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Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Blogging for Business - To Blog or Not to Blog

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

mouseblogWant to build a relationship with your customers and prospects?
Then start a blog.  Blogs can be an incredible relationship builder for your business.  They open the lines of communication between you, your customers and your prospects, they build your credibility, and they can boost your lead generation!  They can also help you gain a better understanding of who your prospects are and what they want. Having a blog for your business is a great tool, and in this article I’m going to share with you everything you need to know. 

Why have a business blog?
Think about a blog as a conversation starter with your customer.  A blog is basically an online diary where you can communicate directly with your target market.  In our blog, entitled “How to Turn your Website into a Lead Generating Machine,” I share tips and techniques that any business owner can implement to make their website really work for their business.  A blog uses more conversational language than your website, and should inspire comment and conversation with your consumers.   If you want to communicate with your prospects, and you are willing and able to post interesting and useful information regularly, then the answer is yes.  If you feel that you have lots of ideas you want to share, a blog is a great outlet.

How to launch a blog?
A blog is simple to launch.  Blogspot.com and Wordpress.com are two free blogging tools that will allow you to be up and blogging in minutes. For something more upscale, there are also many web design experts as well as Captivate Designs who can offer dynamic blog designs that can be incorporated directly into your website.

What to write?

A blog is your forum to speak to your customers.  Post information they will find useful, share your opinions, expertise, relevant videos and pictures-anything you want to communicate to your target market.  Talk about incentives you have going on, an exciting event you’ve attended, invite people to subscribe to your newsletter or link to an interview you did.  Make sure to link back to your website whenever possible (this will increase your incoming links, which is an important SEO strategy). For example as  a web designer in New York, I can talk about NYC inspired design tips or invite people to sign up for a  free web design quote.

It’s important to constantly provide useful information, so be sure to post something to your blog AT LEAST once per week. If you run out of ideas, look at information that you have written in the past (articles, ebooks, marketing materials, brochures, company bios, etc) and see if you can recycle it!  Post it on you blog and you have instant content!  You might also find inspiration from other blogs, magazine articles, news, television, conversations, and your daily activities.  Once you start thinking like a blogger, you will be able to find ideas for relevant content everywhere you look.

Promoting your blog?
Content is King on the web, as long as you have useful content visitors will keep coming back and they will aslo tell others. A blog is a great tool to publish your content and attract new prospects, so make sure you promote it!  Promote your blog anywhere your target market might see it.  Places like:
·         Your email signature
·         Your company website
·         Social Media Networks (Facebook, Twitter,  Linkedin, Plaxo)
·         Send out an email blast to your database
·         Submit your blog to blog directories like technorati
·         Anytime you write an article for anything online, make sure to add the link to your blog…even in discussion rooms and message boards

Measure your blogging efforts.
Google Analytics is an amazing free tool that will measure your blog traffic and provide a surplus of useful information about who found your blog and how.  It will tell you how many people are new visitors and how many are returning. Simply create an account add the code to your blog.

Enjoy the benefits.
By creating a blog that is packed with useful information, it will become a hotspot for your prospects to find information.  Make sure to include links on your blog to your main website, and links to your newsletter sign up-people may want to sign up to receive more information from you! It’s also a great idea to have your blog syndicated through rss feeds and well as send automatic updates to your followers through tools such as feedblitz and feedburner. Before you know it, people will be discussing business with you on your blog and subscribing to your posts. And before you know it, your online friends will become your offline customers! 

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Your Website’s SEO SUCCESS starts with the Right Keywords. Choose Them Wisely.

Monday, April 6th, 2009

keywords

Choosing the right keywords is your #1 tool for success at SEO.

When you are building a website, it is important to realize the important role that keywords, and keyword phrases, play in your website’s search engine rankings and ultimately, its traffic.

As a web design company in New York, one of my important keyword phrases is “web design New York.” I know that people are searching for this term, and when they do, I want my website to show up in Google’s search results so they can find it. This is why I have incorporated this phrase into my website content, and into its title and meta tags.

Using keywords throughout your website is an important part of Search Engine Optimization—the process of making your website more attractive to the search engines.

I’m going to provide a simple outline on keyword research, and tell you how to make keywords work for your website—so that your website can experience higher search engine rankings and greater potential for visitors.

1. Identify relevant keywords

There are many free resources to help you identify relevant keywords—but first, I suggest sitting down and thinking. What keywords would people search for to find your business? Write them down. Once you’ve come up with a list, use a free keyword tool, like the Google AdWords Keyword tool. You can plug in the keywords you’ve come up with, and it will suggest others based on competition and traffic level.

2. Make those keywords specific to your business

The goal of choosing keywords is to be realistic and specific. The keywords should truly reflect your business. The more popular the term is, the more competition you will have—so it’s best to keep your keywords specific so you will have the best chance of getting high rankings for them.

3. Check out the competition

Check out your competition for certain keywords by typing them into the Google search bar. Which sites come up on the first page? Read their content, and check out their title tags—you can see them in the browser at the top of your screen. Have they used this keyword a lot throughout their site? If so, there may be some tough competition for this keyword. When in doubt, be more specific.

4. Where do keywords go?

Now that you’ve determined your keywords, it’s time to think about where to put them. Keywords should be presented throughout your site—in the content of each page, and in your meta tags and title tags for each page. If you aren’t sure what meta tags and title tags are, you can have a professional web design or Search Engine Optimization company help you.

*Don’t overload: The search engines are smart, and so are your visitors. If you are overloading your keywords within your website, they will know. Remember, your website should be attractive to the search engines—and to your potential visitors! A site that is overflowing with keywords is rarely engaging to the human eye.

*Every page is important: It’s important to remember that each page of your site is its own entity. Every page is crawled by spiders and is a place where visitors can land. By including different keywords on each page, you increase your potential for visitors.

5. Determine how much traffic you’re getting from each keyword & monitor your rank

Most website hosts will provide statistics. These statistics will tell you important information about your website, including how many people are visiting your site, and how they’re getting to it. I like using Google analytics—and it’s free. All you have to do is signup for it, then enter your website information, copy your code and have your webmaster add it to all your website pages.

Find out which keywords are sending traffic to your website. Then search for each keyword in a search engine to determine your site’s ranking. What number are you? If you come up 10th for a certain keyword, and it has produced x number of visitors, imagine how many visitors you’d get for that term if you came up 3rd? Think about how you can improve your ranking for that keyword.

Keywords are vital to your website’s search engine rankings. By understanding how to find the right keywords, and then using them properly within your site, you can expand your website tremendously. Check out our blog for more tips on “Turning Your Website into a Lead Generating Machine”.

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