Should I Use Blogger for My Business Website? Realistic Pros vs Cons over Wordpress.

How Using Blogger Might Save Your Small Business Hundreds of Dollars Every Year

This article is not actually meant to be a "Blogger vs. Wordpress" checklist, it is meant to explain why Blogger is a effective and easy system to consider for most small business owners, and its potential for saving a lot of money and time when getting a company website up and running by lowering setup and maintenance costs.

META: A screenshot me me updating my Blogger with this article. 

Ok, so you're a small business owner and you're already familiar with the fact that a web presence is a very important factor in a modern company, and you've probably already heard of Wordpress and gotten an estimated quote of between 3-6 thousand dollars for a site by an established firm or freelancer, and rates pertaining to site maintenance and marketing. Now, let me try to present the Blogger solution for small business that I specialize in and provide some cognitive dissonance.

First off, what is Blogger?

Blogger is a CMS (Content Management System) like Wordpress, currently owned by Google, and was originally designed to be a blog-specific CMS. This meant that there were no static pages (about us, location, etc pages), few design options, and a Blogger Navbar over the pages - all terrible for business sites. However, Google got their stuff together, and overhauled the system to fix these main issues, and now it's a different beast altogether, but retains its focus on the most important thing for marketing on search engines: CONTENT.

Blogger can, although it arguably requires more work, be used as a competent web design tool (since it does have raw HTML and CSS editing with the ability to add jquery/javascript tools), but now, with the addition of static pages and significantly increased flexibility with design, Blogger has become a powerful but overlooked platform to build a site upon.

Of the major names to compare to, the easiest way of looking at it on a scale is:

<---More Standardized |||| More Flexibility--->

<---Ease of Use |||| More Work Required --->

Blogger ---- Wordpress ---- Drupal

In short, Blogger is a platform that has been reduced in terms of potential use to make it easier for the end user to modify and update, but can be hacked into increased functionality.

To summarize for the business owner:
If the website you need is informational in nature (brochure site), need a basic 5-10 page site with a contact form, Google Maps embedded, and a mobile-version ready to go, Blogger might be the option you've been looking for. (...and it's cheaper to setup than a Wordpress site!)

The Blogger template uses a lot of jquery tools to create a traditional website feel, though there are still some Blogger-touches noticeable to the trained eye. The disadvantage is that using Blogger in this way is limited in features and/or tricky to accomplish things that are easy to do with WordPress widgets and plugins.

On the other hand, the main advantages to using Blogger as a website platform are...

1. Free hosting (Google hosted)
2. Unlimited bandwidth
3. Rock solid server security
4. Automatically backed up
5. Simple UI for clients to edit posts and replace photos
6. Multiple users can be given author/admin privileges
7. Great for SEO purposes
8. Easy to integrate with other Google Apps for Business products
9. Mobile-Site ready - most templates can be easily modified to add a mobile version

When we set up a business client with a Blogger website, the most important part is to train them in using the Blogger UI, and expanding on point 5, the content system is incredibly easy to learn, and updating the site with new content is streamlined, and provides real search engine results after 2-3 months/20-30 posts of investment even in competitive markets.


Well, hope this has been informational, and check out our clients list at the bottom of the web design page for examples of happy customers using the Blogger platform for their businesses and groups.

Q: How Does Social Media Affect Local Small Business Search Rankings?

A: From Reddit/r/SEO - A thread in the comment section sums up how a local business should look to approach social media for SEO purposes.

The Original Question:

So I have a website for a local computer repair website. And I keep reading how import having social media is to the business. I have a facebook account, a google+ account, and a twitter and youtube. What should I be posting? Should I be posting a service I offer with a link back to my site on every one of those social platforms everyday. 

Should I be posting deals with a link to my site? I am very confused - a basic strategy would be amazing from any of you. 

My services
Computer repair, apple repair, point of sale repair, laptop repair, Thins along that nature

User Ozymandia5 replies:

No, to be blunt, posting services and links is a terrible way to attract attention. Do you use social media at all? If so, you probably have a relativly good idea of what kind of content gets shared/passed around regularly, particularly in terms of blog posts/articles etc. 

Use your facebook/google+/twitter account to post links about relevant blog posts or infographics to your followers, try to engage people by asking questions that relate to your business or products, and maybe consider running a competition or two The idea, primarily, is to build yourself a decent base of 1-2000 engaged followers, and then have them organically share your content with other users to 

• attract traffic to your site  
• show Google that your site is popular and relevant to its niche.

Reply 

Hello,
When linking to a blog article going to another site. How does Google see that I am engaged as a company sending a link to someone elses site and not mine. 

So I basically do not have to keep linking back to my site just find good articles somewhere post it on my facebook like check out this cool new hard drive or something and link to the blog post or article. 

How often should I do this... should I do this everyday for every social media account? 

