Blogging

SEO For Bloggers

August 23, 2015 By Jen Kehl

Last month, I went to a fairly hugemongous blogging conference. Besides getting to meet many blogging friends in real life, which was a lot of fun (read getting to see a bunch of middle age folks singing karaoke like no one was watching) the most valuable thing?I got out of the conference was the session I did on SEO by Jessica Woodbury.

The beauty of Jessica’s session was that it reaffirmed what I already knew about SEO for bloggers, and gave me clarity on how to apply it.

The best thing she said? Bloggers are already doing SEO better than anyone else!

So, what is the skinny? What do you need to know?

The most important thing to know is write naturally.

Google is constantly changing the way it reads sites. It’s little spiders are getting smarter and smarter. They know when you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and they are not going to like you for it.

So if your goal is to have your post rank higher than someone elses, write naturally and follow these six rules:

Try to make sure your keywords are in your title. I know, duh. But as a blogger, often times, we use pithy titles, metaphorical ones. We rarely say it like it is. So don’t worry! If you can’t put your keywords in your title, then you can, and should, do these next things instead.
Update your permalinks. Caveat*never update permalinks that are already live! If you cannot put your keywords in your title, make sure to put them in your permalinks. For instructions how to do that seem my post on using Yoast SEO.
Change your SEO title using the Yoast SEO plugin. If you can’t have your keywords in your title, and you want your post to rank higher, change the title that will show up in the Google search results by using the Yoast SEO plugin. This will NOT effect how your post looks on your blog.
Make sure your word count is at least 600 words and contains your keywords. (I know you’re like, duh, try and keep me to 600 words)?There’s a lot of info going around that says your post only needs 300 words to make Google happy, well times change, and those little word munchers are hungry. Unless you make your posts 600 words or more, they aren’t going to think you are yummy enough to feature on that first page. And don’t forget the reason they came! They want your keywords! It doesn’t have to be an exact match to make them happy, remember, write naturally, which means make sure your keywords happen organically, don’t force it!
Do some Keyword Research. If you have never done keyword research before, this is probably the time to try. You may be more successful by using a variation of what you were thinking, but wouldn’t know it if you didn’t research it. I found the easiest way to do it was by using the Google Keyword Planner.
Show?Google you are the authority when it comes to this topic. Whether you are writing about divorced cats living in Tasmania, or famous rock bands of the fourth century, the way to tell Google that you are the Boss of This Topic is to use links. Links can come in a few forms.
- Links to other blogs and websites writing about the same content.
- Links within your blog back to posts that are about similar content.
- And most precious, links from other blogs back to your site. (As Jessica mentioned, don’t be afraid to ask for a link. Maybe a blogger you know just wrote a post on divorced dogs from Tasmania and your two posts work well together, linking to each other’s posts helps both of you!)

One more thing.

It’s all about the Bounce. Google doesn’t want to see people show up on your page and then leave right away. I’m pretty sure you don’t want that either. And it’s a multi-edged sword.

Bounce tells Google that although you are trying to prove you are the authority on this matter, the people arriving on your site don’t think so. After a while, they’re gonna take the bouncers word for it.

Make your site user-friendly, make sure that when a visitor arrives they know what to do the minute they get there. That if the post they land on isn’t the one they are looking for it’s easy for them to find something they will like. Make it easy for your readers to stick around, and it’s a win win for your site and your SEO.

Try these tips and you’re guaranteed to see an increase in your search engine traffic! Let me know how it works for you, and if you’ve got a question, ask away!

3 Easy Steps To Secure Your Blog

April 16, 2015 By Jen Kehl

One of my favorite jobs, is tweaking and fixing people’s blogs. I love to dig into the code, pick things apart, isolate the problem and then fix it.

I love it so much that sometimes I get lost in the looking and the researching and the fixing.

But one thing stops me cold every. single. time. I pop on someone’s blog and they have no security.

Look. I get it. You’re a small blog, or you think you are. You think no one would bother hacking you. You are dead wrong.

The best blogs to hack are the little ones, you know why? They have no security.

It’s no skin off your back to lock up your site, and I’m going to make it easy for you. How about instead of giving you choices I just tell you what I do?

I am already going to assume you have an airtight password, if you don’t please go read this post on how to create a Bulletproof Password.?And that you are keeping your plugins updated, if not, read this post about updating your plugins.

[bctt tweet=”Forget the choices. I’ll just tell you how to secure your #WordPress site?in?3 easy steps.”]

