Using an Internal Blog to Promote Your Business Website

In the second installment of our Business Blogging for Success series we are looking at best practices for using an internal blog to promote your business and bring more traffic to your website.   Because an internal blog is tied in with your website, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know the source of the information.  Therefore, the mechanics of your blogging are more important than creating an identity, which is an essential element of running an external blog.

As identified in Business Blogging for Success – Part 1, the benefits of running a business blog can be immense, and over time you can use your blog to dominate your industry online.  As with any online marketing, there are rights and wrongs,and it pays to know the difference before you get started blogging.

Here are 6 tips for using your Internal blog effectively.

1. Make sure your information is accurate – Always remember that the information you publish online will stay with you forever.   If you are going to write blog articles about your business, emerging trends in your industry, or your competition, you better make sure that the information is accurate.   Not only can misleading information (whether intentional or not) damage your reputation online and erode your credibility within your industry, it can ultimately result in a libel lawsuit.  Because of this it is recommended that all blog content is approved by someone in your PR department, an executive, or the owner of the business.  At the end of the day your company reputation is on the line, so as a business owner, I would make sure that anything being published about my company is accurate.
2. Write to your audience – This tip goes back to your high school English classes (Yes Mrs. Henry, I was listening).  It’s very simple but very often overlooked.   You need to write your content with your end reader in mind, and write to the level of their understanding.  If you are writing a blog about cooking techniques, your audience most likely cannot cook as well as you.  You need to write at a level that explains even the mundane details so that your audience can understand what you are telling them to do.   If you are writing technical articles about chemical engineering, you can safely assume that your readers have a very advanced knowledge of the topic, and therefore will already understand the fundamental elements of the topic.   There is no hard and fast rule to writing, just remember to think like your readers and understand their questions before you write.
3. Write consistently – Want to know the biggest problem with a blog?  It’s owner gives up before having any success.  All blogs start out with good intent, and have regularly written content initially, then the writer finds that they are not getting regular readers or comments, and then loses his / her motivation, and the blog dies a sad, lonely death.  The key to having an effective blog is persistence, and consistency.   You don’t have to write every day, and you can really write at your own pace, but you need to consistently write articles to keep your readers engaged and keep them coming back for more.   Writing a series of articles and scheduling them for releases on a timed interval will help you to keep the content flowing regularly, and make it much easier to keep your blog active when you are busy with other projects.   I recommend that you write 20 articles before you launch your blog, and schedule them for publication twice a week.    That gives you 10 weeks of regularly scheduled posts that will go live with or without your active attention.
4. Promote and track your news with syndicated RSS feeds - RSS feeds are great for sending your information out to your regular site visitors, and it allows them to stay informed without having to return to your site for the latest news.   When they receive an update on your blog content, and find the article interesting, chances are they will come to the site to read more, and see what you have been up to.   The second part of this step is tracking your readers.   Using a syndicated RSS feed such as Feedburner will allow you to track your subscribers, and monitor whether or not your blog is gaining traction.   One of our better performing posts was Twitter Black Hat, and based on that success, I know that Twitter posts will do well in my niche if I choose to write more on that topic.  In any marketing format, the things that get measured are the things that get done, so make sure you know what your blog is doing, and quantify your success so you can build on it.
5. Make it easy for your readers to spread the news – There are tons of plugins for almost all blog platforms that allow your readers to share the news with the blogosphere – Use them!   If you can give your readers a one-click option for posting your content to Twitter, Facebook, Digg or any of the other social sites, you will get more readers, spread your message to their sphere of influence, and find that your link count is growing at the same time.   Internet marketing success is based on a culmination of efforts, and any help you can get will go a long way.  Let others help you by removing the bottlenecks and you will grow your reader base much more quickly.
6. Address news head on, and in a timely fashion - Because you are competing online, sooner or later someone will call you out, and you will need to defend yourself.   It’s important not to shy away from negative publicity, or it becomes true, period.  If you are monitoring your name online with Google alerts, you can see what is being said about your company, and address it head on, in a timely fashion.   News spreads fast on the web, so you need to be even faster when addressing any publicity that comes your way.   This is true for positive comments, which you should be quick to thank the contributor for giving you kudos, and also for negative comments, which you should address and quickly rectify if they are true.   Bad publicity can turn into a positive if you are willing to address the person, and make an effort to rectify the situation.  You may not be able to make them happy 100% of the time, nor should you, but your efforts to address the situation will not go unnoticed.

There’s a lot more to getting your blog off the ground and running, and building it into a true powerhouse, but hopefully these tips will help the average business owner to harness the power of a blog and begin using it to build a larger internet presence.   For more tips on improving your blog, I recommend reading ProBloggers series 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

Our final installment of Business Blogging for Success will discuss best practices for using an external blog to promote your business, and move your site to the front page of Google in 30 days or less.  We are always open to suggestions for new articles, so please feel free to contact us with your ideas.

Cheers to your future blogging success!

-Chris

Is your Business Blogging?  You should be.

Businesses should be blogging, it’s the best way to produce new content for their websites and allow them to target the audience associated with their business.   Businesses often feel that they don’t have the time or the content to build their business, and often don’t understand the importance of having a quality blog.   This is a huge mistake, but easily rectified.   We’ll share some of the benefits of having a business blog as well as some of the techniques for managing your blog and keeping it updated regularly.

