Google loves blogs.
Don’t ask me about all of the technical SEO babble that goes along with
Internet Marketing, but I've read countless articles about this and the results
are in:
Google Loves Blogs.
It’s just that simple.
Or is it?
If you've glanced at my articles for more than five seconds,
you’ll see that I’m cheap. I've mentioned this before, but I don’t like getting a second mortgage to start a
business. That’s just the way I am. (Actually, I don't even have a first mortgage ;I paid my little house in the
country off years ago, but that’s another story.)
The Upside to
Blogging
So, blogging is one of those dirt cheap tools you can use to generate
interest in your business and get people to actually go to your site. There are several reasons for this that you
should know about:
1. As I said before, search engines like
Google love blogs. The reason that
they do is because if you write brand new hunks of content every day, they’ll
consider you to be an active web page rather than a stale, inactive one.
2. It can give you a good reason to stay in
contact with your client and customer base.
Every time I finish a post, (which is usually once a day) I post it
online and immediately tell everyone I can online about it. I send out email, tweet, Google +, Facebook,
and let everyone I do business with know about it.
I also have a physical newsletter that I
send out as well and I mention that I just made a post somewhere in the body of
the article. It is very effective that
way.
3. People can feel like they are a part of
your business and that they actually know you. They can leave comments and feel like they
are contributing to your cause. If they
follow you on a regular basis, they’ll feel like they really know you. The evidence is in that people will spend
their hard earned cash if they know you and trust you. So, look at blogging as a trust building
experience.
The Downside to
Blogging
The problem with this blogging strategy is that it is labor
intensive and requires massive amounts of discipline. There are quite a few reasons for this.
1. You have to research your posts before you
write them. You can’t just sit down
and blather on about nothing. Even if
you're going to write highly personalized accounts about yourself or a
particular subject, you need to sit down and think the post through.
If you just sit down and dash out crap, people
can smell it from a mile away.
2. Keyword research is important too. You need to find low competition keywords
that are somehow related to your niche.
If you have a Google AdSense or AdWords account, you can use their free
keyword research tool.
They’ve changed
quite a bit about it over the years, to include the name of it, (they now call
it Keyword Planner) but it’s still pretty effective.
If you don’t want to use that tool you can always pay to use
WordTracker or MarketSamurai. These have
been rated pretty well by SEO specialists, but I can’t vouch for them because
I’m too cheap.
I just use the free
Google tool. That’s good enough for me.
3. Formatting Text and Pictures on a Screen
- You’ll need to go back into your blog and make sure that you format the
paragraphs so that they are readable to your audience. This is one of those times you need to put
your grammar book away and think about the way people’s eyes work when reading
a computer screen.
People see things as blocks of text on a screen much
differently than they do when they read a book.
You can use all sorts of word processor conventions to do so. Bullet statements, headings, underlined areas, highlighted text and paragraphs that
are shorter and different length can be used.
Word count is important. Remember the reason why Google likes blogs is
because it loves to see well written content as frequent as possible. I personally like to write every single
day. However, posting every single day
is sometimes impossible due to scheduling problems.
So, post as frequent as you can.
You’ll need to post 500 words every other day to gain favor
with the search engine gods. Be patient
with them though, because they might not to notice you for a while and you’ll
need keep working at it without a lot of visible success right off the bat.
4. Spreading the Word
– Once you get your post written, I would spread the word throughout the social
media net as fast as I could, merely highlighting the posts and giving teaser information
about it.
Here's a video on how a lovely young lady built her blog. The rules are pretty much the same no matter what the niche or market is.
5. Add on Videos and Charts – Not only do
the search engine gods like new content frequently, but they also like other
relevant information as well. If you can
produce relevant charts and graphs backing up your information, then you’ll
find favor in their eyes.
Relevant video is another area that search engines like if
they are relevant to the posts. If you
can find video you can use that helps illustrate a point, then use it.
If you want to read an excellent article on search engine optimization
then I would highly recommend SEO Book’s Guide to Blogging. It is one of the most extensive and well
written posts on the subject.
The Most Important
Facet of Your Blog that’s Dirt Cheap
I know I've spent a considerable amount of time talking
about the things you should do for the search engine gods. However, the main focus of your blog is to provide
your readers the best information possible on your business niche. You want to be seen as an authority, a
valuable resource site and a place to go to share opinions and ideas.
To Your Success
Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
(859) 797-9560
elmo033057@gmail.com
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