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Blog Audit Friday: My Way or the Highway

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Do we really want to have strangers come into our house and point out everything they don’t like about it?

I know I don’t.

However, sometimes it’s the necessary evil to endure on our quest for fame and glory.

Or to make money from our online businesses. Same difference.

We do want to make more money with less traffic, don’t we?

I know I do.

And so does Lou Barba.

That’s why Lou graciously allowed me to barge in on his blog and to let him (hopefully constructively) know what he’s doing well, not so well, and what he can do to make it all better.

Yes, Blog Audit Fridays are back!

The Information Highway Card & Gift Shop

What immediately comes to your mind when you hear “The Information Highway Card and Gift Shop“?

The hopeful reaction here is “That sounds interesting; I’d love to check it out!”

However, you and I both know that’s wishful thinking.

The only reaction I had to the name of this blog was… puzzled.

But before we go there, allow me to introduce our host, Lou Barba.

Who Is Lou?

“Ana, I think the reason we like each other is because we’re both peasants deep down. Peasants, to me, seem to be the ones who work and I know we both share that trait.”

from Lou’s comment on Why I Deleted 7,000 Comments post

That sums it up pretty well - for both of us, but unfortunately we are not talking about me today (I leave that to every other post on this blog).

Wisdom, strength, tenacity, great sense of humor, and love.

That’s how I see Lou.

Not a bad image to build, don’t you think?

And here’s my favorite part about him:

“My entire perspective on life is interpreted through the mind and eyes of Christ. I hope that in some way, His light shines through my life and the things I write.”

from Lou’s About page

You are doing a great job, Lou - I see that light all the way from Arizona.

Why Is Lou Online?

Like most of us here, Lou has a passion and a desire to share that passion with others.

And yes, Lou would love to turn his passion for storytelling into a profitable business.

That’s where we come in.

Despite being a good writer and making friends very easily, the business side of Lou’s blog is not doing so well.

Let’s take a look at his blog and see if we can uncover any potential problems.

Do open up Lou’s blog (it’ll open in a new tab), so that you can follow along and leave your feedback (agree/disagree/what I missed) in the comment section below.

Main takeaways from the video:

1. The blog theme/idea doesn’t match the design/title.

2. Doesn’t give me any reason to stay.

3. Lack of focus/theme may drive potential readers away.

4. Lack of focus/theme also prevents Google from ranking the blog for any relevant search terms.

  • Find out what YOUR site is currently ranking for with SEMRush (offers both free and paid versions)

5. Make sure to market products relevant to your niche.

  • REMEMBER: you can’t sell a burger to a vegetarian.

6. Get your readers to click: publish excerpts to several posts on your home page, not full posts.

7. Don’t ever publish spam comments: spam leads to more spam.

  • Spam turns away readers, as well as potentially flags your site as low-quality to search engines.

8. Start getting Google traffic by telling Google what your blog is about - do your keyword research.

  • If you have Market Samurai, but need help making the most of it, here’s a great tutorial: Market Samurai Boot Camp - from AlexWhalley.com

9. Check where you (or your competitor) are at with on-page optimization.

  • In Chrome: go to View ==> Developer ==> View Source
  • In Firefox: go to Tools ==> Page Developer ==> Page Source
  • Make sure your keywords are placed in the title and description of your blog.

10. Where does your target audience gather? Simple question that can turn your traffic problems around.

  • You don’t go fishing in the Dead Sea.
  • Facebook might not bring me much traffic, but might do wonders for your niche.
  • SEO traffic is great, but doesn’t always work for ALL sites. For some businesses, referral blog traffic strategies are the best bet.

Bottom Line

The Information Highway Card & Gift Shop has a long way to go, but I don’t see any reason why it can’t turn in to a hustling and bustling brand ambassador for book lovers.

How to Get Ana to Audit YOUR Blog

I’ll let you in on a secret: I did this blog audit for Lou because he made it impossible for me not to offer it.

He always supported me on my blog, defended me when a negative comment came my way, and remembered to sent me the sweetest cards for all kinds of occasions.

Yes, buttering me up is the surest way to get my attention.

However, if that doesn’t work, the next best thing is to join my email subscribers’ list.

