We’re talking blogs here, not the myriad other avenues through which you could lose a client.  Still, it’s good to know what things irk viewers and potential clients enough that they hit the backspace button after glancing at your site or not even clicking your link at all.  After all the brainstorming your company’s done and designs the site has gone through, you don’t want to blow business on something as small as the aesthetics of your site.

The Quantity Category

1. Overkill, Text.  One of the most damaging things you can do to your blog is to put too much text into one page.  Even a diatribe is best broken up with subheadings, bulleted or numbered lists, pertinent images, and the like.  You can mourn the death of the written word all you want (believe me, I do), but that won’t get you any more clients.
2. Too many ads.  Whether you’re a business or a stay-at-home mom blogging her thoughts, the presence of too many ads gives your site a trashy, cheap appearance and you one lacking in credibility.  At the very least, remove all ads that glitter, blink, and suggest viewers to “cartoon” themselves.
3.  Too many voices.  Unless you accept guest posts and have multiple writers (in which case each writer needs to be clearly attributed), your site needs to maintain the voice of one person for the sake of consistency.  How would you have liked it if Morgan Freeman’s voice in Shawshank Redemption turned into Ron Howard’s voice midway through the film?

               The Quality Category

1. Cheap  hosting.  No level of excellence in grammar and business skills will impress viewers and clients when your website ends with .blogspot.com.  
2. Poor quality video.  If you’ve incorporated video into your blog, good for you.  If it’s grainy, shaky, blurry, not properly white-balanced, has poor lighting, and you look like you just rolled out of bed in it: don’t bother.  Scrap it and start anew, and this time, comb your hair.
3. Poor quality images.  This isn’t Microsoft Word.  Clip art is out of the question.  There are plenty of stock photos available online.  It’s not a bad idea to use your own, either, as long as they’re well-lit, not blurry, and reflect the content of your article.
4. Poor navigability.  This includes not having your most recent blog post above the fold, not displaying your archives in plain sight, and not having a clearly visible “about me” tab.  If your company only has a blog and not a corresponding website, the “about us” page is critical for your viewers so they can turn into potential clients.  Without one, your viewers don’t know who you are and therefore won’t trust you with their business.  Make sure that this tab is above the fold and easily found so even the most impatient clickers will find it.
5. No search box.  You really don’t expect viewers to read the title of every last blog post since November 2008 just to get to the one about the leopard, do you?

Guest Blogger Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online degrees.

Tags: Blogging Tips, web content, Website Traffic, Writing
Posted in Blogging Advice, Uncategorized |