Overview of Compose
Title and Permalink
The title you enter here will display as the post's title on your weblog, and will determine the URL for the post's Permalink. For example, a post with the title of "This is a new post" will have a Permalink like:
http://example.typepad.com/blog/this-is-a-new-post.html
The Permalink URL will be generated from the Title that you enter. If you'd like to change the Permalink (to make it shorter, for instance), click the Edit link next to the Permalink URL. The Permalink should only contain letters, numbers, and/or dashes. After updating the Permalink, click Save.
Changing the Permalink changes the location of your post. We recommend changing the Permalink only when the post is created.
Body
The Body is where you will type the content of your post or Page. The Rich Text editor will allow you to add formatting to your text, such as font size, bolding, font colors, and so on. The Edit HTML tab will allow to make direct edits to the HTML of the post, as well as choose a formatting option.
There are two versions of the Rich Text editor. If you find that the full Compose Editor loads slowly or you're seeing slowness while typing text, you may wish to try the Lite Editor instead. The lite editor is a simplified version of the full editor that still allows for rich text editing. To enable the Lite Editor, look for the "Use the lite editor" link directly below the rich text editor.
Comments and TrackBacks
Comments and TrackBacks settings can be configured on a per-post basis. Open allows readers to leave a comment on the post or send a TrackBack, using the TrackBack URL for the post from the permalink page. When comments for a post are Closed, existing comments to the post will still be visible on the blog but the post will not accept new comments. When comments or TrackBacks are set to be Hidden, existing feedback for the post will be hidden from public view and the post will not accept new feedback.
Keywords and Technorati Tags
Keywords
The Keywords can be used to include descriptive words about your posts. If you are using a Basic template set, these keywords will be used as unique meta tags for each post. If you are using an Advanced Template set, you can use the
<$MTEntryKeywords$> tag to display the assigned Keywords.The logic for the meta name=keywords field in the standard templates on individual entry archives will publish:
- Keywords that the you have provided via the Keywords field in the entry editing screen;
- Or, if the Keywords field is blank, will publish the contents of the Technorati Tags field that you have included in the entry editing screen.
If both the keywords field and the Technorati field are blank, then the system will not publish any keywords in the field.
TypePad does not currently do any auto-generation of keywords on an entry.
Technorati Tags
In the Technorati Tags field, type the tags you'd like to include with your post. Individual tags are separated by commas. If you have enabled the Technorati Tags feature for the post footer in Design > Organize Content, the tags you add to your post will show in the footer on the blog after publishing.
Each tag is a link to the relevant tag page on Technorati. For example, if you tagged your post with "weblogs," the tag will link to http://technorati.com/tag/weblogs. Additionally, any category that is assigned to a post will be used as a tag automatically. For example, if you used the category "Current Affairs" for your post, the category would be associated as a tag for the post at Technorati.
Excerpt
The Excerpt field can be used to generate a short summary of your blog post. If you do not write an excerpt yourself, one will be generated automatically from the first 100 words of the post or the number of words you have set in Settings > Posts & Pages, under Auto-Generated Excerpt Length.
The excerpt for a post is used when sending a TrackBack and/or in your feed if you have selected Short Excerptsunder Feed Content in Settings > Feeds.
Categories
Select Categories for the post by placing checks in the boxes next to each Category name. You can select as many Categories from the list as you wish. If you'd like to add a new Category, click "Add a new category," enter the Category name and click Create. The new Category will be automatically enabled for the post.
Share This Post
The Share this Post feature will allow you to send links to your new posts to your Twitter and/or FriendFeed accounts by simply selecting the option from the Compose page. For more detailed information about this feature, please see the Share this Post article.
Feature This Post
Featuring a post is a helpful way to welcome readers to your blog or highlight an important post or announcement. Only one post can be featured at a time. The featured post will remain on top of the weblog even as new posts are published and listed below it. Further information is available in Featuring a Post.
Status
Publish Now
Publishes your post immediately, using the current time/date and the time zone set in Account > Summary. You can still can choose a back or forwarded-dated time from the calendar, but the post will be published to your weblog - with the future or back dated time.