3 Easy Steps to Secure Your Blog

1) Install WordFence

Wordfence is the #1 free security plugin on WordPress and there is a reason for that.

You don’t have to understand anything to use it. Out of the box it will do its job.?But it doesn’t hurt to run through the tutorial and change a few settings. Just grab a cup of coffee or tea, plan to sit in front of the computer for 20 minutes and get her done.

The best thing is the Wordfence scan. WordFence automatically runs a scan of your site. It will find any malicious code or possible breaches. And when it does, guess what? It’s also going to tell you what to do about it. Can it be any easier?

2) Install Login Lockdown

The #1 way hackers try to get in to your site is by running a program that adds /wp-admin to the end of a URL, when it happens upon a WordPress site it just starts hammering it with passwords until it gets in.

Login Lockdown says “You did not just try to login to this site 20 times, you are outta here!” I suggest changing the attempts to 5, unless you run a forum, because I’m pretty sure you won’t forget your password 20 times in a row.

3) Install a backup plugin.

Because when all else fails, you’re still okay if you have a backup.

If you’re going for free ones, may I suggest Updraft Plus Backup and Restoration?

I have noticed a lot of blogs are running WP DB Backup, in your plugin menu it will read WordPress Database Backup by Austin Matzko, please, please delete it and either use Updraft or the “real” WordPress Database Backup.?The one by Austin Matzko has not been updated in over two years and poses a HUGE security risk.

My advice? Don’t say I’ll do this later, do it now. If you know me, my broken record is my favorite hobby blog got hacked when it was getting 60 page views a day, it was teeny. In the end, it was pay thousands of dollars, or shut it down. I shut it down.

It’s better to never have to even have that conversation.

And remember, I am always around for a free 30 minutes, even if you want to use it to get some help installing these plugins.

There is also the Plugin Checkup that has saved a lot of bloggers quite a few headaches, I also throw in a page speed analysis with suggestions on how to fix it.

I’m always here, my mission is to help bloggers while staying in their budget. Let’s talk.

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The Easiest WordPress Yoast SEO Plugin Tutorial for Bloggers

April 13, 2015 By Jen Kehl

As a blogger, you?hear a lot of talk about SEO, sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. (If you don’t, it’s Search Engine Optimization – getting the search engine crawlers to see what you want them to see, determine you are an expert in your field and to stick you up there towards the top when someone does a Google search.)

Sometimes you do get it, but you don’t know what to do about it. When it comes to SEO and websites, Meta tags are a thing of the past. Google no longer cares, or looks for them. What you need now is a WordPress plugin.

While there are a few to choose from, the best option out there, that is now fully endorsed and integrated with WordPress itself, is Yoast?SEO.

The great thing about WP SEO is, it is basically plug and play. It also eliminates the need for any XML sitemaps, so if you are using a plugin for that, you MUST deactivate it. WP SEO automatically sends out a new sitemap every time you make a change to your blog. Yea!

Now before you think, “Oh NOOOOZZZZ another plugin?! I don’t want to have to figure out another plugin!” I’m gonna?make this real easy for you. (sorry, I just heard a banjo twang in the distance, did you hear that?)

[bctt tweet=”I’m gonna make installing and setting up WordPress SEO by Yoast, really easy for you. #WordPress #SEO”]

In your dashboard, go to plugins > click on Add New > in the search box type WordPress SEO and install and activate.

Here is your easy WordPress SEO tutorial for blogs!

Since originally publishing this post, I have created a screencast for installing and setting up this plugin. If you love screencasts, here you go!

Otherwise see the directions below.

And here is the video on how to use Yoast in your posts. (that rhymes!)

First! Don’t touch anything!! Ok, you can touch something….. if you are feeling particularly adventurous, and I highly recommend this adventure, go through the tour that WP SEO is going to keep offering you until you say. “Hey! Ok! I get it already!!!”

Either way, you?will now notice, there is a new item in your dashboard called SEO, with what looks like a devil in a speech bubble. (I am sure it’s not a devil, but the dude is from the Netherlands, and maybe there the devil looks different.)

Alrighty. If you don’t already have it open, click on SEO and then click on Social. This is the only place you really need to touch anything.

See the little tab that says accounts? Go ahead and enter any of the accounts you actively use?and Save Changes.

