blog

Hi Friends!

I have a very special guest post for you guys today. For the past few months, my friend Danielle has been helping me improve SEO for my blog. She’s phenomenal to work with and a wealth of knowledge so I asked her if she’d be willing to share some of her top tips with you guys since I know a lot of my readers have blogs of their own! Danielle is also a business coach, so if you need help with business strategy, social media management, SEO or blogging, definitely go check out her services on her website Danielle Zeigler!

So, are you ready to learn? Here we go:

What is Search Engine Optimization? This means optimizing your posts for search engines like Google and Bing so they can better understand what the post is about and what questions it will answer for readers. A nicely optimized post will rank better and reach a wider audience. “Organic search traffic” means visitors who find your blog through typing a query into a search engine.

When you’re thinking of optimizing your posts, you should be thinking of how to help your target audience, not just how to rank better or reach more people in general. Start thinking like your audience. What do they want to know? What questions are they asking?

How to optimize your posts:

First, let me stress that shareable, engaging content is more important than keywords. However, following a few easy steps can help increase your organic traffic and reach more relevant readers.

1.  Keywords: Choose a keyword phrase or two that best represents your post idea.  Ex: “How to cook spaghetti squash”

a. Use Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to find the most popular (most searched) way to phrase your keywords. Compare multiple phrases to see which has the highest traffic (low-medium competition is best). There are tons of keyword tools out there, but these are quick, easy and free, so start here.  For the example above, other search phrases might include “best way to cook spaghetti squash” and “how to bake spaghetti squash”

2.  Title: Your post title is possibly the most important aspect of your blog post. This will entice people to click, shows up in social media sharing, is usually your H1 tag for SEO, etc. Titles with the most clicks often include: “How-to”, “Mistakes,” “Secrets,” Questions (people are typing full questions into Google more often now) and lists. Examples include: “3 Ways to Cook Spaghetti Squash,” “The secret to cooking perfect spaghetti squash,” or “4 mistakes people make while cooking spaghetti squash.”  Keep your title under 60 characters and be sure to include your keyword phrase. This will most likely be used for your title tag.

3.  Title Tags: Google will show about 60 characters. Include keyword phrase(s), but don’t overdo it.

4.  URL: Include your keyword phrase(s) — you can shorten it to use just the main keywords, use dashes rather than underscores, and use all lower case letters.

5.  H1 tags & Header tags: The H1 tag is usually your post title. Make it engaging and include your keyword phrase(s). Secondary headers are a great way to break up the content. They also cue readers (and search engines) in on what your post is about if they quickly scan it. Use closely related keywords in the header tags.

6.  Meta-description: Google shows about 160 characters. The meta-description is not used for ranking in search engines, but what you put here will encourage people to click on your link. Use an alluring snippet from your post, a call to action, or write a short introduction to the post, such as, what problem will reading your post solve for readers? Google won’t always use what you enter. Sometimes it will pull text related to the search query, but it can still be a good idea as a backup.

7.  Content: I mentioned having engaging content. Make sure you also use your keyword phrases within your blog post. You only need to use a few related phrases once or twice. Focus on your writing and don’t keyword stuff*.

Bonus Tip: Use phrases to link to other posts you’ve written, too. This will keep the reader engaged in your blog longer and will signal to search engines that your blog is cohesive and organized. Make sure to have the link open in a new window.

8.  SEO Plugins: If using WordPress, grab a free SEO plugin. Yoast All-In-One is highly recommended.

Visual Example:

When searching for “how to cook spaghetti squash,” this is what the post looks like in Google. Lindsay appears on the first page for this search.

In no time you’ll get the hang of optimizing your posts and be able to draw more organic traffic to your blog!

*A note on keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing is when you use your keyword phrase as much as you can. Not a good idea! Google has evolved and it’s now recommended to use similar phrases so Google can get an idea of what your post is about.

————–

Huge thanks to Danielle for sharing her expertise today!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi Friends!

Time for a little entertainment to brighten up your Friday. Mr. Bean (aka Hubby aka Brett) is back to share the rather humorous tale of how he found a tampon in is coat pocket last week. Enjoy 🙂

————–

First of all- WOW. I mean I’ve always thought I was pretty funny, but all of this validation from my previous post has really grown my ego exponentially. I’ve basically told all of my friends I’m famous now and don’t have time to hang out with them. You know you’re a big deal when your mom texts you:

Anyways, the story.

There’s a Tampon in my Pocket:
A tale of mystery, lies, and deceit.

I’ll cut to the chase: Last week, I found a tampon in my pocket [Unopened!]…

More specifically, I was walking through the parking lot of my office building, minding my own business, noticed an odd bulge in my pocket, and discovered that it was a tampon— This is not normal.

