WSI Blog

A blog is a highly effective way of generating traffic to your business website.  Not only is it a great communication tool to your target audience but if used correctly can improve your search engine rankings quicker than any other method.

Successful bloggers follow these rules:

• they post regularly
• they stick to a pre-defined communications plan
• they share knowledge
• they are seen as an authority, not by preaching but by sharing
  

But why are blogs so effective at driving traffic?

1. A Blog should be set up with an RSS feed and/or Social Bookmarking links.  These allow others to bookmark, follow and distribute your blog posts, and help to grow your circulation list.

2. A regularly updated blog provides fresh content and adds a new page on your website every time you make a new blog post.  This grows your site, adds keywords and increases its critical mass in the eyes of the search engines.

3. A blog = content.  And content provides the opportunity for Search Engine Optimisation.  Savvy bloggers exploit the SEO value of all this fresh new content and make sure they follow the same rules as for a page of text on a website.

(A word of caution - don't, for a minute, fall into the trap of writing your blog purely for the search engines - that's the wrong motivation for having a blog and it won't help to engage your target audience.  Your blog should always be written for your readers, not Google's crawlers)

What is a good SEO structure for your blog post?

Title:

Use one of your keyword phrases in your blog title.  Search engines give higher prominance to the words in the title.  Make sure the title makes sense to human eyes.

Keywords:

Always perform your keyword research, just like normal SEO.  Then select a small group of keywords (5 or 6) and use this throughout your blog post.  Make sure they all relate closely to the subject matter to keep the post focussed.

Keyword placement:

The search engines give greater prominance to the first 25 words of the blog post, so use your chosen keyword(s) at least once here.  Don't overdo it .  Aim for a keyword or keyphrase density of 1% (i.e. 1 mention of the keyphrase in 100 words).

Links:

Use your blog post as an opportunity to link to other relevant pages or articles (with the emphasis on relevant).  This counts as much for internal linking (to your own website) as to external linking (to other peoples' websites).  It all helps the spiders and robots find their way around your pages and your website.

Length of blog post:

The ideal blog post is around 400-500 words.  (This blog post is exactly 500 words!).  The key is to strike a balance between long posts (good for search engines) and shorter ones (which are easier for humans).  People generally only scan and have short attention spans.

If you're keen to find out more, contact WSI Internet Marketing on 01772 286460.

• What is a blog?
• How can I start a blog?
• What should I blog about?

These are all typical questions, asked by many people.  But particularly so for business owners who've heard about the phenomenon of Social Media and blogging but haven't yet started to explore it in a business context.

The word "blog" is simply a contraction of the phrase "web log", and was coined in the early days (relatively!) of internet journalism, when it developed as a form of online diary.  It soon became apparent powerful it can be for updating followers with immediate, on the spot journalistic-type reporting, and indeed any journalist or newspaper worth its salt will maintain an up to the minute blog.

(See Stephanie Flanders' blog at the BBC, or Boris Johnson at the Telegraph.)

But times change quickly, and new technologies start to cross boundaries.  Now the blog has crossed over from journalism to business, and businesses large and small have started to embrace the world of the blog.

What good is a blog to me?

Blogs are an excellent way for a business to talk to its customers.  If used correctly, they can provide a "human face" to an otherwise faceless organisation, and can communicate information in a highly personal way.  Blogs can cover a whole range of subject matter, but the golden rule is to follow a well-thought out communications plan.  So yes, this does mean sitting down ahead of time to work out what you're going to talk about.

This might sound tedious, and some people might say it destroys the element of immediacy and spontaneity, but businesses can't afford to be spontaneous, not when reputation and corporate branding are at stake.

Are there any other reasons to keep a blog?

Yes, absolutely.  Blogs are a great way to spread your business brand and message, and when it comes to the Internet, that has the added bonus of grabbing the attention of the search engines.  So by adding fresh, relevant content to your business website, you increase its critical mass and get your pages indexed quicker.  A happy coincidence of regular blogging is you'll be doing your own Search Engine Optimisation, without paying anyone for the privilege!

And if you stick at it you'll achieve that holy grail of business websites - you'll become a resource for the internet and will increase your overall search rankings.

Not bad for a humble blog!