You may ignore all of the other tabs UNLESS……

Facebook Tab
- If you use Facebook Insights you will enter all of that information here. If you want to change the default image that shows up on EVERY FACEBOOK POST you will upload one here where it says “Default Image.”
Twitter Tab
- If you would like to use Twitter Cards, this is where you do that.
Pinterest Tab
- If your site is not already verified on Pinterest, this is where you would do that.
Google Tab
- If you have a Google Page for business, not a personal page like most of us do. This is where you would attach that.

Now your WordPress SEO is all set up for your blog! But wait!!!

The amazing thing about WordPress SEO is not that it sends all of your information out to all of the popular search engines, it is not that it generates a new XML sitemap every time you update your blog, it’s this; you get to identify the best SEO for each of your blog posts.

How to make sure the SEO for your blog post rocks!

Here’s a video I made on this part

Now that you’ve installed WP SEO, you will notice that there is something new at the bottom of your post and page drafts:

In order to have EXCELLENT SEO you will need to fill out a few things, but don’t worry! WordPress SEO will tell you if you’re on the right track.

There are two ways you can go.

Decide what your keyword or keyword phrase will be before you write your title and post.
- I often choose this route because I feel like it’s easier to manipulate the keywords.
Decide what your keyword or keyword phrase will be after you write your post.
- Sometimes it is easier to write the post first, then figure out what it’s all about, and how you feel someone would search for it. That is what I wound up doing with this post.

For this example, we are going to choose our key phrase first, with the increase of SEO aware websites, it has become best practice to choose a key phrase (not just a key word), and try to make it the least obvious of your obvious choices.

For instance. Setting up WordPress SEO could have been my key phrase, but I thought, “Let’s step one down from totally obvious and go with Setting up WordPress SEO for blogs.”

The first thing you want to do is incorporate your key phrase into your title.

Sometimes, when you’re snarky or poignant or like listicles, it’s not always easy to incorporate your key phrase into your title, in that case, just make sure your key phrase is in your permalink.

To change your permalink, you just need to click the little “edit” button, next to your permalink. The box will open up and allow you to edit. Just make sure your key phrase is in there, with each word separated by a dash.

*Occasionally WordPress will change your permalink and it won’t actually match your title exactly, so always check your permalink to make sure your key phrase is, in actuality, in there.

Now, stick your Key Phrase into the WordPress SEO by Yoast box on the bottom of your post in the section marked “Focus Keyword:” Go back to the top of your post and hit “Save Draft.”

Go back down to your WP SEO box, you will see something like this:

Don’t worry if you still have a red “no” here and there. You’ve only just started, but now you know what you need to work on.

Article Heading – This is your blog post’s title.
Page Title – See the box called SEO Title? If your post title does not have your key phrase in it, this will automatically default to the same title (without your key phrase in it). This is the title that will display in the Google feed when someone searches. If you don’t care if the title is the same, and you would rather have a title that incorporates your key phrase show up in the Google feed, feel free to type in a new title. (I never do, it will not make or break your SEO)
Page URL – This is your permalink. It should be a “Yes” if not, go back up a step and change your permalink.
Content – This is your blog content, if you haven’t written anything yet it will say “no.” Make sure when you do write your content to use your key phrase at least two times. Then when you?save draft it will change to “yes.” (If for some reason it doesn’t, check that your wording is exactly the same.)
Meta Description – Don’t blow this one off. This is the description of your post that will show up under the Google listing of your headline. It’s got to be short but sweet. It has to use your key phrase and make people want to click. I often find the most impressive sentence in my post that includes the key phrase and copy and paste it into my post. If it’s a little long that’s ok, as long as the key phrase shows up in the beginning part. (word of note, this will become your default Facebook text unless you change it. See the last part of this post for instructions on how to do that.)

Now Go Write Your Post!

When you are finished writing, hit save draft. Assuming 80% of the items from the “General” tab now say yes, hit the “Page Analysis Tab.”

You will see something close to this. Your goal is to have as few red lights as possible.

Aha! We never talked about images!!! Look at that red arrow, up there! “The images on this page do not have alt tags containing your keyword/phrase.”

If you know what an “alt tag” is, then you’re good. If you don’t, no worries!

*Update, using alt tags is no longer a good thing. Google is not reading images anymore because people were using them to increase SEO and Google doesn’t like to be tricked.?

They are now only using them to update Google Image Searches, and as bloggers, we all know what people do with Image Searches. They steal your images.

Now, click save draft, and check your page analysis again. Mine looks like this now, I still have a red light. BUT according to WordPress SEO, the big picture is A-OK. I now have a green light for SEO. (I’ll show you where that is in a sec.)

