This social media platforms can supplement your website by making it very easy to share photos of the work you are doing, news articles, and anything else you would like to share with your supporters immediately if you aren’t sitting in front of a computer.

Because of the large number of users on all of these sites, and the ease of sharing the information posted on them with a click of a button, it is very easy for images or news articles to very quickly go viral and by viewed by hundreds of thousands, even sometimes millions of people within minutes.

By implementing these simple social share buttons on your blog, you will make it easy for anyone who sees your blog to easily share it with all of their friends on Facebook, as well as all of their followers on Twitter or Pinterest.

To begin:

• Use the ShareThis Plugin
  The ShareThis Plugin comes loaded into all Win sites allows you to blast your message out to your supporters. You can configure them to appear as icons, texts, or both. Although, I have found that the icons work best. The logos seem to be much more attention-grabbing and recognizable.
   

This is your solution for low-cost political campaign websites.

The search giant knows how many websites you have, how long you’ve had them, how many people link to them, and how often you appear in the news. With all that information, Google tries to figure out which search terms people use when looking for you online.

So whether you’re an incumbent or a challenger, it’s essential to get some technology magic working in your favor. One way to do it is via Search Engine Optimization, or SEO—the practice of creating, maintaining and promoting a website’s content so that Google displays your websites ahead of others for certain search terms.

To determine page ranking, or which search results to display first, Google takes into account more than 200 factors, including the content and URL of each website, as well as how “reputable” the site is—essentially how many other websites link to it using similar words or phrases.

Additionally, Google tailors its search results for individual users based on past searches. (To control for this sort of personalization, all Google searches cited in this article were done after location information, Google account information and browsing history were cleared from the browser.)

“You must brand yourself before someone else brands you,” advises Wesley Donehue, an online strategist who heads Donehue Direct. “You must ensure that someone finds the content you want them to read when they Google your name.”

When people are looking for information about a candidate on the web, the first thing they’re likely to do is type in the candidate’s name. In that instance, the candidate is going to want the first results to be something he or she has control over, like the campaign page, social media profiles or op-eds.

If voters are looking for information on a district itself, they might search for broader terms, such as the state and district number. These, according to Matthew Dybwad, partner at the political media firm Craft, are the swing voters—“the most coveted viewers for any campaign.” At that point, he says, “it’s really a race to relevancy. If you use SEO to position your website so that voters interested in relevant issues come across it first, you have a better chance of grabbing and holding their attention.”

An Incumbent Edge?

Given that they’ve been in office and the public sphere longer, incumbents typically have an advantage when it comes to SEO—something smart campaigns can work to their advantage. “Incumbents have the benefit of a long life on the Internet, with perhaps thousands of content pages, videos and pictures indexed on Google,” says online and new media consultant Patrick Hynes.

And many of those pages link back to a website maintained by incumbents (which includes the official .gov page, former and current campaign pages and an often carefully monitored Wikipedia page). Not only are more people talking about incumbents, more people are directing traffic to their official pages, which Google takes into account when determining search rankings. And that can make it more difficult for challengers.

“The odds are stacked against you if you’re a challenger,” says Rob Ousbey, vice president of the SEO firm Distilled, “especially if you’re working on a new site.” Ousbey notes that some candidates have had the same sites for years, allowing them to build up pages and pages of material using the search terms that people might be entering into Google.

But just because the incumbent has a larger web presence, doesn’t mean he or she is taking advantage of their SEO opportunities. Take Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), for example. If you Google the congressman’s full name, the top of the page is exactly what you might expect. You get the official congressional website, his campaign page, a Wikipedia entry and his social media accounts.

But scroll down and you’re likely to see critical news articles and websites about Cravaack, including TakeDownCravaack.com, a site dedicated to ousting the Tea Party supported Republican from Congress.

