As a local business owner, if you’ve been in operation for more than 5 years, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve purchased an ad for your business in the local yellow pages at some point. That’s because up until 2006 or so, yellow pages advertisements were the way to reach local consumers.

However, if you’ve been in business for less than 5 years, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve never purchased an ad in the phone book. The reason? Since 2006, consumers have steadily replaced their phone books with search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. By some estimates, less than one-third of consumers will use a phone book in 2011*.

Local Search Forcing Out Traditional Print Ads

As consumers steadily replace their phone books with search engines, local businesses are beginning to recognize just how important search engine optimization has become.

Because search engines only show a handful of businesses on the first page – and because consumers usually click on the top search results – being listed #1 on Google (or Bing or Yahoo) for your business search term is more important than ever.

So, if you want consumers to find your local basement finishing business when they do a search for “Denver Basement Finishing,” you’ve got to work on optimizing your business for local search.

In the SEO industry, we call this Local SEO, and it’s the fastest-growing service in our industry.

Getting Started with Local SEO

One of the first steps in any local SEO effort is to create and/or claim a profiles for your business on popular websites like Google Places.

With a profile on Google Places, business owners can share their business phone number, location, hours of operation, types of payment accepted, types of services provided, etc., and this information can then appear in local search results.

Google Places isn’t the only place business owners can register a profile. Bing, Yahoo,Yelp, MerchantCircle, Best of The Web, and dozens of other companies all offer business owners the opportunity to create profiles as well.

By creating and/or claiming profiles for your business on all of these websites, you increase the likelihood that your business will show in local search results.

Why Business Profiles Boost Search Results

When someone conducts a search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo for a local business, the search engines each use their own complicated algorithms to determine which business should appear #1, which business should appear #2, etc.

While the specific details of these algorithms are secret, we know that “citations” – or a mention of a specific business in an online directory, local business organization website, etc. – correlate with rankings.

The reason that search engines look for citations is that they’re a very good indicator of a business’s trust and longevity. If a local business has been around for a long time, or if a business is well-liked and trusted, there will be a lot of mentions for that business in local business directories, on the local chamber of commerce website, on local business association websites, and even in local media.

So, if you want your local business to show up at the top of local search results, you need mentions…and that means you need to create profiles on as many quality local directories as possible.

Contact us to learn more about our Local SEO services, including local directory submission, profile creation and reporting

*Based on a survey conducted by Harris Interactive

-Chris

When a site goes live on a new domain, or a new website design requires moving old pages to new URL’s, it is imperative that you use a 301 redirect (permanent redirect) to point all of the old pages to the new URL’s so that you don’t lose your existing page rankings and associated site traffic.

Since it can take up to 30 days for the search engines to recognize your new URL structure and appropriately update the SERP’s, time is of the essence.   An ecommerce site can lose thousands of dollars in just hours, so anything you can do to speed up the process is valuable.

For this reason, I like to write a little letter to the Big G and let them know we’ve moved some URL’s around.  This is best accomplished by posting the links on another site or blog that is regularly indexed,  in hopes that they will see all of the redirects as quickly as possible, and that the old links are followed by a spider to the new URL.

How to Tell Google About Your Redirected Pages:

The letter goes something like this:

Dear Google, please take a few minutes to re-index my existing pages that are occupying the front page of your search results.  These pages send an extraordinary amount of valuable traffic to our website and we do not want to lose any of this traffic.

The traffic you send us consists of people looking to buy the women’s sports apparel that we sell (primarily sports bras).  This traffic pays our bills, puts food on the table, and allows us to clothe our family.

Thank you for all the wonderful traffic you’ve sent over the years.  Can you please update the following URL’s in your index to the new corresponding pages.