The great thing about Page Analysis is, it tells you what to do. As long as you only have one or two red lights, you are good to go. But if you want to be totally OCD go for it and try to turn all those lights green!

You may have noticed the last time you hit save draft, a green light in your publish box showed up. That green light is your SEO check. As long as it’s green, you’re good to go! Every time you make a change to your SEO, either in the “General Tab” or on your post, hit save draft and check the light. Once the light is green, you can stop trying so hard and get publishing!

Wait! One more thing.

Some of you wish that you could change how your post appears on Facebook. Well, here’s your White Knight!

Click on the “Social” tab of WordPress SEO by Yoast at the bottom of your post.

Yours will be blank. This is the gist. You can change all of these elements for each specific post.

Facebook Title – Say when this gets posted to Facebook you want the title to be more catchy, or you want it to get straight to the point, change it here. (Leave it blank and it will use your post title.)
Facebook Description – Yup, just what you think. Right now, WP SEO is going to pick up your Meta Description for Facebook, but if you want it to say something different, more descriptive, stick it in here.
Facebook Image – Some themes default to a weird image, even if you choose a “Featured Image” for your post. This is where you can stick an image to guarantee you get the image you want attached to your Facebook post.

Rinse and repeat if you want to change the same information for Google+.

One more little tidbit; Search Engines LOVE back links. Back links are links in your post that go back to a previous post about a similar topic. Many of my clients say they don’t like back links because they seem so obvious.

This is my advice, your back links don’t need to look obvious. Here’s an example:

When you are trying to think of blog post titles that incorporate your key phrase, make sure the title still has some pizzazz. A high-ranking post isn’t any good if no one wants to click on your boring words.

Notice how blog post titles is a link? It’s a link back to my post about rocking blog post titles. But is it obvious? No. The words occurred naturally in my post and I chose to link them back. Be creative, fudge it if you have to, let it be loosely associated with the topic. But try to have at least one back link in your post.

How’d I do?

I tried to make this an easy WordPress SEO tutorial for blogs. Before I learned tech and was a blogger myself, so many pieces of the puzzle were, well, puzzling. The?tutorials out there in the “real world” were?difficult for your average blogger to understand. And when I didn’t understand I was often afraid to ask.

I hope that I have made this easier for you, and please, as always I welcome questions! Please contact me for a free 30 minute consultation, or leave a comment with any question you may have! I also have a Facebook group just for Blog Tech Help. Keep in touch!

[bctt tweet=”Finally a #WordPress SEO by Yoast tutorial you can understand. “]

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3 Ways to Reduce Your Bounce Rate on Your Blog

April 10, 2015 By Jen Kehl

Bounce rate is how many people come to your blog and leave without clicking on anything.

Why should you care? Bounce rate is a metric. Metrics are what search engines use to decide if they should send readers your way. A typical blog has a 70-90% bounce rate. To be successful you should shoot for 70%.
Remind me why I care?

You want your readers to find what they are looking for on your blog.
It effects your SEO. Bounce rate is one of the ways Google judges you. If you have a high bounce rate Google decides you don’t know what you’re talking about, and bumps you down the list.
If you want to monetize your blog there is a?twofold implication. ?1)?Sponsors use your bounce rate to determine if they want to offer you work. 2) If you run ads, a high bounce rate means less ad revenue EVEN if you have huge page views.

3 Ways to Reduce?Your Bounce?Rate

Who is your target audience.

This does not mean who do you WANT your target audience to be. It means who are the readers that are organically finding your site. The easy way to figure out who is visiting your site is to use Jetpack or Google Analytics.

Using your Jetpack?plugin, go to -> Site Stats there you will find valuable information.

Search Engine terms. If you are lucky and you have lots of visitors, and Google has granted?you their search engine terms (people logged into their Google accounts are accorded the privacy of having their search engine terms hidden) you can see what keywords or terms people typed in that brought them to your blog.
Top Posts and Pages. Jetpack lists how many viewers look at each post. That is another way to figure out what people are coming to you for. Look at your most popular posts, you are bound to see a pattern if you look over a few days.

Look very carefully at this information. You may have gotten a huge boost in your views and SEO rankings after a post of yours went viral, you may be tempted to start writing more of those posts hoping to capitalize on that traffic. But if you see by your stats that is NOT the most common category overall, you may want to rethink that.

