Alternate Title: I, Not Robot
The dread. I’m trying to learn more about making my blog searchable and web-friendly. The number one tip is: Get rid of your cutesy titles.
I like my cutesy titles, even if most of the time they are an inside joke with myself. That’s why I started this blog, for entirely selfish reasons. I needed to sort out the heavy emotions of the past year, I needed some time out, I needed to feel like 5 to 10 people a day I didn’t know thought I was kind of cool. Eventually I started writing somewhat coherently which is why I think BrazenCareerist picked me up.
Then I noticed they kept changing my blog titles for their site. “It’s cool…” I thought, “otherwise the robots won’t find me.” It’s saying stuff like “otherwise the robots won’t find me” that make a blog completely unsearchable, but I suppose it makes a blog more recognizeable to humans.
Steve Pavlina, a straight talking (yet frustratingly long-winded) author who focuses on what he calls Personal Developement for Smart People, talks about congruency all the time. His article about monetizing and optimizing your blog is pretty forthright. He makes a great point, don’t be half-assed about it. You wanna make money with your blog? Then be balls to the walls. Write great content. And learn SEO. And learn enough HTML/CSS to be dangerous, and all the other things that make your blog searchable. In other words, let the robots find you.
I'm not so much looking to make money from my blog, but the article made me think: Would it be incongruent to ditch my cute titles, awkward word pairings, and oft-meandering babble for more clean and concise language and focus? It would certainly make for a more internet friendly site. To most, it would not be such a major issue, SEO or flail, but I’m suffering some minor trauma over this.
I submitted a few of my blog posts to StumbleUpon the other day. I had roughly 200 hits in the next hour.
I wailed to Mike, “Oh no! I’ve got fake traffic, I hate it!”
Mike was puzzled, “Why is that bad?”
“Because I didn’t earn it, those people don’t actually want to read my blog!”
Still confused he said, “Why would it matter? Doesn’t that just count as advertising? Does someone who puts up a billboard where 10,000 people drive past every day a fake for doing it? You’re just displaying what you’re selling, that’s all. Out of those 200, you might get someone who genuinely does like it.”
“Oh.”
So – there you go. There is no crime in monetizing, optimizing, publicizing, or otherwise improving your blog to share it with more people or make a buck. If you don’t make it easy for them – your voice won’t be heard, and isn’t that the whole point?
5 Comments:
This isn't really an either-or situation, Milena. You can still write like you--your voice is the one thing no one else can do, so keep the eccentric "screw the robots" writing. But use the titles to make the theme clear--to make it hard for any reader (robot or otherwise) to miss the point.
Yeah, most of my blog titles are songs I like, that have some tie-in to the topic. Granted, it's probably horrible for SEO, but I like it. If I ever have stuff end up on places like Brazen Careerist, then they can edit the title to something SEO friendly.
@ jay - I think I'm going to have to make t-shirts that say "screw the robots" now... : ) I think you make an excellent point - clarifying the titles can make a big difference.
@ norcross - that's so funny, a lot of times I want to use song titles too. I guess it's because of the instant connection to meaning that's "built in" to the song.
In general, I'm just trying to find ways to become a better blogger, have a good mix of personality along with useful or thought-provoking content. Those are my favorite blogs to read.
I like quirky titles too, and often pick song lyrics, or references to books and movies. Cultural tie-in, i suppose.
I'm curious about the stumbleupon sumbit, I don't use stumble upon, but I didn't think you could submit to it. How does that work?
@ kate - Great question! I'll point you to Blogging Basics 101, which has great beginner articles for increasing traffic, and walks you baby-step by baby-step through many ways to improve and/or navigate the world of blogging. Good for someone like me who was clueless at first. Here's their StumbleUpon article. Basically, follow the directions, then give yourself a "Thumbs Up!" on your own pages. Then let the rest of the web decide...
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