The following pages have been moved to a new address:
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/fibymococoso.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/sportsbras1.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/plussizcomso.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/pants.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/bikeshorts.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/youtsiz5infi.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/5infitshorin.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/cheerleading.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/11infitshorb.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/paspbrainfic.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/coanlebydaco.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/safeq.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/rootpomforfa.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/rooterpoms.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/weighttraning.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/haspbra.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/sporbrainten.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/chcl.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/atun.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/jewelry.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/chmein3sipa.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/running.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/youtpom2colm.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/anprinsporbr.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/pepsprayalla.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/haspbradetof.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/adpomsolcol.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/newitzifrscc.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/ind.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/anprrabalobr.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/cospbrabydac.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/anlentigbyda.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/pibyjubasp.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/skwianprboyc.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/bodglidstopc.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/corfoottigin.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/smpaunforacw.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/sockshats.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/yomechbr.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/shap20padspo.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/yogaandpilates.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/shoepoms.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/cappanbydan.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/8inbikshor.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/socks.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/9inpowshorby.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/paspcopac.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/bobasocoboyc.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/bobameboycut.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/7coshbyda.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/ansocbybay.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/rgidolablso.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/youtpommet.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/minimegaphones.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/chmein3sipa.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/zeglboycutbr.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/scoreflipper.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/feedback.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/enlilafren.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/inchunshtopw.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/runnergirlwear.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/somehistory.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/closoutspec.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/13flchinstsi.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/lmechso.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/enwislim.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/volleyball.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/chweuncageby.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/basketball.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/softball.html
http://www.ladiesonlysports.com/tennis.html

I know that’s a lot of URL’s, but it’s a large site.   Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter, and once again, we appreciate your help in growing our business.

Best Regards,

Chris Gragg, Webmaster

There you have it.   One simple letter that will probably never be read by anyone at Google, except for GoogleBot, but that’s who you want to read it anyway.  He’ll take the message back to the leaders and make sure that the task gets accomplished in a timely manner.

If you have other 301 redirect techniques and would like to write a guest post for our blog, please contact us with the proposed topic and we’ll check it out.

-Chris

Ever heard of link building?  Have you heard that it’s one of the the most important (if not THE most important) element affecting your current rankings on Google, Yahoo and Bing?   You heard right.

Have you heard of brand building, viral content and social media marketing?    Maybe.  It’s ok if you haven’t, these are newer terms that are only now taking over mainstream media.

Have you ever heard of syndicated web content?  No?  Don’t feel bad, you’re not far behind.   If you have, you are one of the few, the enlightened, or a very savvy internet marketer.

What is Syndicated Article Marketing?

Syndicated article marketing is the best thing since sliced bread!  Seriously.

Syndicated article marketing is a process in which we create unique, topical content about a product or service offered by a business. The article is then distributed across a nationwide network of regional news websites, archived and stored on the sites for a minimum of 4 months, and most of the sites will archive the articles indefinitely.

Secondarily, the article is also distributed to the 10,000 newspaper editors nationwide, including 2/3 of the top 100 daily newspapers in the country.  The article is featured in the appropriate section of the newspaper, e.g. a health article is featured in the health section, an article about sporting goods would be featured in the sports section.

While the newspaper distribution doesn’t give any direct SEO benefit, it is a great tool for creating brand awareness and generating buzz offline, which tends to spill over to the web as people try to learn more about the article’s topic.

Why is Syndicated Article Marketing an Excellent Link-Building Tool for SEO?

Ahh, the meat in the stew.   The reason that we offer this service.   Syndicated Article Marketing may very well be the future of SEO link-building.

When an article is distributed to our network (over 500 guaranteed web placements) your website is receiving over 500 inbound links, from relevant, trusted websites that are typically in the PR range of 5-8.  These are highly valuable links that are quickly recognized by the search engines.

In addition the the sheer volume of links from quality websites, the links are made using targeted anchor text.  There are 3 keyword based links included in every article.   After typically one article, a client will rank in the top 10 for those keywords within 30 days.

There are very few, if any, ways to build that kind of link volume and quality without violating some of the search engines’ webmaster guidelines.   Viral Marketing can generate this quantity of links in a short amount of time, but is far more difficult to coordinate and build, due to the reliance on social networks.

SAM is truly one of the greatest SEO tools to emerge in the past several years.

Why is SAM a Great Tool for Building Your Brand Online?

As the web becomes more social, so do the search engines.   Their ability to remain relevant in a newer, highly social web depends on their ability to integrate and mine the social networks for quality signals and popular content.  Our articles are written in a manner that lends itself well to social distribution and sharing, thus giving them a built in viral component that can be very powerful.

Because our articles are written in a manner that is informative, has broad, targeted reach and doesn’t come across as a sales pitch.   The readers have interest in the subject because it appears in columns which they regularly read, and because they are not being sold they are open to reading and absorbing the content.

This allows for an informative article that educates the reader on your products and services without an overall sales pitch.  They are lead to the water, and given the opportunity to drink.

If they choose to do so, they can follow the simple link contained in the closing paragraph to learn more information.

Sounds Great!  What Does Syndicated Article Marketing Cost?