You’ll get some goodies from me, top-notch exclusive emails, as well as qualify for a monthly drawing for my Blog Audit Fridays.

By the way, about that.

It was my intention to randomly pick an active subscriber from my list to offer him/her the benefit of my expertise for this blog audit.

However, after wasting a week trying to find someone who would:

  1. Return my emails.
  2. Had a blog and not just a replicated company page.
  3. Hadn’t abandoned their blog…

… I decided to give up and audit Lou’s blog.

Next month (March), I’ll do a Rafflecopter drawing for my subscribers who are actually interested in growing their online businesses.

So watch out for my email to let you know how to enter.

Still not on my list?

Click here to join it now.

Marketing Takeaway

Now it’s time to turn the tables around and ask yourself “How can I use this information to make my blog better?”

Even though I love hearing “Great info, Ana!” (any self-respecting narcissist would), I’d much rather hear “I applied these changes to my blog, and my business is booming!”

 

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Comments

  1. Another excellent blog audit, Ana. Lou must be very pleased although he has a ton of work to do. LOL!

    I’m glad to see the return of Blog Audit Fridays - yay! 😀

    Keep rocking girl!

    Mavis

    • Thank you, Mavis!

      This was a great audit because Lou actually took my advice to heart and already implemented a lot of it.

      I’ve done way too many audits in the past when people listen to me and do NOTHING.

      Why do they ask to begin with, right?

  2. Lucky guy. I’m sure it was bit heart wrenching to hear the truth Anna but at least there are people like you in the community that know the truth and that speak the truth.

    Steve

    • I certainly never have trouble criticizing another person’s work, Steve. lol

  3. Big Hug Lou and happy restyling and updating your blog. Thats the beauty of life..every day we get a chance to blossom into even more greatest and I am looking forward to see what shoots and flowers your new site brings. Ana’s advise is spot-on, all I would add is to keep your voice, remain true to you and ask yourself what do you want to get from your blog/blogging and how much are you prepared to invest (time, energy and money) to achieve that..One step at a time. Stay blessed and from the review it re-affirmed how important it is, to know your audience and be clear about what you are offering and value of keyword research and speaking same language as potential readers. Good luck.

  5. I often read your posts and you can say I’m like holding a T.V remote control and moving from one place to another. I will be around TGC to get your attention to my blog ;). I can offer you a Coffee when you happen to audit my blog :).

  6. As being one of your biggest fans…offering some of the best FREE tips for success on the web, I would love for you to audit my blog.

    I know you would have such wonderful positive critiques. Pick me pick me. 🙂

    Have a great day Ana!

    Scott

  8. I’m on your list, and sooner or later I guess/I hope I’ll be picked up and reviewed. And there will be surely a lot of things to improve. The only way to see things sometimes it’s just to have someone else to look at them because looking at from a bigger distance there is a better perspective. For every bloggers his blog is at least good but in this case surely beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You don’t see anything if you’re looking too near at something right?

    That is to say that you reviews are an extremely useful tool and those wise should follow your advices as they are given to improve the quality of the reviewed blog. And given it’s free it’s even greater. 🙂

    I’m sure Lou will see a definite improvement following your advices.

    • I agree, Andrea; it’s hard to distance ourselves from our sites. It’s always of tremendous help to get a second (or third or fourth) opinion on it.

  9. i just made a new blog, about using solar energy, have s only 3 post yet, and reading a whole lot of stuff about getting visitors to it.

    I copied and pasted to my notepad your “Main takeaways from the video” for reference on what and what not to do with my site lol.

    Anyway, i joined your list and hope there’ll be a time you can try audit mine.

    Thanks for this great post.

  10. The tips which you have shared for Lou’s blogs seem perfect. I think these tips can be applied for my blog too. You have come up with good methods to improve Lou’s blog and you have covered all the elements of his blog. I agree with you that theme of the blog must be selected in such a way that it matches design or the title. This will help in attracting the readers and also gaining the high PR from Google.

  11. Love these audits and how reality tv they are (in a good way). Most blogs are just theory theory theory but I really like how it gets put into practice with the audit. Now I gotta go back to my blog and implement all your great ideas. 🙂

  12. Hey Ana. I love your work! I’d love you to audit my blog helping men to become more confident.

    A lot of internet marketing sites give tips that work great in the internet marketing niche, but it would be cool to see an audit of a site that’s in a completely different niche with nothing to do with online marketing. We need expertise in two areas: our niche, and internet marketing.