I still don't see though how this will rank my site better if nothing points back to my site and is going all over the internet how does google now that my site is social media presence. Cause I keep seeing everywhere that google is looking for your presence all over social media. Thanks again for all your answers as well.

Final Reply from Ozymandia5

Generally, the idea is to leverage social marketing in order to build an engaged client base that will post links to your content elsewhere - which WILL improve your rankings. The initial stages of this do, admitedly, involve posting links that wont reap you any immediate rewards. Such is life. 

You have to think of it as more of a long term investment. That said, your social media accounts should all be linked to, and pointing towards your main website (you input your website when setting up company profiles on most media platforms) and engagement there will contribute to your 'social proof' which may have some small effect on your rankings in the short term. 

In terms of frequency? Experiment. A/B test. post once a day for two weeks, then post every other day for two: has your engagement dropped or improved? Post in the mornings for a month, then switch to afternoons. Any change? 

I'm sure you get the idea. The thing to remember is that nobody will find you engaging if you recklessly promote yourself, and nobody will engage with you if you take a purely narcissistic approach to social media. 

If this all sounds like a giant waste of time, then it might wll be: From personal experience, social media is something that only really works for a small niche of businesses. Of course a presence is always good, but I've never seen facebook or google+ as a particularly integral part of most people's SEO efforts, despite what Moz and co. will tell you. 

The only thing I will say is that I've personally noticed that Google+ has been having more of an impact on local rankings, but only time will really tell. 

Encrypted Search Makes Adwords PPC a Priority in Online Marketing Strategy

How Encrypted (HTTPS) Search Makes PPC and Content Marketing a Priority in Online Marketing Strategy

What the Google Analytics page of most small business owners looks like right now.

Google recently switched over all searches to HTTPS/Encrypted search, making most keyword Analytics data invisible... and online marketers and small business owners around the globe gasped in unison. Thankfully, it was not the end of the world, because keywords and SEO are not the end all be all of a real search marketing strategy.

However, the disappearance of the majority of the keyword data was still pretty hard on small business owners trying to run their own SEO for their business, because it was not just about figuring out which keywords they should focus on. It was about figuring how people are actually finding them.

So in the past, we could say to a client "look, you got x of hits from 'keyword1' and y of hits from 'keyword2,' so we should do this and this and that..." A lot of clients got used to hearing it that way. So the change doesn't affect the job that SEOs do nearly as much as it effects how they report that job to the client. Now, it's just (not provided).

In combination with all of the updates and news in the past, Google's search endgame has always been the same - provide users with the best search results and balance it with their Adwords PPC platform.

4 Major Points in Recent Google SEO History:

1. Adwords started giving advertisers a bid discount for having a high quality landing page with good content.
2. Panda targeted and penalized bad and scraped content. 
3. Penguin hit people who "over optimized" using shady but widespread anchor text link buying techniques.
4. Google moves to encrypted search.

So, with the search being encrypted, the advantage of Adwords PPC becomes apparent: keyword data is open to analyze, and the data can be combined with the data still provided by Analytics to create a non-"over optimized" content strategy and base a creatively organized Adwords campaign around this natural strategy to supplement.

Given these these factors, the next stage of SEO and SEM is what it was always trying to reach - original and organic content, and actively optimized Pay-Per-Click campaigns.

Stay tuned for more on the subject. In the mean time, if you would like us to consult you on your company's PPC and content strategy, contact Rabbit today!

Simple Blogger SEO Tip for Post Titles

A Simple SEO Boost for Individual Blogger/Blogspot Posts & Pages

The Title of any page on Google's SERP (search engine results pages) is limited to 70 characters, but by default, any result for your Blogger page will come up with your Blog's title first, regardless of page or post. However, this is not ideal to get your individual pages ranked, as they might have a different keyword focus from one another.

This little tip will have the individual page/post's title supersede the site's title, allowing for better rankings for different keyword searches.

No need to worry about the technical details - It's a simple replacement of the <head> tag with a short bit of javascript:

1. From Blog, go to Template

IMPORTANT!
CLICK THE BACKUP/RESTORE BUTTON ON TOP RIGHT TO SAVE CURRENT TEMPLATE JUST IN CASE!!!

2. From Template, go to Edit HTML

3. Find the <head> tag near the top of the page
4. Under the <head> tag, find <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

5. Replace <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title> 

with:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'><title><data:blog.title/></title><b:else/><title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title></b:if>

So, in English, if the page in question is the home page, title is blog title, else, title is page/post title followed by "|" then the blog title.

Leave a comment if you have any questions.

How to Deal With Google's Penguin Backlink Penalties

Case against "Black Hat" SEO and buying links: Not a long term solution.