Not for the thin wallet, SAM does cost a relatively large amount for the small business.   Spending a minimum of $5000 on an article, regardless of the distribution is a lot for the average business owner to swallow.

However, when you consider that your $5000 is going to net you well over $25,000 of national business advertising, brand building and SEO value, Syndicated Article Marketing is a steal.

$5000 would barely net you 500 (quality) links alone if you were to buy them individually from directories, link brokers, bloggers or other link-building services.

In the end, deciding whether or not to utilize Syndicated Articles as part of your overall marketing plan will largely depend on your marketing budget, your products and services, and your geographic presence.  Some industries will see a much greater benefit from SAM than others.

If you’re interested in  learning more about Syndicated Article Marketing, or you have questions about the industries that excel with this form of advertising, contact us here, or give us a call at 800-420-5770.

-Chris

–Guest Post by Emily Thompson–

As the prominence of local search results grows, and more and more businesses come on board, Google continues to implement plans to make local search more effective. Throughout the last few years changes and features have come and gone and this year will be no exception!

One new feature, just recently announced, will include some refinements for local search results on Google. Designed mostly for exploring things to experience in a particular city, the results will now display other popular points of interest when you search for something say, in Maui, which is Google’s example.

When a location is searched for, they will now provide results of other interesting and related attractions and sites in the area. At the moment, this is available in about 200 U.S. cities, with plans to expand to more in the coming weeks. As the big G continues to expand this feature and offer other similar items for local searches, the value could be enormous for businesses that have optimized their listings and have the potential to drive traffic from these points of interest.

Also important are the “enhanced listings” Google has been testing.  The flat fee program allows you to highlight certain things within your local business listing, like videos, photos, coupons and more.  These enhanced features give more visibility and encourage more clicks on your listing, helping you get more traffic. Noted search expert Mike Blumenthal has great post on enhanced listings with some screen shots, and some helpful insights as well.

Location Based Services Are Powerful Tools

Along with changes that Google is making to their local search components, the growing importance of sites like Foursquare and GoWalla is also adding new opportunities for local businesses to increase visibility online. Search Engine Land discussed what they called ”location wars” and the impact of “check-in” sites. The stats about the traffic for sites like Foursquare are staggering.  As the article points out, “check-ins and tips are to local business reviews what Tweets are to blog posts”.  It could prove powerful to make sure you are utilizing these sites. Foursquare even has a program to help you encourage locals to check-in.

So what does this all mean for your business? It means the standard things (optimized local listing, localized website content, etc.) but it also means you need to stay abreast of the current issues and the reality is that the landscape of local search is changing, but with that change, comes much opportunity. Keep your eyes peeled- you never know what developments could show up next! Seen any new changes? Let us know!

Emily Thompson is the online marketing coordinator for Kutenda Online Marketing Software.  Kutenda provides the tools, training and services small businesses need to succeed with Internet marketing.  Follow Emily’s updates on Twitter – @ekthompson

-Chris

It’s time that we dive in and overhaul the website.  There’s some things that we like, and some that we really don’t, so over the next few weeks this site will be in a constant state of flux.  We’ll be changing the theme of the site and customizing the look and feel to make it all our own.

In case there’s any problems with our site, the construction, losing rankings, etc., we’ve created a second blog to help solidify our rankings on some important local terms, and have an additional sounding board while the construction crews are doing their thing.

The new blog is aptly titled Denver SEO Blog, and as the name implies, the blog will discuss some of the trends and changing landscape of the Denver SEO scene, and will also be a canvas for us to practice Thesis customization techniques.

What’s Wrong With Our Current Site?

Not that there’s anything wrong with the existing design, but after implementing our new theme on scores of client’s blogs, I am so comfortable and happy working in the new environment, that I’m going to make the change.  We’re not going to disclose the new theme framework as we don’t want to show too much, but those people that know WordPress and SEO should easily recognize our framework.

Some of the early plans are to introduce more images through a gallery, add SEO video tutorials, Denver SEO case studies, a more detailed section for prospective clients, current customer testimonials, and maybe some cool widgets.

These things are all possible now, but haven’t been implemented because we have been holding out for this major overhaul.

Sounds Like a Lotta’ Web Design, What About the SEO?

SEO is the Driving Force Behind All That We Do

More important than any design changes that will happen with the new site are the upgraded SEO items we want to introduce.  We are already getting great results for Denver SEO, and some pretty competitive SEO terms on a national basis, but the game is constantly changing and we prefer to stay ahead, rather than play catch up.

