What the heck does that mean? Stan has been telling me what I need to do to “optimize” my web site. Why I ask. And he gives me all his reasons – when people google to look for a rescue dog your blog doesn’t come up in the top 10 – he says. You need more readers for a bigger donor base. Not enough traffic. Why does that matter?
So I goggled it to find out: from wikipdia
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym “SEO” can refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.
Well that make sit clear as mud doesn’t it?
And he says make sure you add tags on every post. Ok, not knowing why but I do it. He checks every blog to see if I remember.
So I googled why and found this: At Social media and web marketing coaching
When you start setting up a blog, you’ll notice that you are given the option to add “tags” to your blog post. Very interesting web site.
What is a tag you ask? A tag is simply a keyword you use to label your posts as well as make it easier to find your entry. For example, you have a blog about your coffee shop that specialized in organic, fair trade coffee. You like to blog about when new flavors of coffee come in, free tastings, etc. It would be good to use tags like “free-trade”, “organic coffee”, after each blog post.
Here’s why tags are important and powerful
1) Using the same tags over and over again. Why? So you can come up in searches when users are looking for the same keyword. It’s critical not to vary the tags too much, but instead reuse them, like in the example above: “organic coffee”, “free-trade coffee” ,“independent”.
2) Use tag clouds in your blog – tag clouds are commonly seen on the sidebar of blogs, are easy to scan. A list of tags can be easily read if it’s in a cloud. It squeezes a ton of information into a small space.
3) You can always include terms in your tags that aren’t necessarily in your blog. If you are located in Portland, Oregon, but it’s not mentioned in your blog post, you can tag “Puddletown”, “Stumptown”, “PDX”, or “Rose City”. These tags can alert search engines to which terms are most important and help lead the right people who really want to read your content.
Now that makes sense. But I still don’t understand the why’s or wherefore’s. But I do understand looking after dogs, observing their behaviours and changing feral/wild/stray/scared dogs into balanced stable family pets. So I will leave the techno stuff to Stan and Tyler. And remember to use tag words and keywords so more people can find Turtle Gardens who rescues dogs from Vancouver and to Vancouver and beyond.
And an update from Chester who lives in Port Coquitlam!
Just thought I would touch base to let you know that Chester is great. He’s happy and healthy and I completely love him.
I received your email about the challenge and put my vote in for you. I also emailed it to about 40 other people requesting same.
I was on petfinder this evening and found a Chester look-a-like …Click here to see
Quite a resemblance !
Attached a couple of pics for you.
Best of luck with the challenge!
Please vote for TG! In the care2 challenge we are #82 with 171 votes. Yet over 400 unique visitors come here daily – Please vote – it is just once!! If TG wins any grants – I pledge to use every dollar for Low Cost Spay Neuter Program!!! We were just starting to make a difference! Please help us help the animals! The vote button is just below the red banner above!
And then We need more clicks!!!
The shelter challenge – We are # 1 in Canada which means we are in line for a $1000 grant. But we could aim higher –We are UP AGAIN!! !! to #28 in overall ranking. #1 gets $20,000, #2 gets $5000 and #3 gets $3000. We can do it!! Email schools and ask the kids to support Turtle Gardens Spay Neuter Society (our full legal name!!), email family and friends. The animals are counting on us! Click Here!
©Turtle Gardens Animal Rescue Society. Have your pet spayed or neutered today.
