Jun 09
19
Wordpress Blogs for a Massage Website
You can also use Wordpress Blogs for a Massage Website for your massage related business. Their latest releases just made it so easy that anyone can do it really. It is important to set up your own blog on your own host rather than using wordpress.com because you will have greater control over it.
I have been a big fan of Wordpress and of course use it for this blog. I have been playing around with setting up what they call plugins for Wordpress to optimize the blog for search engines and help a site get found in the same way that Site Build it! has taught me to get sites found.
A blog is just really a type of software that lets users post articles on it. It started out being a personal online journal of sorts but Wordpress has advanced so far it can be used to just create a website on any topic or for any business including a massage business. What makes a blog really is it’s ability to get traffic to your site. It is much better than just a regular website in my opinion but Site Build it! still really is much better if you are really serious about getting clients.
Here are the basics on how to set up a blog (website using blogging software):
Figure out a site concept or if you are using it for your massage practice website figure out what keywords are the best keywords to put in your domain name. For the most part the best domain name is ‘massage, your city’ or some variation of that.
Purchase webhosting through my favorite ez-web-hosting.com. (There are cheaper hosts out there but they don’t backup the websites for you. Your site will go down at one time or another so backups are important.) They use a system called Fantastico that allows you to install a blog (and other software) with just a few clicks. When you sign up you will be given access to a cpanel where you will find the option to use a system called Fantastico. Just click on that and go to the blog section and click on Wordpress. Click to install it. Install in in your main directory which means leaving the file name empty. This installs it in the main directory so it will show up as your website.
Once your website is set up you can start setting up your blog.
Wordpress actually just had a new release that makes it easier than ever to set up a blog and get it working to get traffic to your site.
After it is installed it will give you the Wordpress Login address. Go there right away and login and bookmark the login page. The first thing to do is to set up the Akismet spam filter in the Plugins section. There are usually two plugins there for starters. Click the activate. You will also need to put in an API key which is just a number you get from wordpress.com. I think the instructions are included.
Then you can go to the setting page and click on permalinks and set the structure to custom and put in this code “ /%postname%/ “ without the quotation marks. This will set up the blog to use the title of your post in the file name of the blog which is what you want to do to attract search engines.
You can also change the time zone to your area in the main settings control area.
The blog usually comes with 2 sample templates that I don’t think anyone uses anymore. You can change the appearance by going to the appearance tab on the left and clicking on themes. You can now browse themes and add some directly or upload some new themes. This is one of the biggest changes in the new release making it so easy to use that anyone can do it now.
So there are two other plugins that I think make a Wordpress blog work like Site Build it! It is called the xml sitemap and the SEO Pack. You can install both of those directly in the plugins section. The xml sitemap is something that the search engines look for in scanning your site. You will have to get the xml sitemap address and submit it to the various search engines. I have instructions for doing that outlined on my website www.workless-playmore.com
The SEO pack will let you create what is called metatags for your posts. The Search engines also look at these to rank your site. When you are writing a post it is necessary to use your main keywords in the posts titles as often as you can. I try to use massage or massage therapist in all of my posts here. You then use the same words that you put in the title of your post into the first line of your post and use the keyword a few times throughout the page.
Also try to use the keyword phrase or word in a link in the post in your blog. You can link to another page on your blog or link to another resource. Links make your blog look appealing to the search engines.
So what do you write about?
Write about all of the things you tell people day in and day out.
How do muscles work?
Is that a knot?
Write about stress and tension, injuries and diseases. Write just the way you would if you were talking to someone. The more content you write the more the person who is reading it will come to trust you and be willing to call to make an appointment. It also will attract the search engines.
One of the things I write about are the various diseases and conditions I work with. I also do a little research on them and refer to articles when appropriate or massage research. I have a pathology section online at www.thebodyworker.com that is full of different conditions with links to various articles that are online for you to read and then write your own article from.
Learning to write is like anything else. The more you do it, the easier it gets.
If you need any help with this or have any questions just let me know. It only takes me about 10 minutes to set up a Wordpress blog because I have done it so many times.
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