Can you honestly say that your blog provides value?
In other words, are you regularly providing information to your readers that improves their life, their reading pleasure or business in some way or is it just full of ads with very little useful content? For anyone who has a blog it is sometimes useful to sit back, read it through and see if it is actually worth the paper it’s printed on or in this case the computer screen it’s displayed on. Even a personal blog needs care and attention if it is to hold the readers attention.
So how do you know if you have a blog that provides value?
Do you regularly add new content?
How many times a week do you add new content? If you want to maintain regular readers then you need to post on a regular basis. When you post infrequently your readers soon realize that they are not going to find anything new and it won’t be long before they decide not to return, especially as there are so many other interesting and informative blogs available. Generally you need to post at least three or four times a week to add variety. Your readers need to see that you care enough about them to provide something of value and interest on a regular basis.
Do you spend time researching your content or do you just throw something together?
A good blog post is one that you have given some consideration and thought to the content and has taken a little bit of time to write up. Of course, that’s not always the case as sometimes things just flow off the top of your head and you can write a darn good post in a very short time, but in general a quality post is one that has taken some time and research to develop. We learnt long ago that it is pointless putting up content just for the sake of it. You are better off adding 4 really good quality posts a week than 7 posts of questionable quality content just because you want to get a post up every day.
Is your content unique?
Do your write up your own content or is it just pages of content picked up from article directories?
Google dislikes duplicate content so this is a big no-no if you want to win with Google. This isn’t to say that you can’t use someone elses article if you they have something good to say, just as long as you give them the credit for the article and you don’t do this too often. Your blog should really reflect your views and personality so you should be writing your own articles as often as possible.
This applies also if you are just copying and pasting from someone else’s blog. Apart from the fact that it is plagiarism and won’t make you many friends, your readers will pick up on this real quick. Remember that many readers will read multiple blogs and if they see the same article on your blog – even if it has been reworded slightly they will be turned off real quick. That’s not to say that you can’t write about the same subject that some other blogger has recently blogged about, just make it your own unique article.
Do you have more ads on your page than content?
A blog that is just one big ad farm is very unappealing and will turn away visitors real quick. I know that when I come across a blog full of ads I simply hit the back button. Yes it is true that some of the top bloggers have a multitude of ads on their blogs but they can get away with it as their quality content means readers are willing to put up with the ads. These top bloggers also have the readership numbers so they don’t really have to worry.
If you are in the process of trying to build up your readership then you don’t want to turn readers away so make your ads unobtrusive, or better yet don’t have any at all for at least the first few months and then introduce them slowly over time.
Do you have a professional looking blog?
You don’t need to buy expensive templates to make your blog look professional. If you are using WordPress or Blogger then there are a multitude of free templates that look as good as any paid template. Choose a basic template that you can easily change and add your own header, to make it distinctly your own. Stick with a template that has a white background for your blog posts. This makes it easier to add an image that will blend with the background and studies have shown that black text on white is just a lot easier to read.
Du u yuse a spelcheka?
This is such a simple thing but it is so often missed. A spelling error here and there happens to the best of us but there is no excuse for consistent errors when we can easily run any article through a spellchecker. It does reflect poorly on your blog when every second word is yet another spelling error. A lot of people can be turned off by this and you can lose the opportunity of a repeat visitor. After all it shows that you don’t really care about your content if you can’t take the time to make sure everything is spelt correctly so why should your visitors care to read poorly written content.
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I've got nothing to give you but good advice, tips, hints and valuable information on how you can become a better blogger.
Site Rank is expressed as a percentage, with 100% representing an “ideal” website which does
not actually exist. The premise is that no site can be absolutely perfect and all sites can
be optimized for greater significance and value.
Great work on your final placing in the Busby SEO Challenge.
I think we all agree that there is always work to do to keep a website ranking well. That is why we all constantly strive to keep abreast of the latest SEO techniques.
Okay, I can use a better theme but I think I passed the rest of the points in your post. Maybe a new post called, “Does Your Website Sorta Suck?” I am sure there are several more ways I can improve my blog, but it is nice to know I am not making the huge mistakes. :)
I don’t mind your theme Brad, it’s nice and clean looking. We find that we tend to get tired of our themes after a while and often the theme no longer has the functionality that we want, so being women we don’t hesitate to change them frequently.