How To

How to Build a Penguin-Safe, Search Engine Friendly Website?

Is your website search friendly??

Can you Build a Penguin-Safe, Search Engine Friendly Website? The answer is YES!

The recent Penguin update has show the direction of search and what the future holds for web marketers. A lot of people are scared of using exact match anchor texts or building links to their inner pages. But you don’t have to be scared – at least, not when you do the right thing.

It’s true that the Penguin update has drowned a lot of sites and rendered some folks homeless, but we need to also look at the good side. Google and other search engines are doing their best to make the web much better, more convenient and resourceful for guys like us, the white haters. They’re in business too, so if you play your card well, they would do the same and reward you accordingly.

When you look at the other side in the algorithm calendar, you will discover how to build a better website and optimize properly. You should employ personality and creativity when building a site – and there are credible SEO services to meet these latest ranking requirements.

And the interesting part is that the old is the new new: content is king. To be safe and build search engine friendly website  follow these basic steps:

Know Who You’re Targeting

Image Credit: focus

Everyone will not benefit from your website. You’ve to map out the target audience your contents will be directed to. Without knowing who the person at the receiving end is, you’ll produce the wrong contents for them. An SEO company should help the prospect and customer to research who they’re marketing to. That’s their primary duty – market research. Who is your audience?

Do you know their social status, the demographics and what piques them? Without a proper grasp of who they’re, you’ll build the wrong website. Creating a search engine friendly website rests at the base of a sound market research and metrics.

There is no place for assumptions – if you assume that your audience knows what you’re saying, it could be the greatest obstacle to business growth. Get to know these people; who have blood running through their veins. They want to experience you. Not only as an internet marketer, but also as a person who has feelings and could go extra miles to help others.

Spoon-feed Search Spiders

Image Credit: thewikiman

Search engine spiders are like toddlers. Toddlers need support from parents before they can enjoy the nice meal on the table. When building a website or if you already have one, the goal is to serve quality and helpful contents to your readers.

Google spider for instance, doesn’t have eyes and cannot tell if your site is well designed or not. Web Spiders that crawl websites for fresh and unique contents have been programmed to function in a certain way. The secret to building a friendly website and producing excellent contents is to ignore search engines and focus on the people.

Of course, you may still use keywords to give insights, but that’s not the focus.

When you engage the readers with interesting and helpful contents, they would stick around, ask intelligent questions, make buying decisions and share your contents with fans and business acquaintances. If your content must please Google, it must first please the end user (prospects, readers, customers, clients and so forth).

So, the best way to spoon-feed Google isn’t by stuffing keywords or using hype, it’s about using the right language in a unique way to gladden the hearts of readers. If you consistently practice this, your website will grow exponentially.

Focus ON End Users

It’s all about them, not you. When you create a website for your business, the focus mustn’t be on your achievements and the numerous qualifications you’ve got. It’s about the end user.

Those who have problems, needs and aspirations – they’re counting on you to provide lasting solutions and if you can do that continually, congratulations. You can easily create a powerful platform for organic traffic.

A search engine friendly website talks about people and their problems. “What’s in it for them” should inspire you – see you at the top!

How to Get More Twitter Followers?

Now unless your a celebrity of some sort with a decent following somewhere, getting (genuine) followers who retweet and interact with you will take time and effort. It’s better to have a 100 followers who will actually read your tweets and interact with you instead of thousands upon thousands of useless spam-bots that will do absolutely nothing. People often use programs that promise to increase your followers that do what their meant to do but in reality don’t really help you at as most of these followers will consist of spam-bots.

get more twitter followers

These programs rely on something called ‘Aggressive Following’ and will make you automatically follow thousands of people in the sole hope that they’ll follow back and if they don’t you’ll dump and them and follow other people. Twitter has an policy against this and if caught, will delete your account. Here are 6 Tips to get more twitter followers.

How to Get More Twitter Followers?

