Google Page Rank on a WordPress.com Blog

[tweetmeme source=”ileane”]Using free blogging software from WordPress known as WordPress.com, such as I do here on this blog Ms. Ileane Speaks,  is a great way to get started with blogging.  I discuss the debate about blogging on WordPress.com over other free platforms like Blogger over at Ms. Ileane’s Blog, but using any free blogging software platform has several disadvantages. It’s much better to register a domain name, acquire a web host and download the software for a self-hosted WordPress blog.

I won’t list all of the disadvantages for using WordPress.com here, but one of the primary arguments against having a free blog is the fact that you cannot use plugins or various themes that can improve your SEO and Page Rank with Google, Bing, Yahoo! and other search engines.

For those of us that continue to use the free WordPress.com service you can rest assured, there is still hope.  This morning I checked the page rank for this blog using Google Page Rank checker and I was pleased to see a score of 4 out of 10.

This is a pretty good score considering I haven’t applied many SEO strategies. I mentioned previously in Top 5 Blog Topics, that page rank has not been a huge concern for me on this blog.

In the upcoming year, I’ve made a resolution to learn more about SEO.  I’m finding some of the SEO techniques pretty easy to do and you can get started today. Here’s a short video from Chuck at CyberSmartMarketing called Link Surfing Your Website for On-Page SEO to give you a hand.

If you are considering the move to a self-hosted WordPress blog or website, contact Chuck at CyberSmartMarketing. You can also follow him on Twitter @MrCyberSmartSEO

In the meantime, take a look at your page rank and leave a comment to let me know where you stand.

Smooches!

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Blog Engage Activity for Ms. Ileane Speaks in November

Joining a Community of Bloggers

In early November, I became an active member of the Blog Engage Community and it has been an amazing journey and an extremely rewarding experience. This image represents a small sampling of the bloggers that I’ve networked with since joining Blog Engage.

I was somewhat timid in my initial approach because I’d heard talk that it is not a good idea to join a lot of blog directories. You know, everyone is afraid of the big, bad, wolf known as Google and what might happen to you if you don’t follow every rule they make to a “T”.  Yet, for every article that talks about not submitting your blog with too many directories, I find another that says directory submissions are the best thing since sliced bread.  So I have to go with my gut, forget all about Google’s rules, and just “do me“.

Building a Social Network at Blog Engage

I looked around the Blog Engage site and right away I noticed something unique. I quickly caught on to the the fact that BE doesn’t look or feel at all like a directory but more like a place to hang out and rub shoulders with some of the finest bloggers on the planet!

Introduction: The Blog Engage Community [Video]

Register Your Blog with Blog Engage

In my last post, Top 5 Blog Topics I mentioned how I am a member of  the Blog Engage community and I urge other bloggers that are interested in promoting their blog to do the same.

In this first screencast, we will visit the BlogEngage.com website and I’ll show you how easy it is to sign up.

New Benefit – Google AdSense

The second video, explores additional benefits of the BlogEngage website and a major announcement from Brian, owner of the BlogEngage website that you simply do not want to miss!

I’m more than happy to answer any of your questions and after you join the community, please let me know so that I can vote on your posts.

You can follow my Blog Engage List on Twitter http://twitter.com/Ileane/blogengage. If you’re a member of Blog Engage and don’t see yourself on the list, let me know I’ll add your tweets. I also recommend that before you get started read 10 Tips for Better Blog Engage Results from Extreme John and check out Brian’s list of articles from Share the love, who’s talking about Blog Engage.

Smooches!

UPDATE: Blog Engage has seen a surge in activity recently including several new members and mentions:

Shvoong review

Whatawebsite review

Alexa Ranking

Passwords For Days

I recommend that you start making a list of your passwords.

I’m not saying that you are forgetful or that you have CRS (can’t remember sh**) like me, I’m warning you ahead of time that you’re going to be signing up for a bunch of stuff and you will need to keep track of passwords and personal URLs somehow.

You see here’s the thing, in order for us to navigate the sea of social media tools and discover what works best for our individual needs we are gonna have to sign up for stuff.  I know, I know you don’t feel like it, neither did I as first.  I felt like, this is such a pain in the neck, can’t I just to go on Face Book or Twitter and call it a day. But after I blogged about social networking resourses two weeks ago, I thought it made sense to follow up on my own advice. After all, Face Book and Twitter are great ways to stay in touch with friends and followers but I wanted to take it to the next level. I wanted something more mainstream.

Get Clusty

SEARCH ENGINE TIP:
Are you tired of hearing about the Google vs. Microsoft Bing/Yahoo search engine tug-of-war?  Well, maybe you aren’t yet, but you will be soon.  Do yourself a favor and try Clusty. 

CLUSTY

Just try it for a week or two for your searches and you’ll see what I mean.

See related article here.
See another related article here.