Content: Is It Killing Your Website?

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There are many factors that go into a successful website, from usability to SEO, and much more. But people often overlook the importance of quality content. If the content on your website has spelling and grammar errors, isn’t factual, or is just plain boring, you are going to lose potential customers and discourage them from coming back.

Keep your intended audience interested in what you have to say or sell by following the tips below:

Don’t duplicate. Why would anyone spend time browsing through all the pages on your website if the content is the same throughout? If you don’t like to write, hire a professional writer and let them craft unique and persuasive content for each page of your website. Not only will this make your products and services stand out, it will help your site to rank better on the search engines.

Stop spamming. There’s nothing wrong with having ads on your website or blog – hey, we all have to earn a living – but going overboard can leave your prospective customers with a bad impression of your company. If your site or blog is so full of ads that it detracts from the content, you’ve got a problem. Reduce the number of ads you have on your site or blog and see if it helps boost your conversion rate.

Step up the quality. Think of the reasons why you would spend your valuable time reading someone’s blog or the content on their website. Most likely you would read something that was informative, factual, interesting, and engaging. If your web content is full of spelling errors or useless information, your reader won’t return. Quality content is necessary to sell your products or services and it helps establish your credibility as a company.

Don’t overdo SEO. Too much of a good thing will kill your conversion rates. But finding the right balance will help it. Keep this in mind when incorporating SEO into your web content. Always ask yourself if you’d read the SEO article, blog, or website content you just created and actually find it interesting and/or informative. If you wouldn’t read it, don’t expect your target audience to either.

Check out these links for more information about how you can create great web content:

7 Best Practices for Improving Your Website’s Usability

Seven Tips to Make Your Website Sing

And if you're interested in increasing your visibility amongst the major search engines like Bing, Google, and Yahoo, Voice of North America can help. Voice of North America lets you post blogs about any topic you want, getting you quality link backs from relevant content.

Difference between White and Black Hat SEO

This is what your typical black hat SEO user looks like.

If you’re a blogger or want to write content for your website, you need to know the difference between white and black hat SEO. When used properly, search engine optimization can bring more traffic to your website, increase your exposure on the Internet, and build your brand. When used improperly, it can turn off potential customers and possibly even blacklist you from the search engines.

White Hat SEO – If you want to stay in the good graces of major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, stick to white hat SEO in your blog and website content. White hat SEO involves using a few relevant keywords or phrases in your tags, quality content with the relevant tags used throughout, inbound linking, and SEO-friendly headlines for blog or website’s pages.

Black Hat SEO – This type of search engine optimization is not recommended. Black hat SEO involves stuffing your tags with an overabundance of keywords, many of which are not relevant to your blog or website. Black hat SEO users will often hide keywords on their website and engage in link farming, which is exchanging links with other websites to boost your site’s ranking. Basically, you’re trying to trick search engines into thinking your site is popular and visited regularly.

Check out this funny and interesting article titled SEO Wars: Forget Black Hat, White Hat - What Color is your Lightsaber?  by Angie Schottmuller … if you’re a white hat SEO user, you’d be a good Jedi, but if you’re a black hat SEO user, you’d be venturing into the dark side. Read the article and decide ... which side are you on?

If you want to increase your visibility amongst search engines, Voice of North America can help. Voice of North America lets you post blogs about any topic you want, getting you quality link backs from relevant content.

Grammar Matters

This couple is devastated by a typo they just found on your website.

After reading an article titled Nobody Cares about Spelling and Grammar Anymore by Tim Berry,  it got me thinking about whether or not that’s true.

I have to admit that I care … a lot, actually! If I find a grammatical error in anything I’ve written, whether it’s a personal email or published web content, I feel more than a little sick to my stomach. I guess I’m kind of a grammar nerd, but even with a keen interest in the subject, I know I’m still far from using perfect grammar. However, I do my best to make sure everything I write is spelled correctly and free from grammatical errors.

Do I suggest you do the same? Well, if you’re a blogger or a writer of web content, it’s important that you not only proofread your work, but know the grammar basics. I’m not saying you have to geek out on grammar, but it wouldn’t take long to do some light reading on the subject. Doing this will make sure your reader isn’t turned off by typos and it will make you a better writer in the long run.

I think everyone can benefit from brushing up on grammar basics, so check out the links below before you write your next blog and see if they help!

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling
Your Versus You’re
Apostrophes

If you’ve been looking for a way to get more traffic to your blog or website, visit Voice of North America. Voice of North America will help you get found on the search engines and increase traffic to your website.

What’s Your Favorite Blog?

I bet she's tweeting about her favorite blog right now.