  • Write an Interesting Bio: Your Twitter Profile bio is the first and most important thing to get more followers on Twitter. 160 characters for bio may not seem like much but it’s one of the first things your potential followers will see so try to be witty, make an interesting tag-line and write anything interesting that will get people to follow you.
  • Make your presence visible: Tweet too little and people won’t notice you on their Timeline or all together forget that they even followed you. Tweet too much and people will start to think your either a nuisance or a spam-bot and will unfollow you (and you don’t want that happening).
  • Be Entertaining: Try to be witty or funny when making a tweet. Don’t be all like “today was so boring of my life, i am bored and i have nothing to do except being bored” instead try to be like “…. is updating his status to let you know his status is that he has no status” funny and effective.
  • Tweet on Trending Topics: Give your opinion and perspective on things and the latest events. If you’re lucky (and clever enough) you might have a ‘top tweet’ (over 100+ Retweets) which can lead to you gaining many followers.
  • Avoid Promoting Yourself too much: Yes, you can promote your blogposts, products, music etc but their is an invisible that you must not cross. If you do, you’ll either end up looking like a spammer/spam-bot or just clueless. Not only will you NOT gain additional followers but you will wear out your existing followers and many of them will un-follow you.
  • Linking your account: You can link you account with facebook. This will also help you to get more twitter followers.
  • An Inviting Twit-Pic: Chances are, you’d rather follow someone using their own picture or logo than some random spam-bot with a semi-nude twitpic. So why wouldn’t your potential followers? Using your own image goes a long way to create an impact.
And Last but not least, try to have fun! Don’t worry too much about the numbers. Like most things in Life, slow and steady wins the race, so have faith in yourself. I didn’t build my following over-night and neither will you. :)

Sleek and Cool Search Boxes For WordPress!

I recently shared Sleek and Cool Search Boxes widget for Blogger. Response was pretty good. Lots of my blog readers asked me to provide these cool search boxes for WordPress. So today I am sharing 5 awesome, Sleek and Cool Search Boxes Pack for WordPress. Actually these are PSD source designed by Design3edge. We work hard in converting this to WordPress for YOU. Hope you enjoyed with this!

Update: For Blogspot Version Click Here!

sleek search boxes by allbloggingtips

Cool Search Boxes For WordPress?

  1. Go to Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets > Available Widgets.
  2. Drag Text widget into a sidebar.
  3. Paste in the code.
  4. Save.

Style 1

search boxes

<style>
.search_form2 {
border-radius:10px !important;-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;
        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;
        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;
background:URL(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vGjST2sX6Ts/T88uy-eRYUI/AAAAAAAAAog/xhJ2A0nGnpw/s1600/black.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;height:50px;display:block; width:302px;}</style>
<center><form method="get" style="-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;"

 class="search_form2" action=""><p>

<input type="text" id="s" style="background:transparent;
width:180px; border-radius:10px;
border:none;
margin:11px;
padding:4px; padding-top:6px !important;
padding-left:17px !important;
" name="s" value="Search in site..." onfocus="if(this.value==this.defaultValue)this.value='';" onblur="if(this.value=='')this.value=this.defaultValue;"/><input type="submit" value="Go" style="border:1px
solid rgba(0, 0, 0, .25);color:#FFF!important;margin-left:3px;background:#316ca4 url(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L3o3uwrf0Sk/T9CO3hbq1XI/AAAAAAAAApg/8RmMXmM6-MY/s320/blue.png) repeat-x top;display:inline-block;
border-radius:5px; font-weight:bold;
width:57px; float:right; margin-right:11px;margin-top:11px; height:30px;" id="searchsubmit"></p></form></center>

Style 2

search boxes

<style>
.search_form2 {
border-radius:10px !important;-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;
        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;
        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;
background:URL(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hxd1468RbE4/T88u0xTfk1I/AAAAAAAAApQ/BZ1WB9VG_3g/s400/whitez%2Bby%2Babt.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;height:50px;display:block; width:302px;}</style>
<center><form method="get" style="-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;"

 class="search_form2" action=""><p>

<input type="text" id="s" style="background:transparent;
width:180px; border-radius:10px;
border:none;
margin:11px;
padding:4px; padding-top:6px !important;
padding-left:17px !important;
" name="s" value="Search in site..." onfocus="if(this.value==this.defaultValue)this.value='';" onblur="if(this.value=='')this.value=this.defaultValue;"/><input type="submit" value="Go" style="border:1px
solid rgba(0, 0, 0, .25);color:#FFF!important;margin-left:3px;background:#316ca4 url(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L3o3uwrf0Sk/T9CO3hbq1XI/AAAAAAAAApg/8RmMXmM6-MY/s320/blue.png) repeat-x top;display:inline-block;
border-radius:5px; font-weight:bold;
width:57px; float:right; margin-right:11px;margin-top:11px; height:30px;" id="searchsubmit"></p></form></center>

