Note: This post mainly refers to users using wordpress.com. However general advice is also mentioned in this postfor users of Blogger/ Wix etc.
So you want more visitors to your website or blog. Yes I get it, you spend a month designing your website and then when you launch it you expect traffic to start flowing by, but you don’t see any traffic. Don’t be alarmed, there is a simple remedy for that! In this post we will concentrate on setting up your site so that Google indexes it and making your site more search engine friendly or more commonly known as Search Engine Optimization.
5 Tips for making your website more discoverable in 2021
Setting up Google Search Console (With instructions for wordpress.com users)
Selecting a suitable name for your website
Using a custom domain
Using links
Setting Tags
Setting up Google Search Console
What is Google Search Console?
Basically Google Search Console is a tool for you to use to optimize your visibility on Google and check your website indexing status. It was formerly known as Webmaster Tools. (Don’t worry, it’s free)
Why do you need Google Search Console?
Google and other search engines need to be told that your website is actually on the internet and so you must index your website. Now wordpress.com and other CMS services do say that your site is automatically sent to search engines. But the hard truth is that unless you actually add your website to your Google Search Console, it will literally never turn up. Now there are other tools for Bing, Yahoo etc but Google is the most popular search engine out there and you by not being on it you risk losing a lot of valuable traffic.
Now you may argue that your CMS does send your website for indexing but the hard fact is that the website tends to end up on the third or fourth page of Google and be honest, if you were searching for something, are you really gonna keep going on searching for 10 pages or are you going to go for the first five results that you get?
We set up a test
So we have two websites, one with added to the Search Console and one not added. Now see for yourself,
This is with this site added to the Search ConsoleThis is with this site not added to the Search Console
Add your wordpress.com website to Google Search Console
Non wordpress.com user or allready done this? Then skip to the next step.
Make a Google Account.
Search for “Search Console” and login.
Click “Add Property”
In the Select property type window, select URL prefix. Using the Domain option will not work.
Enter your WordPress.com Site Address (including https://) and click Continue.
On the next screen, in the Verify ownership pop up, scroll down to “Other verification methods” and click on HTML Tag.
Next, you’ll see a line of HTML code that resembles this:
Selecting a proper name is really important if you are on a free plan on wordpress.com or blogspot or wix. The thing is every CMS service registers you in a subdomain that doesn’t have a great impact on your SEO. So if you choose a name that is similar to a well known business or a blog, that could mean trouble for your website.
Now there are certain steps that you can take to make sure that the name of your website isn’t closely represented by another website. All you have to do is Google and see wether someone else has a similar name. If they do have a similar name to your website don’t hesitate to change the name early. Changing the name after you’ve got some traffic can lead to you loosing good and potential visitors to your website.
Choosing a custom domian
The hard truth is this. Even if you do manage to get your site ranked up on top of Google and you have a unique site name, if you go with a subdomain of wordpress or wix or blgspot, you may run the chance of your website not appearing looking professional. Also your potential customer needs to type in something like http://www.abcd.wordpress.com. Now if you have a short name thats fine but what if you have a long name?
Its easier to type in http://www.yourgroovysite.com rather that http://www.yourgroovysite.wordpress.com. Also some themes add a part like Your website name – WordPress.com on Google. It may be okay for some people but if you were running a business, you may want to change that and have only your name.
I mentioned this in my post Tips and Tricks to writing a blog post in wordpress.com. Now this doesn’t only mean links to other websites but it also means you need to include links into your own website. You can include links to your previous blog posts once you have enough or links to your biography. Also don’t forget to leave links on other websites as well. You can set up your Gravatar profile to include the websites you are a part of and when you comment on other’s websites, there will be a discreet link. If the website owner has kept a “website” tab for you to fill, go ahead and fill it.
Search Engines work on links and love links. In fact the more you link your site the more connected you become on the internet. You may want to include your featured image on Pinterest with a link to your website. If you have a YouTube Channel go ahead and put a link to your website there. Also don’t forget to fill up the “website” section of yout social media accounts!