In Cravaack’s district, at least one campaign website seems to be maximizing its SEO efforts, but it’s not the incumbent or the challenger. Instead, it’s the district’s Republican party. When you search “Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District,” it’s the party’s page that emerges as the third result. That places it one spot above Cravaack’s campaign website and five spots before Cravaack’s congressional site. Results for Cravaack’s opponent, Democrat Tarryl Clark, don’t even appear on the first page of results.

Ousbey suggests the higher search ranking for the party’s page is a result of the structure of the page itself, rather than the number of people who are linking to it.

“The page is probably a stronger page,” he says, meaning that even if Cravaack’s congressional site is well-linked, “it could be less optimized. It wouldn’t be the first time that a page built in bulk by the government wasn’t well optimized.”

Explaining how the party’s page is better optimized for terms like “Minnesota’s 8^th Congressional District,” Ousbey noted that the URL contains the state and district abbreviation, “mn8.” The party also uses the phrase “Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District” throughout the site’s pages.

With some incumbents choosing not to take advantage of the SEO opportunities they have, the online field is wide open for challengers to improve their web presence through SEO. Mia Love, the Republican running for the newly formed 4th District in Utah against Rep. Jim Matheson, is one challenger on top of her SEO game.

When you search “Utah 4th Congressional District,” about half of the results on the first page are about Love, and none of the results are driven by Matheson. Part of the equation is that the 4th District is newly-created, so it has no true incumbent. Google “Jim Matheson” and a news article about

Love will likely appear towards the bottom of the page. In it, she expresses her optimism about taking on Matheson in November. In addition to the search rankings, Love has a fleshed out Wikipedia page, complete with biographical information and picture. When you search for her name in Google, you’ll see a brief bio and picture—borrowed from Wikipedia—alongside the results, thanks to a new Google feature. Additionally, Google lets you know that people who are searching for “Mia Love” are also searching for “Jim Matheson,” and vice versa. If she were without a Wikipedia page, the brief bio, picture, and the search suggestion could be missing.

Forming the Strategy

There is hope for those who haven’t developed an SEO strategy just yet. On the technical side, Ousbey suggests some basic SEO best practices for challengers.

“If you were a challenger and wanted to optimize a campaign page, it would be pretty straightforward SEO,” he says, suggesting candidates use popular and relevant search terms in the content of the website, encouraging others to link and to promote it across social media channels.

Another avenue worth exploring is Paid Search, says Dybwad, which is Google’s ad platform that lets users pay to place text-based advertisements on specific search result pages. Let’s say a candidate wanted to run on a platform of creating jobs for his district. Whenever a Google user located in that district’s ZIP codes searched for phrases related to jobs in the area, the candidate could pay to have an ad appear next to the search results.

“It’s a great way to get your name out there for terms that you don’t really have a shot with,” Dybwad says. “In most cases it’s still dirt cheap.”

Ultimately, there are no shortcuts or quick fixes when it comes to the time a campaign should spend on SEO.

“It’s not the kind of thing where the campaign can just buy something. It really has to be attended to every week,” says Dybwad. “The results of it, other than your page ranking in Google, are not immediately evident.” But when done well, learning to optimize the message for Google can pay off. “It is a long term labor,” he says, “and it’s really where the art meets the science.”

Kate Tummarello is a staff writer for InTheCapital

Source: Campaigns & Elections

Setting up URLs as sentences on your campaign site can not only have SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits, but can also make your site much more user friendly.

To Create These URLs:

• Start with your Permalinks(Permanent links) which refer to the structure of the dynamic links that are created to form your site’s posts, archives, and pages.Each page has a permalink that is easy to alter. On the “Add New Post” screen, right under your title, you will see a description of your post with the option beside to edit. For this post, in your browser, you will see that we have made ours “how-to-set-up-urls-as-sentences-on-your-campaign-site”.

