Blogs are one way to enhance your website content. Plus, they allow you to easily maintain your site without having any technical expertise.

Unfortunately, it’s that very simplicity of the blog that often causes the most problems. Because they’re so easy to use, many bloggers assume their blog is a “plug ‘n play” technique that requires no tweaking whatsoever.

If you’ve simply installed your blog and started typing, you might want to check it against these top 6 credibility issues:

1.  Being an anonymous author
Because most blogs are not full-fledged websites, many bloggers think they don’t need an “about us” page. But maintaining complete anonymity reduces your credibility and in time, reduces your readership. Always include a page listing your credentials, experience, certifications etc that is easily accessible from within your blog.

2.  Not including a face to put with the writings
Our human brains are actually wired to remember and recognize faces and, subliminally, seeing a familiar face puts us all at ease. Including your picture on your blog enhances your credibility and increases your “likeability factor”. If you want to use your blog to position yourself as the expert in your field, be sure to include high-resolution, camera-ready photographs that the press can access and use easily.

3.  Not writing for the web
Yes, a blog is akin to an online journal and yes, it is OK to express your opinions in your posts, but your blog is no place to ramble. Web browsers don’ read, they scan, but most blogs are not designed to be scannable. Always use descriptive headlines and sub-heads and stay away from all caps, which reduces reading speed by over 10%.

4.  Trying to be cute
It’s easy to open your blog and start typing away, forgetting that you’re actually creating a business correspondence. The next thing you know, you’re using insider clichés, referring to others on a first name basis, referencing industry jargon, and your writing is no longer clear to your new readers. While it is important to be personable, it’s not necessary to create a junior high clique.

And along those same lines, don’t assume all your readers have been with you since post #1. If you reference a past article, include a link to it. If you talk about something that’s happened in the past, include enough information so your new readers will know what you’re talking about.

5.  Using obtuse navigation
One of the great benefits of a blog is that the navigation is done for you. Unfortunately, most blog navigation defaults to listing posts by date. This makes it difficult to navigate and follow a particular topic. Take the extra step and break down your posts by categories.

6.  Not having a domain
If you’re trying to position yourself as an authority, it’s imperative to have your own domain name. Not only does it look more professional, but it telegraphs that you are in for the long haul. And while it might be tempting to get started with a free service with plans to move to your own domain in the future, be sure to consider the time and hassle involved in moving your blog before you make your final decision.

Time to implement: It only makes sense to take time to make sure your blog is right. Most of the techniques mentioned above will add less than 10 minutes to your actual posting time.

How To Start Web Site Split-Testing

If you’ve never done any web site split-testing before, it’s easy to look at your site and get totally overwhelmed and unsure of where to start your testing. The following outline of website elements is an easy way to kick off your own split testing campaign:

Remove the reset button
A great test to start with - because it is one of the easiest - is to remove the reset button from your forms. If you are using a WYSIWYG html editor to create your forms, the reset button is probably generated automatically. And, it’s usually placed extremely close to the submit button. Unfortunately, all this does is present your visitor with a distraction and the opportunity to accidentally hit the rest button instead of the submit button.

For most forms, there is really no need to have a reset button anyway. In past tests, I’ve seen this simple change increase conversion rates by as much as 22%. Since it is so easy to create a new page version without the reset button, this is a great place to get started with you’re A/B testing.

Make the submit button bigger
After testing the rest button, move on to the submit button. Most online marketers agree that when it comes to submit buttons, bigger is better. Test various sizes of graphical buttons until you land on the perfect size. You’ll want to keep a close eye on this test as I have a suspicion that a phenomenon similar to “banner blindness” will probably come into play. That is, at some point, the submit button will become so large that it will be overlooked as just another page graphic.

Test the font size
Testing your font size is extremely important if your market is older adults or younger children. In the past I have found that a 12-point sans font for body copy converts the best on line. I’d suggest testing that against a 14-point font for kids or seniors. And after you test your body copy, be sure to test your headline. Here is an interesting piece of test date that might give you some useful ideas: http://www.modernimage.com/small-font.htm

Reduce the number of columns
The number of columns on your webpage is another easy element to test. Past test data indicates that a one-column page layout performs the best, often yielding over 40% increased conversions. If you are currently using a multi-column newspaper page format, create a test page with only one column of body copy. If your audience is heavily from Asia, I recommend you weight your one column page a 25 or 30% during the testing phase. I’ve recently come across data that suggests visitors from Asian countries might prefer a more cluttered page layout.

Add dynamic content to your landing page
I’ll admit, for the novice this is not an easy element to perform, but since it can have such a huge impact, I am presenting it as an option. One online merchant experienced a 71% increase in revenue simply by adding dynamic data to his landing page. If you’re not comfortable with script programming, you might need to get your “tech guy” involved in this one, or search the internet for a ready-made script.

Before you start split testing, be sure you have adequate points of reference to measure against. Study your log files over the next few weeks to determine your current traffic levels, click through rates and conversion rates. This will become your benchmark to gauge all future tests against.

You can download a free copy of this split-testing schedule right here: http://www.successfulsitesecrets.com/freereports/split-test.htm.