Persistance is Underrated on the Web

It never fails to amaze me how easy it is to fall off the blogging habit. I’m not going to make any proclamations about my own habits. But since this is the second day of a new year, I think it is important to talk about the fundamental rule of blogging and owning a blog website: keep that content fresh. (I’m definitely guilty of not doing this all the time!)

It is my job to be on the Internet nearly every day. I read a LOT of blogs. I write very little since my time is consumed with others’ websites. So I may not be the one to be talking up how to make the habit easier. Merely, to focus my reader’s mind on the importance of this task.

What fresh content achieves for a site is two-fold: first, it makes the site more relevant to its readers. By narrowing the scope of the content of the site, readers readily trust the site for information. This is no small thing when you consider the proliferation of information on the internet. What makes you smaller, in this case, is what makes you more visible to your readers.

Second, search engines have programs that read your website. So they know when you are naughty and when you are nice. (Not really, morally.) The search engines like Bing, Google, and such, rely on the content of your site to make a generalization of your veracity. This sounds crude, but they have become very, very good at it. By simply taking account of keywords and their position in your content, the engines can take a snapshot of your “goals.” It sounds hokey and New-Years-ish to say goals, but they can sniff the direction that your site is taking.

Some tips on writing good content

These are some highly coveted tips, so don’t share them with your enemies or in-laws if you don’t have a good standing relationship!

1. Make sure those keywords communicate the theme of the page and thereby communicate the message of the site. Simple.
2. Try to cover ground that hasn’t been trod yet by focusing on keyword phrases that are less competitive on the Web. Yeah, this means some actual digging and researching. Haven’t had to do that since college, have you?
3. Try to keep those keywords near the beginning of your page/title. It not only makes things easier for the reader to find, but the search engines eat it up, too.
4. PERSIST! This has become my mantra for months now, since I read about some other web-folks taking the same stance. Do not be daunted by the lack of traffic. How long did it take you to find the info you are writing. If it is worth writing, then wait for your dessert and KEEP WRITING ABOUT IT!