It all began while compiling a list of high PageRank dofollow blogs in and not yet a part of the dofollow blog directory. I know, there are a ton of lists out there of high PR dofollow blogs, but I find that most do not include pertinent information, like live links to the blogs, if they require registration, do they allow keywords, etc. Plus a lot of the lists out there are older, so many of the sites are no longer dofollow. Some sites on these lists are dofollow, but don’t actually link to commenters’ websites but some profile page. And some sites have not updated in a long time, plus they close comments for articles after a certain time period, so there is no where to comment. But back to the point…
Do you know what the most difficult information to find was on many of blogs? A quick blurb on what the blog was actually about.
Take a programming blog that I came across. Scrolling down the homepage was article after article with big chunks of code and some details about what they did. Since I haven’t used that particular programming language, I had no clue what it was. The name of the blog was something completely unrelated to technology, like Floating Clouds (not a real techie blog – I just made it up). And the about page was about the owner of the blog, his pets, his hobbies, etc.
What was lacking?
Not anywhere on the blog was a simple one or two sentence summary of what the blog is covered as a whole. Many blog sites even neglected to add a good meta description, the last resort on my list of things to check when searching for a description of the site. The closest I could get on certain blogs was a list of tags or categories, but even that on some blogs was way to wide a range of topics to be able to identify a specific focus for the blog. So where do you put important information that let’s visitors quickly learn what your blog is about?
Where to Summarize Your Blog’s Focus
So where are some of the common places new visitors look for information to find out what a blog is really all about?
About Information in the Sidebar – Add a sentence or two about what your site is about. Or, if your site is on a little bit of everything, try to find a catchy way to describe it, like a humorous mashup of posts on life, love, and lemmings as opposed to something like my thoughts on life. If you need help coming up with a simple summary of your site, check out ProBlogger’s article on writing an elevator pitch.
About Information on the About Page – Make sure that your About page not only talks about you as the author, but also gives a more detailed description of the website first. If visitors miss your sidebar, this will be the next place they will go to find out more about your site.
Key Categories in the Menu – This site’s focus is on blogging and social media, and one of the most well known article series is Fetching Friday. So in the menu, I have linked to each one of those categories. This way, you don’t have to go far on the page to get to what you are looking for.
Meta Description – Bloggers, don’t forget about your meta data! This is the description of your site that will come up in search engine results. People are more likely to visit a site that gives a clear description of what it is about, as opposed to no description or an excerpt from your latest article, unless that article happens to be exactly what they are looking for. The meta description also gives your site an SEO boost.
Your Blog
Do you make it easy for visitors to figure out your blog’s main topic? Where do you place your information to let visitors know what your blog is about?
This post brought to you by Kristi Hines
Kristi Hines is creator of Kikolani which focuses on blogging tips and social networking. Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Kristi has written 310 awesome article(s) for Kikolani.
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice reminder Kristi, even if we have these things in place it’s a good idea to reevaluate them regularly. I just made a slight shift in the focus of my blog. It was nothing earth shattering, but now I see a need to redo all of these important elements and this post is the right nudge at the right time. Thanks
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Hi Kristi,
Don’t get me wrong, we follow the whole ‘DoFollow’ movement to some extent as well and occasionally add ourselves to a DoFollow List.
The problem is that the list is a primary target for spam. I know, I know you’re going to mention filters and the such, but I am using a modified Blogger template and in the true spirit of being receptive to comments, I set no boundaries to comment on the site.
Sure, it has increased blog traffic by say 5-10%, but you often have to wonder the value when your time is spent editing and removing comment spam as opposed to interacting with loyal commentators.
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Without going into filters… I have managed some client blogs that are nofollow, and they get a ton of spam too. The SEO types who do this kind of spamming are going after dofollow and nofollow alike. I wouldn’t post a dofollow blog list if I wouldn’t put myself on the same list, and I’m going to have the option for people to contact me if they want to be removed.
But let’s look at the basics. I was using other dofollow blog lists to compile mine, and for the sites that to be dofollow that changed to nofollow, their comment numbers significantly decreased. They went from 20+ comments per post to nearly zero.
So I think if it being dofollow attracts people that will become loyal readers and commenters to your site, it’s a big enough pro to outweigh the con of having to moderate spam.
Interesting post Kristi. Yeah, I think it can be sort of frustrating to come across a blog and have no idea what it’s about. Some visitors who see this may end up leaving upon first glance. I like your tips on being able to allow a person to see what a blog is about through providing information in the sidebar, having a detailed about page, showing key categories in the menu and having a clear meta description. It doesn’t just stop though at filling in these details; we should try to fill them in a way that attracts a reader to long enough that they may want to visit our blog again in the future.
