Nathan O'Leary, Author at Mainely SEO - Page 2 of 2 Nathan O'Leary, Author at Mainely SEO - Page 2 of 2

Nathan O'Leary

5 WordPress Plugins I Use & Why

If you want to take your blog to the next level, here are 5 WordPress Plugins you may want to consider using. The best part about all of them is that they are FREE!

Social Media widget/icons – This is the first plugin that you want on your blog if you want to be make your content shareable. Sharing content is the entire point right? AddThis and ShareThis are the two most popular icons that I know you have all seen at the bottom of various blog posts and articles. Get this plugin and be part of the power of the sharing revolution.

LinkWithin – If you would like to increase your pageviews and time people spend on your website [decrease your bounce rate], you may want to consider installing the LinkWithin plugin. This is a blog widget that that appears under each post, linking to related stories from your blog archive. The content you write is valuable and you don’t want the past blog posts that you have spent so much time on getting lost behind all of your new content. The best part about this plugin is that it is minimally styled and will fit right into your website design.

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in blog / WordPress  by Nathan O'Leary

What is SEO and Do I Really Need it?

I am sure by now you have heard and seen the term “SEO” and if you don’t know what it means, I am sure you have either Googled or asked a friend, “What does SEO stand for or mean?” It stands for Search Engine Optimization. Now you’re asking yourself “What does it mean to optimize a search engine?” And Do I really need it? If you want traffic to your website then “YES!” you not only need SEO, your website/business’s survival and growth depends on it. Many business owners don’t realize they need it, but once we begin to list the advantages, it becomes very clear that SEO is necessary.

There are millions of websites with billions of pages. Only the top 10 web pages are listed on a Search Engine Result Page (or SERP as you may have seen it written in some text). To Google, these 10 web pages on the first page of the SERP are the most relevant and valuable results for the keywords you used for your search.

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in SEO  by Nathan O'Leary

What is Twitter and How Do I Tweet?

When you first heard of Twitter you didn’t pay much attention now did you? I know you have been hearing A LOT about the power of Twitter and how well it works to get the message out. Most of you can probably remember learning about the crisis in Iran, the earthquake in Haiti, the protests in Egypt, Charlie Sheen and the recent earthquake in Japan and thinking, “All of these events have one thing in common and that is… Twitter?!” Think about it. It’s true. Twitter gives every single human being the platform or ability to shout or “tweet” anything and everything they would like. Think of this way… It’s like opening the window to your house and yelling outside whatever it is that you have to say. Except on Twitter it is all recorded and can be categorized for anyone and everyone to find if they want to or need to. This is such a powerful tool to use when you need help. You have a voice and it is now heard.

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in Twitter  by Nathan O'Leary

Zemanta Review: SEO Link Building With The Zemanta Plugin

If you are a blogger you may have heard of the Zemanta plugin available for various blogging platforms such as WordPress, MoveableType, Drupal and Joomla. The plugin can also be installed on your Firefox, Chrome or IE web browser. If you haven’t used The Zemanta plugin I would highly recommend it for many different reasons, one of which is to help you build links. Zemanta is essentially a blogging coach, helping improve your writing in many different ways. As you start to write a new post, it suggests related content already on the web similar to yours to link to. It will also show you complementary pictures to embed in to your posts and will recommend popular keywords to include in your copy.  By implementing these suggestions, you should receive more traffic because you’re using popular keywords and your posts will be more engaging with good pictures so your visitors will stay on your site longer.

Zemanta as a Link Building Tool

Most SEO professionals perform their own keyword research before starting to write a new post and probably already have an idea for images, but if you don’t this is a great tool. My favorite use for the Zemanta plugin is to help me find related sites to acquire links from. I start out by creating a new blog post and pasting a list of keywords I am trying to target. Zemanta scans over the keywords and makes recommendations for similar articles from their network of sites. The articles listed in Zemanta tend to have more traffic and authority, so they make great link targets.

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in Link Building / SEO  by Nathan O'Leary

How to Create A Blogger Outreach Program For Your Brand

Creating a blogger outreach program to promote your brand is really quite simple and the results can be astonishing, trust us! What is a blogger outreach program and how do I get on the right track to building my brand? A blogger outreach program consists of researching and contacting bloggers within your specific niche and getting them to engage with your brand. Engaging could mean having them review your product or mention it in a blog post. Adding a social media component such as a Twitter mention or Facebook wall post and combining it with a contest or give-a-way can catapult the effectiveness of the outreach program. All of these actions help build links to your website and social media profiles, they will help you gain followers and increase your brand mentions online. All of which are very positive signals to Google.  It is also important to maintain relationships with the bloggers, because hopefully you will want to work with them again to promote your next big thing.

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in Online PR  by Nathan O'Leary

3 SEO Tools I Am Thankful for This Thanksgiving

Having automated SEO tools performing tedious and mundane tasks and providing alerts to things of which you want to be made aware, saves a SEO professional a great deal of time. Anything that saves time for me is a huge plus. Here are three SEO tools I use everyday to make my life a lot easier as a search marketer.

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in SEO  by Nathan O'Leary

Tips on Social Bookmarking your Content

Social Bookmarking is similar to bookmarking websites on your personal computer, but it is visible to anyone. The more people that bookmark the same website, the more votes that website receives and the more popular it becomes. Many times your content can go viral, if it receives enough votes and is promoted to the front page. Social bookmarking should be an essential part of your link building strategy. Just make sure the social bookmarking site you are submitting your content to, does not place a “no follow tag” on your bookmarked links. When the social bookmarks are “followed links”, they will count as a back link to your content and help your content get indexed frequently and even help you rank organically in the search engines. There are many social bookmarking sites available such as DIGG, Delicious, Yahoo Buzz and Stumbleupon. Make sure the site that you submit your content to receives a decent amount of traffic, has active users and, once again, will follow your links.

in Social Bookmarking  by Nathan O'Leary

New Reading Material courtesy of Chris Brogan

I follow Chris Brogan on twitter and today he visited the Borders in South Portland, Maine. He signed a few copies of his new book Social Media 101 and Trust Agents and then sent out a tweet that they were sitting there on the shelf just waiting to be purchased. I happened to be in the area and scooped them both up. I cannot wait to start reading them. In the new few weeks I will report back to you on what I thought of them both.

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in Book Reviews  by Nathan O'Leary

Foursquare Update for Android, Finally!

I woke up this morning to find an update for the Foursquare App on my Samsung Captivate running Google’s Android OS. I chose that phone over the iPhone 4 because I haven’t bit fully in to the apple, yet.. The only Apple product I have is the iPad and, so far, it is the only one I will buy. I was a long standing Blackberry user, pushing 5 years, but in June I took the plunge and went for the Andorid OS because it’s Google. This is my attempt at blogging everyday. I know the post is short but, hey, at least it’s something. Recently, Chris Brogan, someone who I really admire, had a post in which he talked about framing your blog posts to help one write everyday, hopefully, it will help me write better.

in Social GPS  by Nathan O'Leary