There are billions of blogs out there - how do you choose what to read? I think all of my favorite blogs have been introduced to me by a friend via Twitter or Facebook. I’ve noticed that many of my friends will put a link to a blog post they particularly like in a Twitter or Facebook update and encourage everyone to read it. If I end up liking the post, I will usually keep reading, and before you know it, I’m hooked on a blog I previously didn’t even know existed!

Here’s a few of my fave blogs right now, in no particular order.

The Fitnessista – The reason I love this blog is because it’s a personal take on healthy living. The Fitnessista is constantly posting about working out, eating healthy, new exercises to try, workout DVD reviews, recipes, workout plans, and so much more! She’s even made me crave more vegetables and fruit by posting pics of what she eats at every meal. And she does it all in a fun and friendly manner. She normally updates a few times a day, too, so it keeps me coming back regularly to read her tips.

Hyperbole and a Half -This blog kills me. Every time. It’s so weird but so funny. I love reading these posts and normally always laugh out loud at some point. The weird drawings only make it better. This was the post that a friend initially shared on Facebook that instantly had me coming back for more. This blog is witty, hilarious, and a little demented – just the way I like it!

Diva Marketing Blog – For a fun way to learn about various marketing topics, from social media to blogging, check out the Diva Marketing Blog. The writing is done in an easy-to-read yet interesting style, so you never get bored and a new blog post is always a welcome read!

Practical SEO – Read this blog to learn about SEO and everything SEO-related. From optimizing your blog to optimizing your website, you’ll learn tips and tricks for optimal success. Practical SEO also ventures into other related topics, like web development, content writing, and more, so you’ll never get bored and always learn something new.

Not sure how to get your blog or website noticed by the search engines? Check out Voice of North America – a blogging platform that lets you post about any topic you desire in all 50 states. You’ll get found by the search engines easier and get more traffic to your website or blog.

Are Keywords the Key to Blog Success?

Unlock blog success today!

Search engine optimization is a great tool for increasing exposure to your blog. If you put keywords into your content, the people searching for those topics on the web will find your blog and hopefully become regular readers.

Read on for tips on how you can incorporate SEO into your blog starting today! 

Research. You can search for relevant keywords with Google’s Adwords and find the most popular ones related to your specific industry. Remember, targeting specific keywords is the point; using too broad of keywords won’t help your intended audience find you. Check out Google’s keyword tool here. 

Read. Learning about search engine optimization is a great way to get better at it. There are countless informative blogs out there that will teach you how you can incorporate SEO into your blogs. Check out: SEOmoz for some good info.

Relax. Don’t go crazy with SEO! Use keywords in all of your blog posts, but don’t go overboard. You still want your blog posts to flow like they normally would and you don’t want to lose readers because you took search engine optimization to the extreme.

Remember. It’s important to remember that the key to becoming a successful blogger doesn’t depend on search engine optimization alone. There are many ingredients that go into the creation of a popular blog, from social media to syndication. Read How to Get More Blog Traffic – Real World Data by Tom Pick.

If you need help getting your business, product, service, or blog more exposure, visit Voice of North America -  Voice of North America is a platform that allows you to blog about any topic you desire in all 50 states. This will help you get found in the search engines and drive traffic to your website or blog.

It's the Content That Counts . . . Right?

Is your blog as pretty as a picture?

I read an article today that I found interesting titled HOW TO: Build a More Beautiful Blog by Matt Silverman.

We’d all like to think that it’s the inside that counts, but when it comes down to it, do the aesthetics of a blog determine its success? This also led me to ponder if the jazzy book background I’ve chosen is enough to make you want to stay to read my blog posts or is it so annoying that it makes you want to leave and never return.

Personally, if I really loved someone’s content, but they had no interesting images to go with it and a boring background, it wouldn’t be enough for me to stop reading it. However, I can definitely see how a beautiful blog could enhance a reader’s experience. There are a few blogs I currently love reading and all of them have great images and backgrounds that do add to the overall blog experience.

If your blog is in need of an extreme makeover, check out the link above for some tips on how to snazzy up the place. And if you’re in the commenting mood, please let me know what you think of my book background, too.

On a side note, if you’re ready to grow your business (if you have one) check out: http://www.voiceofnorthamerica.com/

Voice of North America gives you the power to blog about any topic you want in all 50 states, helping you reach potential customers and drive more traffic to your website or blog.

The Power of Proofreading

They're reading your blog post right now. Hope it doesn't have any errors!