    Thanks again!
    Graham

  13. First off let me say Lou is obviously a gifted writer of fiction but sadly that is not immediately obvious to a first time visitor and you only have a few seconds to capture their attention before they exit. Since most of us were visiting as part of your video presentation we don’t really fall into that category.

    Obviously the most important part of the page is above the fold whether it’s the home page or any other page. Looking at Lou’s home page my first thought was that as a hubpage rather than a website it could work as it is with some minor editing.

    I thought you gave an excellent critique Ana. Aside from trying to help a friend this was possibly a difficult audit for you. Not because of what the blog is but rather what it isn’t.

    It’s not a vendor site although it could be.
    It’s not an affiliate site although it could be.

    Lou gives us an “affiliate” clue after the opening paragraph of the ‘Over the River and Through the Woods’ story when he breaks to say “One of the reasons that THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY CARD AND GIFT SHOP exists is to help people send cards and gifts to their friends and loved ones.”

    Unfortunately that fact is not obvious in the first 10 seconds on the page.

    Neither is the fact that he is the author of the books depicted in the sidebar.

    Ignoring the SEO and traffic generation questions which you and others have already covered I would suggest that Lou needs to focus on using the above the fold space to make it obvious to a first time visitor that (1) he wrote a book and wants you to buy it; and (2) that the site is promoting cards and gifts.

    As a final thought I would suggest Lou visits Sean Platt’s sites for inspiration.

    • Great thoughts, Jon - thanks for taking your time to give such thorough input.

      I didn’t even think about Sean Platt’s sites, but you are right: they are a great example of what could be done in Lou’s niche.

    • Thanks Jon,

      I’ve been in a quandary for months, trying to figure the answer to the very problems you and Ana mentioned. Hopefully, this perspective from others will help me turn my blog into something special.

      Lou

  14. I like these blog audits. Glad you decided to bring them back. If I were to tell Lou anything it would definitely be to change the name of his blog. Very confusing. I also thought Mark’s comments above were helpful. There are many people looking for good online writing, whether they are short stories or inspirational pieces. Think about what you would want to see if you wanted to read a short story. Maybe you can work on making some of yoru work downloadable in PDF format eventually. That way they can be read on Kindle or Kindle Apps. A good resource for online writers is Thom Chambers who published a free PDF called in Treehouses designed for people who want to start lifestyle businesses, but it might be worth Lou checking out just to simply see how he is distributing his work. I signed up for sem rush you linked to, but I am afraid I have no idea what I am looking at. I don’t keep up with my blog stats anymore. I hope Lou can implement some of the ideas you have offered him.

  15. love ya Ana…time for me to switch off laptop for the day and I am looking forward to snuggling up with hot herbal and watching video and applying tips tomorrow. Take care and thanks.

  16. Wow…

    Ana great ideas. Its difficult to design a blog and feel comfortable with what you have done because of all the info available. there is always soemthing different or a way to improve. Its a never ending process. You did a great job at pulling out the hot spots but still keeping a positive twist.

    Lou have fun with the redesign, that to me is the fun part!

  17. Tis was very interesting and I think I learned quite a bit from your analysis of Lou’s blog - unfortunately, several of the shortcomings you mentioned for Lou’s blog also apply to my own blog - so, I guess I need to spend some time cleaning up and improving my blog. I’m already looking forward to your next Blog Audit Friday.

  18. I’ve read all that’s been said here, and they all got useful points! Lou is very lucky I wish him and his blog well and good luck! Thank you Ana for this, I can use this on my own blogs.

  19. Here’s what I have done to implement what you have written here.

    1. Subscribed to your RSS feed (cause I like to help narcissists get a rush!)

    2. Have begun to map out adding at least one video per week to at least one of my blog posts (cause I also read your GREAT article about turning scraping to your advantage).

    3. Have begun to look at search engine history to determine what I DO need to keep writing about (and thus help add to my writing schedule).

    4. Have understood that my email list needs to be a focus and I need to improve it.

    5. I need a new WP theme, but I don’t need to rush that out. I need to be deliberate.

    6. Really like your About Me testimony!

    • Wow, Thad - you definitely gave my ego a nice boost!