Draft
Saves your post in the application, but does not publish it to your weblog. This is useful for periodically saving your work when composing a long article, or to save your post for editing at a later date or time. When Draft is selected from the dropdown menu, the Publish button will change to "Save" to indicate the post is being saved in the application, but not published to your weblog.
Publish On...
The Publish On option allows you to post to your weblog automatically at a specific date and time in the future. Choosing Publish On will automatically bring up a calendar to allow you to set a date a time for publishing, using the timezone on your computer.
Simply select or manually type the desired date, and manually type in the time, and click OK. The Publish button will change to Schedule to indicate the post is scheduled to be published, but will not appear until the set date and time.
Scheduled posts are published every 15 minutes, so if your post is scheduled to be published at 1:05 PM, for example, it will not actually appear on your site until 1:15 PM, but the date and time on the post will read 1:05 PM as you intended.
If you've scheduled the post to be published in the past, it will be published immediately, and the date on your weblog will reflect the date and time you selected.
Plus, Pro, Premium, and Business Class users can schedule posts to publish in the future. Guest and Junior Authors do not have the option to schedule posts.
Optimize Your Blog for the Search Engines
Now that you're in a blogging groove, let's start building your traffic. Here's a quick overview on how to optimize your blog for the search engines, and build traffic.
What do you want to look at first?
How Search Engines Work
When you search for something online, you get a list of ranked results that (hopefully) help you find exactly what you were looking for. The search engine companies each have their own secret formula to decide what sites to show for which searches, but there are some consistent ingredients in all their formulas.
- The content of the page
- The title of the page, headlines, content, image descriptions.
- The content of the overall site or blog.
- Does the site focus on a particular topic?
- Incoming links
- Who is linking to the blog? Are they popular?
These are the elements of your blog that search engines assign the most importance to.
What is SEO? Why Use It?
SEO is short for 'search engine optimization' and is a set of strategies to increase your blog's 'findability.' The more findable your blog is on search engines, the more traffic you'll attract to your blog.
The 2 keys to search engine optimization are relevancy (how appropriate a blog post is for a particular search request) and popularity (how many other sites link to your blog, implying authority).
By using the keywords and phrases that people type into search engines in your post titles and content, you'll attract the right people to your blog – people who want to read exactly what you're writing about.
Here are a few tools for finding the best keywords for your site:
These tools can help you research which keywords and phrases are used most frequently when readers search for content similar to what you feature on your blog.
3 Writing Strategies
Once you've used the keyword tools above to research your best keywords, you can start writing posts and creating content perfectly calibrated to get your blog to the top of the right search results.
Tailor each post to one keyword
Write each post with one primary keyword or phrase. Try to include it naturally within your writing.
Use keywords in your post titles
Using effective headlines for your posts is one of the most important ways to capture your readers' attention. TypePad will automatically include the title of your post in the TITLE tag of the HTML, the headline of the page and the URL of the post. These elements are used by the search engines to determine the keyword relevancy of the post. Focus on writing compelling post titles that use your target keywords and capture your audience.
Use linked text effectively
Instead of linking the words 'Click Here,' use text to describe what you are actually linking to. Search engines don't just look at where the link points to but what the link is called.
Want even more awesome writing tips?
Check out our articles on how to cultivate your blog's readership, secrets for writing great blog posts and where to find great topics for new posts.
Inside TypePad: What to Do Right Now
We've built several helpful features and tools right into TypePad so you can get the most from each post:
Change your blog's Publicity Status to Publicized
This tells the search engines that your blog is available for indexing. Go to 'Blogs' in the top navigation > choose (Your Blog) > Settings in the top navigation > SEO in the sidebar and be sure you have the Publicity checkbox checked. Save changes. Full tutorial.
Turn on your Google Sitemap
A sitemap file helps the search engines grab all of your content effectively. Go to 'Blogs' in the top navigation > choose (Your Blog) > Settings in the top navigation > SEO in the sidebar and be sure you have the Google Sitemaps checkbox checked. Save changes. Full tutorial.