Before you hit ‘publish’ on your next blog post, make sure you’ve proofread it.
If a post is riddled with errors, it’s not going to be well-received by your readers. Plus, if your goal is to ever have a blog post go viral or to simply have people linking to it in their own blogs or on social media accounts, it’s not going to happen if it’s filled with errors.

Here are a few simple tips to ensure your next blog post is easy to read and free from typos!

Take a break. After you finish writing a blog post, it’s always a good idea to take a short break and then come back to it and proofread. Once you’ve been staring at the same content for any length of time, it gets harder and harder to spot errors. Walk away and then proofread when you come back. You’ll be able to find more errors this way.

Talk to yourself. Reading your blog posts out loud is a great way to find errors you normally may have missed. Once you’ve fixed the typos, you’ll have a post that flows better and reads smoothly.

Use a spell-checker. Such a simple thing, but a surprising amount of people publish before doing this easy task. Maybe you think your post is already error-free and doesn’t need the help of a spell-checker, but it can’t hurt to find out! It takes two seconds and the spell-checker could find something your eyes overlooked.

Enlist a buddy. You may be a fantastic proofreader, but even the most typo-trained eye can miss errors. If you have a buddy you can ask, have them read your blog posts before you publish them.

Follow these tips for error-free blog posts and you’ll establish credibility with your readers! If you’re having trouble getting your blogs noticed, also check out http://www.voiceofnorthamerica.com/. Through Voice of North America, you can blog in all 50 states, which will help you get found on the search engines!

Are You a Reader Or a Skimmer?

Do you think she's reading or skimming that newspaper?

When it comes to content, whether printed or on the web, there are two types of people, the Readers and the Skimmers. Which one are you? If you’re a Reader, most likely you thoroughly read blogs you enjoy and make it a point to post comments. You probably revel in replies to your comments and continually engage in blog conversations.

A Skimmer, on the other hand, might be a person who doesn’t have time to read blog posts in full and skims posts for interesting information. Skimmers probably don’t often leave comments because they are pressed for time.

If you have your own blog, which category do you feel most of your visitors fall in to? A great way to accommodate both the Readers and the Skimmers is to make your blog posts shorter and keep the content fun and informative without getting into too much detail.

You might want to:

• Use bullet points (just like this one!)
• Try out numbered lists
• Add images throughout to keep visitors interested
• Post questions or polls to engage visitors

If you’re having trouble getting people to visit your blog or getting link backs to your website, you may also want to check out http://www.voiceofnorthamerica.com/ - it’s a great way for bloggers to attract more web visitors and get maximum exposure on the web!

6 Tips for Increased Blog Traffic

Look at all those people heading over to your blog!!

Starting a blog is a great idea – no matter if it's a blog to share stories about your own life, to initiate convos on certain topics, or to help promote your business.
If no one is reading or commenting on your blog, however, it can get a bit lonely. If you’d like to attract visitors to your blog, read on for 6 tips on how you can do just that, starting today!

Do it on the daily. Blogging, that is. If you update your blog every day, you’re more likely to have people coming back to it again and again. Who remembers a blog that’s only updated once a month? Not many people. But who remembers a blog that’s updated daily with fresh, interesting, and informative content? Everyone! Yay!

Be social. Any by that, I mean engage in social media. Once you post a blog, update all your social media accounts with the link so all of your followers can go read it. This is a great way to gain exposure for your blog and hopefully get more followers for your social media accounts and more for your blog, too. Everybody wins!

Add a picture. Does every blog post absolutely have to have a picture to go with it? No … but it does make reading more fun. Blogs can look a little dull and routine without an image to go with the content, so check out royalty-free sites that offer images and spice things up a little!

Be a blog troll. Yes, I said it—get out there and troll some blogs! Find blogs that are of interest to you and comment on them. Include a link to your own blog if allowed and engage in convos on a regular basis. Don’t be spammy or a non comment-leaving lurker – just be you – and you’ll start to get some people linking in to your blog from comments you’ve left out in the blogosphere.

Post with a purpose. Decide what the nature of your blog is going to be and stick with it to ensure you’re able to target a clear audience of readers. For example, this blog is going to be about blogging. Hence, a blog within a blog. All topics will relate back in some way to blogging, or content writing, etc. Whether it’s family, fitness, search engine optimization, animals, or anything else, decide what the purpose of your blog is going to be and make sure all topics you post about are at least mildly relatable.

Add some add-ons. To make your blog more user-friendly, interactive, and fun, check out http://whos.amung.us/, http://www.sharethis.com/, and http://www.outbrain.com/. And reach more blog readers in all 50 states by blogging at http://www.voiceofnorthamerica.com/

If you liked this post, please feel free to link to it from your own site or blog!