If you look at each item carefully, you will see a pattern. Use that information.

Put Important Content ABOVE THE FOLD.

Make sure when people come to your blog they see something that is inline with why they showed up, or they’ll bounce in under 10 seconds.

Above the fold. That is what?people see when a blog page loads without having to scroll down.

Let’s say you write about music. Most of your posts are about music, and when you look at your stats it seems that most people come to you for music related posts. But you still can’t figure out why you have a 90% bounce rate.
Let’s look at your page:

Your header is only your name, or an obscure title, with no tagline or images.
There is nothing to suggest your posts have anything to do with music at first glance.
Only one post is showing above the fold and it is a post you did as part of a blog round-up that has nothing to do with your normal content.
You have a picture of your child in your sidebar towards the top.
Next is your Facebook Feed which looks more like a personal Facebook feed than a blog feed.

So – someone Googled “Cool Music Blog” and they landed on your page. But what they saw did not SCREAM cool music blog at all. It screamed personal blog. And if that person is looking?for some cool music, and can’t figure out how to find it in under 15 seconds, he’s?gonna bounce.

[bctt tweet=”3 Ways to lower your Bounce Rate, #1 give your readers a reason to click! #WordPress “]

Give Them a Reason To Click!

But say instead of my header being just my name, I add a tagline. Maybe….

Jen Kehl, Raised on the Radio

Hmmm… now right off the bat that says, maybe you’re in the right place! Now if I could give them a reason to click….

How about a menu bar across the top that is specific, easy for them to understand, has categories like “Music Reviews” “Rock n’ Roll”.

The definition of bouncing means they landed and they left WITHOUT CLICKING. As soon as they click, even if it is to an outside source it is no longer considered a bounce!

Here are some ideas to make them click:

A header that is not too high so there is more room for content.
Short excerpt posts with a “read more” link at the end.
Social Media follow buttons at the top of your sidebar with a catchy phrase like “Follow the Music.”
An attractive blog subscription form following the Social Media buttons.
A search bar.
A list of most popular posts, recent posts or categories.

Look for “Hot Zones” anything that you can possibly make clickable should be clickable.

Try to?leave the “About Me” for an item on your menu. If you feel you really want an “About Me” widget then leave it for below the fold. Do not use up valuable, clickable space for something that any reader who wants to stick around will find anyway. However if who you are is integral to what your blog is about, maybe a life coach, or a fitness guru, you may want to find a way to get that information as high up as possible, maybe even in the header, so there is still room for the rest.

Lowering your bounce rate can only be a good thing. Why are we writing if not for people to read us? If you find you have a bounce rate of 88% with the average visitor staying for under 30 seconds, then you aren’t accomplishing that goal.

A blogger doesn’t always have a niche, and sometimes it can be hard to narrow it down. But I believe when you are honest with yourself, at the very least you will see a general pattern. Maybe as general as “Humor” “Depression” “Motherhood.” Give people a way to understand who you are and give them something to click on, right from the start, that can only be a bonus in the realm of Bounce Rates.

And remember if you need help with this or anything else, I am always happy to spend some time talking to fellow bloggers, my door is always open. You know what I mean.

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How to Center a Widget

April 2, 2015 By Jen Kehl

You know what I’m talking about, you have all of these great badges from all of the places you’ve contributed, you stick them in your sidebar and they are all jiggety.

You want to show off your accolades, but you want to look professional, right?

Well give me a few minutes and I’ll show you just what you need to do to get all your ducks in a row. Or a column – you know what I mean.

Chances are, when one of your very pleased editors hands you a badge and says, “Here! Proudly display this on your blog!” she’s going to email you a bunch of code, and you’re going to have to decide what to do with it.

Let’s start from the beginning.

You got your post featured on Scary Mommy! Yea! Now you want the world to know all about it. But what do you do with this little chunk?of code?

<img style=”border: none;” src=”http://www.scarymommy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/scary-mommy-button.jpg” alt=”Scary Mommy” />

The first thing you do is put it in a “text widget” in your sidebar or footer.

Text widget? But it’s an image! Yup, it’s an image after the text you put in the box goes and tell’s the image you want it. What you actually have, is a link to an image. And a link, is text.

Tada! You’re done!

Not quite!

Hmmm….

My happy “look where I got published badge” is kind of wonky! All of my other badges are in the middle of the widget, but this one is all the way to the right!

Let’s fix it!

