Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Top Ten Ways To Become #1 On Google Searches

1. Pick a title that is very relevant to how you want to be found on Google. Thus in my blog Larry Cragun Family And Genealogy Blog. I want those interested in Cragun Genealogy to find me.

2. Similar to #1, use words in the description that are also relevant to your blog topic. I added my other family lines here, as there is logically more space. The title needs to be shorter.

3. Google (and most search engines) are studying your websites content. What are you writing about? Is the content in sync?  4- What are your labels (tags)? 5- What it the title of your posts. When ;you write, you need not write about the same thing each time. I mix it up to be interesting. However if you want to be found on a specific search or searches you must write about them of course. You must label or tag the article about the content of the article. The more your article headings match the content in the article, match the headings, match the tags, the better Google treats you.

6. Write at least 4 articles a week. I should say publish. Many of us write several articles at a sitting bu schedule them to go on different days. Google hits your site within minutes of publishing it. Google likes fresh content. It treats your site better with steady regular postings.

7. Be consistent over time. Along with the points in #4, it sometimes takes months before you earn your way to page 1.  You are competing against every other article published, some searches have millions of competitors. Some searches are easier than others, but they all take some time for your blog to be recognized as a serious result to send people to.

8. Use original content. If you copy another article found on line you are toast. Google assumes they are both spam and punishes both sites. It is O K to copy less than a third of another article and link to it. That is a win. Don't take other sites photos.

9. Make friends in a natural way. If you do as noted in #8, linking and sending people to another site, they may link back to you. The same applies in your sidebar, you can link to other sites. A natural sharing of links from one to another, not trading to trick Google, helps your site. If you write content others like they may take a part and link to you. That helps a lot.

10. Make most of your articles at least 125 words in length. Google uses that as a number that says this is a real article.


Friday, June 15, 2012

Simple Organizational Steps For A Research Blog

The simplicity of this type of blog is what makes it so powerful. You are more likely to do this type of blog.

The important ingredients are few.
1- Label each article to categorize the point of the article.
2- Have your blog labels widget live for your sites visitors.

Research Blogging Takes Less Effort

A research blog is a great research log, but more practical. If you post your research only, not trying to entertain or be a great writer you spend less time in producing your content.

Today I posted 11 articles in about four hours of online research about my 5th  grandfather in Ireland. He is a hard one to find, and it is interesting as I am learning a lot about Ireland.

As I found relevant information I copied and pasted it into my blog.

Here are 11 articles I posted in that short time. Click this link.

Monday, May 14, 2012

As experienced bloggers for marketing purposes, Kathleen and I are convinced its application for genealogy success is huge. We are already seeing the benefits.

We blog to make connections and are making them. We blog to be found on the search engines, just check out a couple of searches on our lines: Like search Cragun or Porter and see us on page 1.

We blog for many reasons. It's worth it.

Photographs Are Important To Most Type of Blogs

Our Buddies, The Tigers Taj And Almos

Sunday, May 13, 2012

A Tip On Loading Photos

In preparing this site I used Jing on almost every illustration. It was quick and easy.

http://jingproject.com/

In some cases I used Power Point and uploaded it to http://SlideShare.net/ From there I was able to obtain the HTML and post the power point into the article. In some cases it was just a slide or a photo that went to SlideShare.

Today I also uploaded to SlideShare copies of my grandmothers marriage certificate for an article on my main blog. I needed it in HTML format to be able to insert it into the blog as the format that came out from scanning wasn't acceptable to the Google Blogger blog.

Between Flickr and SlideShare I am usually able to find the right place to upload a document, photo or Power Point.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Preparing To Blog - What Is The Purpose?

Whether you have given a lot of thought to blogging for a genealogy purpose or even if the idea just struck you - you need to decide what would be the purpose of this endeavor.

There are many great reasons to do this, but it will take some effort to learn the simple parts of doing this and even more effort to disclipine yourself to being a regular publisher.

With this in mind I ask you to consider what is the purpose. Below is a slide show with some suggestions. There are many more reasons, one of the best is learning to be a better writer.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

A Cool Tool, Bit.ly

Shorten Long Links

Sometimes you may want to send someone a link and you wish it were not so long. You can easily accomplish that by going to https://bit.ly

You just paste the long link into the blue area and click shorten and it will produce a small link just for that URL.

Jing For Screenshots

Capture What You See -


Available to download at: www.techsmith.com/Jing

Jing is a free handy tool I have been using for years. It has inexpensive upgrades, for purposes like taking longer videos, but my main use is for taking a photo of something on my screen.  It's a must, easy to use, and keeps a history of what you have Jinged. Please go to the site and downloand it now.

You Will Use Jing More Than You Ever Imagined

I even use it to photograph documents online. You lose no quality.

Create A Flickr Account



Flickr is an important tool with two functions:

1- A place to upload photos.

2- A place to search for photos you can use in  your blog. Photos make an article more interesting. A lot of viewers will stop and study an article simply because of the photo.