Style 3

search boxes

<style>
.search_form2 {
border-radius:10px !important;-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;
        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;
        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;
background:URL(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_Bf8C64sWs/T88uy_rLu3I/AAAAAAAAAow/EcYyd6sKjxA/s400/bluez%2Bby%2Ballbloggingtips.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;height:50px;display:block; width:302px;}</style>
<center><form method="get" style="-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;"

 class="search_form2" action=""><p>

<input type="text" id="s" style="background:transparent;
width:180px; border-radius:10px;
border:none;
margin:11px;
padding:4px; padding-top:6px !important;
padding-left:17px !important;
" name="s" value="Search in site..." onfocus="if(this.value==this.defaultValue)this.value='';" onblur="if(this.value=='')this.value=this.defaultValue;"/><input type="submit" value="Go" style="border:1px
solid rgba(0, 0, 0, .25);color:#FFF!important;margin-left:3px;background:#316ca4 url(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L3o3uwrf0Sk/T9CO3hbq1XI/AAAAAAAAApg/8RmMXmM6-MY/s320/blue.png) repeat-x top;display:inline-block;
border-radius:5px; font-weight:bold;
width:57px; float:right; margin-right:11px;margin-top:11px; height:30px;" id="searchsubmit"></p></form></center>

Style 4

search boxes

<style>
.search_form2 {
border-radius:10px !important;-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;
        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;
        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;
background:URL(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T2F6d51MVw8/T88u0v_kIqI/AAAAAAAAApE/pB5bbugoVoM/s400/transparent%2Bby%2Ballbloggingtips.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;height:50px;display:block; width:302px;}</style>
<center><form method="get" style="-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;"

 class="search_form2" action=""><p>

<input type="text" id="s" style="background:transparent;
width:180px; border-radius:10px;
border:none;
margin:11px;
padding:4px; padding-top:6px !important;
padding-left:17px !important;
" name="s" value="Search in site..." onfocus="if(this.value==this.defaultValue)this.value='';" onblur="if(this.value=='')this.value=this.defaultValue;"/><input type="submit" value="Go" style="border:1px
solid rgba(0, 0, 0, .25);color:#FFF!important;margin-left:3px;background:#316ca4 url(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L3o3uwrf0Sk/T9CO3hbq1XI/AAAAAAAAApg/8RmMXmM6-MY/s320/blue.png) repeat-x top;display:inline-block;
border-radius:5px; font-weight:bold;
width:57px; float:right; margin-right:11px;margin-top:11px; height:30px;" id="searchsubmit"></p></form></center>

Style 5

search boxes

<style>
.search_form2 {
border-radius:10px !important;-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;
        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;
        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;
background:URL(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D98wjamWcwk/T88u0dnSPuI/AAAAAAAAAo4/U4Oy3x-zhRg/s400/pinkz.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;height:50px;display:block; width:302px;}</style>
<center><form method="get" style="-moz-border-radius: 13px;
        -webkit-border-radius: 13px;        -o-border-radius: 13px;
        -ms-border-radius: 13px;        -khtml-border-radius: 13px;
        border-radius: 13px;"

 class="search_form2" action=""><p>

<input type="text" id="s" style="background:transparent;
width:180px; border-radius:10px;
border:none;
margin:11px;
padding:4px; padding-top:6px !important;
padding-left:17px !important;
" name="s" value="Search in site..." onfocus="if(this.value==this.defaultValue)this.value='';" onblur="if(this.value=='')this.value=this.defaultValue;"/><input type="submit" value="Go" style="border:1px
solid rgba(0, 0, 0, .25);color:#FFF!important;margin-left:3px;background:#316ca4 url(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L3o3uwrf0Sk/T9CO3hbq1XI/AAAAAAAAApg/8RmMXmM6-MY/s320/blue.png) repeat-x top;display:inline-block;
border-radius:5px; font-weight:bold;
width:57px; float:right; margin-right:11px;margin-top:11px; height:30px;" id="searchsubmit"></p></form></center>
Customization: Kindly replace allbloggingtips.com from above codes to your WP site url to make these cool search boxes to works !
  • Credits

Sleek and Cool Search Boxes For WordPress tutorial is a first time shared tutorial guide by AllBloggingTips. These scripts, widget and style sheets are provided only by ABT therefore if you wish to share this tutorial with your readers and friends then kindly link back to this post as the only favour in return. :D

That’s all!. We hope you enjoyed this Cool Search Boxes for WordPress. You can also subscribe us to get our next tutorial in your inbox ;)

Subscribe Here!

