Hey everyone! If you go to The ROCK, or you live in the Wilmington, NC area and have heard about Imagine Christmas and are excited - - and you have a blog… We could really use your help!!! We are down to the wire and we need to get the word out. I happen to know there are a ton of ROCK bloggers out there… and you guys have the potential to generate a tremendous amount of online buzz. How? Search Engines… don’t be scared- - read on.
OK — why? Imagine with me… Some family is doing a google search to find something festive to do over the weekend. They pull up google and type “christmas event wilmington nc” into the search field. If we have all done what I will suggest below… they will have LOTS of opportunities to find Imagine Christmas because the first few result pages will be littered with our blog posts about Imagine filled with great content from multiple perspectives.
Now, before I give my list of suggestions I want to say one more thing. I really get the impression that some bloggers think it’s really not important for their blogs to be “ranked” by search engines. I guess people start getting a little squirrelly when they have to start labeling everything to get ahead in placement. It goes against our grain as Christians to get ourselves to the top of any list. We feel like we are being prideful or something. But, let me tell you - - if you are at all interested in reaching people with those words God put in your heart and you painstakingly brooded over before you got up the nerve to click publish… pursuing good search engine placement is not only important - - it’s a waste of your time not to. Remember… we’re not out to reach our friends here. They already get it. We are here to be a real voice of truth and love to people who find themselves without any of their own. So yeah, what I am about to share with you is not only important for Imagine Christmas… it’s important for all your blogging.
Ok, here’s what you do… (I know some of you will read my list below and think I’m talking in some strange code language… i’ve been accused of that plenty of times before. I’ve really tried to keep it simple. It’s really not too painful. Just take your time to read carefully and do what you can understand.)
- Blog about your observations about what is going on for Imagine Christmas. Content is key here… make it interesting - from your point of view. If you have volunteered or are a cast member, tell about what you’ve been up to.
- Everytime you mention Imagine Christmas or The ROCK make it a link. Even if you mention it 5 times… link every one to therockchristmas.com or the rockwilmington.com.
- Use images from therockchristmas.com… anything you want. Or take your own behind the scenes shots and use them in your posts (don’t give away anything too juicy though- just tease a little
). Don’t forget to link your images too.
- Fill out the “description” field for your links and your images with descriptive key words like, “Imagine Christmas event at The ROCK church Wilmington, NC”. It doesn’t have to be that exactly… just use words that are pertinent to your links and images, and are also keywords that you would use if you were to google to find a Christmas Event to Attend in Wilmington, NC.
- Other good keywords to use throughout your posts… event, production, christmas, wilmington, nc, cape fear, performance, dance, live music, theater, drama, church, program…. you get the idea. And as many of them as you can in the very first paragraph is best. The farther up on the content of your page the keywords occur - the better. If you have access to your meta keywords and descriptions these will help you. (if you have no idea what the word “meta” means…. just disregard this part and do the rest… )
- Refer your readers to therockchristmas.com for behind the scenes updates, photos and directions.
- The Invite a Friend feature is up and running on therockchristmas.com. Tell everyone you know. Include a link to the Invite a Friend page in your posts so your readers can invite their friends too.
- Give your posts a good title - using key words in your post title is good for search engine placement.
- Post often. It doesn’t have to be long. Just interesting. Use pictures, good keywords and don’t forget to link everytime.
- Be sincere. Where I am suggesting we pay attention to the key words we include in our content and our linking… I am not suggesting we fill our posts with hype. Just write as you normally would and pay close attention that you are getting the most out of every word. It’s easy - - promise.
P.S… if you have your own wordpress domain - - not a free one - - and you have not installed the SEO Plugin. I HIGHLY recommend you do it. I have found it to be golden for search engine placement. If you don’t have your own domain yet and are serious about your blogging I highly recommend you upgrade and install SEO.
P.S.S… i have intentionally broken my own rules with this post because the sheer number of keywords and links would cause it to probably come up number one… and I don’t know that I really want this post to be the number one thing they see about Imagine Christmas. So I have intentionally broken my own rules here… in case you were thinking i didn’t notice. 
Author: cmejia