Let me break it down. I had just exited the building for lunch and was about halfway to my car. My left arm seemed to be getting some excessive friction while it swung back and forth. A quick visual assessment revealed a weird bulge in my coat. I checked my side pockets (empty), realized my coat had an inner pocket (nifty), patted the contents down, and felt a cylindrical object. My mind immediately jumped to “is that a cigar?”(I don’t smoke cigars- weird initial judgment). So then it happened… I reached into the inner pocket, felt something wrapped in plastic, pulled it out, quickly realized I was holding a feminine hygiene product in my hand (in the middle of a parking lot), briefly froze in complete shock, quickly glanced side to side while jamming it back into aforementioned pocket, and then walked the rest of the way to my car.

A Reenactment

I sat there with both hands on the wheel trying to process the madness.  Everything was momentarily distorted, like that scene in “Elf” where Buddy figures out he’s a human. After running some scenarios through my head, I started the car to head home for lunch. [Side Note:  We live close to my office, so I eat lunch at home with the Bean]

QUICK BREAK:
CONTEXT FOR MALES & TAMPONS

Few innocuous objects can leave a man more uncomfortable and shaken than a tampon. It’s completely irrational, but nonetheless, an undeniable truth. Its component parts (plastic, string, cotton) have no noticeable effect on a man, but put them together and it’s like kryptonite. We cringe at the name- Tampon (shudder).   I liken my fear of tampons to my fear of clowns: I know they are harmless and won’t hurt me, but I stay the hell away from them.  My best guess is that the fear is rooted in an unintended conditioning of our species; I’ll use the transitive property to explain:

Tampons=Periods

Periods= Cranky Woman

Cranky Woman= Terrifying

Therefore,

Tampons= Terrifying

OK, back to the story.

I’m now driving home and posed with the question “Why do I have a tampon in my inner coat pocket?” This naturally leads to “Who put a tampon in my pocket?” “How long have I had a tampon in my pocket?” “Who does this tampon belong to?” “Did anyone see me holding a tampon in the parking lot?”

I pull in the driveway having constructed the most plausible scenario. MAN PURSE! Now when I say “man purse,” I don’t mean it like a dude’s satchel. I’m talking about the all too common act of a woman using her man as a purse when she doesn’t want to carry one. Clearly this had been the work of the Bean. She has been known to use me as her man purse, putting things in my pants and/or coat when she wants to travel light. This results in me carrying her things around (knowingly or unknowingly) like her ID or keys.  Clearly, this is what had happened. We were going somewhere, she didn’t want to tote around a tampon, knew I wouldn’t be agreeable to carrying it, so she popped it in my coat. How dare she. This time she had gone too far.

Now having filled in the blanks, I arrived home, marched in the kitchen and said “Well, thanks a lot for using me as a purse!” and I slammed the tampon down on the kitchen island for effect.

Bean was silent.

Figuring she was not up to speed, I elaborated – “Obviously, you snuck this bad boy in pocket one night, and now I’ve been walking around with a tampon like an idiot!”

Bean glanced at the island, opened her mouth, and started to speak words that made the situation even more dreadful than I ever could have imagined. “That’s not my tampon. I don’t use that kind.”

My well thought out, airtight theory now had a MAJOR hole in it…No…A prank… Who? Why? Who could have had the window, the motive.  I didn’t even want to think it, but now I knew it was an inside job at the office. I’d have to deal with that after lunch.

Now that things were becoming clearer, I settled down and we began to resume lunch preparation as normal. As I often do after arriving home, I squatted down to give the Tuck Man (our blacklabesque dog) some love. To add insult to injury…

R-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-i-pppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{source}

Now back on the job, with a fresh pair of pants, I was on high alert. I went quickly to my pal and confidant’s office – we’ll call him “Mandrew” for anonymity- to tell him what happened. No sooner had I told him what I found, he cut me off – “ I was just telling this exact story to a group of people the other day. It had to be one of them.” (Knowledge I could have used earlier BEFORE I slammed the tampon down on the counter and accused the Bean) Apparently this had been a reoccurring gag that the women had pulled at Mandrew’s previous employer.

…Sick…

My personal feelings aside, we had momentum- a list of potential suspects. We started our interrogations, but to no avail. People thought it was hilarious, yes, but nobody was giving any “tells” to indicate that they were involved, or even had any knowledge. Was it a lone gunman? Had to be. Offices are notorious for chatter, so for it to have remained so contained had to mean it was some monster acting alone. Somebody in close proximity, somebody who enjoyed watching office pranks, maybe enjoyed them so much she had heard a story about a prank and thought “now’s my chance to shine”, maybe somebody who sat 10 feet away….. We’ll call her “Adminnie” the Administrative Assistant.

