Over 12 Million American adults have a blog Over 57 Million Americans read blogs Just over 20% of the most popular websites are blogs
and the most important, over 50% of blog readers also shop online.
Having a blog changes your website from a passive brochure into something much more interesting. Blogs are always updated and always changing, giving your browsers reason to come back. And, rather than just passively looking at what you choose to show to visitors, blogs allow visitors to interact with your site, leaving comments and discussing your posts among themselves online.
In this way, you build a community around your business and a ready audience.
The value of contact and feedback from your web visitors and customers cannot be under-estimated. Conversations with your customers are a goldmine for getting to know them, new product ideas, and problems with existing products or services.
Blogs make it easier for your clients to reach you. Even though the Comments form on the blog, where browsers can fill in their comments, is very similar to the contact page on your site, the difference is that with a blog, browsers can interact with you on their terms. When browsers go to a contact page they are confronted with a web form and nothing else for them to do -- either they fill out the form or go somewhere else. With a blog, browsers can look around, browser articles and information and then leave a comment on any number of articles of their choosing, or leave multiple comments.
Blog postings will help your search engine rankings like almost nothing else.
Blog postings rank high and rank often. Contributing regularly to your blog increases the size of your site and the breadth of you keyword coverage which the search engines loves. Blog postings and Blogs in general attract links from other websites.
With the open and 2-way communication that blogs give small business, you can react fast. If you have a difficult few months, and clients become annoyed, you can explain fully on your blog what happened and why and what you are doing about it. Obviously, it is better if things go smoothly, but if they don't you have an outlet.
Blogs are a great way to establish your reputation as an authority in your area, and at the same time, a great soft sell tool.
Very few people will purchase your services on the first visit to your website. However, if browsers can see a large library of material you have written, they have a chance to assess your style, opinions and ideas. Blogs allow browsers to look around and get a general feel for how it will be talking and working with you before they contact you.
Not only does this increase the number of sales or leads you get from your site, but much more importantly, it will increase the quality of leads, since they are already pre-sold before they contact you.
The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:
1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads with or tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website
Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text.
You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.
Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.
There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.
Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page.
The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.
Both Brian Stocker & Caroline Melberg are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Brian Stocker has sinced written about articles on various topics from Blogging, Writing and Teachers. Brian Stocker is a writer, editor and online marketing specialist. Visit his website for more information about . Brian Stocker's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.
Caroline Melberg has sinced written about articles on various topics from Blogging, Computers and The Internet and Marketing. Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of. Caroline Melberg's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.