      Love the fact that you came up with an action plan. So many people just read and never do.

  20. I’ve looked at Lou’s blog and everything you say is right. I’m not a very tech-oriented person, but I can see that just a bit of work on the sidebar and spacing would give this blog a tidier appearance.

  21. Great audit Ana. Learnt a lot from Lou’s blog. Most of all what not to do, but also picked up a few actionable tips along the way. Lou has A LOT of work to do.

  22. Thanks Mark for your helpful comment. I appreciate getting pointed in the right direction. You can be sure, you will see some big changes in my blog. I’m a little slow sometimes…when I do carpenter work, I measure everything at least three times, but I get it done.

    Lou

  23. Awesome feedback, Mark - Blog Audit Friday, Part 2.

    Lou’s blog was actually down for a while yesterday; that’s why you saw errors when trying to load some pages.

    I hope it was because we sent a bunch of traffic his way. lol

  24. You are right, Arfan; testing is the key - what works for one website, might not work for another.

    The point behind posting excerpts is the fact that we need to get our visitors to click over to other pages and explore our site a bit.

    If you publish full posts, most of the readers will read and leave.

  25. Hi Ana,

    So much for my concept of having a blog where people could read stories while they browsed through the products I offer. It is clear that search engines have not, and will not find this concept attractive. Ouch!! My hard hat has some new dents in it. 🙂

    I have been in a quandary for some time trying to match keywords to my products, since the two have little or nothing to do with each other. I can see now that nothing but a major redesign will help me recover from this failure. It also appears I have a shopping list of things to buy from your toolbox in order to accomplish these changes.

    I have two good things to take away from this lack of success. My content was favorably received by those who read it, and I made a good friend, Ana Hoffman, in the process of learning to blog. Ana, I can’t thank you enough for featuring me in Blog Audit Friday. Your constructive critique makes sense to me and I recommend one of your audits to anyone.

    Peasant pride!! 🙂

    Lou

    • Phew, sounds like we are still friends, Lou. lol

      Are there any other blogs out there that are doing what you’d like to do? In terms of the concept, products, etc?

      The easiest thing to do as far as search engines are concerned is to see how visitors find THEIR blogs - that will give you a good idea of what keywords you could target on yours.

      Also, it’s important to rework your concept for your readers sake even more so than for the sake of search engines.

      I am sure you’ve read some comments below and they all agree that the design of your blog doesn’t make them want to stay. That’s the biggest concern.

      The quality of your content doesn’t matter if no one is willing to give it a chance.

  26. Agree with Ana, as far as the astronomically long domain name. Though, there are other sites out there that have managed to use quite long urls and get away with it.

    The statistic on visitors(Traffic) was very interesting.

    As Ana, pointed out, the search engine traffic numbers could be given a nice boost, with a little SEO(by targeting relevant keywords to the niche) .
    Having just had a “spy” on some of Lou’s site stats, he has very few(if any) keywords that match his content(topic).

    Though, he does have a few search engine marketing potential keywords(according to Alexa queries) only he is not ranked high enough for those particular terms in the actual search engines..

    On the positive side Lou has a 269 000 Alexa Global ranking, and a USA Alexa ranking of around 62 000, which is a solid ranking.

    • Long and memorable would be fine, but long and clumsy doesn’t work, of course.

      You are right, Daniel: Lou is on the solid ground, he just needs to tweak a few things (don’t we all, lol).

  27. I loved listening to this. Lou, you have some great advice. Start with the look please 🙂

    Ana, I have to say I have really enjoyed reading through the comments here today, and real life laughed-out-loud when I read Dave Lucas’s comment 😀

  28. “Tweaking” seems to be a recurring theme for me and other bloggers I know. And speaking of THEMES I think that’s what Lou truly needs…it will bring more life to his blog..

    Very detailed audit you did here Ana.

  29. Nice lessons to learn Ana!

    I like the idea of doing blog audit Fridays and have actually gone through each link you put up here- it sure explains a great deal about what should ideally be done and how one can go about doing it.

    I like your low of words and the ease with which you explain things, makes it so much easy to understand stuff. I know, I pick up so many wonderful things from your blog, which are a great learning experience for me.