Ever since Google's Penguin algorithm came out last year, many website owners and SEO "experts" have come out in protest of their affected sites, and more joined in when Penguin 2.0 rolled out. Now, out of the affected sites and searches, some of these websites were legitimate - in this post, I will cover the main reason why they were affected by this update: poor backlinks.

One of the earliest SEO strategies was to build up as many high Page Rank backlinks as humanly possible, as it was an integral part of Google's ranking algorithm. Of course, this led to years of people trying to game the system by buying tons of backlinks from people whose sole job was to create webpages with copied content and artificially inflated Page Ranks, a thorn in Google's side for years.

Fast forward to 2 years ago when the Panda algorithm came out and took down those sites with scraped/copied content - the obvious next step was to hit the backlinks.

From Wikipedia's page on Penguin:

The guiding principle for the update was to penalize websites using manipulative techniques to achieve high rankings. The purpose per Google was to catch excessive spammers, but it seems some legitimate sites and SEOs have been caught with this latest algorithm change. Few websites lost search rankings on Google for specific keywords during the Panda and Penguin rollouts. It appears anchor text was to blame in these cases, as the links pointing to these sites concentrated on only one or a few keywords while the content of the websites was satisfactory. As the update focused on the quality of backlinks, so the result varied for different websites.

So, website owners placed their trust in shady SEO companies/freelancers that spent money buying backlinks for specific anchor text to boost rankings for specific search terms, just to have it all collapse recently.

How to deal with the Penguin backlink penalty:

Now, this won't be quick, easy, or foolproof, but:

1. Go through your Google Webmaster Tools page and find these dubious backlinks individually.
   
   THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS!
   Precautions:
   Keep antivirus updated
   Google URL first too check for malware complaints
   Install NoScript, Adblock, and Web of Trust. Scan often for malware, with Malwarebytes. And I think Microsoft Security Essentials is the best free antivirus right now.
   
2. Find webmaster contact info, and send them a nice email POLITELY asking them to take down the link. You can't just expect someone to do work on your behalf for something that might not have been their fault (ie: comment spam), especially if you're rude. I made a simple little template for a link takedown request:
   
   Hello Webmaster/Owner,
   
   We are following up regarding the link on
   http://www.theirsite.com/thepage.html
   
   The link is connected by the [comment name/anchor text].
   ............
   
   To our site [http://www.yoursite.com]
   
   We appreciate your efforts to link with our website; however, we have received notification from Google that our site does not comply with their terms.
   
   We wish to seek reconsideration as soon as possible and must have this link removed in order to bring our site into compliance. Please note, as part of our reconsideration request, we have to report to Google any link we are unable to remove.
   
   Please remove our link from this page and any other page on your site.
   
   Thank you,
   -You
   
3. Wait a little bit, and if this does not work, use Google's Disavow Tool in Webmaster Tools.
   
   
   
   Instructions on using the disavow tool properly:
   https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en
   http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2273639/How-to-Use-Googles-Disavow-Links-Tool-the-Right-Way

Best of Luck!

Remember: SEO, SEM, and SMM are 3 Different Things

This article is here to make you a better client for any Web Marketing firm or freelancer.

Too often do I see people assuming SEO is everything about the website's marketing efforts, and are confused that there are different costs associated with it. To be fair, nobody outside SEO experts cares about the difference between SEO and SMM, but as a client, knows the difference, you will likely prevent frustrating the person managing your website's marketing efforts.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization
Proper page structure, header tags, meta and alt tags, backlinks - all things to allow search engines to better browse your site and determine the quality of your page

SMM: Social Media Marketing
Using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social platforms to build trust and as a PR interface

SEM: Search Engine Marketing
Some view this as the same as SEO, but I place Adwords Pay-Per-Click advertising and the like under this label


Just for the record, those three things are tied together which is why so many service companies offer them all. Don't be stupid and deny they aren't directly related, as in doing one is doing another as well.

Web design and SEO go hand-in-hand. They're not the same thing but there's a ton of overlap.

I can't tell you how many times I was approached to get a site into the search engines that had image menus, javascript links, dynamic content, a complete lack of h1, h2, etc, and even just things like overly complex page structure, or too much on one page. In terms of actually differentiating, it's arguable that you can differentiate those simply by pointing out the type of contract involved:

• Web site design is a fixed-task type contract. "Build a website and stop."
• SEO is a long-term ongoing engagement.

The part that pains me: accept that fact that going forward, if you want to improve at SEO, you're going to have to learn how to excel at SMM. And the market is going to reward those that do. It pains me because on a personal level, I think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the rest are stupid, and the development of these things as marketing and social platforms help no one but marketing companies.

Finally, I always advise moving on to SEM/PPC advertising AFTER getting the SEO and SMM down. The reasoning is simple: Adwords takes your Page Quality into account when determining what your bid and subsequent ranking will be. Without the SEO and SMM, you would have to pay more for the same keywords.

Hope that helps, and best of luck to you and your website!