One mistake that businesses make when starting a blog is to use a free theme rather than getting a customized blog design. Some times, when you use a free theme you are getting what you paid for.
Free themes are often written by amateur writers and while they often look good, that is all they are good for. When using a free theme you need to run several checks. The first and most important check is via any of the tools that let you look at your site as the search engine spider sees it. Many themes have code errors in the blog design which prevent your pages from being fully read and indexed correctly.
Other free themes may have links to dubious sites, or at the very least, sites that you may not wish to link to. These links often appear in the footer, one area that some search engines treat with suspicion. You can easily check for these by using your browsers view code option. Scroll through to the footer to see whether or not there are any strange links. If there are then ditch the theme and find another blog design.
Free themes are just that, free. Create a blog using a theme custom designed by a reputable designer and they will do their best to ensure the code flows smoothly and the blog design delivers everything that you need from it. After all, they are professionals and their income relies on delivering quality products – there name is on the blog design.
If you do decide to go with an off the shelf theme, pay the few extra dollars to have it customized to your needs. Run the two checks I have suggested to ensure that everything flows and can be read by the search engines and that no strange links are included. Your blog design delivers the first impression to your visitors, and first impressions count.