Here?is a simple bit of HTML that will fix your badge?right up. You’re going to?create a div. (don’t worry if you don’t know what that means! Someday if you want to, take a class at Skillcrush and learn all about it!)

The important thing to know is if you start a “div” you have to end a “div.” It looks like this:

<div align=”center”>Here’s my really cool badge</div>

So take your code from up there ^ and wrap it in a div!

Now you know how to center a widget!

Don’t be afraid of that code either! Maybe you have something else that needs centering? Give it a try! If it doesn’t work, all you have to do is delete it!

And please! Never hesitate to ask me a question, I do this because I love it, and I love helping my fellow bloggers!

Now go forth and center!

Create a Bulletproof Password

February 25, 2015 By Jen Kehl

This week I’m going to do a mini-series on protecting your blog or website. I think the most obvious place to start is with a bulletproof password.

I participate in a lot of forums around the web. I would say the number one misconception I read is that small blogs and websites don’t need to worry about being hacked. Bloggers tend to?think you need to have a lot of traffic to attract hackers.

I learned first hand, that is not the case. One of the reasons I learned how to write code and build websites was because my site, Raised on the Radio, got hacked two years ago. I?was just beginning, and starting to gain a small following, I?had about 100-200 views a day, it was small but beginning to thrive. And then, within a week, everything fell apart. My site got blacklisted by Google and I had to shell out some serious money to clean it all up. In the end, I couldn’t save my site; so I moved it to WordPress.com and focused on my personal site and learning to code.

I learned a lot of valuable lessons that week that I will share in coming posts. Not the least of which was the importance of having a bulletproof password.

The Login

Even if you have a sucky password, you know that the best thing you could possibly do is have a strong password.

What you might not know is you should also NOT have the word Admin as your login. What? No one told you that? Well I’m telling you. If your login is Admin, or someone’s login is Admin, I suggest you change that now.

Just like www.pleasedonthackme.com/wp-admin is the most obvious login page, the most obvious login ID is Admin.

Password Basics

Here are the rules:

Your password MUST contain a number, a symbol, uppercase and a lowercase letters. (I will share my trick at the end)
Your password must NOT contain any pattern of numbers ie, 1234, 876, etc.
Your password must NOT contain any name or word you can find in the dictionary. Yup. Not one single?name or word.

Now for The Bulletproof Password

If you want to be safe, be a bot’s worst password nightmare.

I learned a password generating trick and I will share it with you. You will never forget your password, and a hacker will never figure it out, here’s how:

Make up a sentence that includes an address for someone you actually know (or yourself, your pets, your children): Frankie and Johnnie live at 312 Boogie Drive

Here’s your password: F&Jla312BD

Easy peasy:

The first letter of each word
If it is capitalized naturally it stays capitalized
If it is lowercase it stays lowercase
Turn your “and” into an &
Leave your numbers in tact.
Use any sentence you will always remember and you have a bullet proof password!

[bctt tweet=”If you want to be safe, be a hack bot’s worst nightmare! Create a bulletproof password for your site!”]

Let’s try another one, Steely Dan and The Eagles live at 412 Hotel California –

SD&TEla412HC

What do you think? Even my mom can do it, so I know you can too!

If you’re having any trouble with security or plugins, don’t forget to give me a holler for your free 30 minute consultation!

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5 Favorite Fonts For January

February 3, 2015 By Jen Kehl

Here Are My 5 Favorite Fonts for January

This month I will begin with a little bit of extra info to make sure we’re all on the same foot (that is a serif joke, you’ll get it later, I promise).

Do you know the difference between serif and sans-serif?

In the world of website building and web applications (like WordPress) there are?three different types of font-families (for the sake of ease we will call them fonts just like we did before this ?ber long explanation) – serif, sans-serif and cursive. Cursive encompasses cursive (duh) and also hand-written looking fonts; and serif and sans-serif make up the rest.

Serif is defined by Webster as: one of the short lines near the top and bottom of the long parts of some printed letters.

I seriously had to read that 3 times. What it means is when you look at a font, and it has what looks like a brush stroke or line coming off of the top of a letter, that is serif. Look at my capital E it is a really good example of serif.

Sans-Serif of course is without serif -?the lines. See my post headlines.

Which is better for what?

Rule of thumb. To our human eye, Serif fonts look like they have little feet. The bottoms of the letters tend to be straight, and therefore sit quite nicely on a line. Serif fonts are very easy on the eyes and therefore the best choice for bodies of texts, like blog posts.