Tweak your Title Format
The first words in the title have the most search engine weight. Go to 'Blogs' in the top navigation > choose (Your Blog) > Settings in the top navigation > SEO in the sidebar and check that your Title Format puts the Post Title first. Full tutorial.
Tweak the permalink URL
When you are publishing a post,edit the permalink URL for extra keywords to add the most relevance to your post.
If the Title field of your post lacks some of the keywords your post is about, you can add them to the permalink.Full tutorial.
Add Description text to your images
This helps search engines know how your images relate to your post. Many search engines will find your images and use the description text for indexing. After inserting an image, double-click on it to get an edit menu. Type in a keyword-rich description of the image and click OK. Full tutorial.
Use categories based on the major topics of your blog
This allows incoming readers to view your blog by subject. Then assign the appropriate posts to the correct categories. You can add categories while on the Compose page or edit all your categories by going to Blogs > (Your Blog) > Settings > Categories. Full tutorial.
Monitor your stats
Check your stats every few days so you can see what works and doesn't.It's easy to get caught up in your blog's traffic, but don't let it get in the way of posting great stuff.
To view your blogs stats go to Blogs > (Your Blog) and you'll see your stats overview. You'll be able to see where traffic is coming from, what searches you are popular for and what search engines readers are using to find you. If you want more detailed stats you can integrate with Google Analytics (here's how).
Domain map your blog
This way, each of your blogs is indexed as its own site. Search engines see yourname.typepad.com/blog1/ andyourname.typepad.com/blog2/ as being the same site. Your own custom domain will ensure that the search engines can discern between all of your blogs. Full tutorial.
Conclusion
We've baked the best SEO practices right into TypePad so you can focus on writing awesome posts and building an enthusiastic audience around what you love. There's always more to learn and we're always ready to help. Stay tuned in to the latest TypePad tips, tutorials and techniques by following us on TypePad, joining our Facebook page, following us on Twitter or grabbing the feed.
Creating a Google Sitemap
What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a document that tells search engines, like Google, which pages are part of your site. A sitemap can help you obtain information on the visibility of these pages and publicize your blog in search indexes. Google, along with several other search engines, support sitemaps. You can find more information on Google Sitemapshere.
Creating a Sitemap
To add a sitemap to your weblog, go to Blogs > Settings > SEO and select Yes under Google Sitemap.
Saving your prerences will create publish your new Google sitemap. The sitemap's URL will be similar to:
http://example.typepad.com/blogname/sitemap.xml
Creating a Sitemap with Advanced Templates
If you are using Advanced Templates, please note that XML files are not visible in the File Manager so it is best to have a separate template to manage this file. The first step is to create a new index template with an output file name of sitemap.xml.
Below is an example of a sitemap template.
Adding Your Blog to Your Google Account
After your sitemap is created, you can add your blog to your Google Sitemap account. Sign into your account and on the Home page, enter in your site's URL in the Add Site field.
The next step is to verify that you are the owner of the site. This can be done in two ways: adding a unique meta tag to your templates or uploading an HTML file to a specific directory. Depending on how your templates are set up, it may be easier to upload the provided file to your weblog. You can find more information on this here.
The last step in this process is to add your sitemap in your Google Sitemap account. Enter in your weblog's URL,not your sitemap's URL. Once this is done, you can then enter in your sitemap's URL. To add your site, click on the "Add a Sitemap" link then choose the "General Web Sitemap" option. Finally, enter in your sitemap's URL and click on "Add Web Sitemap." You can find more information on this here.
Notifying Google of Updates to Your Sitemap
Now that your sitemap is set up, you can notify Google of updates to your sitemap by logging into your Google Sitemap account and resubmitting your sitemap. After logging into your account, click on the value representing your sitemap. From there, check the box next to your sitemap and click on "Resubmit Selection."
For more information on Google Sitemaps, please refer to Google's Webmaster Help Center.
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