Benefits of Blogging for your Business

One of our common practices with new clients is to establish a blog for their business.  This can be an internal blog that’s integrated in the website, or an external blog on a related domain name, or both.   There are distinct advantages to both methods, but regardless of which one you choose, it will help your search engine visibility tremendously.

Here are 5 benefits to running a business blog:

1. Content Creation- On the Internet content is king.  The more you have, the better.   Most business websites have a limited number of pages, and therefore a limited amount of content.  If your web designer hasn’t built your site with a good Content Management System, creating new pages or adding content to additional pages can be difficult, tedious work, and in some cases will require the help of your web designer, which will also cost more.  By having a business blog you are able to write about your topics quickly and easily, and generate pages of content that will have an equal chance of ranking in the search engines.  Again, more content is better, and a blog allows you to easily create the content that is needed to keep the spiders crawling your site.
2. Targeting Long-Tail Keywords – Because your website has a finite number of pages, and your on-site SEO efforts can include a limited number of keywords, a blog can greatly expand the number of keywords and keyword phrases that you can effectively target.   When you are writing an article for your blog, you will naturally cover different variations of the keywords associated with your products and services.  This is a great opportunity to build links that cover long-tail keywords that may not be targeted in your sites content.  For example, if you had a website about San Diego golf, your on-site SEO may target the keyword “San Diego Golf“.   However, through your blog you can also target terms like “San Diego Golf Gift Certificates”, or “Book Tee Times for San Diego Golf Course“, which would be more difficult to integrate into your site’s meta data.   Long-tail keywords are lower volume, but a much more specific search term, which will generally result in higher conversions than short keyword phrases.
3. Reaching a Larger Audience – If you website isn’t properly optimized for your keywords, or you don’t have a recognizable brand name, it may be a deserted island that never gets traffic.   Your blog allows visitors to subscribe to your posts via RSS feed, and the audience that visits your blog is more likely to share your info with others if they find it valuable.  By submitting your blog to the various blog directories, you can put your info in front of others in your industry, and more importantly you spread your message through the Blogosphere, and gain an audience that will visit your site repeatedly.
4. Natural Link-Building Platform – Blogs are a natural platform for link-building.  When you are writing articles about your topic, you will generally link to other related pages within your site, and you’ll most likely be using keyword targeted anchor text when building those links.    This not only provides your visitors with more information, it helps your search engine rankings due to the anchor text that is used within your links.   As your blog gains value and PageRank , it passes that value on to the other pages of your site, thus helping them rank higher as well.
5. Potential to go Viral – Never discount the power of the blogosphere.   If you write a particularly compelling article, it has the potential to be rapidly recirculated throughout social media site and re-published on other industry publications, and other bloggers websites.  If it’s an especially well written article, it could potentially be re-published on Yahoo news, or in a local paper, etc…  This is one of the best ways to get traffic to your website, as well as gain valuable inbound links from others in your niche.  As you continue to write valuable articles, you may well become a thought leader or industry expert in your field, which ultimately leads to more business via referrals etc…

Those are just a few of the reasons that your business should be blogging.   We’ll follow up this article with a few tips on using an internal blog, as well as using an external blog to promote your business.

If you don’t have a blog already, now is the time to get one.  Spending just three hours a week on your blog can pay off handsomely over time.  If you don’t have the time, or feel uncomfortable blogging about your business, contact a professional blog management company to do it for you.

Go get a blog on WordPress (my favorite platform), Blogger, TypePad or any of the other blogging services and give it a shot.

If you put in the effort you will be rewarded!

-Chris

Denver Search Engine Optimization Company HighPoint Search Marketing will be attending WordCamp Denver this Saturday February 28th.  We are looking hoping to see some new tips and pointers about WordPress as a platform, programming tips and SEO functionality.

Looking forward to meeting some Denver SEO’s, Bloggers, Programmers, and WordPress aficionado’s!!!

Our secondary interest in this event is to seek out local bloggers and Internet Marketers.  We are looking for a few good bloggers to write for some of our clients blogs, and possibly submit guest posts on our blog.  Experience is not as important as the ability to write well.   We can train anyone to write blog posts, but we don’t have the time to teach people how to write.

If you are an English major, copywriter, blogger, or just an excellent writer  we may have a position for you on a contract basis.  If you understand how to use social media and interact with blog readers, and you have a large social media following, we almost certainly will have  a position for you, probably on an ongoing basis.   If you are interested, please DM us on Twitter – @highpointseo

-Chris

HighPoint Search Marketing was officially founded as an LLC in October 2008.  While we have done freelance work in the past for various clients, we had not officially registered as a company and gone through the proper process of setting up the company as an LLC.

Our company has over 10 years of internet marketing experience, promoting both product and service related companies on the major search engines.  Our areas of expertise include but are not limited to: Search Engine Optimization, Video Search Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Link-building, Online Reputation Management, Blog Management and Pay Per Click Campaigns.

We are very excited about the new business and the opportunity to work with new clients for their Search Engine Optimization needs.   Contact us for your business, big or small!

-Chris