There was a time when getting links—any links—pointing to your site was the surest way to rank well on search engines.
But as disreputable SEOs manipulated Google’s PageRank algorithm to boost the visibility of their spammy content, the search engine giant began targeting those link schemes in an attempt to separate the wheat (your riveting, valuable content) from the chaff (irritatingly useless spam).
The power of social media is absolutely undeniable. (Don’t believe me? Just ask the senior editor of Rolling Stone or Juror B37.) So, you’d be wise to prepare for the worst. And that means developing a well-defined social media crisis plan.
Because an act of incompetence or a jerk move at a critical time could sink you.
A compelling image doesn’t just illustrate your brilliant and witty post; it provides a visual cue to users browsing your site. In fact, these visual thumbnails are becoming more important every day.
So here you are—you need blog images and you need to watch your pennies.
But before you go gung-ho on Internet image searches, a word of warning: Although it sometimes seems that the Internet is somehow exempt from copyright enforcement, that is not the case. There are automated systems that scour the Web for infringing images.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done any bicycle commuting. I’ve owned a bike or two, or three…okay, maybe that number should be more like 26. Amazingly enough, they’ve all been for racing or touring. I would have to go all the way back to my teen years in 1985, at one of my first jobs at Freewheel’n Cyclery in Wausau, Wisconsin, to remember the last time I rode a bike to get to work.
So, you have a message you want to shout to the world, right? Well, a content-driven web development process will help you do exactly that. And with far more Rah-Rah-Rah than a design-first process can muster.
Unfortunately, clients who aren’t familiar with this ideas-first method might be frustrated when realization strikes: You mean I can’t get my hands on the design…now?
Okay, I admit it. Maybe charm school is in order. Maybe your titles don’t flat-out suck. Still, the fact remains: Many of us are investing huge amounts of time writing our blog posts, yet neglecting perhaps the most critical element — the title tag. And great blog title tags are worth the effort.
In fact, they’re the most powerful words you’ll write.