We’re staying on WordPress, but we’re going to clean up some of the issues with our existing site.  Simple stuff really, but things that can make a big difference.

Repairing any/all broken links, cleaning up the code, removing unnecessary CSS, and getting rid of as many plugins as possible.   These really slow down the page load speed, so removing as many as possible is helpful.  Also implementing some server side changes that will make a big improvement on that front.

(As an aside, I’m not sure that Page Speed will be a large factor any time soon, as it’s a factor that is hard for the masses to address, and they don’t want to unfairly penalize the average SMB.   Here’s Google’s statement on Page Speed as a ranking factor.)

But I digress, – all in all we want to have a cleaner, faster loading site that is an example of SEO best practices.  The site needs to be more flexible, cleaner and faster, period.  In our current state, some of the items we want to address are not possible.

That’s about all, 5 minutes of typing that will equal a full month of work.

-Chris

Using Video to Promote Your Business?  You Should Be.
Have you considered advertising online with video content?   If you aren’t using Video SEO to promote your business online, there’s never been a better time, and there never will be.  This is a great time to give it a try and start to establish a presence in the Video Marketing world.

Everyone from your little sister to your grandmother is online, and they’ve all shared or watched videos that moved them in one way or another.  By using this powerful medium, your business can harness that power to help promote your brand, sell a product, or even defend your reputation.

Some of the major benefits of using video to promote your business online:

• Videos are more engaging than other forms of online advertising – Because videos stimulate multiple senses they tend to engage the audience more than static images or text.    This stimulation leads to longer time on the website, increased page views and the ability to integrate more calls to action on your website.  Ultimately this increased interaction should lead to more conversions and sales.

• Search Engines are Hungry for Video – There is a relatively small amount of video online, when compared to text and images.   This is one of the reasons that search engines are hungry for more video.  The search engines have even adapted their results pages to include special sections for highlighting videos, usually appearing in the video results at the bottom of the SERP’s.

• Videos Rank Quickly in the Search Engines – A properly optimized video will rank for targeted keywords in a very short period of time, usually in several days, whereas a text file or web page may take months to achieve the same rankings.    This quick placement can help a business to get exposure early on, while their organic search engine optimization efforts are still taking hold.   As a secondary effect, the additional exposure can lead to more links from sites in your niche, and others looking to add content to their blogs and web pages.

• Video sharing sites allow you to reach more customers – Sites like YouTube are now getting more search queries than Yahoo and Bing.   This is a great indication that consumer behavior is changing, and they are now looking to the video sharing sites for more than entertainment, they are looking for how-to videos, and educational clips.    If you are able to give away a bit of valuable information, you will become a subject matter expert, and consumers will look to you when it’s time to pay a professional to do the work.

There are a myriad of other reasons to get started with a video marketing campaign but the biggest reason to start now may be the relative lack of competition.   In a couple of years your competition will have saturated your niche with online videos, and you’ll be playing catchup.   Take the leap and begin your video marketing efforts now while the market is new and mistakes are forgiven, and you’ll be far better off down the line.

-Chris

Delicious and Twitter CAN be used to Create “Followed” Links.

Social Bookmarking is one of the most popular link-building techniques around, and for good reason. The links from many social sites are “followed”, they allow you to control the anchor text of the link, and you get the added benefit of social promotion and the potential for your links to spread virally.

The primary drawback associated with the social bookmarking links in Delicious and Twitter is that they are not “followed” links.  This simply means that the links you post on these sites do not transfer link value or anchor text to the associated site.  I’ll show you how to get a followed link every time you post to Twitter or Delicious.

Delicious is probably the most popular social bookmarking site around.   It’s easy to use, integrates with your browser for easy access, and has the largest reach of any social bookmarking site.   It’s hard to find a social bookmarking site that has more reach and potential than Delicious.

Twitter is arguably the most popular social site around, rivaled only by Facebook.   It’s fun, interactive and has the potential to reach millions of customers, friends and others within your niche.   You can’t go anywhere without hearing about Twitter, so you definitely want to capitalize on this great social medium.

There is a very easy process that allows you to post social links on Delicious and Twitter, and get a secondary followed link on Mister-Wong at the same time.  This little technique will help you to save time creating links, and spreading the message on 3 sites at once.  This is no real trade secret, and I’m sure most people have already done this, but for the average business owner who wants to create some quick and easy links to their site, this is the fastest way to get it done.