Now we all love “Adminnie”. She is the glue that holds the department together. Scheduling, Travel, it all goes through her.  Adminnie is also the cheerleader of pranking in the office. She loves to hear a good prank story, but until now had always been a spectator. Could this have been her moment? The student becoming the master? I had my suspicions, but knew we wouldn’t have any trouble getting the information out of her. She has an Achilles heel- the worst poker face known to mankind. Picture Kristen Wiig’s SNL character “Sue” who always ruins surprises.

{Source}

She has tried to pull face to face pranks before at the urging of others. She will typically bust out laughing before getting three words out during the attempt. Something like “Hey. The Pres-BAHAHAHAHAHA-ident of the Comp-HAHHAHAHAHA-any wants to see you in his office.” This tampon prank would be right up her alley; she could have busted out laughing while doing it with nobody around to hear it. I could practically see her planting it in my coat like a black and white Dateline reenactment.

The interrogation went down just like I would have expected. Mandrew started out with “..hey guess what, Adminnie, Brett(Mr.Bean) found something strange in his pocket at lunch”. She immediately interjected “Oh yeah, (giggle) what did he (giggle) find(giggle).” She literally had tears running down her face before we ever mentioned the specifics of the tampon.  Busted.

Well played, Adminnie, but you’re in the big leagues now. I’m not going to retaliate immediatedly. (By the way, she found the ripped pants part exceedingly hilarious after I described my lunch hour). I’m going to let this simmer for awhile before I get even. I told her I was going to write about this- and Adminnie-  rest assured that sweet, sweet revenge is headed your way. It might be a month from now (exactly a month would be pretty funny), maybe a year, but it will be done, and if I pick my prank-level right, I’ll probably regret it for a day or two before thinking it’s hilarious again….(Insert a lengthy maniacal evil genius laugh here).

Now that I’ve written this, I’m fearful that this post may result in rogue tampons plaguing the belongings of men the world over. Sorry guys.

Any good prank suggestions to get back at Adminnie?

What’s the best office prank you’ve taken part in or witnessed?

PS. In case you’re new here, you can catch Mr. Bean’s previous appearances here:

Help, I’m Married To A Blogger
It’s Not Easy For Everyone (Our Infertility Story)

Enjoy!
–Bean & Mr. Bean–

Hi Friends!

Remember last week when I posted a picture of my new planner?! Check it out:

Last month, Lisa at Personal Planners reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in creating a customizable planner from their site. You guys know i LOVE paper planners….I’ve tried to switch to using just my phone and computer and it just doesn’t work for me…I gotta write stuff down. SO, I immediately jumped at the chance.

Here’s some of the information she gave me about their planners:

Hi Friends!

Time for another Foodie Penpals Reveal Day!

This month I exchanged boxes with Amanda from Eat Hard Work Hard. Check out her blog if you haven’t already. She rocks!

Here’s what she sent me:

• Homemade Cookies 🙂 She knows the way to my heart
• Granola bars- delicious
• Treats for the dogs! They love her!
• Peanuts- such a good snack
• Candy- who can say no to that?
• Nut and seed mix- addicting!

Thank you so much Amanda! I loved everything and it’s pretty much all gone 🙂

Want to participate in next month’s Foodie Penpals? Here’s some more info

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. 
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. 
-Foodie Penplas is open to US, Canadian & European residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. Same with Europeans.  

If you’re from the US or Canada and are in participating for February, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions. 

You must submit your information by February 4th as pairings will be emailed on February 5th!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Have I mentioned lately that my readers are the best?! Just wanted to take a few minutes today to do another edition of You Made It!

I LOVE seeing you guys making my recipes. Nothing makes me happier than hearing that someone tried a recipe and loved it. You guys are doing so much to help me spread the message that healthy eating doesn’t have to be gross, boring or complicated!

Here are the links to the recipes mentioned above in case you want to check them out:

Breakfasts
Cranberry Sweet Potato Cottage Cheese  Muffins
Healthy Blueberry Scones
Quinoa Breakfast Bars
Crockpot Pumpkin Steelcut Oats
Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Bars
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins

Main Meals
Spicy Lentil Sausage & Kale Soup
Black Bean Meatless Meatballs
Cheesy Mexican Quinoa
Greek Yogurt Chicken
Cheesy Mexican Chicken Skillet
Tuna Quinoa Cakes

Snacks
Freezer Chocolate PB Cups
Pumpkin Pie Balls
Sweet Potato Bites
No Bake Protein Bars
FroYo Bites
Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites
No Bake PB Chocolate Oatmeal Balls

Sides
Cranberry Corn Muffins
Fresh Cranberry Sauce
Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

Desserts
Sweet Potato Brownies
Peanut Butter Cookies with Fresh Cranberries
Peanut Butter Avocado Cookies

Other
How to Cook & Freeze Beans
How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Thank you a million times to each and every one of you for reading, cooking, baking, tasting and supporting The Lean Green Bean! I couldn’t do it without you guys 🙂

–Lindsay–