Hi guys.

This is a follow-up to “Link-Juice And Pagerank“, posted at the start of last month.

Some ClubBloggers have gotten a little excited about geography.  And understandably so.

Why and how does the main Google site serve-up particular results for one user in the UK, one user in the US and one user in Italy?

Most of those who spend a lot of time on SEO will get this.  Others who don’t may struggle.  Those in the last bracket who have done a little work on the topic, and particularly those who’ve used AdWords, will get a little caught-up in obsessing about IP addresses.

However, whilst the IP address (which most of you know is one of the vertebrae in the backbone of the ‘net) does play a part, here (particularly with country-specific domains such as .co.uk), it is by far from being the only element. And you really do need to know more than that to properly optimize your blog/page.

Before we get to those other elements, let’s dwell a while longer on the top-level domain. In particularly, on “.com” domains.

Above, we mention the UK and Italy as geographic areas aside from the US. Well, quite a lot of people don’t realise that a “.com” domain hosted in the UK will typically be seen by Google as a UK site. Yes, you guessed it, a “.com” in Italy, an Italian site. This is despite the “.com” universal domain extension.

So, lesson number one here is that, depending on what geographical audience you wish to target, and this really is at the heart of top-level targeted traffic, then look to host locally to your audience.

Lesson number two is that the location of your inbound links (yes, we all know how much Google loves those) is also very important to the issue of geographical audience.  In a similar manner to “get hosted in the jurisdiction you wish to target”, you should get your link juice from the target geographical area.  Yes, it really does matter.

So, you say:  ”c’mon CB, my site’s international, not linked to UK, USA, Italy, Luxembourg”.  Well, fine.  A lot are (you’re not unusual:) ).  In that case, your links should be balanced, geographically.  Yes, it’s all about relevance, at least in the eyes of Google.  Is your site relevant to that Italian searcher?  Or that guy in London?

There are other lessons to learn whilst on the topic of geography, but we won’t obsess about those in detail, here.  They do, however, deserve a passing mention…..  We have seen some poor SEO operators advise on translation of a site into another language (e.g., you started in the US, you now want to target Turkey, too, and want a language-friendly Turkish site) but they forget translation of important elements like meta titles in the code, for example.  C’mon guys.  Get a grip.

We’ll come back to this overall topic again, as we’ve been asked to (and of course we always do what we’re told) but also mainly because it’s objectively really important.

Before dashing, we can’t over-estimate the importance of using Google’s Webmaster Tools properly.  Have a look and let us have your comments, thoughts, moanings if you have any.

Well, this is new.  For us, anyway!

A bunch of people have emailed ClubBlogger over the last year (increasingly over the last few months) to ask if they could suggest topics or even write guest articles. Up ’til now, we’ve not moved on this, because there are, after all, only 27 hours in a day.

Ok.  ’Nuff said.  If you want to write, write!  The gauntlet is now, formally, laid down (back into the deep language again, sorry – it’s the new coffee).

It might just be a new topic that you want to kick around.  Something you’d like to share with the community.  It might be something related to something you do and want to through it out there.  It might be something you already write about but want our guys to check it out.

It’s up to you. We have a couple of new guys on board already.

What we won’t do is just accept random stuff. It has to be useful and relevant to our community – it goes without saying.  You don’t think you can hit that hurdle, look somewhere else.  But we are excited about this and will work on it with you… who needs time to eat, anyway?

Just to be clear: this isn’t just asking for more comments. It’s a chance to join a new community of writers. We have a certain ‘twist’ We’re only interested in speaking with a few select people about this right now.

If you’d like to mull over a couple of ideas or try to kick things off, do it here. You may be new to blogging. You may be new to business. It’s a jungle out there. Or, indeed, you may have lived in the jungle for years and know all of the animals on a first name basis. Either way, let’s chop it up.

