Ikki one of the most regular members of our blog design studio discussions started blogging recently and has done excellent job in maintaining this blog. Let’s find out what exactly Rauru is all about in Ikki’s words -

Hi, I’m Héctor Cabrera and I write Rauru.com to help other webmasters make the transition from newbie to successful entrepreneur. I started Rauru.com in 2008 to help other webmasters deal with the sometimes overwhelming prospect of starting a new business / site while still learning about the Internet and Web Development.

Blog Review of Rauru.com -

1. Raru has done good job in SEO – Well, I did a small test of Ikki using website grader tool and it got a very good score as far as grading of website is concerned. He scored a wonderful 93/100. Website Grader is fine tool and helps you improve your blog/website. Here’s the link to Ikki’s blogs report.

2. Improving traffic – I noticed that Ikki blogs at regular intervals although the alexa rank states that the blog isn’t getting lot of traffic and there can be few reasons for that -

a). Consistent blogging – I noticed that generally Ikki blogs after few days, that’s good although I’ll suggest that in order to ensure that blog’s traffic increases, there has to be consistent blogging. May be 1 every day if possible. Although, I have to also focus on the same and I try to do it .

b) Use of Social bookmarking sites – Although, Ikki believes that traffic from social bookmarking sites sucks, however I still believe that a blog with good stats will always leave bigger impact on people. Of course, higher traffic will always help in monetizing the blog well. I’ll suggest Ikki to write list posts to ensure that it gets very hit on social bookmarking sites. As an example, my recent post i.e. 25 blog design which’ll make you jealous got hit on stumbleupon and good more than 2000 pageviews in few hrs. time and as a matter of fact, I got few subscribers for the blog too.

3. Hide the version of WordPress – It’s good that Ikki is using the latest version of WordPress, although it’s always good if someone hides the version WordPress. I’ll suggest Ikki to use WP Security Scan plugin to do the same.

4. Use of icon or logo – Personal branding is something which is really important in blogging. It helps you in standing out of the crowd and this ensure that an image sticks to reader’s mind. So, if someone has a logo or a unique identifier then it will surely help in improving the brand image.

5. Sitemap will help a lot – Ikki doesn’t have any sitemap listed in the theme. I’ll suggest that Ikki should use Google sitemap generator and put a link in the footer as well. A sitemap will ensure that search engines will be able to follow all the links of the blog.

6. No direct link to RSS – Another thing which surprised me was that there is no direct link on the blog which points to the RSS feed. There is an RSS icon, however it asks you to subscribe to the email newsletter, which no doubt is good. However, tech savvy people will always prefer to read the blog through RSS feed and you just need to make it easier for them to spot the RSS feed link.

7. Keep related posts at the end of the post – Related posts should be kept at the end of the blog post. This way they will get proper visibility and will ensure that anyone interested in reading similar content will be able to spot the links easily.

What has been done to perfection on Rauru -

1. Use of Polls – It’s always important that a webmaster should run a poll. It only helps in finding out what readers are expecting from you.

2. About /Contact page & privacy policy – Many bloggers make a mistake by not having about me or contact us page. Ikki has ensured that all that information is easily accessible by the readers. Having privacy policy is a very good option as it helps in building the trust of the readers.

3. Use of top commentators plugin – Link sharing is one of the good ways of building relationship with bloggers. Some do it by doing quick links and some do it by using top commentators. Another good thing about using top commentator plugin is that it helps in comment count too.

I hope this review will help Ikki in improving the blog and ensuring that all the goals get achieved properly. As a quick suggestion I will surely suggest Ikki to follow the website grader link and fix the suggestion they have given. If you also want to get your blog reviewed, simply get active on our forums.