• Categories and Tags have a default setting for every post that you make under each, so they can be a bit more difficult if you post a broad range of topics under one category. Adding them in, though, does seem to make for a much more organized website.To change the default permalink for each category page, go to your settings, and then permalinks page. You can here, at the bottom of the page, customize your tag base. If you want, you can make it something general that can like to all your pages. Something like “your-name/on/current-legislation”.For categories, you can try the same thing, or even use the No Category Parents Plugin to remove the /category/ base from the archives in general and use category “slugs” to write your sentences out. So for your news archive, for example, instead of “yourname.com/category/news” it could be “yourname.com/reports/storytitle”You can accomplish this by clicking the “Categories” tab under Posts, and combining the No Category Parents Plugin with customized category slugs. Changing the slug on this page is just as easy as changing the description on each post you are writing, it is just important to find the perfect slug name that will be appropriate for all posts in a category!

  Once you find the perfect slug, you can then include that category in your permalink structure by returning to the permalinks settings page and scrolling down to the “Custom Structure” blank and typing: /%category%/%postname%

   

  After that, as long as your post slugs match up with the slugs you assigned to your categories, each post should read straight across as a user-friendly and descriptive sentence!

   

   

  Source: WPCandy

It isn’t always easy to find the perfect image for your blog post, but the extra effort is well worth it. An attractive image will not only succeed in visually engaging your audience before they ever read your first sentence, but will also make your message more powerful. Hence, the old adage: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Political sites have a tendency to blur together if there is nothing setting them apart, and images have proved to be a very useful in not only making a political site more unique, but also in making political messages that can sometimes be boring and complex  more straightforward and exciting.

Effective Image Templates for Political Websites

Four image types that have proven to be very effective in getting across a political message are:

1) The Image and Headline
2) The Centered Peek-A-Boo
3) The Large Logo
4) The Special Image

It is, of course, impossible for every image that you post to fall into one of these categories. Sometimes a generic and preexisting image is more appropriate, but when designing your own images or even having a designer to do so specifically for you, these are great and effective templates to keep in mind.

The Image and Headline

Not necessarily the most complex image, but it’s easy and certainly more effective than no image at all. This template should essentially be a visual representation of your blog title. Big, bold, writing for your title, appropriate image beside it to make it more visually engaging. This image could be something as simple as the Olympic symbol partnered with the title “Congratuations to America’s Olympic Medalists”. Even such seemingly generic image will add personality and attractiveness to your post.

The Centered Peek-A-Boo

Another simple design, this image template consists of a bold, centered text at the top of the image, and a circular image “peeking” up at the bottom. For best results, the image be attention grabbing. In other words, have a powerful image, vibrant colors, etc. This template would be very useful if you want your words, more so than your image, to be the first thing noticed. If you are writing a powerfully opinionated piece about a hot topic, then an image won’t necessarily be what draws in the audience, but the image will still fulfill its purpose of solidifying your message.

The Large Logo

If you have a logo or specific image that you use for your campaign, it would be beneficial to incorporate it into certain blog posts. And if you don’t have a logo, having one designed is highly recommended.

Doing so will do wonders for branding purposes. When your logo is consistently used, readers will begin to associate that image with you. Immediately upon seeing it, they will become more engaged and know what to expect if the logo is perpetually used for a specific type of post; such as press releases, weekly legislative updates, any frequent post that you feel would be beneficial to tie directly to YOUR brand- being your campaign, platform, and yourself.

The Special Image

The other template ideas I have shared with you are very useful and efficient, as they can be used over and over again, but it sometimes helpful to design special images for a one-time use.

If you are writing about something that you really want attention drawn to, or is a complex issue that an image would make more clear, or is a special event (such as the Olympics)  it never hurts to think outside the box. If an image is used too repetitively, it loses its ability to grab your viewers. Take this image for example:

 An image such as this gets your message across instantaneously. Even those who might not take the time to read everything that you have to say would be able to glean from your image “Here is an American who cares about our country” and will therefore view you as someone worthy of their time and esteem. Images greatly advance your online reputation and immediately grow your viewership, followed later by readership and ultimately, a strong band of loyal followers.

Source: WPCandy