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Exactly. Creating a catchy sentence or two that summarizes your blog can help in converting first time visitors into readers, subscribers, and even conversions if you have money making opportunities on your site.
Oh crap. I am to some degree guilty of this. There is a description in my header image, but it’s part of the image. Not good practice. Thanks for the kick in the keister. I’ll have to fix this soon as I get a chance.
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There’s nothing wrong with a description in the image, but make sure it’s echoed in the meta descriptions tag and in text somewhere else, if even an about page, for people who read with images turned off…or by email.
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Ha, you could have taken a look at my own blog and got inspiration for this post. Did you? lol It wouldn’t surprise me. I’m horrible at describing myself and I hate to do it for fear of sounding pompous. The same translates to my blog when I try to describe what I write about. I write about whatever I want really, but the core focus is about web development and blogging. But that isn’t all it’s about…it’s about me as well.
I don’t want to slot myself into a category either, so perhaps I’ve been hedging on that as well.
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I have a little snippit in my footer, but know there is a lot more I could do. I really need to do a full makeover of my about page!
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I have been playing around with flash a little bit lately and I am planning on creating some flash animations to kind of address the “about” concept for some of my blogs. For example, on my services blog, I am planning on creating a simple slide show which shows some of the different services I can offer. Its kind of along the same lines of what you mentioned, with the intention of catching their eye when they first visit.
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This is a very good reminder. I have made an about me page and there is also an about me area in the footer of my blog. This is what I did to let my reader’s know what my blog is all about.
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Hey, thanks for the link to the great list of high pr dofollow blogs at the top. It’s just what I needed!
You write “Plus a lot of the lists out there are older, so many of the sites are no longer dofollow. ” In my opinion the reason for this is that the blog owners are fed up with receiving so much more spam after their blog appeared on dofollow lists! I share the same experience, since I changed to dofollow, the amount of “human spammers” have increased incredibly, as dofollow blog commenting is a preferred way for low cost link building, SY
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You know, I never really put much thought into informing my blog visitors what my blog is about. I just figured the description in the SE, as well as the byline in my logo, was descriptive enough. Reading your point of view, I now see the importance of adding a tid-bit indicating the topic of the blog.
I think it’s important to do this not just to make your subject area clear but to introduce yourself and help people connect with you as an individual.
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A good “heads up” type of reminder. It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind and over time lose focus of the key elements of one’s blog. This can also tie back into the discussion of when to start another blog to prevent a current blog from getting too broad and unfocused.
New from Mike @ Computer Tips PCs, Macs and Security, Oh My
Hi Kristi I did not know that dofollow.info was your site. I use your dofollow blog directory to search dofollow blogs, you are really doing some good work.
Yes it is always important to make our blog theme based, so that regular visitors do not distract by reading our blog post.
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I feel that there is an overwhelming amount of blogs that lack focus.
People should pick a very solid angle and stick to it. After all; this will make it easier to promote, since you’ll have a clearer idea of what your target audience will be.
Perhaps a good way for people to accomplish this would be to have, say, a blog on their subject of choice, and then a separate, personal blog. However, most people probably would resist a strategy like this because they want to cram all their personal and topical stuff in one place in order to make their blog more about them.
The more focused you are on your blog, the more focused and ready to buy will be your traffic. Period. Great post.
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Nice list. Thanks for the work in compiling a list of dofollow blogs. I have been looking for something like this for a while. It really should help me out with getting some exposure for my photography. Thanks a lot.
The very first thing I tell baby bloggers – the two most important pages a blog can have and the first two that should go up – about and contact, some just don’t get it.
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I think it’s important to make your blog visible write a good content then publish it using social bookmarking, social networking’s or article directories to make more visible for readers and get more traffic.nice post thanks kristi
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Such a good post Kristi, it’s so easy to get caught up with our own blogging blinders on that we fail to have any clue what a new visitor to our site might thing when they visit for the first time. Seriosuly, whats this place about? Might not be a bad idea to let them know
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Great post! People often forget to post something about themselves which is sad as I think most websites benefit greatly from telling a story about themselves, why they created the blog and why they continue to be inspired to write on it. People can then identiy with the people behind the blog and it will create a bridge between blogger and reader so that people continue to come back. Extreme John (commenter above) does this and it makes me keep coming back to his blog!!
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