Setting Tags
Every CMS has this feature. I’ve mentioned the importance of this in wordpress.com in my article Tips and Tricks to write a blog post on wordpress.com. Tags are basically your organizing tool in your CMS. Not many people do know this but they function like hashtags in Social Media. Read the article above to learn the importance of catergories.
Now when using tags for a blog post, many bloggers agree on certain facts. You must keep your tags to a maximum of 15. Aim for the keywords your potential visitor will type in when they search for your website or blog post. Also don’t include too many keywords in your website blog/ pages or Google will give your website low priority. (This is known as keyword stuffing) If your website isn’t exactly a blog based website don’t underestimate the power of it. Recent blog posts each month or even every two months give your site a fresh look and doesn’t send signals to search engines that your site is inactive or dead.
Do you know any techniques? Do you have any personal experience or did any of these tips help you? Let us know in the comments below
Dear @all, please note that I will not be posting any blog posts on this website. You may visit my new website here Then what about your blog posts? Glad you asked. My new blog is this (same website as the earlier link). Do me a favour. If you are following this blog then you’ll…
Many of us want to edit photographs for many different reasons. Be it for Instagram, Facebook or any other service. But its so hard to find a reliable photo editor online. True enough we can use an application that is free like Gimp or paid like Photoshop but the learning curve is really steep for…
So you own a wordpress.com site on the free plan and you are worried abouth the 3GB storage space or you are about to start a wordpress.com site and you are concerned about the 3GB storage space? Don’t worry or panic, there is a way to host literally infinite amounts of pictures and videos for…
Many of us want to edit photographs for many different reasons. Be it for Instagram, Facebook or any other service. But its so hard to find a reliable photo editor online. True enough we can use an application that is free like Gimp or paid like Photoshop but the learning curve is really steep for those applications. Enter Canva – The best free online photo editor.
Canva has two versions like any other service available, free and paid. In this article I will be concentrating on the free version of Canva.
Canva has a very nice looking homepage and many more features and we will discuss the Pros and the Cons of it.
Pros
Wide range of options
Canva offers super in built templates for a huge variety of services. I personally haven’t seen any other editing service that provides so much of options. Here are some of the few options Canva has to export your project.
YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube channel art
Instagram Post
Facebook Post
Instagram Story
Logo design
Flyer designs
Poster designs
Letterheads
Animated Social Media
Facebook Video
Custom Dimensions
If you are not satisfied with the dimensions that Canva offers you simply use your own! This is really handy if you are designing a header or something else.
Easy to manage work area
Canva has the best and easiest to handle work area of any online free photo editing website that I have seen. Your uploaded media, design themes, audio files, video files, backgrounds, text controls etc. are in different places and it is so organized. Also Canva supports drag and drop so using a particular file/preset is really easy. Also there are a lot of different fonts and inbuilt templates you can use. Canva has its own Audio Library as well.
Canva’s Workspace
Simple Animations
Face it. Have you ever seen any other website that allows you to add a simple animation into your project so easily by the click of a button? Canva does just that. The animations are not very advanced mind you but they do add a little colour to your project.
Wide Range of Formats To Save
You can save the still images as it is in jpeg, png etc. Also you can save your animated projects as a gif or as an mp4 file. This is very handy for wordpress.com users as they can’t upload video files but can upload gif files. Infact, that “New” gif you see at thejust below was done using Canva. You might need to use the animated social media option to do this as this was introduced very recently.
Direct Publishing
Yes, you can direct publish to
Box
Hubspot
Typeform
Smartmockups
Moovely
Simplebooklet
Gain
Pageproof
Publer
Mobile Friendly
Canva has a mobile friendly app and even the design environment on the website is mobile friendly. It is probably one of the only websites that I have seen work amazingly on a phone as well as on a PC.
Organize your work
Canva offers you the unique feature to organize your work into “Folders” similar to the way that you organize files on your computer. This is pretty handy if like me you use Canva for a lot of stuff.
Layered Editing
Canav offers Layered editing. That is you have the option the edit different Layers and finally complete the main project by putting all the layes together. This is something that Gimp and Photoshop also have.
