Photo courtesy of Flickr user danardvincente under Creative Common License.
There was a time, not so long ago, when vegan blogs were rare and email was the first place I visited when I opened my computer. These days vegan blogs are widespread and my first stop is no longer a single website. When I start my browser it opens to show 5 tabs: Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Reader, Facebook, and my blog dashboard. In one quick glance I can see my week, my unread email and unread article count, and scan through my Facebook friends. In my Google Reader I have 222 subscriptions to blogs, news sites, and magazines. This is how lots of people experience the Internet, so as a blogger, you’ve got to grab my attention. To do that, you’ve got to grab Google’s attention.
This post is written for anyone wanting to start a personal blog, a stand-alone blog, or a blog as part of a business website (which, let’s face it, if you have a business, you should have a site, and that site should have a blog). However, the tips and ideas herein can easily be applied to any existing blog. Here are 10 ways to help your vegan blog rise to the top.
1. Write about what you know. The first step is choosing or narrowing your topic. Your blog should have a focus, and you should stick to it. I’m not suggesting you should never deviate. Feel free to break your own rules, but be aware of when and why you are doing so. Occasionally engage your readers with your other interests, but keep in mind that the most popular and successful blogs are dedicated to a particular topic, and they provide news and information specifically about that topic. Pro Tip: Choose your focus carefully; find something that you are interested in, and that is in demand.
2. Ownyourowndomain.com. Create a descriptive, but easy to remember URL for your site. Invest in your own hosting and use an email address from your domain. Not only does this legitimize your web presence in the eyes of readers, but it is also a great way to gauge your own commitment, and serves as a reminder to take your blogging seriously. If you don’t take your site and content seriously, how will anyone else?
3. Own your brand. Most top tier blogs utilize unique, professional web design, and use it consistently across all social media. Once you’ve got your topic, and your URL, figure out how you want to present your blog to the world. You want your readers, and potential subscribers to instantly recognize your website, your Twitter page, your Facebook group or profile. Each should link to the other, and as much as possible, share a common theme, feel, logo, and design. Great design can draw people in and keep them coming back. Good design is invisible, and allows content to be the focus. Bad design will prevent your message from getting out. New readers will not be able to look past the blinking text, music intro, and gray text on white background—they’ll just look elsewhere.
4. Utilize pages. This is easier now that blogging platforms are allowing the freedom to create new pages rather than simply creating a separate post. Create Contact, About, and Site Map pages, and establish clear navigation. They should be simple and straightforward and easy to find. Search engines look for these pages and can have a huge effect on your rank. Pro Tip: Maybe even have a separate Why Vegan? page. It could be a great resource for anyone curious about making the switch, and could help grab a new subscriber who just stumbles on your blog from Google. We could all do this, and create an entire network of Why Vegan? pages.
5. Be Big Brother/Sister. Not in the mentor sense, but in the creepy sense. Use a traffic tracking tool. Google Analytics is a great one. I also use Statcounter, which provides great information, in an easy-to-read format. You want to know how people are finding you, what they are reading while they are there, and where they are going when they leave. Pro Tip: If readers are just clicking through to your linked content, start putting in a page-break and place the link after the break. A simple fix that brings you a bit more face time with your readers.
6. Find a writing style or voice that works for you, and stick with it. Be friendly but not too conversational. Granted, your focus will affect this to some degree, but friendly is usually a safe bet. Your writing need not be formal, but use contractions and slang sparingly. You want to invite comments and discussion, but avoid sounding like a diary entry. Some blogs do a great job keeping a very conversational tone and feel, but those are few and far between, and most, if not all are personal blogs. If your blog is for your business, maybe keep it slightly more professional, and end each post inviting comments or discussion. What experiences do you have getting people to comment?
7. Update. Update. Update. I’ve been blogging for years. YEARS. Naturally, the update frequency waxes and wanes. Recently I’ve begun challenging myself to update more by keeping the New Blog Post page as one of my home tabs. Like I mentioned earlier, when I open my browser I am faced with an empty box, waiting patiently for content. Maybe you don’t need to go to this extreme, but search engines, just like readers, want and look for fresh, new content on a regular basis. Pro tip: Set up a regular schedule for updates, or themed content by day. I use Tuesday Pic of the Day. At the very least, each week I get that Tuesday post up.
8. Use permalinks that make sense. This is primarily for search engines, but can be helpful for readers too. Lots of blogging platforms automatically provide permalinks that look like this: yourdomain.com/?p=505. You want permalinks to look like this: yourdomain.com/6/20/2010/how-to-bake-vegan-pecan-pie/. Search engines understand words just like readers do, and if someone searches vegan pecan pie, you want yours to be found.
9. Post pictures of cute animals. Or just pictures. Every post should have a descriptive image to go with it, and should be tagged appropriately. Be descriptive and use words that relate to the post in the tag. Readers like pictures to go with content, and search engine crawlers like tags. Anytime you can get 2 for 1 in the search engine race, take advantage of it. When someone does an image search for “vegan pecan pie,” you want to make sure the one you made last Thanksgiving is up there.
10. Participate in the discourse, and build a community. Link to related articles in your blog posts and comment on similar articles. Submit thoughtful comments that further the discussion, and write an entire article if you’ve got more to say. There are so many vegan bloggers out there. Read them. Follow them. Link to them. Traffic will come. Maybe not right away, but if you’re tracking your stats, you’ll see an increase. Pro Tip: Guest posts. Contact other sites with a similar focus, and ask if a particular blogger would like to contribute a guest post or a week of guest posts to your site. Also, ask if you can submit a guest post. Regular readers will appreciate the fresh voice, and the introduction to a new site.
Are you a blogger? How do you get new readers and keep them engaged? Share some of your thoughts, favorite blogs and why you like them in the comments.
