Killing Your Customers Softly – Simplify Your Site!
In case you haven’t noticed, my articles lately have focused on writing and marketing to the exclusion of nearly everything else. I haven’t abandoned my other topics, but I believe that a review of the fundamentals of freelance writing from time to time is necessary. Plus, I must assume that a number of my followers are new and may have missed some of my earlier articles which are now part of the archives (and available for your review at no cost to you).
Don't drive your readers crazy by filling up your blog with unrelated stuff. Clean up your site today to win new customers for your business.
6 Easy Blog Clean Up Tips
Here’s what I mean – I’ve come across blogs that are guilty of one or more of the following points, any one of which usually encourages me to move on. Include two or more of these egregious points and you have a real problem on your hands, perhaps without even knowing it:
1. Pop Ups – Please, do I really need to know that you’re running a special? Well, maybe you want to get the word out, but anything that messes up with the navigation of the screen is just plain annoying. Find another way to state your business, perhaps using a starburst widget and placing that in your blog’s header.
2. Music – I’ve made the mistake several times of surfing the ‘net unaware that my PC’s speakers are on. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a rock opera blares forth which usually means that I’ve already hit the forward or back key to leave your site before shutting off my speakers. I can’t see any reason for having sound on a website.
3. Widgets – Speaking of widgets, do you need every single widget currently occupying your sidebar? I’ve gotten lost on some sites where people add widget after widget in a bid to fill their site up with stuff. You’d do better if you removed every widget that doesn’t have to do with your site, limiting yourself to a handful which your readers would find to be unobtrusive and helpful.
4. Buttons, Badges – Much like widgets, buttons and badges are taking over some blogs. Why you would have links to other sites is beyond me especially when those sites are unrelated to yours. If you’ve been using buttons as links, get rid of the buttons and add the link to your Links category. Even better, create a separate links page for all of your link exchanges.
5. Ads – Placing gazillions of advertisements on your blog, especially when it is new is tempting for some people. After all, if people click on your ads you’ll get paid. Instead, resist the temptation to include ads until your site has been running for a few months. That way, you can work on building up content and evaluating traffic, before adding two, perhaps three ads on each page. Take care how you place your ads and stick with those which actually provide relevant content.
6. Categorization – You can save room on your sidebar by removing the META tag; limiting your recent comments and/or recent posts to the last five posts; tossing tags and cloud category; as well as a calendar, unrelated plug ins, and welcome messages.
When surveying your blog, you want visitors to see your blog’s name, tag line (if used), navigation bar and your content which are your blog posts. Secondarily would be what you have featured on your sidebar which shouldn’t detract from your blog’s primary mission – to convey information, including important details telling your customers how to find you.
3 Tips To Help Your Blog Shine
Just in case you think that all I have is negative criticism to offer, consider the following three blog shining steps you can take:
1. Pillar Articles – Most blogs contain a handful of pillar articles, which are those defining posts which are worth reviewing again and again. Don’t allow them to get lost in your archives. Instead, create a widget for your sidebar and title that “Featured Articles.” List three or four of your favorites, making it easier for people to find them once again. These types of articles are what your writing clients want to see as well.
2. New Theme – Is your theme tired looking? I’m amazed at the number of attractive, enjoyable blog themes which are constantly being made. If your blog is established, consider investing in a paid theme, one that offers support from the theme maker and is easy to use.
3. Use Images – Relevant images within your posts (not on the sidebar) can draw the reader’s attention to what you wrote. I’m surprised that some of the more well known bloggers don’t use imagery as a well thought out picture is certainly worth many words.
That’s it for now! Go and shake things up on your blog with an eye on what your customers are reading. With less clutter to pick through, you just may discover that one of your readers is a customer in the making.
Photo Credit: Scott Adams
See Also — Wise Article Marketing Strategies
Tags: advertising, articles, badges, blog design, blog layout, blog theme, blogging, buttons, Marketing, pop ups, widgets, Writing
Marketing | Matthew C. Keegan, 1 Sep 09
By LarryJackson, September 1, 2009 @ 5:27 am
Ah, a man after my own heart. I know of several blogs that I would read if they were set up a bit differently. Some of them take forever to load because they have so many badges, buttons, etc. all over the place. In my opinion, those take away from the actual content of the blog and it’s a shame because some of them have good articles.
LarryJackson´s last blog ..President Obama returns from vacation
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 1, 2009 @ 5:49 am
Larry, when I come across a blog filled with useless widgets, badges, buttons and more, I think one thing — the blogger is trying to hide something. Turns out, many think that having all of this stuff adds to search engine optimization, but it serves to drive people away.
The less muss, the less fuss — give me a clean, uncluttered website and I may actually read what the blogger wrote!
By Cheap laptops, September 1, 2009 @ 6:01 am
Use Images
I agree that bloggers should use images, but not too many – otherwise it looks like a slideshow.
By tekkaus, September 1, 2009 @ 6:06 am
A great blog post bro. Yeah! Sometimes I feel I need to clean up my blog too. =)
tekkaus´s last blog ..Don’t Let Our Independence Be Robbed!
By LarryJackson, September 1, 2009 @ 6:19 am
@Matthew C. Keegan
Imagine that, actually reading what the blogger wrote. Personally, I would rather have a few good readers that will comment intelligently about what I wrote than thousands of visitors who take time to read nothing.
Good article, by the way.