There’s a concept called “friendtors” in the Valley in California. Not mentors, but similar. You get it. And no-one sits in the “receiving seat” very long… they quickly become those sharing the information and putting the arm round the shoulder of others. The web world, particularly the blogosphere, is fast as it gets in this respect. It’s why it’s as lovely as it is

Speak soon. cb

To state the reasonably obvious, the usefulness of information about blogging which you find on the ‘net is depends whether you’re a newcomer or an old hand. But you know what: most of the core principles remain the bedrock of your blog from when you learn the ropes to when you’re rolling-out your 10th/20th/100th site.

How to create a blog and then a blog that lasts is more pertinent. In this article, we get our hands dirty.

A randomly ordered list of our top 50 points would serve some some. But we’re a little serious about this, so have gone for a “chronological thought map”, to the extent possible. Read it, absorb it, if you like it, bookmark it, digg it, stumble it, carrier pigeon it

OK LET’s DO IT – HERE ARE POINTS 1 TO 10:

1. For most of you, use Wordpress. Just use it! No, we don’t make money from selling it Quite simply, having wide experience of the well-known platforms (including the hell, let’s just code our own blog on a site from scratch ), it’s the best in our experience. Obviously there are tools for ‘big corporate’ blogs/intranets – we understand that and it’s out of the scope of this particular post.  Learn how to use Wordpress before really getting into this whole thing.  If you don’t, and you skip to, say, point 50(!) of this 50 point list – you’ll wish you hadn’t.

2. Plan your blog in multiple stages. Brainstorm it before you dive in. Use a tool like NovaMind. It has really been the bedrock of many planning stages for us.

3. Sanity check over a decent period (at least 7 days from your final planning stage). What do we mean? Well, would you read and use the damn thing? Is it just for you? Does it add value for others? Is it easy to use?  How often will you write? What will it actually do?  Obvious?…  apparently not to 95% of bloggers.

4. Choose a topic which inspires you or, at least in some way, will get you out of bed in the morning.  If you find this concept difficult to understand or find it otherwise obtuse, don’t proceed. Do something else and don’t waste your time.

5. Brainstorm your own domain name (don’t use Wordpress-etc. provided hosting) and buy it, associating it with your own hosting plan.  Preferably buy it for at least 5 years (there is an SEO reason, here – contained in another post on ClubBlogger; but also a self-motivational reason). You need your own image, a profile a presence.  Many will scream – “are you serious? this is small time for me and why would I do that now?”  Hmmm.  We wholeheartedly disagree: reach for the stars and you might hit the moon.  Do it properly from the “G” of “GO”.

6. Keep it simple.  At least to start.  Find a good, clean, simple Wordpress template and do everything simply.  Really.

7. Understand SEO – now. It is not geeky. It is not nonsense. It will help to keep your blog breathing. You don’t want the damn thing in the E.R. before its first birthday  Unless you are an amazingly interesting person about whom everyone wants to read, or you have a runaway phenomenon blog, this topic, along with some others, is key in how you think about your blog content and structure from this point going forward. That’s if you want anyone to read it, of course

8. Partially linked to point 7: dig into and understand the various plug-ins in Wordpress (e.g., the various SEO plugins) which will help you build your blog without you worrying about those after the event. Get all the help you can from the Wordpress community without having spent hours thinking “how the hell do I do that” beforehand.  Wordpress is a great tool: the plugins make it awesome.

9. Ascertain, early and via a good hard think with a cold towel on your head, whether you want to make money from your blog. It’s not an obvious question and, when it has been asked, it has no obvious answer. If you do, figure out how. If it’s AdSense that is your big plan, crunch the numbers, understanding the traffic needs and the AdSense figures/system before you carry on (ClubBlogger’s various AdSense posts are here). Seriously, work it out – drill down. If you want to make money from this baby, it’s a business. Write a business plan (even a basic one). Keep the plan handy and read it at least once a week.

10. Read lots of other blogs.  Really get in there.  Topic relevant or not, do it.  Learn from the mistakes and developments of others.  That’s just life.  The only people who’ve never failed are those who never tried.

OK, guys, well they’re points 1 to 10.  The next chronological ten will follow very soon, taking you into the “really get started” phase and much further beyond.

Speak soon.