In the past I’ve written tips about marketing business blogs with an emphasis on content, frequency and distribution.
Just like with optimizing web sites for better search engine rankings, there’s an abundance of information and tips on how to use blogs for business.
As far as business blogs go, the two implementations that I see most often are blogs as a component of SEO or blogs as a public relations tool.
Granted, this bias is a manifestation of the focus of my company’s blog consulting practice, but I think the insight into what’s been working can benefit any type of blog.
Blogs used as part of a search engine optimisation campaign are optimized very much in the same way a web site is.
They can exist as a directory on the main company domain or more often, under a unique domain name. The blog template is optimized so keywords appear in all the right places. Posts occur frequently and include keywords in the post title, within the post copy, categories and tags.
Lead generation blog posts often include deep links into the company web site to send traffic and pass link popularity. For example, a client of ours is a fabric retailer.
On their blog, they post about new fabrics, associate the fabric types or categories into current events and provide applications and how-to information.
Within these posts, mentions of the products always link to the product information page on the main company web site. Doing so has increased traffic and rankings to the product pages tremendously. So much so, that the retailer hired a writer for the blog.
Blogs used for SEO also take advantage of linking in the way that an optimized web site would. The big mistake many blog owners make when trying to increase their search engine rankings is to not treat the blog like a web site.
One of the most important competitive advantages for blogs is that they can be optimized for blog search engines like Technorati, Google Blog Search, Bloglines AND regular search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask. A web site without a feed will not get into Google Blogsearch and therefore not realize that traffic.
Blogs offer a competitive advantage for any site optimization campaign and if you want to improve your site’s rankings, a well executed blog can be just the thing.
Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He’s been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.