Sleek and Cool Search Boxes for Blogger

I recently shared simple yet cool search boxes for blogger. Now its time for something new, cool, beautiful and sleek.

So here comes sleek and cool search boxes for blogger/blogspot. It’s using simple image and css, HTML. Actually these are PSD source designed by Design3edge. I work hard in converting this to Blogger for YOU. Hope you enjoyed with this!

 Update: For WordPress Version Click Here!

sleek search boxes by allbloggingtips

Adding Add Cool Search Boxes For Blogger

  1. Login to Blogger Dashboard   => Design tab  => Page Elements .
  2. Click on Add a Gadget where you wish to place this Search Boxes.
  3. Choose HTML/JavaScript from the List.
  4. Place any one Search Box code in to it and Save the Gadget.

Style 1

search boxes

<style type="text/css">
#abt-searchbox{
border-radius:5px;
background:URL(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vGjST2sX6Ts/T88uy-eRYUI/AAAAAAAAAog/xhJ2A0nGnpw/s1600/black.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;width:307px;height:50px;disaply:block;}
form#abt-searchform{display: block;padding: 10px 12px;margin:0;}
form#abt-searchform #s{padding-left:16px !important; padding:7.5px;margin:0;width: 235px;font-size:14px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
form#abt-searchform
#sbutton{margin:0;padding:0;height:40px; width:44px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
</style>
<div id="abt-searchbox">

<form id="abt-searchform" action="/search" method="get">
    <input type="text" id="s" name="q" value="Search..." onfocus='if (this.value == "Search...") {this.value = ""}' onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Search...";}'/>
    <input type="image" src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" id="sbutton" />
</form>
</div>

Style 2

search boxes

<style type="text/css">
#abt-searchbox{
border-radius:5px;
background:URL(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hxd1468RbE4/T88u0xTfk1I/AAAAAAAAApQ/BZ1WB9VG_3g/s400/whitez%2Bby%2Babt.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;width:307px;height:50px;disaply:block;}
form#abt-searchform{display: block;padding: 10px 12px;margin:0;}
form#abt-searchform #s{padding-left:16px !important; padding:7.5px;margin:0;width: 235px;font-size:14px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
form#abt-searchform
#sbutton{margin:0;padding:0;height:40px; width:44px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
</style>
<div id="abt-searchbox">

<form id="abt-searchform" action="/search" method="get">
    <input type="text" id="s" name="q" value="Search..." onfocus='if (this.value == "Search...") {this.value = ""}' onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Search...";}'/>
    <input type="image" src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" id="sbutton" />
</form>
</div>

Style 3

search boxes

<style type="text/css">
#abt-searchbox{
border-radius:5px;
background:URL(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_Bf8C64sWs/T88uy_rLu3I/AAAAAAAAAow/EcYyd6sKjxA/s400/bluez%2Bby%2Ballbloggingtips.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;width:307px;height:50px;disaply:block;}
form#abt-searchform{display: block;padding: 10px 12px;margin:0;}
form#abt-searchform #s{padding-left:16px !important; padding:7.5px;margin:0;width: 235px;font-size:14px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
form#abt-searchform
#sbutton{margin:0;padding:0;height:40px; width:44px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
</style>
<div id="abt-searchbox">

<form id="abt-searchform" action="/search" method="get">
    <input type="text" id="s" name="q" value="Search..." onfocus='if (this.value == "Search...") {this.value = ""}' onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Search...";}'/>
    <input type="image" src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" id="sbutton" />
</form>
</div>

Style 4

search boxes

<style type="text/css">
#abt-searchbox{
border-radius:5px;
background:URL(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T2F6d51MVw8/T88u0v_kIqI/AAAAAAAAApE/pB5bbugoVoM/s400/transparent%2Bby%2Ballbloggingtips.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;width:307px;height:50px;disaply:block;}
form#abt-searchform{display: block;padding: 10px 12px;margin:0;}
form#abt-searchform #s{padding-left:16px !important; padding:7.5px;margin:0;width: 235px;font-size:14px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
form#abt-searchform
#sbutton{margin:0;padding:0;height:40px; width:44px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
</style>
<div id="abt-searchbox">

