What kind of links help your blog? Is duplicate content a problem? These questions are getting tougher to answer. A lot depends on topic, technical choices, longevity, and whether the blog is your primary form of web presence. Lately, the Google deindexing and new algorithms adds more uncertainty. It’s all well and good to advocate natural links and quality content. The question is how long small businesses can survive to acquire “natural” links, especially the sole proprietors, such as writers, bloggers, artists, and others who have to do something to earn a living besides write blogs everyday and maintain multiple websites. Is there an answer to the dilemma?
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The answer I’m hearing the most often now is that high-quality original content will win. Do I believe that alone will do it? Honestly, I don’t know. My experience designing and running websites goes back to the early 1990′s. Back then, a good site got traffic and brought the small businesses onto level footing with the big companies that had always had the budget to reach further for customers. Affiliate sales were relatively new, and Internet users eagerly looked for good quality and useful content.
Then, with the advent of more technology and paid links and black hats and white hats, not to mention blogs and plug-ins that do it all for millions of repetitious sales sites, the small businesses have slowly been sliding back down that hill. Facebook requires me to have 30 Likes to see my stats and 25 followers to get rid of the ugly number and get a real name for my page. That’s clearly designed to give priority to established businesses that already have a base of supporters. What happens to the new fellow on the block?
Many of the social media give a heavy advantage to those who can afford automated software. Individuals and small businesses work long hours and struggle to keep up. Some type of Internet connective device has almost become a required appendage. Although, social media is a different area that’s undergoing change, I have to point out that no one can read or follow 10,000+ tweets or followers. It’s clearly only a numbers game, unless you happen to be a movie star with a zillion followers. Do commercial companies really buy those figures when they look at your platform and statistics?
I hope they are smarter than that. The reality is that many of those rather strange looking followers follow you and then cull names and sites from your list of followers. Your followers’ profiles usually list websites, which have an email address or other information, if they want their readers to find them or buy from them. It’s a complicated world. In a very short time, it’s become just another venue to exploit. For people trying to do business, you can’t live without it and you can’t let it run over you or your followers. Personally, I vet my followers and block most of those. They aren’t real readers or followers anyway.
The final answer that evolves will depend on whether the new search criteria helps level the playing field again, as it’s purported to do. In the current economic climate, many small business people and individuals, such as authors and craftspeople, feel they are fighting a losing battle. They are tired of the pressure to keep up a dozen social media sites. They are tired of fighting spam and hackers. They are tired of working long days at their craft and long nights to maintain their web presence. They can’t maintain that type of schedule indefinitely. What’s more, they aren’t seeing a benefit to doing so. Does paying for help pay off?
Again, the answer depends on a number of things. In most cases, it helps marginally. Sometimes, it helps enough to recover the investment, but that’s all. The benefit in those cases is that the site is cleaned up and perhaps, the owner or a staff member learns how to do routine maintenance and updates without ongoing payouts. Other times, a business needs to make an investment in keeping quality content available and current, and they can’t produce their own and run the business. That’s when there’s a payoff to making a reasonable investment in ongoing marketing help.
If you aren’t one of my Twitter followers, I recommend you give it a try. Many of my tweets are about the technical side of social media, websites, and blogs. I try to select the majority of the material for an audience who isn’t highly technical. However, even if you aren’t a techie and never want to become one, you have to understand what happens behind the scenes. How else will you know whether an SEO person or website developer is ripping you off? How will you know what your publisher means when he tells you you need to add keywords to your blog posts? Even if you don’t do the work yourself, don’t be a sitting duck for a ripoff because you don’t understand the basics.
The most recent discussions of the Google search changes promise to change the landscape in many ways. One of the areas that could be hit very hard are the bloggers, most of whom aren’t techies and just do what everyone else does. Mommy Bloggers grew at astronomical rates, and many of them make a decent income from their blogs by reviewing products and services. Blog Hops are one way to get links and traffic that’s become very common. Unfortunately for the bloggers and the vendors, there are signs that those who participate by posting lists of links and different hops every day may fall victim to what’s being called “over linking.” Only time will tell, but watch your stats.
Another area that may be hit are syndication sites. Why? Because those sites usually have a lot of duplicate content. Some sites also require payment. Payment is still a very uncertain area in the new search algorithms. There’s no consensus yet of when it’s OK or when it counts against you. Even the tech professionals haven’t been able to sort it out and agree. Therefore, I won’t try either. The search engines are looking for the first time an article was published, the source. If your material is reposted to several different places, you may hurt your site’s ranking without intending to do so.
I’m not saying not to repost. Just don’t do it for every article and don’t put the same material on several sites. Be sure your site has unique content, and lots of it. When you want to spread your words, use an excerpt and link back to your site to read the article. Whatever you do, repost as little as possible. Write different content for other sites and get people interested in coming to your site. It’s harder, I know. People like to read a lot of blogs in the same place, and I have no idea how the blog aggregators and linking tools will fare when the dust settles.
Guest blogging is still a great bet, as are blog tours. Each site will have new writers, new visitors, and new content to offer. With some good posts, you can entice people to come and read more of your writing. For authors, writers, and people selling services, such as book cover design and consulting, this is great. I’m not as sure it will be great for vendors who’ve grown used to using bloggers to showcase their products. Of course, if it’s not good for the vendors, it won’t be good for the bloggers who’ve build blogs totally around selling products either. Many of the bloggers depend on rafflecopters and blog hops to draw traffic. Pages of links on dozens of sites and visiting other blogs is part of the business.
Good bloggers stop, visit, and leave appropriate comments. They aren’t spammers. The pros integrate their link into their signature or avatar too. Although, it’s perfectly permissible to leave a link in the comments too, as long as it’s relevant. However, it’s still a business. A few other bloggers probably become regular readers of a blog or two they find that resonates with them, but it’s a bit like selling your books only to other writers. Unless you offer writing advice, that’s not your target market for your mystery series. Why? Because those people will get tapped out. They can’t buy a new book from every author that belongs to their group indefinitely. If you write mysteries, you need to connect with mystery fans.
That’s where the Mommy bloggers got it right. They are largely moms or grandmas. They use the same products, which makes the other bloggers part of the target market too. The vendors know that and count on the bloggers and their circle of friends to buy long after the giveaway is over. Their kids aren’t going to be out of diapers tomorrow. It’s a special niche, and it works for this group. However, they may be facing a challenge with the new search algorithms. Only time will tell.
I’ve seen a few bloggers who manage to write quality content and sell products or services at the same time. My hat is off to them. I enjoy reading many of their posts and don’t care that they are being compensated for writing about that product. After all, that’s what marketing and advertising is too. People get paid for writing about products and services. These people often include wonderful content on their sites and write posts that are clearly not paid content. They give the readers a break from the constant sales pitches by offering other information of value, whether it’s recipes, kids games, or business tips. Regular posts count too, but today quality counts more, whatever your subject.
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