Books that you recently bought that you really liked, write about the same topic or even the book. Go to a book store and see which sections have the most titles. Check out the magazine racks. Listen to what people are talking about in the line at Starbucks. The sky is the limit.

For those of you who are lucky enough to own Micro Niche Finder, just use the Brainstorm button. Oh how I love that button. I have found a number of niches that I would never have thought about in a million years using Micro Niche Finder. It is the number one tool I recommend for keyword research. But don’t frown, you don’t need to spend money to get the same results, free is great too. It just takes a bit more time, that’s all.  I will be going over MNF a lot more in the next article for those interested.

So how can you find some ideas for finding your niche? You really need to start from somewhere. The first time you create a site for AdSense, don’t worry about cost per click and all of the other numbers for now. Your first site should be a learning experience and that is all really. Don’t worry about how much money you’ll make. Instead, worry about learning how to create, find, buy or beg for content. Original content. Then learn to rank that content. So pick something you are interested in. Anything! Barbie doll furniture. Whatever!

Some say choose ‘evergreen’ topics like love, wealth, gardening, making money. Topics that through out time will basically always be the same answers and information. Sites built around these niches need less updating once they are finished. And if they are useful, tend to rank high in the search engines for a long time.

So I am hoping this is enough to start you off. Now find your topic and then pick a niche. Write down a few niches and the next article we will look to see if these niches are worth building a website around. And if the are or aren’t, what we should do next.

Need even more topic ideas? Check these out:

SparkPlugging.com The world’s largest niche and topic ideas list

Alexa Top 500 Movers and Shakers

Google Trends

TrendWatching

Google Insights

Quantcast

Squidoo Top Lenses

Google Suggest

Lycos Movers and Shakers

Actually, for this series I am going to use aquariums and fresh water fish as my niche. Why? Because I have a great domain for it but I am not interested in it at all. So in the end I will sell the site and anything I do to create it I won’t be afraid to share because I will sell the site someday anyways. That will be the last chapter of the series. ‘Selling your Site’ – the why, when, where and how.

I hope this was helpful to get some ideas to create your site around. Once you have your topic or niche picked out, go on to the next step, keyword research.