PageRank for Mommybloggers 101

PageRank is an algorithm created by Larry Page of Google. It is a trademarked, highly guarded system that Page named after himself.
PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page's importance. Source
Google and other search engines use "crawlers" to travel through the internet. Crawlers are a software agent that systematically copies (index) all the content in every page of every website. They also have an operation called spidering that follows the outbound hyperlinks of each page, evaluates it and adds them to the destination's PageRank. The entire process is complicated. Google updates it regularly to keep it relevant to the changing internet landscape. If you have



Now let's apply this to your website. PageRank applies to blogs in several ways. Having a search engine optimized (SEO) site give your site a higher chance to be shown on the first page of a potential readers keyword search. For instance, do a search on Google for "the percentage of politicians that i think are honest is:" and a post I wrote in November 2007 is the third on the list. I'm first for "swing shift sucks" most days. Rankings like this keep my little blog with only a few dozen subscribers at PageRank 4.



This PageRank brings more unique visitors to my site. This benefits my site in two ways:

It makes my Google AdSense clicks pay higher. Ads clicked from visitors who come from direct links pay a small fraction of the fee paid when you have new visits from search engines.
It makes PR reps take notice of my site. PageRacnk and traffic stats are the two most commonly requested metrics from companies looking for blogs to advertise on.

While no method is foolproof, I have found several things to be much more important than others pertaining to blogs and PageRank. Blogs are a different animal than a business website.This list will help you cover all your bases. I refer mainly to self-hosted WordPress blogs for tools and plugins as it is the most common platform.

Own your domain. The plain truth is that search crawlers don't pay close attention to blogs in that end in blogspot.com or wordpress.com. If owning a self-hosted site is not in your budget right now, at least buy a domain through your current platform.
Sitemap: Giving the search engine bot a schematic of your site so it can index all of your posts.

If you are in WordPress, use the Google XML Sitemaps Plugin.
Link to sitemap.xml in the footer of your site.


Register your site on Google Webmaster Tools and Quancast.

Google Webmaster Tools puts your site on the crawler's automatic queue. It will scan for new posts, comments and links to index without the need for pings.
Quantcast is a public analytics site. Whenever you have a PR inquiry, they can look there for real time stats. You can also embed the charts into your media kit.


Use "pretty permalinks" for your posts. For WordPress, select Custom and input

%postname%/ this turns your title "Oh Happy Day" into /oh-happy-day
%post_id%/%postname%/ this adds the post's numerical identifier before, making it /9435/oh-happy-day/. I suggest this for people who are prone to using the same titles unwittingly or have more than 3 years of posts to rename.
While you're at it, name your photos with keywords. girl-with-a-daisy.jpg is going to get more attention than IMG_9094.jpg



Google updates PageRank scores every quarter. You can monitor your score at Google PageRank Checker. Don't despair at a low score. PageRank is difficult. Most Website Administrators consider a 4 as great, 5 is outstanding. Only about a dozen sites achieve a 10. I recommend using Website Grader by Hubspot. It will give you an in-depth analysis of your site. Don't sweat the score. Look at the suggestions. We all have room for improvement. This is the internet, we're all learning as we go.

Make a Facebook Page for Your Small Business

BY MERYL K EVANS

Facebook has two types of pages. The first is Facebook Pages, which allow public figures, businesses, or brands a space to share information, interact with their fans and create an interactive forum on Facebook. The other, Groups, focus less on a person, brand or business and more on a shared interest. Unlike Pages, Groups have a 5000-member limit. Pages can tie in with your account or brand, while Groups stand alone. Facebook Pages tend to work better for businesses while Groups do well for non-profits, interests and causes.

While Pages would seem to be the better option for most businesses, they’re really geared toward well-known brands. In this post, I’m going to explain how a small or one-person business can create an effective Facebook Page.

Setting Up Your Page

If you’re a one-person business, rather than creating Facebook pages for your name, consider setting up a Facebook page for the company, product or service name and add keywords to it. People may be more likely to subscrbe to your Page (become a “fan”) when they see the topic that follows the company name. For example, I’m a one-person business, so instead of creating my Page using my name, I used my official company name of “meryl.net.” I then expanded it to show “meryl.net: writing and editing.” Using this approach shows what kind of valuable information people will get if they subscribe to my Page. Not all of us have well-known brands like Coca Cola, Twitter or IBM.

