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What To Avoid When Starting A Blog Or Website
Some people are so good at what they do, they make it look
easy. And many an aspiring blogger or website entrepreneur
has been inspired by their efforts to say, “hey, I can do it
to.” And off they go. But as exciting as it is when
starting a blog or website for the first time, it is
important to make some good basic decisions, decisions that
will have a huge impact on the long term success or failure
of your site.
And I am speaking from experience.
Here are some fundamental basic no-no’s of starting a
website or blog
Your Domain Name
1. Get the right domain name – First off, make sure your
domain name relates to your site. Search engines will
respect you better when their bots analyze your site and see
that the content and name are related. People searching in
your niche will also take your site more seriously. It’s
also crucial if you are a business website for branding
purposes.
2. Do keyword research for your domain name. While its
tempting to think of a cutsie name for your site, a cardinal
rule to remember is, that ‘if no one is searching for it, it
doesn’t exist’. It’s very simple really, just find a
phrase that people are already searching for and integrate
your domain name into it.
3. Domain name and – Hyphens. Most likely, the domain
name you like is already registered, especially as a dot
com. So you start brainstorming. One solution is to use
hyphens. For example, powertools.com is already taken, so
you might try power-tools.com. Google still takes note of
your keyword based name and just treats the hyphen as a
space. But the problem is that people are not used to
putting in hyphens if they are typing a name directly into
their browser, and so most likely, powertools.com will show
up. If this site is well put together, the person most
likely won’t look any further. So be sure to check what
your competitors are doing before going the hyphen route.
And don’t be afraid of digging even deeper for keywords to
use.
4. When you start a blog or website it is always best to
buy your own domain name. I t costs less that $10 a year to
own a domain name, so do it. While using free blogging
platforms are nice, use them to augment the site and domain
name that you own. Any free blogging and hosting programs
you sign up for generally retains the right to your domain
name, (unless they specify otherwise) so they can shut your
sight down for any reason and you can lose all of your
efforts.
Web Hosting
Free or really cheap web hosting sounds very tempting, but
also comes with many potential problems. Most free hosting
platforms are very slow, that is, slow to load up your
website for visitors, and your ranking will be penalized for
this, plus, people don’t want to wait too long for your
site to load up. They will move on quickly, because it
shows a lack of professionalism. Should you have website
problem, and you will, their customer service is also slow
and often inadequate.
In order to make money many of these free hosting companies
require that you accept ads on your site. Ads that you
have absolutely no control over. I would recommend free
webhosting, but only as ways to augment your main site.
Good quality webhosting isn’t very expensive. Start with
the least expensive plan and upgrade as your internet
business grows. You will have a greater peace of mind
because quality website hosts depend on having a good rep
and their customer services are usually very helpful.
Website Design
1. Keywords. Whether you are relying on organic searches or
are using PPC – Pay Per Click, you really need to have done
your keyword research. If you want to attract new visitors
you need to be using the right keywords and phrases. Make
sure you use the terms that people are searching for. And
then use these keywords to build quality content and write
articles around specific keywords. Make sure whatever your
advertising is tied in.
2. Don’t spend most of your time creating a cool looking
site without also creating great content. Noobs especially,
who start a blog, spend a lot of time searching out the
‘perfect’ template. Instead you should be putting in 10x
the effort in getting your content together. Don’t let your
site distract from the content you are providing. The
search engines place a higher value on content than what
your template looks like.
That being said,
3. Beware of poor navigation. Not only is it frustrating
for your visitors, who may be searching for some specific
information and can’t find it, the search engines don’t like
it either. Make sure that the links are arranged logically
and the link is information specific, so that when people
click on the link they go to exactly what your links says.
Be sure to have a Sitemap.
4. When starting a website don’t just design it for the
search engines. Quite a bit of emphasis is placed on SEO –
Search Engine Optimization, and no doubt about it, this is
quite important. Even more important is to design a user
focused website. This will encourage visitors to come and
stay on your site, meaning more traffic and higher rankings.
You will have to tweak your SEO continually anyhow. And
as you find out which keyword searches are working you will
want to give them more prominence in your SEO efforts.
Starting a blog is exciting and fun but never forget your
targeted audience. Invite feedback and keep your content
focused on what is working. As you discover what your
readers and potential customers want, give it to them. Meet
their needs and they will gladly reward you.
Be Fearless
Billy Ojai
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