Screenshots
This is what the homepage of Canva look like
This is the free audio library in Canva
Canva’s Free video library
Cons
Sizing Error
This has happened to me only once. When sizing for a YouTube Channel Art eventhough Canva sizing showed the correct size, YouTube cropped the image. I have not faced this problem again anyway.
Free Account Limits
There are a limited free resources inbuilt to Canva you can use. None of the features except the “team collabration” is restricted. However by referring others and by being a referral yourself, you can earn Credit Points that you can use for the Pro option on checkout. In fact use this link to earn your first referral point.
Verdict
Canva is undoubtedly the best online free photo editor website/app.
Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
How was your experience with Canva? Have you come across similar websites? Let us know in the comments section below.
So you want more visitors to your website or blog. Yes I get it, you spend a month designing your website and then when you launch it you expect traffic to start flowing by, but you don’t see any traffic. Don’t be alarmed, there is a simple remedy for that! In this post we will…
It’s no secret that WordPress has an amazing editor known as the Block Editor or Gutenberg Editor for its website editing interface. The Block editor has truly changed the way that websites are made. So let’s have a look at the top 10 blocks on WordPress that you must use on your website.
So you own a wordpress.com site on the free plan and you are worried abouth the 3GB storage space or you are about to start a wordpress.com site and you are concerned about the 3GB storage space? Don’t worry or panic, there is a way to host literally infinite amounts of pictures and videos for free on your site without any plugin or using an “illegal” way.
No, it’s not so complex as you may thing it is. This is one of the most easiest things to do. Are you ready to hear the secret? It’s called embedding.
What is embedding?
Embedding is simply copying an URL and pasting it back into a paragraph block on your wordpress.com website. You don’t even need to know HTML. WordPress does all the heavy lifting for you and embeds it into your site.
Surprised? Click here for the full list of supported embeds.
Embedding Images
For the purposes of including infinite amount of images, think which website allows you to use unlimited uploading?
Was your answer Pintereset? If yes, congradulations! you are on the right path.
Follow the steps below to embed an image to wordpress.com
Head over to Pinterest and then create an account.
Now upload a “Pin” (Or several “Pins”)
Create a “Board” if you want to use several images.
Copy the URL from your browser tab and copy/paste on a blank paragraph block in your wordpress.com website.
Bingo! the final outcome should look like this.
See? now how simple was that? Also you may want to add your website URL to your Pin so other people can visit your site.
A word of caution……..
Note that you may find millions of images of stuff on Pinterest but that doesn’t mean you can go on using every image that you get. Images may be copyrighted. It is safe however to use a website like Pexels to make sure you stay free of trouble.
I wanted to upload a video onto this website and when I finally painfully did the editing and tried to upload it, a rude message told me that I had to upgrade to a plan to use videos. However i figured out an alternative way for this and you guessed it! YouTube
Actually there are many ways to do this but the simplest is YouTube.
All you have to do is sign up for a Google account, create a channel and there you go!
Copy/paste the URL and the video should look something like this.
Now the really amazing thing is wordpress.com supports a huge amount of embeds to allow users to use media not in their media library. You can find a list of it here.
Did your perspective of wordpress.com change? do you know any other tricks in wordpress.com? Let us know in the comments below.
At A Star Blogs we continue to strive to improve the experience for our users. In July 2020 the new updates include our Facebook Page, Tumblr Blog, Newsletter and Registration System
So you own a wordpress.com website or blog and you want to add a forum to it? Don’t panic, there is no need to upgrade and use any plugins, you can do it for free! In this article we will look at how to add a forum as well as the pros and cons of…
We rated “Bot War” by Ian Miller 5/5. This truly amazing story by Ian Miller deserves a really high rating. Read on to find out what we thought of this story that grips you in your seat.
It’s no secret that WordPress has an amazing editor known as the Block Editor or Gutenberg Editor for its website editing interface. The Block editor has truly changed the way that websites are made. So let’s have a look at the top 10 blocks on WordPress that you must use on your website.
Have fun playing about with the effects, timings etc.
