Sidebar Crimes

I know we’ve taken a break from the WordPress Tips and Tricks, but I have a good excuse. It was the holidays, and I had a serious case of writer’s block. But now I’m back and it’s time to jump back into the fray.

This week we are going to talk sidebar crimes. We’re all guilty of them, some more than others. There are some blogs that I go to where I literally have to search for the content. Their site is so overloaded with sidebars, widgets, icons, and ads that their content is buried and, thus becomes almost irrelevant.

Sidebar crimes can hurt your blog, but they are easily fixed. Here are some tips and tricks to filling up sidebars.

Don’t play the numbers game- all those stat counters, page rank, and alexa rank icons? Useless. People are reading your content, not looking at your numbers. In fact, putting up these widgets is free advertising for those services. If you want to track your stats (and you should) then stick the code in the header, and track it through the service’s website (this is how it’s done for Google and Alexa). You don’t need to add any code for PageRank. These are the only three stats that you should care about, the rest are superfluous.

Don’t put up other blog’s buttons- I know that bloggers like to let you ‘grab’ their button and stick it on your website. It’s a nice way to support another blogger, and a super-easy way to to send readers somewhere else. Why do you want readers clicking on to other sites? You don’t, so get rid of the buttons, or if you must have them stick them on their own page. Better yet- if you have a blogroll (and I don’t think you need one) list them as links on a separate page, again, no reason for free advertising.

Widgets that proclaim you’ve won an award no one has ever heard of- You look a little desperate when you put those up there. If the only ‘prize’ for winning an award is that someone else’s graphic gets to take up space on your sidebar, then politely decline the ‘honor’. There are some valid awards out there, and it’s nice to be rewarded for your work. If you do win an award, display the graphic for a limited amount of time, then take it down and include a link to the award in your bio – if you must.

Give money to me/ my cause/ my friend’s cause all year long- It’s OK to ask you reader’s to take up a cause you believe in, it’s even OK to ask them to donate to the cause. That is one of the powers of being a blogger, but use this power sparingly. If you have a widget up there, take it down as soon as the event is done. My rule of thumb is never more than a month, 2-3 weeks if you can help it. Other than that, you’re being greedy (unless your whole blog is built around a cause, then this rule doesn’t apply).

Anything that plays music- just no.

(I am on the fence about conference badges. I don’t like them, nor include them. I do have an event page on my url, that way people can get a sense of where I will be. But I know bloggers that like them. If asked by a blogger, I say don’t include them, they’re obnoxious and no one really cares. But others have a different opinion, so I’ll just leave that here.)

So what should you have on your sidebar?

Social Icons- I shouldn’t have to search to find out where you tweet, facebook, or YouTube. Make the icons big and link them to your sites.

RSS/ Feedburner- We’ll talk about feeds in an upcoming article, but for now just know that this is the most important button on your blog (besides your content). I can’t tell you how many time I have actually had to search for this button. It’s important, as important as your logo. Make sure people can see it.

Tweets- Putting your last four or five tweets in your sidebar complements your content (usually) and gives new readers a sense of your personality beyond your posts.

A picture- I don’t have one on my sidebar, but I know people that do. But a word of warning, make sure it’s a nice picture; not the one your husband took of you as you came out of the bathroom on Sunday morning.

Search- so important. We will talk about search tools in the future, but every blog (and I mean EVERY blog) should have a search box right on the homepage.

Ads or ad space- if you take ads or are trying to sell ads keep placeholders where those ads will go. This will give marketing people a chance to  see how their ad is going to look.

(Again I am on the fence about Networked Blogs and Google Friend Connect, I think they serve a valid purpose, but both of the widgets are too big. I know a lot of people that use them, and it looks perfectly fine sitting on the sidebar.)

Sidebars play an important role in your blog, but they should be kept clean, useful and free from clutter and distractions. Take a look at your sidebar? Who’s getting free advertising? What’s there that distracts from your content? Find it and remove it, the result will be a more professional-looking blog.

Next week: Blog stats and analytics!