Quick and Easy Ways to Improve the Look and SEO of Your Craft Blog - Part 3

My new Doll Clothes Pattern Shop page looks great

I am slowly looking at ways to improve the rating of my doll clothes pattern blog in google search. I am not too concerned because I have noticed that my Google+ posts are on the first page of the search for 'doll clothes' in Google. Not ideal, because not everyone is happy with google+ but pretty good for getting people to see that I exist.

I am hoping that in a week or two my blog web page will also show up. I believe it takes time for the bots to calculate that you are an authentic site with useful content.

Yesterday I saw that someone had a shop page with all their Etsy products set out just like in Etsy. How did they do this?

Simple. There is an Etsy widget that sets it up for you with just 2 lines of code.

Get the Etsy widget

Go to 'Your Shop' 'Promote' 'Etsy Mini' and set up the appearance. Copy the code.

How I set up my own doll clothes pattern shop page

1. I started a 'new page' in my blog. 
2. Named it Pattern Shop.
3. Clicked on the HTML tab and pasted the code on the line after the few bits of code that were already there.
4. Click the public box for the new page
5. Edit the pages section in your layout to put it in the right order.

If you have any trouble using blogger to do this you can contact me with questions. I will do my best to explain.

Check out my Pattern Shop page !

Other small changes I have made to my blog are to put my profile at the top of the side bar and include a popular posts widget.

Working on the SEO

• I have been deliberately including the key words doll clothes right at the beginning of each post and through the post in as natural a way as possible.
• I write a search description using my key words.
• I name all m photo files with valspierssews doll clothes at the beginning of the name.
• I include a Title and alt txt for all my photos.
• I include a caption with key words for my photos.

This all take time but it also gets quicker and easier the more you do it.

Also see:

Part 1

Part 2

Related Links

Setting up the search description in blogger

Etsy Help for the Etsy Mini

Happy Sewing,

Val

Quick and Easy Ways to Improve the Look and SEO of Your Craft Blog - Part 2

It is easy to make a few design adjustments in the Blogger template designer.
Here I am changing the colours of the page tabs.

I am continuing to make simple changes to improve my blog's SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and it's appearance. The aim is to lift the profile of my doll clothes pattern business. I love to sew and designing doll clothes is a perfect way to enjoy my hobby and get some pocket money to make it self sustainable. I have had some very positive feed back from customers so I thought it can't hurt to try to reach more people.

Customise the Blogger Template

You can barely see the page tabs in the original design.

I changed the colour of the tab background and the tab text to make it more visible.

I did a bit of research on 'the best colour scheme for a blog'. I didn't want to make major changes but I did find out that blue is a good colour because it inspires trust. I already had a blue colour scheme so I just played with the page tabs this time. 

Brand Identification

Since I am trying to promote my brand I updated my blog header image so it matched my Etsy shop header and my Facebook page. I suppose if you pay for someone to set up your brand in the beginning you wouldn't have to worry about fixing things like that.

Putting a Face to My Doll Clothes Pattern Business

All the research I read says that putting in a head shot of yourself makes your site easier to trust so I have updated my profile picture to one of me instead of my cat. I am not personally recommending it. You need to decide for yourself if that is what you want to do.

I updated my Google profile information from general sewing blogger to doll clothes pattern seller so people immediately know that I have a business and what I sell.

Improving SEO

A quick and easy way for me to get my posts rated highly by Google is to share them on Google+.
I joined up Google+ quite some time ago and I often and regularly post and comment on this social media platform. I have noticed that when I search for 'doll clothes' on Google my blog doesn't rate but the blog post I shared on Google+ does.

The text on your page tabs is not always noticed by the bots that look for key words. To make these key words noticed you need to put text links for your pages at the bottom of your blog page. This is common practice on many business web pages. Now I know why they do it.
In the layouts view I added a links widget to the bottom of my blog.

I am a hobby business so I am happy to gradually make these improvements for myself. I am not interested in spending big money to have an 'expert' do it. I am also careful not to get to obsessed with the business. After all, sewing and designing is what makes me happy. I am sure there are lots of people like me so I am sharing what I have learnt.

Check out Part 1

Happy Sewing,
Val

Quick and Easy Ways to Improve the Look and SEO of Your Craft Blog - Part 1

I sell doll clothes patterns and I would like to improve my web presence and my conversion rate.

American Girl Doll Clothes Patterns
1802 Snugfit Anna - Classic Round neck Blouse

I am always on the look out for simple ways to improve my chances of selling my american girl doll clothes patterns. Having people find my blog and stay to look is one way of getting my patterns seen and sold. I have set myself a list of tasks that relate to SEO (search engine optimisation) and blog format or style.

Improving My SEO

The first thing I am going to do is check for the main key words used for searching in my business area. That is doll clothes. I went to www.semrush.com and put in the key words 'doll clothes'. The top 5 most used search terms I found were:

• american girl doll clothes
• doll clothes
• 18 inch doll clothes
• american doll clothes
• 18 doll clothes

Other related key words were:

• doll clothes patterns
• how to make doll clothes
• american girl clothes
• free 18
• outfits

I also put in the URL of a competitor and found that 'american girl doll clothes' was the phrase they used most to get traffic. I don't completely understand the results but I think I got what I wanted.

Placing Key Words Up Front

It is important to use the key words in your URL, your blog name and your blog post title. Try to use the key words at the beginning of your post and also in sub headings throughout the post.
I couldn't change my URL so I have changed the title in Blogger. Not sure what affect this will have. I decided that the title you see in the header image should stay the same as my URL.

After adding my photo I clicked on it to select it. I chose properties. I then added a title and alt txt. Search engines use the alternative text of images to rank your post. Use your key words. I also included a line of text with my key words for a caption.

Add alt txt to the image properties box in Blogger to improve SEO

Improving My Blog Post

5 quick fixes that are very easy to understand and implement -

• Divide the post into text segments no more than 5 or 6 lines long.
• Use subheadings for easy scanning of content.
• Use numerals instead of writing numbers as words.
• Use bullet lists where appropriate with about 5 items.
• Use a large image at the beginning of the post that is related to your post.

I don't usually post about SEO so I put in a photo related to my business of doll clothes patterns. Maybe not perfect form but I figured it would be OK.

I worked on my post title. It was a bit tricky because this topic is not my usual topic. My usual key words didn't fit well. I was happy with my heading because it had a mix of emotional and power words that explained what the post was about. I used a free headline analyser to get some help.

Make sure you go and Like my Facebook Page or Follow me on Google+ to keep up with all my blog posts.

Related Links

www.semrush.com
https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/a-short-all-you-need-guide-to-keyword-density-4943
http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer#

Happy Sewing,
Val