    Thanks for sharing 🙂

  30. I mean this with all due respect but consider shortening your domain name. Ana makes some extremely valid points in her post but as someone who studies branding it might want to be something to take into consideration. I will gladly offer my services in helping you find alternatives names free of charge if you are interested.

    • Adam, an extreme makeover is imminent. I guess I knew something was wrong, just needed some confirmation about what was wrong. Thanks

      Lou

  31. The first thing I noticed is the extremely long URL for this website. If it were my site I would consider changing it to something a bit easier for visitors to rememeber. Yes most visitors will get to the site in other ways than by typing the URL, but even so, many WILL type that URL and something that long just opens up the door the mistakes. Also, what if you want to print it on business cards, etc.? It’s a bit of a space hog.

    I agree very much, the design is very very generic, and I clicked of almost immediately. I just wasn’t interested in the content after such a generic greeting.

    To Ana: so glad to see this feature back!

  32. Great feedback Ana. Its always helpful to have a pair of outside eyes look at our operation. Its painful for a bit - but helpful in the long run.

    @larryphoto

  33. This is great stuff. Often we need a third party’s eye to take a look at our site to tell us what visitors really see in our site.

    When is a best time to get an audit like this? When a site is minimum a few months old?

  34. Hi Ana,

    I wasn’t sure about the name. It’s long and different. Sort of cool, but I’m Norwegian and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The site looks nice and clean, but lacks focus and most of all, it lacks personality and a way to connect with the people behind the site. I believe being personal by adding pics of the people behind the blog is one of the best ways to connect with new readers.

    I like the site, and with a few adjustments, I believe it can do great.

    Great audit 🙂

    • Thanks for your input, Jens.

      I agree - Lou’s site needs some personality behind it and loose the “industrial” feel.

  35. Looks like I am sending too much traffic to Lou’s website… lol

    I am sure it’ll be back and running in no time; thanks for letting me know!

  36. So excited to see that your blog audit Fridays are back! I always learn so much from your blog audits - even if they are for other people’s blogs. 🙂

    I think your audit is right on - especially in regards to the content that is offered in the sidebars and other spaces in the blog and how relevant it is to what your blog is about. That is what I have been working on most in the past few months on my blog. I don’t think I’m quite there yet but I’m getting close!

  37. Ana,

    It is great to see the return of Blog audit Fridays. There is so much to be learned from the little things you point out about others blogs to help improve them.

    I think you provide a wonderful service here and there is so much to learn from this.

    Blog audit Fridays returning gives me a warm fuzzy and good feeling inside. 🙂

  38. Anna you did a great job with your constructive criticisms and points, I am still not supremely happy with my blog but it is at the best cosmetic state I can get to without a massive redesign at this point.

    • I know what you mean, Justin.

      I didn’t mean to redesign my blog either, but one tweak lead to another…

  39. Ana this is awesome, I never new this was soothing you did in the past. I love the idea. I’ve always wanted to do something similar to this on blog engage because I see so many blogs. I see so many people I can help by simple little tips but I don’t have the time. Perhaps it’s something I can start doing once a week like you. thanks for the inspiration Ana.

    • Thank you, Brian - and you are right; there’s a lot of need for this kind of gentle (or not) kick in the rear in the blogging community.

  40. Hey Ana,

    if you ever want to audit a blog which is not in english (for example, spanish) have my blog in mind ok? Im already on your list so that´s 1 point in favor 😉

    I like this idea very much and there not many (or none) doing it, so big applause!

    Cheers!

  41. If my blog happens to come up, it is designed to look like my company replicated site, but it is not. I pay for the hosting, have designed it and have added all the content with the purpose of being in control of the SEO and linking it up to direct traffic to my replicated site where people can actually purchase the product. If my website ever actually comes up, I think I would like to have you take a look at it, if it qualifies, as scary as it may seem… You have given Dave some fantastic advice!

    • I’ll keep that in mind, Kristy.

      Glad to hear you are taking your business seriously and don’t just rely on a company page.

  42. Gee Ana, you’re a tough cookie.
    I told my blog that if sees you coming down the infobahn, to turn off the lights and pretend it isn’t home.

    😉