Tag Archives: small business
I know, I know, the headline is a little harsh, but it’s true! Your small business blog is starting to stink up the Web! And don’t tell me that your blog is the exception; I bet your traffic numbers are just as dismal as your content. If your small business blog sucks, don’t stress – practically every business-run blog does (heck, mine doesn’t smell like a bunch of roses every day either!). And while you can’t do anything to rid past posts of their problems, there are plenty of things you can do to un-suckify your blog in 2011 (yes, I just invented a word there).
1. Your posts are too short (or too long).
Twitter is for 140 character thought snippets. Novels are for epic tales. Blog posts are where you develop clear, concise arguments on relevant topics. The optimal length for a blog post should be between 500 and 800 words. Long enough to make a point, but short enough to keep a reader’s interest.
2. You use syndicated content.
Oh no you didn’t! Syndicated content is a cardinal sin for bloggers. “Borrowing” another person’s content and trying to pass it off as your own is lame. It just makes your business look lazy. If you’re absolutely crunched for time (and it happens, believe me, I know), try asking for guest contributions. Guest bloggers add an extra dimension and provide you with a little time to breathe.
3. You have no original ideas.
Spinning ideas is common practice in the blogging world. You find a blog post elsewhere and try and rewrite it to look like you came up with the idea. Article spinning happens, but if you’re writing a post based on another person’s content, make sure you add something unique. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb and shake things up.
4. Your blog looks like a blog.
Blog designs are pretty predictable, especially if you use a basic template. Make your blog look like it’s worth reading by customizing your layout with colours, text, graphics, and a unique layout. Need some inspiration? CIK Marketing just helped the Stamps, Ink and Paper Blog update their look.
5. Your blog is selfish.
When was the last time you linked out to another source on your blog? Blogging is about spreading the love, sharing information, and providing your readers with useful resources. If your blog references a stat or study, make sure you link out to it to provide some background support to your post.
6. Your blog has no contact information on it.
When I’m reading a blog, I like to know who’s writing I’m reading. If I like your style, I might want to contact you to compose a guest post for me. Make sure you have a page with contact information, or at least include some bio information in the sidebar with an email address. You never know who might want to do business with you based on your blog.
7. I get lost trying to find an archived post.
Blog organization isn’t something you need to think about everyday – all you need to do is set it up once and then stick with it. Develop intuitive categories to file your posts as well as chronological organization. This will make it easier for people to find old posts or posts that cover topics they’re interested in.
8. I can’t subscribe to your blog.
You want people to become return readers of your blog, right? Then give them a way to subscribe to your content! Set up a newsletter sign-up form and submit your feed to Google Reader. Make it easy for people to like your content… which leads to my next point -
9. You don’t have any social sharing tools.
The best way to attract new readers to your blog is to have readers share your content. Word of mouth marketing is alive and well on the Internet, so why not help the process along by making it easy to share your content on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Reddit.
10. Your content sucks.
The biggest reason your blog sucks is your content sucks… no question. Great content will make your blog great, so take some time to improve your writing.
Do you know a blog that sucks? What makes it so bad? Share your frustration with the CIK blog readers… you’ll feel better, I promise.
Let’s face it – everyone loves cookies. From double chocolate chunk to plain old oatmeal, cookies just make you feel good. It’s kind of similar to how good SEO can breathe life back into a boring website. This weekend I spent hours slaving away baking some Christmas cookies, and between the mixing and eating I came across a weird discovery. Baking cookies is an awful lot like optimizing a website for better rankings in search engines (albeit not nearly as tasty). The following are five fun similarities:
1) You Need to Prep Properly
Have you ever tried to cream a rock solid block of butter together with sugar? Trust me, you don’t want. All you get is a mound of butter that looks like it’s been dropped into a snowbank. Recipes include detailed preparation instructions in order to help you avoid these sorts of lumpy situations, and so too should your SEO strategy. Preparation is key in the early stages of an SEO campaign, so don’t go jumping the gun. Make sure you take your time and perform plenty of research on your industry. Do you know which keywords to target? Should you be focusing on building more directory backlinks or will citation site submission be of more use? Taking the time to prep your optimization ingredients will help save you time and disappointment down the road.
2) You Need to Have the Right Ingredients
You can’t make a great cookie with just one cup of flour. You need to combine a number of different ingredients in order to create a batter that’s worth bragging about. The same goes for SEO. You can’t just insert keywords into your content and assume that search engines will immediately love your website. A strong SEO campaign requires equal helpings of content development, link building, and code-level optimization. One ingredient isn’t more important than the other – they all work together to create a finished product that’s capable of attracting plenty of attention.
3) You Have to Keep the Oven at a Steady Temperature
Cranking your oven up to 500 degrees won’t help bake your cookies faster, it will just cause them to burn. Trying to cut corners by speeding up the process doesn’t work – you need to bake your cookies slowly, and consistently in order to ensure they’re properly prepared. Similar instructions are necessary for an SEO campaign. Trying to speed through the optimization process will only cause you more harm than good. SEO is all about constant and continuous optimization. Cranking up your keyword optimized content production for one month may help boost your rankings today, but the effects will quickly wear off once you stop. Constant optimization is what will benefit your website in the long run.
4) You May Burn the First Batch When You’re Starting From Scratch
Testing out a new recipe requires patience and practice. The same can be said for working on a new SEO strategy. Somethings might work, others might crash and burn. But you’ll never know until you try. Mix up your optimization strategy and try something different – you could come out with a winning recipe!
5) You Can Never Have Enough!
Whether it’s cookies or content, one thing is for certain – there’s always room for more! Your small business website can never be over optimized. Just remember: there’s always another company out there looking to take your spot in search engine results. Keep them at bay with a clearly defined optimization strategy.
Want to make your next SEO strategy a delicious success? Then don’t forget to add CIK Marketing as one of your main ingredients! Contact us today to learn more about our SEO services.