Post Carousel Block
Have you ever wondered if there was a way to show off your blog posts as a slideshow? Yes, it’s possible with the Post Carousel Block. Adjust what posts you want and play around with the settings until you are happy.
Unfortunately this theme doesn’t support this block at the time of writing. If you would like to view it in action, please click here.
Latest Posts Block
Display your most recent posts with this block. You can display the excerpt and play about with the different formats of this block to show off your recent posts.
Dear @all, please note that I will not be posting any blog posts on this website. You may visit my new website here Then what about your blog posts? Glad you asked. My new blog is this (same website as the earlier link). Do me a favour. If you are following this blog then you’ll […]
So you want more visitors to your website or blog. Yes I get it, you spend a month designing your website and then when you launch it you expect traffic to start flowing by, but you don’t see any traffic. Don’t be alarmed, there is a simple remedy for that! In this post we will concentrate on setting up your site so that Google indexes it and making your site more search engine friendly or more commonly known as Search Engine Optimization.
Many of us want to edit photographs for many different reasons. Be it for Instagram, Facebook or any other service. But its so hard to find a reliable photo editor online. True enough we can use an application that is free like Gimp or paid like Photoshop but the learning curve is really steep for those applications. Enter Canva – The best free online photo editor. See the Pros and Cons of Canva
So you own a wordpress.com site on the free plan and you are worried abouth the 3GB storage space or you are about to start a wordpress.com site and you are concerned about the 3GB storage space? Don’t worry or panic, there is a way to host literally infinite amounts of pictures and videos for free on your site without any plugin or using an “illegal” way.
It’s no secret that WordPress has an amazing editor known as the Block Editor or Gutenberg Editor for its website editing interface. The Block editor has truly changed the way that websites are made. So let’s have a look at the top 10 blocks on WordPress that you must use on your website.
Tiled Gallery Block
Do you have a Gallery for your website? Add a little colour and excitement to it with the Tiled Gallery Block.
Here is what it looks like in action:
There are different settings and layouts for you to choose from. Have fun and see what best suits your theme.
This is using the 1977 theme
Business Hours Block
Did you know that there is a specific block that allows you to add your business hours easily? Are you surprised? This is so much easier than trying to do it manually.
Here is what it looks like in action:
Mon
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Tue
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Wed
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Thu
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Fri
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sat
Closed
Sun
Closed
Cover Block
The Cover Block allows you to add a picture and some text to your website. This is so amazing as it is a great idea for your website’s home page. You can even select the option to have the entire image as the background of your website. No more messing with a photograph/ picture editing software.
This is what it looks like in action:
Ten Amazing Blocks on WordPress
Buttons Block
Buttons are so much better for a website than just links. This is why WordPress is unique in adding a Buttons Block so that you can add amazing and beautiful buttons to you website.
Did you know that you can take Pills directly from your WordPress website? Add a Poll Block and view the results directly from your Crowdsignal dashboard. This block reduces the pain of integrating a third party application with WordPress.
Here is what it looks like in action:
Setting up a Poll on your WordPress website
Add the Poll Block
Go to crowdsignal.com and login using your WordPress account.
View your results!
Note: This may not work on self hosted WordPress sites.
AStar Blogs is a place where anyone can blog and follow their favourite authors on our network. It’s totally free to join and write blog posts. The main feature is you can blog right from your mobile phone. Note that if you don’t see the blog feature you may need to click the block button…
Add the Search Block for your visitors to search your website if you don’t want to add this as a widget.
Here is what it looks like in action:
You can edit the block to your liking.
Bonus: Navigation Block
There are two types of Navigation Blocks, vertical and horizontal. The vertical navigation block will not differ from the horizontal navigation block significantly when viewed on a mobile device.
What is really amazing us that you can custom create menus or use the existing menus.
Let’s see how this looks like in action.
Horizontal Navigation Block
Vertical Navigation Block
Do you use these blocks regularly on your website? Do you know of any other blocks that are really amazing but we’re not mentioned in this list? Feel free to share your experience in the comments below.
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