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Biggest Blgging Mistake

I do a lot of digital consultancy work where I talk to people about their current digital assets and how to best use them. These digital assets could be be websites, blogs, social media channels, email newsletter to name a few. I just want to share with you the biggest blogging mistake I continually come across which is quite easily avoided – not owning your blogging URL

Own your Blog URL

Your blog is a marketing asset and many people use a blogging tool to set up a blog, like blogspot or typepad. Great tools and software, for sure. But if it can at all be avoided, don’t use them. (see below) You end up with a blog URL like this;

• www.yourname.blogspot.com

When you blog you will create valuable content which people will link to by sharing or referring to your blog. It’s these links that make your blog powerful and instead of driving traffic to your own web or blog asset, you are driving people to a URL that is not yours.

So, do yourself a big favour and when you start a blog, set one up that is linked to your OWN website. The URL would look something like this:

• www.blog.yourwebsite.com or
• www.yourwebsite.com/blog

Image via Wikipedia

You can achieve this by using the blogging software like WordPress or Joomla for example. It’s worth spending the time to install it, or if you are not technical, to pay someone to do it for you. Don’t let another URL profit from the hard work you are putting into your blog.

You don’t own your URL?

Of course, that is a different story. You may not be in a position to add a blog to your website. Many franchisees are in this positio for example. They are limited by the sub standard websites their franchisors provide. In that instance, a tool like blogspot could well be your only option. As I said above, they are great tools and very easy to use. But I would only recommend them as a 2nd option.

What a B** of a job!

I am in the middle of a big keyword research project for www.cookandkitchen.com.au. I am involved with this start up business as a digital consultant on a seat equity basis. And this week I am putting in A LOT OF sweat, I am doing keyword research for 15 different food categories. Its slow going and tedious but I am simultaneously expanding my knowledge on what “zatar” is. How lucky am I? Its some sort of spice or dry rub (I haven’t figured that one out yet)  used in the kitchen which can be spelled in 7 different ways. I am not really the creative chef of my household, so this is all new to me.

I am not even half way through the project but I already have a spreadsheet of more than 10,000 keywords. Why am I bothering? Well if I want to stand a chance of turning the “sweat equity” into some hard cash (at some unknown point in the future) I will have to make sure this site is going to get some traffic. The best place to start is to find out what people are search for and what they call stuff. I might be mistaken thinking people google for “spices”, I may well find out people actually prefer to say “seasoning”, so I better find that out first before we launch a site full of words nobody uses, right?

So this week, I sit down every night (and when I daughter sleeps during the day) to delve deep into the world of “olive oils”, “herbs and spices and “vanilla essence”. The site is not live yet so I cannot direct yet to all the awesome products on there, but I do know that even someone like myself, who does not cook much is getting excited. Excited seeing the products that is, not doing the research

Better keep going, I have to put in some more sweat (equity)

I often get asked by clients to help them achieve better visibility on the web. Now, that is what I do, so its a fair question. But its not always easy to do.

Often I am presented with a website that has been built to please the CEO or some other highly paid person in the company. However, a website should be pleasing to the end user. One of those end users could be a search engine. So I find myself dealing with a website that has not got any of the groundwork in place to aid in getting better rankings.

How does your site get higher rankings?

Your site’s rankings are determined by a wide variety of factors. I like to split them up as follows;

1. on page factors (what you do to your own site)
2. off page factors (what happens on other websites that link to you)
3. technical factors (like domain name, hosting, coding etc)

By far the most important one to achieve rankings is the second, off page factors. Its often called “link building”. However, that is not to say the on page elements are not important.

Consider the on page elements to be your preparation to paint the walls of your house. Cleaning, taping and perhaps an undercoat. The off page elements can be compared to the actual painting.Just remember, paint won’t stick on walls that were poorly prepared. So,… what you do to your own site, is the groundwork that needs to be done, to build a successful link building campaign.

Yet this groundwork is often overlooked. A site may be looking swanky, but have no header tags, or page titles. I often see URLs that do not support the keywords of the brand or product on the site. Domain names that do not represent the locality of the business and cheap hosting plans overseas. The list goes on….

How to avoid SEO problems?

Simple. Don’t ring the SEO after the website  / upgrade / overhaul is finished.

As a matter of fact, several people need to come together to build a successful website.

Who should be involved when you consider a new website?

1. The Digital Marketer to set the website objectives and understand the target audience
2. The SEO to research what the target audience search for, which keywords and key phrases to incorporate in the site. The keywords can drive the website architecture and overall structure of the site.
3. The Web Usability Expert to make sure there is a good flow of information and the end user does not get lost in a muddle of information and bad navigation.
4. The Designer to create a good looking site that meets the needs of the target audience as well as the SEO
5. The Developer to write the code and make sure all request all built to spec.
6. The Security Person to ascertain what protection is needed to prevent hacking.
7. The Digital Marketer again to develop a marketing strategy that drives traffic to your site
8. The SEO again to set up a good link building campaign that ensures you have a site people can find on Google

An SEO is not just someone who helps you to get links. And an SEO is also your consultant in preparation for getting a website that has the ability to rank highly on Google.