So how do you use Delicious & Twitter to create followed links to your websites?

All it takes is the integration of your Delicious & Twitter accounts with your Mister-Wong account.   Here’s the process for setting it up:

1. Create a Mister-Wong account (if you don’t already have one)
2. Create a Delicious account and start bookmarking your sites with the anchor text, tags and notes that you want associated with the linked site.
3. Sync your Mister Wong account with your Delicious account so that all of your Delicious bookmarks are automatically imported into Mister-Wong.  Mister-Wong Delicious Import
4. Create a Twitter account (if you don’t already have one)
5. Sync your Mister Wong account with your Twitter profile so all of your links posted to Twitter will be automatically imported into your Mister-Wong account. Mister-Wong Twitter Import

This little technique will make it easy and painless to create a followed link from your Mister-Wong account, and transfer the link juice and anchor text to the linked site.

Hope this is a helpful little nugget of information that will make link-building a little easier on the average business owner.   If you would like professional help with your link-building efforts, contact Denver SEO company HighPoint Search Marketing to handle this task for your, and many others.

-Chris

You Can’t Just Digg Your Way to the Top Anymore

Digg announced today (9/2/09) that it is now applying the no-follow attribute to any links that are deemed untrustworthy, effectively ending the constant stream of SPAM that is posted to Digg daily.   While they did state that they are going to continue to allow link juice to flow to “trusted” articles, and they are not adding the no-follow attribute to all links, they did not specify what would constitute a trusted article.   Links on user profiles, comments and not-so-popular posts will get the no-follow tag, meaning it won’t pass along link juice.

John Quinn made the announcement regarding the changes on the official Digg blog:

“We’ve made a few changes to the way Digg links to external sites that may impact some folks in the SEO community. These changes reduce the incentive to post spammy content (or link spam) to Digg, while still flowing ’search engine juice’ freely to quality content. We’ve added rel=”nofollow” to any external link that we’re not sure we can vouch for. This includes all external links from comments, user profiles and story pages below a certain threshold of popularity.”

From what I can tell initially, any articles that make the front page of Digg avoid the no-follow attribute, therefore allowing the social community to effectively police the articles that are posted to Digg.   If an article gets enough votes from the community, it earns the trust needed to garner the link juice that comes from Digg.

Seems fair to me…

Minimal Impact on the SEO Community

This really shouldn’t affect the good SEO’s too much.  Sure, you lose an easy source of links that can be built with keyword based anchor text, but Digg seemed to be cracking down on link spam in general, so this just takes it one step further, and does so in an orderly fashion.  This will really only affect the spammy SEO’s that are simply posting article’s for the single Digg link.  If you are writing good content, and it includes links to true subject matter experts, you will still earn your link juice, they’ve just made it much harder to game the system.

Secondly, the no-follow attribute doesn’t completely eliminate the passage of link value, it simply dilutes it.  How much?  No one but the folks at Google really know, and they’re not going to show their hand.   The best you can do is read up on Matt Cutts blog post about no-follow and link sculpting, and draw your own conclusions.  For the purpose of continuing to use Digg for SEO, you should have a quality copywriter that can captivate an audience with a great article (or at least a great title), and you should build your network of friends, thereby increasing your chances of hitting the front page.

Other Social Sites Soon to Follow?

It will remain to be seen, but the social media world is a copycat arena.  Twitter was strong-armed into adding no-follow to all of their links, and now Digg has gone the same route.   Digg has said that ” This work was done in consultation with leading experts from the SEO/SEM and link spam fields” and one can assume that the experts included Google.

If other social sites start to get the overflow of Digg spammers, they too may start evaluating their own links and whether or not they should follow links.  And you always have the possibility that Google will “help” them figure out how they should handle their links as well.   I think there’s a good probability that more social sites will follow suit in the coming months.

If This Hurts You, You Need Better Link Sources

This is a good thing for SEO.  It will force out some of the spammers that can’t, or won’t put in the effort to find their own natural link sources, and will reward those who have spent the time building their profiles and interacting on the site.   Great content is still going to get Dugg, and will still have the potential to make the front page, while your quick and easy link-spamming will deteriorate, although it may not come to a screeching halt.

Get that copywriter going, get back to writing good content, and seek other link sources.  They are out there, you just have to stop being lazy.

-Chris

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

Business Blogging for Success

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