Optimum Blog Placement?

[strugglingnovice]

I'm still tweaking my site, and I'm trying to create site links by blogging, as some of you on this forum suggested I do.

I built my blog using Blogger, primarily because I've blogged for years with Blogger and I'm comfortable with it, and I titled it bigredworkweardotblogspotdotcom. Now I'm wondering if that's a mistake to have the word blogspot in it. Will Google search my keywords and the links I have created and then associate it with my Big Red Workwear website? OR, should I install WordPress and have my site link to bigredworkweardotcom/blog, would that give me better results in keyword searches? Is the word "blogspot" in my URL going to give me problems, or am I worrying unnecessarily? Obviously, once again, I don't know how Google really operates. Despite the fact that I have read so many SEO articles and books, I struggle constantly with comprehension, this stuff just doesn't come easily to me, and I apologize for always having to ask this board these questions. I would seriously be lost, if not for the help you all have given me.

Anyway, I have this great masculine looking vintage Blogger template, (bigredworkweardotblogspotdotcom) and would like to be able to use it, and of course, if I migrate my Blogger site to WordPress I won't be able to. I'm just uncertain if I'm headed in the right direction for the best visibility with Google.

Can someone give me some direction, please.

As always, I appreciate you guys so much, your knowledge is just amazing!!!

And I apologize for all the dots, but I have realized that Google does find me on these forums and the links show up when I do a Google search for my website, I don't really want that. I am learning a little bit ;o)

[strugglingnovice]

This is some of what I've read - this looks like the blog should be directly incorporated into my site - i do have a BLOG button in my header that links to bigredworkweardotblogspotdotcom - i just don't know if i'm directing this correctly for google to index my site - here is a snippet of an article i read -

The Impact of Blog Posts

Let’s take our static website and add a blog. For the sake of this example, let’s say that there are five representatives in the company who have each agreed to write one blog post per week.

Here’s where our blog really starts to pay off. Each time a new blog post is added, a new page is indexed by the search engines. By the end of the first month, the website has doubled the number of pages originally indexed by the search engines.

Within a month, our website—which originally had 10-20 pages in the search engine pool—now has 30-40 pages that can possibly be returned in the top spot on Google. Stretch that out over the course of a year and our 10-20 page website now has around 250 pages indexed in the search engines.

And while a blog post a day is a lot of work, scale it back to one blog post per week and we’ve still more than doubled the number of indexed pages during the first year

[strugglingnovice]

I'm sitting here, digesting this, and I'm thinking that my blogspot url is NOT going to work - i'm going to have to make it bigredworkweardotcom/blog in order for it Google to index my site. Am I correct? I'm sorry to be so dense, guys. I'm really trying to understand this, though...

And drats, that was SUCH a good template! lol

[schoolboy]

Google is now placing a lot of relevance and importance to ON-PAGE content. It is (in the words of MATT CUTTS) trying to "emulate" real, human visitors, when it goes to a website.

Google is basically asking:

"If I were a real person, would I find this website interesting, easy to navigate, well structured, full of valuable, interesting and "unique" content?"

Then it asks:

"And can I navigate properly around the site? Are there too many broken links? Do the links make logical sense?"

It continues:

"Is this content new and fresh - or at least, has it been added-to recently? And can blind people make sense of this site? Is the HTML clean and neat?"

"Does the site load nice and quickly? Is there evidence that the site owner is trying to hide or mask certain things? Am I being given good summaries in the HTML header? Am I being assisted with XML sitemaps?"

And finally:

"Do other people think this site is important? Do they provide links to this site? If they do, who are these sites who provide the links? Are these site relevant to the other site/ Are they important sites, such as BBC.CO.UK?"

Google does NOT bother too much about the domain name. It knows that there are hundreds of millions of these - and very day there are perhaps 100,000 new ones all over the world. It knows that the domain name is just an address... the "front door". It knows that there may be many hundreds of websites with content on simiar subjects, but that because of the "first-come-first-served" rule, only a handful may have the luxury of a domain that articulates the site's content. It is FAR MORE INTERESTED in what is inside, once it ENTERS the front door. The door itself is immaterial.