Sans-serif fonts are wonderful for headlines. A good Sans-Serif will be open and flowing, easy to read and lead?the eye.

[bctt tweet=”Try a serif font to make sure we’re all on the same foot! http://beyondblogdesign.com/2015/02/03/five-favorite-fonts-january-2015/”]

The secret is out.

For my blog posts I use Fjord One, it is a very pleasing Serif. Not to condensed not to severe.
For my titles I use Open Sans. I like how spaced out Open Sans is while still being very readable.

This week I am highlighting two Serif fonts, three Sans-Serif fonts.

Fjord One – As I mentioned before Fjord One is a great Serif font. It accomplishes the task of being easy to read, without being too ordinary like a Times New Roman. Some of the things I love are the capital J, the lower case g and the oval Q with the longer tail. Here is a sampling.

Trocchi?is another Serif font. This one might be a little to fancy for the average Joe to use as a body font. But if you have a website with a flair, and want to use a Serif this might be the right choice for you! I love the lowercase “a” and “k”. The “k” looks like a cocktail waitress to me, her leg out and her hand up holding a tray. Yup, fetish.

Raleway is a Sans-Serif that I find very sturdy. It is a very good fit for body text or headlines because it has solid lines and a strong footing without being a Serif. Love the “w”s and the lowercase “l”s and “t”s.

Open Sans is the Sans-Serif I use in my headings. I find it very pleasing because it has nice letter-spacing. That is the space between the letters and belive it or not, that has a lot to do with why your eye likes a font or doesn’t. Something I will write about later is called Font Pairing. It is what you think. The reason I like Open Sans with Fjord One is the “a”, “q” and “j” are all very similar to me.

Galano Classic is a Sans-Serif I just recently became familiar with.?All of the letters seemed to be based on a perfectly rounded circle. To me this makes it more of a feminine font, or a font suited for something playful. I love the dots on the lower case “i” and I think the lower case “g” is how I fell in love. Because Galano Classic is a premium font, and not a free Google Font, the way I have to show you is a little different. More about premium fonts in a sec.

It’s so easy to forget that actual designers make fonts. I only wish I was half as talented as those folk! So please only use fonts that are available for free or premium fonts you have paid for.

And as always, I am available to talk about integrating new fonts in to your blog or website. Let’s chat!

5 Ways To Rock Blog Post Titles

January 27, 2015 By Jen Kehl

Content may be king. But if you can’t get that content in front of people, then it doesn’t matter one lick what it says.

Without the right headline, no one may ever read your post. No matter how amazing and informed and funny it may be!

That’s the awful truth.

On average only 2 out of 10 people will read past your headline.

So it’s your headline, not your content, that’s going to be the reason someone sticks around to read your post, or just moves on off into the night.

There are a two basic schools of thought out there about blog post titles. One is – get your key words in there! The other is – GRAB THEM!

I tend to be of the Grab Them school of thought. If you are using a great SEO plugin like Yoast, then you should be okay for SEO even without your key words in your title. And if you can get your keywords in there and grab their attention then all the better!

(*Don’t forget you can always change your permalink to reflect your keywords even if you don’t use them in your title!)

Here are 5 sure-fire ways to rock your Blog Post Titles.

Action Verbs

Don’t mess around, say what you mean and say it like you mean it. ?Verbs like “Read”, “Learn”, “Optimize”, “Get”, are all words that make it easy for your reader to make a decision and act on it!

Make Them Want to Know

Arouse their curiosity. Use a headline that makes them have to click, because they must know what you want to tell them. Brian Clark from Copyblogger has some great ideas to pique your reader’s curiosity, so that they must click!

Offer them insider information on how to do something they really want to do, “Teach Your Child How To Read Like A Reading Specialist.” Offer them insider knowledge, “The 10 Secrets Every First-Time Mom Wishes She Knew.” Offer them something they seemingly can only get from you, “A Complete Guide to ___.”

Make a List

Like it or not, statistics show, that the most clicked on headlines involve some sort of list. “5 Reasons You Should Use Jen to Design Your Blog”, or “10 Ways to Gain More Twitter Followers.” ?”6 Signs You Might ___”

Learn From the Pros

You read blogs, right? Figure out what headlines grab you!?Create a secret pinboard and pin posts with great headlines to the board, who cares about content? Or read the paper, or a magazine, what grabs you?