LarryJackson´s last blog ..President Obama returns from vacation
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 1, 2009 @ 2:37 pm
@Cheap — I’ve actually used slideshows with a few articles, but those plugins have always caused me fits. Anyway, if I have a lot of photos to show, I simply list them one by one.
@tekkaus — You’re welcome; let’s get to it!
@Larry — Some of the comments people leave behind are vapid, lacking no connection to what I wrote. Those get thrown away!
By Jan from BetterSpines, September 1, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
Excellent article! Your layout is very clean and user friendly, easy to get to the content. I really dislike sites where one has to scroll at least one page, sometimes two, to get to anything worth reading. And as for acres of ads and buttons, it’s not worth wading through them.
Jan from BetterSpines´s last blog ..Forced Vaccinations?
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 1, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
Thanks, Jan. I’m partial to this theme, though I recently swapped a similar one for this one. I appreciate the head’s up about the duplication on the side — there is a quirky feature with this theme which lists a few things twice. I think I figured it out!
By blacklin, September 1, 2009 @ 7:39 pm
Good post. I’m always rearranging things on my blog. Everyone else’s blog looks better than mine.
I love the picture that goes with this post.
blacklin´s last blog ..Where Is Reading Taking You This Tuesday?
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 1, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
Blacklin, I hear you! This particular theme is very popular and is used by several other bloggers that I know. I want to include a customized header to make it look better, but that’s a job for another time and tweak.
By @mattstratton, September 1, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
I concur wholeheartedly! I recently re-did my blog’s theme to something much simpler…and even now I think it might be a tad too much. It’s so very easy to get carried away with adding functionality…but then I gave it some more thought. “Self,” I said. “How do you read most blog content?
“Why, in an RSS reader, of course,” I replied to myself.
Aha. The lightbulb flashed. It’s all about the content. Anything that doesn’t serve the content directly just gets in the way.
Of course, am I practicing what I just preached? Not completely, yet. I’m still a little widget happy. I need to go on a widget diet
@mattstratton´s last blog ..iPhone – Apps Ahoy! (Part 2)
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 1, 2009 @ 11:56 pm
Matt, standing back and taking a look at one’s blog can be a task easily forgotten. Oftentimes, we’re caught up on word usage and placement — rightly so — forgetting how our blog looks to our visitors. I design my blogs for Firefox, forgetting that a lot of people still use the dreaded Internet Explorer browser. I’ve seen entire sidebars slide to the bottom of the page with I.E. a source of embarrassment for me when I discover it months later!
By Mechanic Mark, September 2, 2009 @ 6:40 pm
As a two column bloger I think the main advantage for me is that the 2 colomn template keeps me on track and prevents me from overdoing the widgets and 125 x 125 ads. Although I just noticed I could use a few less.
But yet I realize I don’t have the capability to see my blog from a neutral point of view. This is why I get my ex girlfriends to go visit the blog once in a while. They are always willing to provide lists of things I can improve on!
Mechanic Mark´s last blog ..Mustang Burnout Video
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 2, 2009 @ 8:31 pm
Mark, those ex-girlfriends sound pretty chummy to me! I certainly hope that your blog had them rethink their relationship with you.
Seriously, the two-column format is certainly cleanest as it allows the blogger to feature more white space which can be use for the article itself. Even if people tend to use a lot of widgets, I don’t mind if they load up quickly. Anything that takes more than a few seconds to load means you’ve already lost me.
By Aaron, September 3, 2009 @ 9:55 am
Nice points. What I always tell people is just this one single point: design and improve your website from visitor’s perspective.
If you put yourself into visitor’s shoes, you can often see more clear on where needs to be improved.
Aaron´s last blog ..Effective Link Building, Must Read SEO Resource
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 3, 2009 @ 9:56 am
Aaron, that is something I must practice more often — putting myself in my visitors shoes. I’m always thankful when someone points a problem out, which means that I usually missed what should have been obvious to me.
By zizzybob, September 3, 2009 @ 10:58 am
I read it and thanks, I too often come across a blog with so much junk on it that I have to hit the back button in about 2 seconds.
By zizzybob, September 3, 2009 @ 10:59 am
BTW, do you have any idea why when I try to drop my card on your box, I get penalty instead of thanks?
zizzybob´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 3, 2009 @ 11:36 am
Zizzy, I apologize for the Entrecard problem. Judging by the time that you stopped by I’m thinking that Entrecard was acting strange then. I had problems earlier, had to close my browser and then reloaded. Everything worked fine after that.
By mma gear, September 6, 2009 @ 7:55 pm
This is a great guide on cleaning up your blog, I especially think the widget tip is most useful, sometimes people get so carried away with widgets, when all they need are one or two of the most effective ones. Thanks.
mma gear´s last blog ..New George St. Pierre GSP Affliction shirt
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 7, 2009 @ 4:02 am
Mma, I prefer fewer widgets but I can handle more if they load up fast. Still, when scanning the sidebar, too many widgets in place can become a real turn off.
By Annabel, September 8, 2009 @ 12:35 pm
I totally agree. I spent 6 weeks choosing/changing my mind/altering/adding/deleting themes, plugins, widgets, adding logo/taking off logo etc. 3 columns didn’t look right so finally settled on 2 columns! Images, examples help to communicate your point and can add interest!
Annabel´s last blog ..Forex Robot Reviews – Do Forex Robots Really Work?
By Matthew C. Keegan, September 8, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
@Annabel With a few of my blogs, I still use three column themes, but I just think two columns look best. Besides, a lot of the two column themes have a wide sidebar which means that some of the information can still be run side by side.