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3 SEO Mistakes that Bloggers Should Avoid

Articles, Marketing

Every blogger knows the importance of search engine optimization. Without proper SEO, getting organic traffic from major search engines like Google can get difficult. And since search engine traffic is free and highly targeted, no blogger should miss out on it. However, if you look around you will find that there are many bloggers that tend to make SEO mistakes that cost them in the long run. In the following article we look into a few common mistakes that you should avoid as a blogger if you’re looking out to get ranked high on the search engine result pages….

#1: Purchasing Links

When you buy links, you take a risk that can cause damage to your relationship with Google and other search engines. While it may give you a temporary boost, it will definitely prove to be harmful as time goes by.

There are many times when paid links are flagged by Google and this can affect your rankings. For example, if you purchase a few hundred links to have them pointed to your own website, all on the same day, you may have some of these links flagged not only for irregular link activity but also for other reasons if the links are not relevant.

#2: Duplicate Content

Google wants your blog to bring value to the table. If you’re going to create duplicate content on your blog with only little variation just for the purpose of populating your site then it’s not a good practice. For instance, ‘understanding section 529 college savings plans’ and ‘knowing section 529 college savings plans’ are pretty similar topics – so even if you create a totally different page or post for both these keywords, it will still put you at risk of getting a search engine penalty. The Big G has an advanced algorithm that can easily catch you playing with topics/keywords that are identical.

So what’s the solution? Taking our above 529 plans example, what you can do is penetrate this topic and go into the details in order to find subtopics that you can work with. The deeper you go, the better it is. This will help you in strengthening each of your blog post and also give you the needed edge over the competition.

#3: Writing Little Content

Gone are the days when you could write a 300-400 word blog post and have it ranked in Google. Today, things are different after the infamous Google Panda and Penguin updates. You have to work on your content and create something that’s worth it  – or else it simply doesn’t make it to the front page.

The reason why Google made this update is because there were many junk websites or blogs with little content were ranking high due to factors such as a high number of incoming links. But now your blog has to have in-depth content that is not only written well but is also organized well. 

So what does this mean to you? Let’s say you run an education blog and you’re writing about the cost of living that a student would incur when moving to a new city. Don’t just write a few paragraphs about it. Go in-depth in explaining the why and the how. Use facts, figures and link to other education sites/blogs that discuss the cost of living factor. This will only add more depth to your content, but will also make it more valuable helping attract more quality incoming links.

Conclusion

The above SEO mistakes that we discussed are pretty common amongst bloggers, but they’re also big. So if you are making these mistakes then it’s about time you fix them to rank better in the search engines.

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Should You Hire a Graphic Designer?

Articles, Marketing

One of the most important things a small business generally focuses upon is keeping unnecessary costs down. After all, if you can get by without buying that coffee machine or by getting your office chair at a thrift shop, then what’s the point of spending more? Yet sometimes this impulse to shave costs can lead to worse overall results.

Perhaps the clearest example of this is when it comes to the decision of whether to hire a graphic designer. Many small businesses figure that the logo they’ve come up with is good enough, and don’t bother with anything fancy when creating advertisements or designing letterhead. However, this misunderstanding of the importance of design can easily result in lost sales for your company over the long term.

Having proper signage that fits with your logo, advertisements, and website is extremely important for your brand. In the long term, brand awareness can be the deciding factor in a majority of those potential consumers who were on the fence about using your service. This is why hiring a graphic designer is often a more important decision than ensuring you get the very best credit card for small business. Not hiring a designer can result in far less sales, but the second best credit card will likely perform nearly as well in terms of the overall success of your business.

Graphic designers understand why logos in this day and age need to have scalable designs. The logo as it is seen on your outdoor signage will be slightly different from the one you use in print ads, which in turn will be different from the header of your website, which itself will be further different from your website favicon. To the untrained eye, all of these will look similar, but each has different needs based on the medium that only a graphic designer can accommodate. Overhead signs must take perspective into account; print ads must include high dpi to ensure the resolution looks good; websites need a forward-facing design; and favicons need familiarity without high resolution.

For people not well-versed in graphic design, the best way to explain why designers are necessary is to use an analogy. For most consumers in the United States, credit is a way of life. People buy everything on credit, which makes the average household credit card debt rise over time. Yet those savvy enough to consult a financial planner will know better than the average household and will thereby avoid the pitfall of accruing too much debt. It’s the same with graphic designers. Even if you’re tight on cash, contact your local liberal arts college and get the graphic design teacher to recommend a student to you. You’ll be glad you did.

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