Creating a new Facebook page requires picking a category for your Page. There are three main choices: “Local,” “Brand, Product or Organization” or “Artist, Band or Public Figure.” For my Page, I decided that “Local” was out, as all except one of my clients is located outside of Texas. I could have selected “Artist, Band, or Public Figure.” Not because I think I’m a rock star, but because it has a “Writer” subcategory. However, I decided to go with “Brand, Product or Organization” as it has “Communications” and “Professional Service” subcategories, which are a good fit for me. Take a look at the categories and their subcategories to see where you best fit.

Before Opening for Business

Prior to broadcasting that your Facebook Page is open for business, add some valuable content so people will see the benefits of subscribing:

Share tips on how to do things faster or more effectively with your product or service.
Post how-to videos or screencasts.
Announce free upcoming events or webinars.
Mention if you or someone from your company will be attendin an event for a potential meet up.
Import your blog entries.

If you’re not ready for a page or want to become familiar with Facebook Pages, subscribe to some other pages and visit them regularly. See which ones work, and what makes them better than those that don’t work well. As long as you don’t come across as overly promotional, you’ll do fine.

How does your business or brand use Facebook?

So, you need a typeface?

Quite a quirky little guide into helping you select that typeface for your next project.

Click below to make it a tad larger!

RDC Lends BEN a Hand

Red Deer Creative has teamed up with BEN to bring their branding up to scratch before their 2010 award ceremony.

BEN, the Ballarat Environment Network, is an umbrella group representing the landcare and environment groups of the South-west region of Victoria. BEN has roughly 80 member groups. BEN:

• Assists groups with environmental activities and increasing memberships
• Raises awareness and improve understanding of environmental issues
• Conducts a range of projects to solve environmental problems
• Promotes the Ballarat Environment Awards
• Encourages communication and networking between groups
• Provides a single voice on issues

BEN actively works with government agencies, non-government organisations, community groups, councils, industry, schools, landcare members, landholders and the general community to achieve improved environmental outcomes.

Keep a close eye on our portfolio for the new BEN Branding!

Red Deer Now Developing For iPhone

That’s right! i wont give away too much information but stay tuned! Red Deer creative is currently in the process of developing a group of iPhone apps that will be handy in day to day life.

Does your blog ping?

Pings are a quick way to spread your blogs posts around the internet. A ping is a notification that is sent to a website. You have probably gotten them before when someone links your blog. There is a long list of Ping services that aggregate lists of new blog posts or website content.

There are several ways to get you URL on these lists. Spending an hour to sign your blog on to some update services will give you an edge on search engine page rank.

In your WordPress blog :  to Settings > Writing >; and scroll down to Update Services. You will see "rpc.pingomatic.com/" in the box. Take a minute and add the below list into the box to bulk up your update notifications.

rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
ping.feedburner.com/
api.moreover.com/RPC2
rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
bulkfeeds.net/rpc
pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx'
blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
blogupdate.org/ping/
feedsky.com/api/RPC2

For Blogger users, you're SOL for the automatic notifications. It all has to be done manually or through an external service. I hear there is a script in the works to add in.

Mozilla Firefox continues to grow

According to research, Mozilla's "Firefox" browser ended 2007 with a significant increase in its usage.


Its still hasn't caught up with Internet Explorer, but still ended the year with a significant market share of 28%. So, bearing this in mind, have you taken a look at your site in Firefox recently to check that its looking as good as it does in Internet Explorer?

The research in question, was performed by French internet traffic analysis company XiTi Monitor (so its also written up in French) here and here's Wired magazine's take on the research.

While this article focuses on the reason's why Firefox's popularity is on the increase, it doesn't touch on what this means for the website owner, namely that it is no longer acceptable to pass off alternative browsers as passing fads, or un-important. It is now more important than ever that your site looks the same when viewed through Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari. At the very least, a user should still be able to navigate your site in any of those browsers (you'd be surprised just how many sites we see where this is not the case!).

Blogs: Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers

Want to start blogging? Who better to turn to for advice than Jorn Barger, the man credited with inventing the blog.

In this article on the wired magazine website, Jorn Barger shares his Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers. Including, at number 4:

"Being truly yourself is always hipper than suppressing a link just because it's not trendy enough. Your readers need to get to know you."

So expect links to Bon Jovi, Neighbours, Neville Meintjies from 7de Laan, and other "un-trendy" things that amuse us in future posts!