Alpha Gamma Rho is one of the most beloved fraternities in America. Generations of farmers, agricultural executives and bio-fuel engineers have enjoyed the benefits of AGR membership, and remain loyal to the fraternity long after graduation. If you are an active AGR alumnus, you just might want to establish a personal website dedicated to your favorite fraternity. You can blog articles recalling your undergraduate days or commenting on current events that affect the agriculture industry. Whatever your motivation, you will want to do a good job and create a popular website. Here are a few suggestions:
- Design: Start with a WordPress website. WordPress is the premier software for websites and blogs. It is easy to use and configure. You can download a free theme or buy a commercial one – in either case, you can customize the software to your specific needs, including articles, blogs, and forums. You can even set up a shopping cart if you want to trade in AGR memorabilia. Set up your blog and/or forum to accept comments from others. You can moderate these comments, deciding whether to post or reject them.
- Content: Select keywords such as “AGR fraternity” and pepper every page with them. These keywords tell search engines how to index your site so that others will find it. Make sure your content is well-written, free of grammatical, spelling, punctuation and usage errors. Don’t embarrass your old fraternity by writing sloppily. If necessary, you can hire a freelance writer to ghostwrite your material and/or edit it before posting. Don’t be afraid to have strong, even provocative, opinions – these can boost your readership and start a “buzz” about your website.
- Backlinks: Backlinks are hypertext links from other websites to yours. If those links are from topic-related websites with a high Page Rank, they can help raise your Page Rank and improve your search engine results. You’d like that, because many searchers never get beyond Page One of search results, and after all, you do want people to read what you have taken the time to write. You can check backlinks using an online tool for that purpose. It will tell you the identity and Page Rank of each linking site, so you can judge the quantity and quality of backlinks to your website. You can even purchase text link packages to provide you with backlinks that will help boost your readership.
Follow these simple suggestions and you may end up with a very popular website. Be prepared to be contacted from old frat brothers who may want to share stories with you. Your blog will benefit from such contacts.