Hello all digitalpointers, my name is Ryan and I have half-started a cycling blog. I have a few questions to ask and I would be extremely grateful to anyone willing to answer. The blog I have set up is a wordpress blog. I am using a free hosting service called byethost. Right now I have no posts and I have not reallly done much to the site. The reason for this is that I want my blog to have a .co.uk domain. Would I be able to do this using the free hosting? I intend to use a small number of google ads on my site. I know how to install those but I do not know how to get my site into the search engines? If I use a .tk domain will it be harder to promote in search engines? Could someone give me a few tips on how to get visitors who are interested in cycling, not just a mass of hits. Could someone tell me the legal requirements of putting pictures that I do not own on my blog eg - aknowledging source. Could someone explain tags and what they do? Any other random tips and advice will be graciously accepted P.S. The blog is roadcyclingblog.byethost33.com
First tip I'd give you is to buy some hosting of your own, it's insanely cheap and will help you along the way. To get your website into search engines I'd recommend you download two main Wordpress plugins: All in One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps, simply install them, configure them and they'll get you into the search engines eventually. Make sure you sign up to Google Webmaster Tools so you can submit your sitemap and configure how you want your website to appear on Google. You'll also need a robots.txt file so search engines can access your website and know which folders to go in and which ones to stay out of. I think you should go with the .co.uk domain name instead of the .tk. When using images of the Internet, just ask the person who took the photo/created the image if you can use it on your blog, I'm sure they'll be fine with it as long as you give them a link back. Always remember though, to do good in search engines you need good content, content is king.