SEO

5 Basic Blogging Tips

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This is a quick follow-up to my last post about why your website needs a blog. There are a lot of tips I could write about blogging. Here are some of the most basic, and valuable, tips I share with business owners who ask me about blogging.

If you are planing to add a blog, or even if you have a blog already, keep these tips in mind:

Read more5 Basic Blogging Tips

3 Good Reasons Why Your Website Needs a Blog

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Are you debating the value of adding a blog to your website? Hubspot recently posted results from a blog study that you need to consider. This post is essentially a recap of the study.

The study included websites for more than 1,500 small and medium sized businesses. The results were very clear cut – your website needs a blog. And the more you can blog, the better!

Check out these numbers:

  1. Websites that have a blog received 55% more traffic. Makes sense, right? The more quality content a website has (i.e., the more pages in that website’s library of pages), the more opportunities for links and landing pages. Even more important: the more traffic, the more chances for conversions.
  2. Websites with blogs had 97% more inbound links. Stop right there. You don’t need to know anything else. If links are like gold in the world of SEO and blogs deliver that many more links, then you need to blog as soon as you’re done reading this post.
  3. Lastly, websites with blogs wracked up 434% more indexed pages. This one’s a no-brainer. The more quality pages created, the higher the amount of pages that are indexed. But the key thing to remember here is that Google likes sites with lots of original, quality content. So the more pages indexed, the better.

I realize this hardly qualifies as breaking news. But if you don’t have a blog on your website, you seriously need to consider adding one right away. There are clear benefits from an SEO perspective that you need to start leveraging. If you do have a blog and it’s neglected, find the necessary resources and start adding as much quality content as you can.

Treat Every Page Like a Landing Page

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A common web management mistake is the assumption that all traffic funnels through a website’s home page. As a result, websites can suffer from high bounce rates (people that arrive onto a website and click off without visiting a second page) and, consequently, lose potential sales.

Let’s assume your website contains valuable content, like a resources section for example, that people find link-worthy. Those people are not going to link to your home page and include directions on how to find the resources section. They are going to link directly to that resource article they think is so great.

So, the big question all of you business owners need to answer: does every page on your website include a way for users to complete your goal?

Continuing our example, let’s say your goal is to get users to fill out a newsletter sign up form. If that sign-up form is only available on your home page, how are users who get to your site via other landing pages ever going to sign up? The answer: they’re not! Think about it. They don’t even know your newsletter offer exists.

Start thinking about user experiences on your website via avenues other than your homepage. An impressive home page is worth a pat-on-the-back, but landing pages that guide users to your goals are more valuable to your business.

3 Links Still Worth Paying For

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I’ve said it before, the best way to get inbound links is to produce a lot of quality content. The better the content, the more people will want to link to it. It’s tough work, but it is the most effective method.

That doesn’t mean you should completely ignore all other methods. There are some other tactics worth your time and money. One that I always get asked about is directories. People want to know if they have lost their luster.

My philosophy is this: there are still a select few directories that are worth it. For example, a link from the Open Directory Project is still a must.  (In fact, that is one of a couple links from free directories that are valuable.) But I am not a huge believer in the services that promise to submit your site to 10,000 directories.

If you can afford to spend little bit of money (around $1,000), spend it on these links rather than mass submission services:

  1. Yahoo Directory: $300/year – for years this has been at the top of the premuim list. Now that Microsft has teamed up with Yahoo, there are rumors out there that the future of this directory is in jeopardy. So keep that in mind. Here’s a link to actually start the submission process.
  2. Business.com: $300/year
  3. Best of the Web: $299 one-time charge – I’ve seen SEO experts debate the value of this one, but I believe it is still worth it. Again, I’m only suggesting these sites for companies who don;t have to necessarily worry about dropping $299 for a link.

Remember, when it comes to inbound links QUALITY wins in a landslide over QUANTITY. So if you can spend a few bucks to get some added link juice while you continue to create great content, spend it on those few sites.