Try a Colorful Adjective

Use words like “Surprising,” “Unconventional,” and “Unusual.” How about “10 Ways to Supercharge Your Love Life,” or “The Ultimate Guide to Google+,” maybe something like “12 Tricks to ___.”

[bctt tweet=”5 Ways to Rock Your Blog Post Titles! Tips to make your headline grab them!”]

It’s not always easy to create the right title for your blog post, but the more I researched, the more I realized it is the single most effective way to drive readers to your blog. Sometimes you just want to be clever, but maybe you can incorporate some of these tips and still create the desired effect. Many experts suggest writing 25 different titles for your blog post before picking one. No matter what you decide these tips will definitely help you write a title that gets noticed. And don’t forget! I’m offering free consultations to talk about taking your blog to the next level!

WordPress.com or WordPress.org? How to choose the right one for your blog

October 12, 2014 By Jen Kehl

When I launched my blog?in 2012, I went about it like this: I Googled ?WordPress blog,? clicked a button?that said, ?get a free blog,? and I started rolling.

A year later, I realized I should have done more research. I wanted to change my site layout and add functions (like a hovering Pinterest button), and I realized (oh nooos!) I needed a ?WordPress.org blog? for that.

Getting a ?WordPress.org blog,? it turns out, really means downloading the free, open-source WordPress web software?and using a third-party hosting service?to get your site online.

WordPress.com, on the other hand, takes care of all that legwork for you. You don?t worry about hosting or serving up files, and your blog comes with a free domain that looks something like this: www.mynewblog.wordpress.com.

But when you hand over responsibility, you also lose control: your WordPress.com site will show ads unless you pay a yearly fee, and many upgrades, like hosting videos or buying a custom domain name for example, can get costly.

To add to the new-blogger confusion, when you?re working on your blog, the Dashboard (the place where you edit your blog from the back end) looks almost exactly the same no matter which avenue you take. Because WordPress.com runs on the same WordPress software as a self-hosted site, the user experience after setting up your blog isn?t that different.

Deciding between starting a free WordPress.com blog and self-hosted WordPress site is as simple as deciding how much freedom you want over your site?s look and feel, how much behind-the-scenes work you?re willing to do, and whether you want to monetize your blog.

1. How much control do you want over your site?s look and feel?

If you?re okay with an ?out of the box? theme [http://theme.wordpress.com/], WordPress.com might work for you. For an extra charge, you can customize some features, like fonts and background colors. Overall, though, you are limited when it comes to changing the design of your site.

If you?re looking at those themes and thinking, ?but I want my Instagram feed up higher and I?d like social media buttons above the top navigation,? you?ll want to go with a self-hosted WordPress blog so you can access your site?s layout and HTML.

2. What extra functionality do you want on your site?

Remember that anecdote about the Pinterest hover button I wanted? WordPress.com is always updating and adding new features, but you will have more control on a self-hosted site. Through WordPress.org, you?ll have access to libraries of plugins [https://wordpress.org/plugins/] that can add features like interactive calendars, social media sharing options, and RSS feeds?not to mention, Google Analytics?to your site. And by accessing your site?s code, your opportunities to add to and embellish features are unlimited.

3. Do you want to monetize your site?

?Oh wow, I have so many page views! Maybe I can make a little cash with ads!? Nope. Not if you?re on a WordPress.com site. They?re giving you a lot for free; it?s no surprise that you can only sell ads in WordPress-approved ways. On a self-hosted site, however, the world is your oyster?or, you know, your sales floor.

In addition, while, WordPress.com recently introduced new ways to sell on your site, eCommerce is more established and flexible with a self-hosted site.

4. How much can you spend?

Self-hosting is an upfront cost that ranges from a few dollars a month to closer to hundreds per year. But using a free WordPress.com blog and adding a lot of additional features can get pricey. Infographic cost comparison:http://howtomakemyblog.com/wordpress-com-org/

When it comes down to it, WordPress.com is a valuable tool for users looking for a free option, who don?t need to customize or make money off of their site. But getting a self-hosted site through WordPress.org provides the most flexibility, freedom, and opportunity for growth. And let?s face it, you?re going to want to use this site to become a moneybags, and WordPress.org allows more freedom for turning your hard work into cold hard cash.

What do you think? WordPress.com or WordPress.org?

This has been a guest post by the wonderful Randall of Crandlecakes and one of the awesome instructors at Skillcrush![bctt tweet=”To self host or to WordPress.com, check out these 4 reasons you might want to jump in! #WordPress”]