Welcome back! I've had requests asking how to add tags onto your blog posts, so I guess I'll begin by telling you about Technorati--what it is, how to add tags and what they are there for.To begin with, Technorati is a blog search engine. There are lots of blog search engines...did you know that? One of my favorites is www.blogsearchengine.com, but the reason why I like Technorati's search engine is that they give me this little code that I put at the end of my posts such as you see down there. What I like about this is because once I click on any of the search words I put inside the code, it takes me to Technorati and shows me how well they are faring in their search engine. Nine times out of ten, my blog shows up first a few hours after I make a post, so if I continually put certain search words in there, I will constantly be showing up first in most cases. But, that's not all cases. If you don't see your blog showing up first when you click on these words, then someone else is optimizing their blog better than you, and that's when you know you need to make some changes.
Remember, using key search words will help people find your books, and it does work!
So, let's hunker down now and learn how to get this code and how to insert it into your blog.
Let's start with going on over to Technorati at www.technorati.com.
Before we begin, look over on the main page there to the far right hand side and you'll see a bunch of words underneath an oblong blue box marked "Top Tags." These are the tags that are the most popular that people are using to "tag" their posts. Click on the first word in that box. At this time, it's American Idol, no doubt because American Idol is in its final episodes right now and draws a pretty big crowd of bloggers talking about it. Just in case the words have changed by the time I send this through, the link is http://technorati.com/tag/american+idol.
Go to that page and look at how many bloggers are blogging about American Idol. At this time, there 24,355 people blogging about that particular set of search words. When we were talking about search engine optimization and using key search words or phrases that we want people to use to get to our book blogs, our goal is to come up on that page you're sitting at right now. With 24,355 bloggers competing for that top spot, what are your odds?
They're stupendous, but don't think that's any reason to walk away. Look very carefully at the first three links there. Which one has "American Idol" in the subject line?
In case this has changed, I'll cut and paste:
American Idol Top 12
in Jeanette’s Celebrity Corner by JeanetteJ
http://jeanettes-celebrity-corner.com
Bookmakers Not Impressed by Sanjaya Malakar
in Sanjaya Malakar
http://sanjaya-malakar.blogspot.com
Trashy Antonella Barba Pictures Right Here!
in Antonella Barba Fan Site
http://antonellabarba.zenblogger.com
Do you see how important it is to use your key search words each and every time you make a post?
Okay, go back to the main page at www.technorati.com.
Look in the left hand sidebar and you'll see "Top Searches." This will tell you which of those key search words people are using the most. As of this moment, "Antonella Barba" is the number one set of search words people are using, according to Technorati search. Let's click on it.
I'm only taking you to this page because I want you to see how many people are putting "Antonella Barba" in search. There are 9,929 places that Antonella Barba is showing up. Quite a popular gal, but we won't get into why that is, lol. This is a clean show, folks!
Alright, now we're prepared and armed and ready to get started learning how to use Technorati on our own blogs so that our own blogs will show up in their search engine.
You know, I find it really funny that it's so easy and that the results happen overnight, whereas, on websites, it takes months sometimes for our key search words to show up. This is a very good reason we should all be blogging.
Okay, go back into Technorati (www.technorati.com) and look in the left hand sidebar for "Claim My Blog." Click "Start Now."
The next page is their sign-up page.
Join, then log in.
You should be on this page --> http://technorati.com/account/blogs/#start_claim.
Put your blog url in the green box and hit "Begin Claim." I know it's a lot to go through but you won't be able to use all the features of Technorati if you don't.
The next page will say "Choose Claim Method." Hit your choice, but I find "Quick Claim" the easiest.
Once you have claimed your blog, you can start adding tags.
To add tags, you need to zero in on your search words and place them within the html code at the end of your post. In other words, I have blogger, so in the post I am in right now, I would hit "edit html" at the top. I'm not sure how WordPress or the others operate, but what you are looking for is a way to add html to a single blog post.
Now, the code. Let's go back to www.technorati.com. See the search box to the top right? Put your key search word or words in that box and do you see the box beside it that says, "in blog posts"? Change that to "tags," then hit search.
The next page that comes up, you'll see who's been blogging using your key search words. But, look to the bottom right hand side and there will be an html code. Copy that.
Go back over to your blog and add it into the html of your blog post, and voila, you're complete.
Well, almost. Now you have to ping it.
The reason for "pinging it" is so that Technorati recognizes you right away. So, publish your blog post, then click on one of your tags. When you get to that page, look all the way to the bottom left and you'll see "ping us."
The next page will say "Ping Us." Find your blog, hit ping, and you are finally done.
One thing I have to mention is that when you have more than one set of search words like I have below, don't forgot to put a comma and a space in between or they'll run together.
And that completes our Technorati lesson for today. Have fun with it, let it teach you more about using search words and if there are any questions, you can leave them in the comment box. Have a wonderful week-end everyone and PUMP UP THAT BLOG!
Tags: How to Pump UP Your Blog to Sell More Books, online book promotion, Technorati, blog search engine, key search words, Antonella Barba, blog search engines
2 comments:
Dorothy,
I use a neat little plug-in for Word Press called Simple Tags that lets you just type the tags at the end of the post without having to go into the HTML at all. It's a free download at http://www.broobles.com/scripts/simpletags/.
Thanks for this great series. I've been passing it on to my clients and also linked to your first post in my article about promotion in a Self-publishing Primer on my blog.
Wow, I'm going to have to pass on this info for WordPress users. Thanks, Lillie! And I thank you so much for linking to my first post about promotion in your self-publishing primer on your blog! I'm over there to check that baby out! ***HUGS***
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