Now that virtually the whole business world is online let’s take a time out to reflect on our Web presence to see if there are specific places we can sharpen our small business Web site. Below are 14 areas many entrepreneurs may not actively think about to improve their business Web site. (if you would like to add to this list, comments at the end are ALWAYS encouraged)
1. Review your headlines: Headlines are where it all starts for attracting attention - and they’re also a big part of the SEO process. Make sure you’re writing attention-grabbing headlines on all your blog posts. Treat them like they’re the subject lines of your emails.
2. Encourage community: Some think this point is way overused, but judging by the looks of millions of blogs, we still can’t stress this enough. Blogs are for community and they’re a place for everyone to communicate, not just your company. Make it easy for people to leave comments and even encourage them to do so.
3. Review your ‘About’ page: The “about us” page here on this blog gets plenty of traffic because people like knowing who’s behind your blog.
4. Corporate branding: Is your logo and company colors adequately displayed throughout your Web site or blog? Branding is key for all companies, especially smaller ones trying to establish a brand.
5. Internal links: For those of you who sell products or services on a blog, make sure you have plenty of internal links to pages where you want the most traffic.
6. Update content often: Give your visitors a reason to come back day in and day out. Always put up fresh content if not daily then every other day. Fresh content is great at attracting more visitors.
7. Stop keyword stuffing NOW: Google and other search engines have realized companies have been doing this and they’re now penalizing Web sites and blogs that try this. So stop doing it.
8. Remove guest registration: For blogs, make sure you fix your settings so that people don’t have to jump through hoops in order to leave comments.
9. Fix broken links: There’s nothing more frustrating than links that lead to nowhere. Check your links often and make sure they are still live.
10: Make it interactive: Try things like holding contests, encouraging people to post photos or videos, or even try to capture information through polls on your Web site.
11. Easy on the ads: I personally don’t have a big problem with blogs that have advertisements, but don’t go overboard. Keep it within reason.
12. Use your other marketing to drive traffic: If you’re currently utilizing other forms of marketing such as emails, direct mail, public relations or even social media, consider your site the epicenter. Drive all traffic back to your site.
13. Downtime: Always monitor your Web host to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. A site that is down often makes for unhappy (and fewer) visitors.
14. Visual layout: Make sure you have a site that is visually appealing to the eyes. One way to do this is to minimize the columns, which tend to distract viewers and provide far too many choices.
Check out this great blog post for specific advice on SEO tips for your blog.
What other advice would you like to add to this list?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Some good tips here. Regarding #2, #8, and #10, something that has helped us at MightyBrand with all of these is integrating a 3rd party commenting system. Two good ones are IntenseDebate and Disqus. We use ID, and it lets users login using their ID credentials, Twitter credentials, or Facebook credentials. Or they can just post as a guest. They also have the option to tweet their comment or update their Facebook status, which helps widen the reach of the conversations if our readers wish to do so.
Another thing I would make sure you do if you’re blogging is avoid cliches. I spent a good portion of my day today reviewing new marketing and social media blogs and if I see another tagline that says something about “The intersection (or collision) of technology, marketing, and business”, I’ll scream. Variants include other industry terms like social media, PR, conversation, etc. The whole intersection meme needs to die
Point being, make sure you read what else is going on in your space and try to stand out.
One more suggestion: avoid requiring comment moderation
I know spam can be a problem, but here’s a few other ways to combat it:
- use blacklists for forbidden words like Viagra
- don’t allow unmoderated comments with 2 links or more
- Use a good comment spam filter like akismet
- require moderation on comments on posts older than 30 days
We’ve eliminated virtually all comment spam using these methods, and saved ourselves a lot of time in the process. The big plus is that conversations move a lot faster without waiting for a moderator to approve a comment. Just my .02
I’ve seen the Disqus used elsewhere. When you log in via Disqus do you still receive credit for a link back to your blog as the commenter?
Great tip Ryan, I’ve been having a tough time moderating.. every time I check my inbox I have to head to my blog to moderate a comment.. Thanks !