If you are blogging to promote your brand, book or business, you need to make sure that your blog enables you to get the maximum search engine juice.
What do I mean by this?
Not all blogging software is created equally.
Without going into a long discussion of hosted (such as blogger.com and wordpress.com) and self-hosted (such as wordpress.org) blogging platforms, I do want to offer a cautionary note:
In reviewing a blog set up by a client on iWeb, my business partner and I were surprised to see that the content was not visible in the site's page source, which meant that the search engines couldn't read the blog's content and thus index it. (To check your own Web site or blog, go to VIEW on your browser and then click on page source.)
Thus this client, who has a very interesting blog, is missing out on search engines indexing his content and sharing it with people who search for terms related to his content.
Now I admit I'm not familiar with iWeb. The Apple Web site states:
"A Mac and iWeb. That’s all you need to design and publish your own personal website."
Thus I've been puzzling why a blogging platform would be offered that is not effective for content being found on the Internet.
I've concluded -- and I may be totally incorrect here -- that this blogging application was set up for people who only want to share their posts with family and friends.
But the problem is that unsuspecting bloggers who want a much bigger readership may be pouring their hearts into iWeb blogs without realizing that their efforts cannot be rewarded by the search engines.
The bottom line? If you are blogging to promote your brand, book or business, make sure that the blogging software you use enables your content to be indexed by the search engines. Otherwise you are losing out on a very large potential readership.
(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the co-founder of the Internet marketing company Miller Mosaic, LLC. Download her free report "Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business" at www.MillerMosaicPowerof3.com
Comments
Exactly how I feel! I am glad that you are helping me to get in the right direction with my sites!
You bring out a great warning. We spend way too much time trying to promote our brand only to have our web platform work against us rather than for us. I don't know much about iWeb, but I do know that most blogs give you an option of whether or not to make your content searchable to search engines. We need to be careful before we start to turn off features we are not totally familiar with. This is where a great consultant can come in handy. If you have someone who knows what they're doing, it can make all the difference in the world when it comes to setting your web presence up.
Tony --
Thank you so much for your insightful comment -- especially "We need to be careful before we start to turn off features we are not totally familiar with." This brought back memories of when I started blogging and had no idea whether to say yes or no to various choices.
Patrick --
And for this reason I'm so pleased that you are working with MillerMosaic. Your blogs have so much potential, and once you connect with the power that the Internet can give you, you will be dynamite.
Phyllis
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!