<form id="abt-searchform" action="/search" method="get">
    <input type="text" id="s" name="q" value="Search..." onfocus='if (this.value == "Search...") {this.value = ""}' onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Search...";}'/>
    <input type="image" src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" id="sbutton" />
</form>
</div>

Style 5

search boxes

<style type="text/css">
#abt-searchbox{
border-radius:5px;
background:URL(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D98wjamWcwk/T88u0dnSPuI/AAAAAAAAAo4/U4Oy3x-zhRg/s400/pinkz.png) no-repeat scroll center center transparent;width:307px;height:50px;disaply:block;}
form#abt-searchform{display: block;padding: 10px 12px;margin:0;}
form#abt-searchform #s{padding-left:16px !important; padding:7.5px;margin:0;width: 235px;font-size:14px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
form#abt-searchform
#sbutton{margin:0;padding:0;height:40px; width:44px;vertical-align: top;border:none;background:transparent;}
</style>
<div id="abt-searchbox">

<form id="abt-searchform" action="/search" method="get">
    <input type="text" id="s" name="q" value="Search..." onfocus='if (this.value == "Search...") {this.value = ""}' onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Search...";}'/>
    <input type="image" src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/blank.gif" id="sbutton" />
</form>
</div>

Credits

This is again a first time shared tutorial guide by AllBloggingTips. These scripts, widget and style sheets are provided only by ABT  therefore if you wish to share this tutorial with your readers and friends then kindly link back to this post as the only favour in return. :D

That’s all!. We hope you enjoyed this Cool Search Boxes. You can also subscribe  us to get our next tutorial in your inbox ;)

Subscribe Here!

HOW TO: Increase Traffic To Your Photography Blog

So, you have a photography blog and you’ve been posting pictures for a long time and you’re still not getting enough traffic. The same happened to my friend. Traffic means a lot especially for blogs. It’s easy to manage a photo blog, but when it comes to traffic it may be difficult to get it. In this article I’m gonna show you how to increase traffic to your photo blog making the best use of the social networking sites.

Photography

1. Use Watermarks while sharing your pictures

One of the best way to increase traffic to your photo blog is to share your pictures with your blog URL watermark or use some text like this on the image – “For Full Size Visit This Website – [YOURBLOG].com”. You small size pictures while sharing, and tell them to visit your site for the full size images.

2. Join Photography groups on Facebook

There are many groups on Facebook for photographers, you can find them in the search bar in the Facebook homepage, then there you’ll find some posting there, send a friend request to anyone of them, and then, after he accepts the request, tell him to add you to the group. And then post your images(which should have watermarks). And then wait for a few days, you’ll see the increase traffic to your blog!

3. Pin your Images

Pinterest is the largest growing social networking site. You can drive large amounts of traffic from Pinterest, if you have good amount of followers. You may google it to find tips and tricks about how to increase followers and repins. Here are a few tips to get more followers –

  • Keep pinning regularly
  • Don’t pin only your (blog’s) images, but also keep pinning other awesome pics.
  • Comment on others images to gain exposure
  • Follow as many as you can, so that you’ll gain exposure, since they’ll see you in their notifications and may follow you back!

4. Add your images in Flickr

As you know, Flickr is one of the largest image sharing sites. Add some images in Flickr with a watermark text(make sure your blog URL, is in the watermark text.)

5. Optimize your images for search engines

SEO is the best way to increase traffic for any kinda blog. This is the same for photo blogs too. Here are few tips to optimize your images for search engines

  1. Use keyword in file name

For example, let us think you’ve bought a new Mercedes, and you want to post that image in your photo blog, then the image with file name my-new-mercedes.jpg would get a better ranking in search engines than IMG00010.jpg
So, it’s better to use a keyword in a file name, to get a better ranking.

  2. Descriptive Alt Tags

The alt attribute describes the contents of an image file.(You can read about the importance of alt attribute in the image publishing guidelines). An image with alt attribute is market up as follows –

<img src="my-new-mercedes" alt="My New Mercedes" />

  3. SEO Friendly Images WordPress Plugin

SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress Plugin which automatically updates all images with proper alt and title attributes. It makes your SEO for images easy. Read more about this plugin here – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-image/

You can read more about optimizing images for SEO here – http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=114016&ctx=sibling

Some website which increase your photo blog’s exposure –

Hope you find this article useful :)