setting up your first blog

London Blogger’s Meetup SEO expert Jo Turnbull of seojoblogs fame writes the basics of how to setup your blog. A nice intro and I would certainly agree on some of the points like getting your domain name right, the All in One SEO pack and of course loving y our blog..!

Anyway, over to Jo.

Setting up a Blog

Once you have decided to set up a blog you might ask yourself “where do I start?” Here are a few tips to help you on your way:

1. Decide on a domain name

I recommend going to godaddy.com and seeing if your domain name is free. If it is free, I would register the domain name for at least two years. Choose the domain name with keywords you want to rank for. For example if you want to be known for seo and blogs, make sure that is in the domain name.

2. Choose your content management system (CMS)

There are a lot of CMS’ out there such as Drupal, WordPress, Magento and it is important you choose the right one. I strongly suggest WordPress as it is really easy to use. There are a number of themes you can choose from.

3. Host your site

Once you have a domain name and CMS, you should host your site with a company you trust. Normally, people host their sites at the same company where they purchased the domain name from. Godaddy.com offer some great rates, from as little as five pounds a month and there is 24/7 support charged at a local rate.

4. Plugins

Once you have chosen the CMS, you can then download plugins to help your site rank better in the search engines. I have used the All in One SEO Pack for WordPress which allows you to add different page titles, meta descriptions and keywords to each post. This means you can optimise individual posts.

allows you to track the visits to your site. This is the first plugin I would download as you can track the number of visits to your site from when it is live.

The akismet plugin identifies and blocks comment and trackback spam on blogs. It has saved my blog from hundreds of spammy comments. I can’t believe people have so much time to send such rubbish.

You can also make a mobile version of your site through the WordPress Mobile Pack. Everything is going mobile and you certainly want your blog to be too.

5. Finally – love your blog

Update your blog regularly. There is no point setting up a blog if you leave it and only write posts once a month. It needs to be updated regularly with interesting content about your site. If you have a site about cakes, you could write about simple recipies for domestically challenged people. I would certainly find that post interesting as I am not the best in the kitchen.

So there you have it, a few steps to help you set up your first blog. If you have any other tips, let me know.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy

Andy has been blogging since 2006 and has written about everything from great places to eat out for under a fiver, to tourist hot spots in London and his experiences in b2b marketing. He has run the London Bloggers Meetup since 2007 too.

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