Maximize Your Scuba Blog

After doing quite a few scuba website reviews for DEMA members a few recurring themes keep popping up.

The good news:  More dive centers are creating their own blogs to connect with their customers.

The not so good news:  Many of these blogs aren't being used to their potential.

Let take a look at the two most common things I'm seeing.

Your scuba diving blog should be working for you

Many dive centers are hosting their diving blogs on Google's Blogspot.

• It's Free
• It's Easy to start

However, by doing this you're helping out Google more than your own website.

How? Because with your blog located on a subdomain of blogspot you’re basically depriving your primary website of any real search engine optimization that having your own blog allows for. Do you think Google needs the help in SEO?

If your scuba diving website is a static one (HTML Only) and not scuba website CMS, a better choice would be to use wordpress, a free blogging software and place it either in a subdomain of your site or a subdirectory on your site.  Either one will reap more benefits in regards to search and offers more features.

Current thinking is that the subdirectory structure will offer the best bang in regards to SEO for your dive center because Google has said that they are now treating subdomains almost as a separate website. (I won't bore you with the technical aspects of this.)

The only real issue with having it as a subdirectory is a cosmetic one. Because the subdirectory structure is part of your main site your wordpress template should match your current website design otherwise it won't look natural.  So if you can't get the two to match up then I'd go with the subdomain option.

So athough Blogger is free, is it worth it?  The value of your time is much more important.  If you’re looking to build a successful scuba diving blog that will help you find more clients and grow your business, you should find a professional blogging platform that is designed for your needs.

We'd be happy to discuss your options.  Just drop us a line.

Links are an important part of Dive Center Marketing and SEO

No matter where your blog is hosted, make sure that you are using text links back to your main website with good anchor text and directly to the page that you are referencing not just your home page. 

Using something like "Click here" for a link has absolutely no SEO Value for your scuba website. 

Here's two examples:

So you're telling the search engines that the page you are linking to is about "Click Here"


Doing it this way you are now telling the search engines that you're voting for the page for the term "scuba diving in Arkansas".

This is the way you should be linking throughout your entire site.

If anything's not clear please feel free to leave a message here on the blog or send me a message.

How are you maximizing your scuba blog?