Many people agonise over their website's "front door". But tell me... when was the last time a visitor pitched up at your home's front door and said "Hey... what a lovely front door - can I stand here for half an hour to admire it?"... or "My Goodness! What a horrible front door... I'm not coming inside!"

[strugglingnovice]

Schoolboy, are you telling me that if a visitor goes in my front door, and likes what he sees, and clicks on my blog button on my homepage that is directed to my blogspot address, that is good enough.

And I don't have to mess with migrating to Wordpress to get the /blog suffix?

I "think" that's what you are saying. You are so wise, and thank you so much for always answering my amateurish questions! Sometimes I even embarrass myself asking them.

And the questions you ask, yes, I am trying to keep content fresh, and my site is easy to navigate, it loads quickly, and there are no broken links. I even have a pretty decent bounce rate in Google analytics.

I'm doing okay, Schoolboy, I'm showing up in Google, I'm getting several orders a week now, I'm just going to continue on and work my site daily, from all I read, perserverance is the key. This has been quite a journey, and it's never over, I've learned. You have to keep working this like any job you do.

Thanks again for your help, I so appreciate it.

[stevesh]

I don't know diddly about SEO, but I like to integrate the blog into Zencart (using Numinix's process) just so everything is in one place, on one server that I have some control over.

[schoolboy]

Schoolboy, are you telling me that if a visitor goes in my front door, and likes what he sees, and clicks on my blog button on my homepage that is directed to my blogspot address, that is good enough.

Essentially, yes... if a visitor can get to your blog via a link, then so can Google.

And I don't have to mess with migrating to Wordpress to get the /blog suffix?

Wordpress, as a platform, is VERY search engine friendly. And there are a number of plugins and widgets you can use to enhance that search engine friendliness. Google really likes wordpress (technically) and it is very easy to manage a wordpress blog. We use wordpress for a lot of "showcase" sites (those that are not eCommerce) and disable the blogging features - and we use it for normal blogging.

You could "consider" another blog in wordpress... and you can even install it in a sub-directory on your webshop server. (As Steve has done).

I "think" that's what you are saying. You are so wise, and thank you so much for always answering my amateurish questions! Sometimes I even embarrass myself asking them.

There are no "amatuerish" questions... the forum is intended to be a place to ask questions.

And the questions you ask, yes, I am trying to keep content fresh, and my site is easy to navigate, it loads quickly, and there are no broken links. I even have a pretty decent bounce rate in Google analytics.

I'm doing okay, Schoolboy, I'm showing up in Google, I'm getting several orders a week now, I'm just going to continue on and work my site daily, from all I read, perserverance is the key. This has been quite a journey, and it's never over, I've learned. You have to keep working this like any job you do.

Thanks again for your help, I so appreciate it.

Are you making use of other Google tools and Apps? (Webmaster Tools, Google Shopping, Maps.. etc)

Are you generating and submitting xml sitemaps?

[strugglingnovice]

Yes, I'm using Google Tools, and starting to use Shopping also. I am using a sitemap, as well. Google Analytics has helped me a lot. I watch Matts videos on YouTube, I work with my site daily. I think i just need to be patient, and not expect too much too soon. Every week I see improvement.

[schoolboy]

Sounds like you site is starting to tick along nicely now, so you should shift the focus from technical issues to marketing issues.

INTERNALLY on your site... make sure your products are attractively illustrated with images of the highest quality, and descriptions than are comprehensive and informative. Use cross-sell and up-sell techniques, so you get people ordering more. Install the TESTIMONIALS module (there is a new one for ZC-1.5 if you are using 1.5). Get people who have bought goods to write testimonials.

EXTERNALLY, start looking for ways to advertise and promote your products. Leverage social networks and your blog. You could even look at direct mail (or email) and possibly even taking small adverts in your local newspapers/magaines.