WordPress has given us a great opportunity to make money, gain exposure and link our way to steady profits.  However, it is imperative that we all walk the fine line between professionalism and soulless advertising.  In other words, how can you maintain your website integrity?

You may be surprised at how many startup companies create a website, fill it with good to great content, but then ruin all respectability by posting an excess of banner advertisements.  We understand the strategy.  Even a little bit of change for a day will eventually pay off the domain and hosting fees.  However, if you compromise the brand, the reputation of the site, then kiss rapid growth goodbye.  Your site may never make it to the next level because you brought it out of the “oven” far too soon.

Keep Your Website Integrity

Protecting Your Website Reputation

How can you safeguard the reputation of your WordPress site?  Believe it or not, it really doesn’t matter whether you buy Premium wordpress themes or customize your own free or simple WordPress page.  Some users have actually made very attractive “amateur” pages.  However, reputation is about your managing ability.  The first step is to produce great content.  This may involve writing content yourself or even hiring SEO writers to create stories for you.  These can be any type of story, from travel logs to news article to op-ed pieces.

With great content (and an editorial process that denies poorly written content from being published) your site will grow in reputation.  However, with every banner you add, you face the risk of compromising the message.  In order to avoid this, you must concentrate on two aspects: making sure the advertising message fits the theme and making sure the format of the ad is respectable.

Make Sure Your Theme and Mission are Strong

First, make sure that any advertiser you work with understands the goal of your website and the theme.  It’s not to make money; ideally, your site exists as a means of promoting a person, place or thing.  Create a values and mission statement and stay clear of companies that run contrary messages to your content.  For example, it would in poor taste for a family-friendly website to run ads for porn, dating or gambling.  It would also be a bad idea to run anything that could be construed as contradictory.  For instance, running a BP ad on an environmental website.

This is much easier to figure out when you negotiate with advertisers directly.  Whenever you join a content and advertising network, you may not know what ads are being run on your page until you see them live.  You may or may not have the right to take down individuals ads so be sure to check the contract before agreeing to service.

Make Sure Ad Format is Appropriate

The next step is to determine if the format of ads is proper for the site.  You should know that Google and other search engines don’t really like websites that run dozens of banners or text ads.  True, few big name websites have no advertising at all.  However, most of these companies have at least one subtle and small ad placed somewhere on the side (or even in the center).  You don’t really notice because it doesn’t detract from the content.  Now compare that with a site that has a few banners posted as well as Google Adwords and even linked text ads.

If you have too many ads and not enough content, your site loses value.  So be sure to strategize here and post only as many ads as you need.  Ultimately, a quality brand, a stellar reputation, is going to be your rise to success.

Do you have any other ways that you use to maintain your website integrity?  If so, let us know by leaving a comment below!